Job

I'm doing 5 talks through Job for my youth groups at the moment. I haven't visited Job for a while and (as usual) it's the surprise that grab you.

Job has had everything stripped from him in Ch 1 (although worse is yet to come in Ch 2). Money, status, security and kids, all gone in a heartbeat. So Job looses it, tears robes, shaves head and mourns. Check the next sentence;

Then he fell to the ground in worship . . ."
[OK, I didn't see that one coming]

"and said, Naked I come from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised."

Thoughts.
Job seems to understand a lot better than we do that everything he had from the second he was born doesn't belong to him. It was a gift from God. Or a loan from God - becuase one day, when you die, God will take it back. So if God calls back some of his gifts a bit early, that's OK. Suffering in this way doesn't mean God hates you or that God has suddenly become untrustworthy.

It also seems that Job knew this before the suffering came, he didn't figure it out in the midst of the storm. His reaction was to fall down in worship. He was prepared for this. He knew this stuff already and had used this knoweldge to discipline and brace himself for such a day.

Last comment.

Job can see what is happening around him clear enough, but he is totally clueless as to the reason behind it. (The narrator gives us a glimpse into the conversation between God and Satan, but Job himself never hears about it). Job's response is a response to suffering which arrives with no explaination or interpretation. Which gives us a choice. Do we react to what we SEE around us, or, from what we KNOW to be true about God? It seems to me that while he is a full participant in the tragedy around him, Job chooses the later.

More to come (perhaps)

Scott