A Case For Job (1 of 2)

Some First Thoughts About Job

Towards the end of Job’s trials, Elihu had the following words below to say to Job regarding his plight. It was Elihu’s coup de gras; the last words to hopefully put the nails in Job’s coffin of his supposed impending death from the afflictions due only to an unrighteous man, following an overwhelming flood of accusations that Job’s friends had already heaped upon him over and over again. To put it mildly, they were extremely harsh and unrelenting.

Elihu recalls how Job had said he was “righteous in his own eyes” (32:1), not to be understood that he was being self-righteous, but meaning that “in his own eyes” he felt he had not done anything deserving of such calamities. Of course, they had determined that it was only in his own eyes that he was righteous, but not in God’s sight! According to Elihu, Job “justified himself” (v. 2), and rightly so! After all, it was God himself who said Job was “blameless” (undefiled/guiltless), “upright” (right/righteous), and “a man who fears God and shuns [or departs from] evil” (1:8; 2:3). Job was just acknowledging the very same things that God had already said about Job. It was all true! Job was “righteous” and “just” in God’s sight and not deserving of his calamities. Job affirmed, “Let God weigh me in honest scales and He will know that I am blameless” (31:6); and the answer from all of us to Job should be with the encouraging words: “He does know, Job! He does! Just hang in there my brother.”

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“But now be so kind as to look at me.
Would I lie to your face?
Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider,
for my integrity is at stake”
— Job 6:28-29
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God also said of Job that there was “no one like him on the earth”! (ibid). Just think about that for one moment! Ponder it deeply in your heart before judging God’s servant Job ever again! God said there was “no one” like him on the earth. Of all the godly people living in his day, “no one” could match the faith, integrity, uprightness, righteousness, or blamelessness of Job. NO ONE!! He was a man who “feared God” and who “stayed away from evil.” Does this sound like a man who got his “just deserts”? God didn’t think so! So then why did He allow Satan to tempt Job to sin? The real reason? To show that there are indeed those who love and fear the Lord for absolutely no other reason than because He alone is God, and that only He is to be worshiped—no matter what the situation might be! This was the accusation of Satan: “Does Job fear you for nothing [lit. "for no reason"]?” God was going to show him, “Yes, he does!” Would to God He could say that about us! And He should!

Just the opposite was the case with the children of Israel in the wilderness (except for the faithful few among them). Ten times they were tempted, and ten times they failed! They had not learned that “man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:2-3); and thus the reason why Job could in fact say, “thou He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (13:15). Job was a man after God’s own heart that didn’t live by just bread alone! “I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread” (Job. 23:12). The words of Joshua were apropos of Job: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

Elihu was “angry with his three friends because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him” (v. 3). So he decides it is his turn to tell Job why he has received the evils that have befallen him. He begins by saying how God “does not take His eyes off the righteous; He enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever. But if men are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction, He tells them what they have done—that they have sinned arrogantly. He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil….But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have taken hold of you” (36:7-9, 17).

If Elihu and his three friends had only known what we all now know in hindsight with the discourse that went on between God and Satan, none of them would have spoken so presumptuously. And yet, even for all that, we still have those among us today who are in league with Job’s friends, rather than with Job; accusing Job of some “sin” in his life as the reason for his calamities, when God right from the beginning has told us it was for “no reason” at all in Job (2:3)! Remarkable, don’t you think!? Job’s “friends” who lacked such insight, ironically, are still with us today, accusing all the righteous who suffer such similar troubles as “the fate of those whose feet are slipping” (Job. 12:5), and who must not really be as “righteous” as they make themselves out to be. Some “sin,” somewhere, is the real culprit behind their problems. Get rid of the sin, then you’ll get rid of the problem! But even to this accusation Job had argued: “My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside” (23:11). David at one point in his life likewise affirmed: “My steps have held to your paths; my feet have not slipped” (Psm. 17:5). No, in this particular chapter of Job’s life, his “feet” had not “slipped” for one moment. Now that is true faith working in action!

