Friday Faithfuls Two: Job

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Job is a difficult book to quote.  Oh, there are LOTS of good little nuggets in there...but I find myself having the same problem looking for a quote from Job that I have responding to some things on social media.  On the surface, the thought is quite good...but if it is shared from a perspective that I can't endorse, would agreeing with the thought be the same as agreeing with the perspective?

Job is upset that God seems to be punishing him for something without telling him his error and protests, declaring his innocence; he is angry with his friends for their response.  Even the good quotes from Job's arguments seem skewed if your realize he is speaking from a position of self-justification.

Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar all maintain that Job is guilty of some secret sin that he won't confess; Eliphaz makes some particularly harsh accusations in chapter 22....I can't believe that he is actually listing things he knows that Job did, since God had already declared Job to be righteous.  He's either going on assumption or he misinterpreted some things in the past.  But they all maintain that a righteous person will NOT suffer, so therefore Job's suffering indicates that he is not as righteous as he proclaims he is.  So even the good quotes from these guys take on different meanings if you realize they are coming from a position of judgment.

Elihu, the youngest of the lot, maintains that God is supreme.  In fact, when I did this little tour ten years ago, my selection from Job was a quote from Elihu.  Now, I find myself gravitating towards Elihu's speech again...because I don't have to question the underlying intentions.

I thought I had settled on something, then I tripped over a different thought that I hadn't noticed before in Elihu's discourse...

"Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction." -- Job 36:21, NIV 84

He is answering Job's lament that being righteous didn't seem to do him any good in the long run and he might has well  have done the things Eliphaz and the others were accusing him of doing since he was suffering anyway.

Of course, Job had no idea that he wasn't being punished at all, but that all the loss he experienced happened so he could be an example to someone he didn't even know was watching him.

But Elihu's warning is a good one.  The affliction of our age may not be the losses Job sustained, but it certainly could be the misunderstanding Job experienced.  Living life from a biblical worldview is most definitely misunderstood and judged in our current society.  But abandoning that foundation in order to avoid the condemnation and misunderstanding of others is not a viable option.