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“I will never admit that you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
I will maintain my righteousness
and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me
as long as I live”
— Job 27:5-6
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Many today, like Job's friends, are “not speaking right” concerning God’s servant Job, and neither are they “speaking right” for many of those who, similar to Job, exude the same right-standing before God, and yet are enduring hardships and troubles for no other reason than for God's glory! After all, isn’t that what the story of Job’s faith is to instill in us? A determination to praise the Lord no matter what may happen to us? To give thanks “in” all things!? God got all the glory out of that plight of Job's alright. And it is manifested in everyone of us who look to Job as an example of a man of God who endures all things, loves in all things, and hopes in all things with unwavering faith.

Philip Yancey writes,

For Job, the battleground of faith involved lost possessions, lost family members, lost health. We may face a different struggle: a career failure, a floundering marriage, sexual orientation, a body that turns people off, not on. At such times the outer circumstances—the illness, the bank account, the run of bad luck—will seem the real struggle. We may beg God to change those circumstances. If only I were beautiful or handsome, then everything would work out. If only I had more money—or at least a job—then I could easily believe God.

But the more important battle, as shown in Job, takes place inside us. Will we trust God? Job teaches that at the moment when faith is hardest and least likely, then faith is most needed….

Every act of faith by every one of the people of God is like the tolling of a bell, and a faith like Job’s reverberates throughout the universe (Disappointment With God, pp. 172-174).

Job teaches us that when faced with an unsolvable problem, that we are to let our trust in God reverberate with worship, humility, silence, and an acceptance with a resolve that our heavenly Father does all things good and beautiful in His time. If we do this, then we too will find that all of these things, as painful as they may be at times, will strengthen our faith and endurance and deepen our inner maturity level in Christ. Instead of viewing everything from the outside looking in, we will begin to see everything from the inside looking out. With the book of Job we get a behind-the-scenes look at how all things are really put together before they are played out in our lives. When we see this “big picture,” things don’t look as bad as we thought they were. The way Joseph’s life was all played out is just another example of how all things are working together for the good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.

A number of years ago, in a distant country, there have been stories told of men and women who literally walked the streets of towns and cities with all forms of leprosy, diseases, blindness and lameness. These problems just seem to be everywhere. My wife and I personally visited just such a land several years ago in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. These people were literally everywhere in the city streets. You would have thought you were living back in the Bible days.

On one particular day, some believers were overheard talking about one particular man who was walking the streets blind. They were coming up with all kinds of reasons why this man was in his condition. One thought maybe there was some un-confessed sin in his life. That’s it! He’s just an ungodly sinner who needs to repent of his sins. Others thought that maybe it could be just due to the sins of his mother or father. Or maybe…! And so on and so forth went the arguments. “Surely,” they reasoned, “God would not allow something as awful as that to come upon a an undeserving person, would He? But if they had only known that this particular individual had been born blind from his birth they would not have been so quick to have judged him for some sin in his life, or a lack of faith. As we can all fully-well see, he personally had no say-so in the matter. He was just born that way!

Yet how could they possibly know that it wasn’t maybe due to the sins of his mother and father either? “That must be it!”, they reasoned. But that wasn’t the reason either! Because on this particular day stood an individual that knew him and his parents better than anyone else could have. This individual had a profound relationship with God, with the gift of discernment and that of a seer. And as if to have a direct line with God that the others didn’t seem to have, this gifted man began to reveal that the blindness of this man was not because of his sin, or the sin of his parents, but in order that God might get the glory out of this situation. He said that “sin” was not the culprit, but that God’s sovereignty had allowed it to happen to him so that God would receive all the glory in this situation.

Of course, everyone who had gathered around thought that this person didn’t know what he was talking about. “Sounds like another one of those people that believes bad things happen to good people, when they don’t,” they all reasoned. “A sovereign, loving God doesn’t do such things! How absurd to think that God in His sovereignty would allow such a thing on such an innocent individual—and to give God glory at that? How ridiculous is that, God doesn’t get any glory out of that!” And so, such is the continued ridicule and accusations from those today in the Church towards those who would attribute such calamities as from the hand of God. And if the man who knew this blind man and his parents hadn’t been Jesus Christ himself saying these things in John 9:1-5, then many today would only part fellowship from such brethren as being negative and not knowing the God of their Bible. But their God is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is just how Jesus explained it. The God of the Bible is a God that does allow certain things to happen to people—even some of the worst things imaginable—for no other reason than for the purpose that He might get the “glory” out of it. As C. H. Spurgeon keenly once said, “The Church and the world may derive immense advantage through the sorrows of good men: the careless may be awakened, the doubting may be convinced, the ungodly may be converted, the mourner may be comforted through our testimony in a sickness; and if so, would we wish to avoid pain and weakness?” [1]

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“It was neither that this man sinned,
nor his parents;
but it was so that the works of God
might be displayed in him”
— Jhn. 9:3, NAS
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It was also for this reason that Jesus did not go and immediately heal Lazarus who was sick, but allowed him to die so that He could raise him from the dead (Jhn. 11). And as it is today, so was there then those who decried: "Don’t you care…? If you had only been here sooner Lazarus wouldn’t have died” (vv. 21, 32, 37). Surely, if you were the Christ you would not have allowed Lazarus to die! What kind of an incompassionate individual would act in such a way? But this is not the “incompassionate” or unkind action of an unloving God. Like Job, we are not to question the works of God's hands. He is the Potter and we are the clay. And the Potter can do with His clay vessels that which He pleases. Such actions are not cruel jokes, but the manifestation of Gods' divine wisdom. And, again, it is all working together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

For some, it is to embrace suffering to glorify God, for others it may be to operate in the gifts of healing and to see the miraculous splendor of His healing power. But it all works to one end—for God's glory! The attitude that Stephen exemplified at his stoning was all for the glory of God. The imprisonment of John the Baptist and his ensuing decapitation was all to the glory of God, just as much as Peter’s deliverance from prison by the angels was all for God’s glory. Many brethren, and even Joseph, have not been so fortunate as Peter, but nevertheless their circumstances were ALL for God’s glory!


Job’s Dilemma

We will be spending a great deal of time with Job’s three friends, so we had better get acquainted with them. All three were old (32:6), even possibly older than Job (15:10).

Eliphaz was one who based his speeches on two things: 1) His own observations of life (“I have seen”, 4:8; 5:3, 27, NAS); 2) A personal experience he had one night (4:12-21). Eliphaz put great faith in tradition (15:18-19). And the God that he worshipped was an inflexible Lawgiver: “Whoever perished being innocent” (4:7), he rampaged. And a host of martyrs could have very well of said: “We have!” Just think about Jesus’ own life as an example. Eliphaz had a rigid theology that left little or no room for God to act sovereignly as He so pleased, regardless of anyone's innocence.

Bildad was, in a word, a legalist. His life-statement was, “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help the evildoers” (8:20, NIV), not realizing that the Lord rains on the just, as well as the unjust; or that the “casting away” of such men as Joseph only redounded to God’s glory and all for His purposes. Bildad could quote ancient proverbs and, like Eliphaz, he too had great respect for tradition. For some reason Bildad was sure that Job’s children died due to the fact that they were sinners (8:4), but we have no record to state such things other than the fact that Job offered up burnt offerings for them, just in case they had sinned, not that they had really done so. Bildad, as well as the other two, seem to have no feelings of remorse for their friend Job, but only harsh words to try and get Job to fess up to some sin in his life. “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends,” cried Job, “even though he [supposedly] forsakes the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams…that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels….I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief” (6:14-17; 16:4-5).

Zophar speaks like a schoolteacher addressing a student who is green behind the ears. “Know this!” is his unfeeling approach (11:6; 20:4). Zophar is merciless, telling Job that God was giving him far less than he really deserved for his sins (11:6). His key words are: “Knowest thou not this of old…that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?” (20:4-5, KJV). But Job proved that even this statement was not always necessarily true with regards to the wicked: “Listen carefully to my words:…Why do the wicked live on…increase in power…see their children established around them?….Their homes are safe…the rod of God is not upon them. Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry….They spend their years in prosperity….Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!’….How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?” (21:7-10, 13-14, 17).

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“Men at ease have contempt for misfortune
as the fate of those
whose feet are slipping”
— Job 12:5
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Why would these three men speak to their friend as such? Why were they so angry? Why are there those that are so angry with those of us today who would attribute our own calamities as from the hand of God for no other reason than for God’s glory? There is a hint of an answer to this dilemma in Job’s words: “Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid” (6:21, NIV). These three men were “afraid” that the same calamities could befall them if it wasn’t for the reason of some sin in one’s life. Therefore, they had to defend their position that God rewards the righteous, while punishing the unrighteous. In their estimation, as long as one were “righteous” in this life, nothing evil would ever befall them! The same goes for the faith teachers in our day: Just have enough faith and no harm will ever befall you. You are a King’s kid, so claim your inheritance and live like the king that you truly are, not like paupers! But pride is not the hallmark of the King’s kids, humility is. And what better way to manifest such “humility,” than by going through the lowly trials and valleys of this life? These are the things that humble us. The character that is formed in us through these humiliating experiences is what it is really all about. And all in preparation for the exaltation that is sure to come where "every valley shall be raised" (Isa. 40:4; Lke. 3:5).

My godly Christian wife of thirty years contracted Lou Gherigs’ disease about five years ago, and she told me not too long ago that she would not trade this experience of hers for anything in the world because of the deep relationship with God that her suffering has brought into her life. I marveled at such a statement. I could only console her, as Job’s friends should have done. Such knowledge is priceless! What we all wouldn’t give for a closer relationship with God? Joseph knew of this all too well! Exaltation was promised him, but at a price. And Paul said we must all fill up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ (Col. 1:24), and that if we “suffer” with Him, “we will also reign with Him” (2Tim. 2:12, KJV). Paul similarly knew of this all too well:

As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance in troubles, hardships and distresses….through glory and dishonor….dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing [similar to Job], and yet possessing everything….I have…been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely…exposed to death again and again….three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea….I have been in dangers of rivers, in danger from bandits [similar to Job’s marauders]….I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked… (2Cor. 6:4-10; 11:23-27).

Like Job’s three friends, people today often focus more on proving others wrong, rather than affirming them in their integrity. All such “brethren” are truly of no help. But it is just the thing that Satan was using to make Job (and us) frustrated in an attempt to get him (or us) to needlessly look inwardly at ourselves, or even to curse God to His face. Satan did it by taking away Job’s possessions and children. He did it by inflicting his body. He did it through the means of Job's very own wife: “Curse God and die” (2:9). And now he was doing it through his three closest friends. Job’s three friends would not relent. After all, their own peace of mind was a stake, their own sanctity of life. And they were not about to relinquish their false presuppositions that were used to explain away why bad things happen to good people. It is just plain old humanism. When things don’t make sense, just explain it the best way that we know how to explain it, rather than seeking out God’s reasoning for it all in the Scriptures. Calvin adamantly notes: “Hense it is, in the present day so many dogs tear this doctrine with their envenomed teeth, or, at least, assail it with their bark, refusing to give more license to God than their own reason dictates to themselves” (Inst., vol. 1, book 1, p. 184).

If Job is not a sinner being punished by God, then the three friend’s understanding of God and His ways was all wrong. And they would then have more to fear than just their own peace of mind. That meant that they had no protection, no defense, against personal suffering for themselves! If righteousness, obedience, and faith are no guarantee of health and wealth, then what is happening to Job could very well happen to them! God forbid such a thing to the man who walks by faith!

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“…the hand of God has struck me.
....God has unstrung my bow
and afflicted me”
— Job 19:21b; 30:11
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If everyone believed like Job asserted, that God doesn’t always punish the unrighteous (chap. 21), or reward only the righteous (9:22-24), then what “motive” does one have for obeying God? All “motivation” for them is thrown out the window! Ah, but there is the Devil’s theology! And it was the very thing God was using Job to refute! That man does not live by just bread alone!

If people serve God only for what they get, then they have not made Him Lord of their life, and they are not really serving Him at all. God serves them! I give a little to God, He gives back to me, press down, shaken together and running over! If I give Him “ten” or a “tenth,” He gives me back a hundredfold! Such a person is a legalist like Job’s friends. We do our part, God does His—guaranteed! For such a person their life is nothing more than a list of do’s and don’ts. But the truth of the matter is: God doesn’t have to do anything, while we must surrender everything to Him! Like Abraham who surrendered his only son, then, and only then will God look down with gratitude and say, “Now I know that you fear My name.” God basically did the same thing with Job at the end of his ordeal. Again, Joseph is another prime example.

Albert Barnes writes:

It should be asked by every professed friend of the Most High, whether his religion is not selfish and mercenary. Is it because God has blessed us with great earthly advantages? [Or] is it the result of mere gratitude? Is it because he has preserved us in peril, or restored us from sickness? Or is it merely because we hope for heaven, and serve God because we trust he will reward us in a future world? All this may be the result of mere selfishness; and of all such persons it may be appropriately asked, “Do they fear God for nought?” True religion is not mere gratitude, nor is it the result of circumstances. It is the love of religion for its own sake—not for reward; it is because the service of God is right in itself, and not merely because heaven is full of glory; it is because God is worthy of our affections and confidence, and not merely because he will bless us—and this religion will live through all external changes, and survive the destruction of the world. It will flourish in poverty as well as when surrounded by affluence; on a bed of pain as well as in vigorous health; when we are calumniated and despised for our attachment to it, as well as when the incense of flattery is burned around us, and the silvery tones of praise fall on our ear; in the cottage as well as the palace; on the pallet of straw as well as on the bed of down (Job, vol. 1, p. 103).

Some people who think that God is here to serve us, have often quoted Isa. 45:11 incorrectly in support of their beliefs, which reads: “Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me” (AKJV). On the surface, this verse looks and sounds like it supports the idea that we can just command of God whatever we want---and it’s ours! Most of us though, will not be fooled by such a ploy when we understand the whole counsel of God in His Word regarding such fanaticism. A little change in pronunciation makes all the difference in the world when we read this verse more as a question from God, rather than as a statement telling us what we can command God to do. The NIV reads: “Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?” As we can see, the understanding of what we can, or cannot do, has changed significantly. The former undermines the sovereignty of God, while the latter here maintains and asserts it. Warren Wiersbe once said with regards to such people: “Their religion is only a pious system for promoting selfishness and not for glorifying God.”[2] Here is a verse for all those who think that they can command whatever they please of the Lord: “May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue that says, ‘We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips—who is our master?” (Psm. 12-3-4).

So, is this what we have reduced Job to? As one who has “missed the mark” with his sin, and who got his "just deserts" for having done so? Is he an example for us of what not to follow, and how not to live? If he is, then where is it expressed as such? God didn’t see it that way! Job was God’s trophy of one who was “blameless.” Everyone who surrounded Job tried to find something to hang him on, but as Elihu confessed, “they found no way to refute Job” (32:3). So why is there still those today who are trying to find a problem with Job? Because they too “see something dreadful and are afraid.”

Years ago my wife heard Greg Laurie of the Harvest church in Riverside, California, say over the radio, “If I had to go through the [seven-year] tribulation, I wouldn’t serve God!” So there you have it! Some people do not look forward to being refined like gold in the fiery trials of life. They wouldn’t serve a God like that! They do not serve God “for nothing!” They would rather believe that God is a God of love who would not allow His children to go through such ordeals, unless of course, they were in some kind of sin.

People who make such claims may have a show of wisdom, but not according to knowledge. Such was the case with Job’s three friends. Their understanding in some respects was good, but not good enough. They had not gone far enough in thinking their theology through to its logical conclusion. They had not turned God’s diamonds of truth around enough to get a better glimpse into what He was really all about. Warren Wiersbe again makes this statement: “Job’s three friends were not true theologians because they saw only one side of the picture, the side they wanted to see.”[3] And in a particular reference with regards to Zophar, Wiersbe again states: “Zophar was deliberately blocking out a lot of data to prove his point.”[4]  And that is a sign of pride and not of true humility at all.

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“You, however, smear me with lies;
you are worthless physicians, all of you....
I have heard many things like these,
miserable comforters are you all”
— Job 13:4; 16:1
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According to Job chapter nineteen, verse seven, Job had felt like a criminal in court. To Job, God had wronged him by arresting him, keeping him locked up as a prisoner in “shackles” (13:27) with no belongings of his own to lay claim to. And on top of that, his body was being flogged by the Devil.

What had he done? Why were the charges not read to him? Why wasn’t he permitted a defense? “Though I call for help, there is no justice” (v. 7, NIV), no one to give an answer. Throughout the book, Job pleads for justice and cries out for an advocate to defend himself before God. But little did he know that he was the advocate defending God’s cause, not his own. It was Job’s faith and integrity that was to prove Satan wrong in the court of heaven with regards to all of Satan's accusations concerning Job. It was Job’s faith that would eventually prove Satan wrong, vindicating God, and bringing glory to the Lord for what He had said to Satan about His servant Job. At the end of all his tests Job would prove beyond all doubt that man can, and does, live on “every Word of God”: “I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12; cp. Deut. 8:3). “I …have this consolation—my joy in unrelenting pain—that I had not denied the words of the Holy One” (6:10).

As we all know the end of the story, Job overcame by the word of his testimony all the accusations brought against him. Similar to the saints described in Rev. 12:11, Job:

• Overcame by the blood of the Lamb: Job had said, “I know my Redeemer lives…” (19:25). “All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come” (14:14b).
• Overcame by the word of his testimony: “I have become a laughingstock…a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless” (12:4).
• Overcame by not loving his life, even unto death: “Though He slay me yet will I hope in Him…” (13:15a).

When affliction comes into the life of a righteous-living saint as a chastening influence, it is never penal (that is, as wrath from God as a Judge), but is always remedial (that is, from a loving heavenly Father). Our Father “teaches” us (Deut. 8:3) through the bread of affliction. But He is never punishing us. Some afflictions are definitely punishment as the result of sin, as in the case of David’s sin with Bathsheba; but some are not, as in the case of Job, Joseph, the prophets, Jesus, the apostles, Paul, and a host of others.

In Judges 2:20-23, it talks about the Lord leaving nations in the land due to the sins of the people. But as you will notice, it was due to the sins of those who had formerly sinned, serving a two-fold purpose. First of all, it was punishment for sin. Secondly, God left those nations there to test the integrity of those who had not sinned previously. In 3:1, God says, “These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience)…” He says He did this specifically to “test” and to “teach” them. Verse four continues: “They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands…” Now wasn’t this initially the purpose for God allowing Job’s calamities that were to be allowed by the Lord to be brought on by Satan? Wasn’t it to see “whether [Job] would obey the Lord’s commands?” The Lord knew Job would, but Satan doubted it.


Be Not Deceived, God is Not Mocked!

Satan has done a pretty good job if he can convince us that God does not do these things in our lives in order to show us our own shortcomings, who is in charge, or to humble us and to refine us as gold and silver are refined in the fires.

Peter said, “Dear friends, do not be surprised [“think it strange,” KJV] at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you” (1Pet. 4:12). You see, Peter knew all too well that God gives Satan permission to do some “strange” things for the purpose of “sifting…as wheat” (Lke. 22:31), but all in order to cause us to run closer to the Lord and become all the stronger for them, even as Jesus declares: “And when you [Simon] have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (v. 32). Job likewise affirmed, “the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger” (17:9).

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“He knows the way that I take;
when He has tested me,
I will come forth as gold”
— Job 23:10
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Job’s friends thought it “strange” that a righteous man should suffer for “no reason”; therefore, they accused Job of some kind of sin in his life. Job too thought it was “strange” that a righteous man such as himself should suffer such calamities, but, then again, he didn’t have the hindsight that we now enjoy. Charles Spurgeon notes: “Have not you, dear friend, often wondered how your painful of lingering disease could be consistent with your being chosen, and called, and made one with Christ? I dare say this has greatly perplexed you, and yet in very truth it is by no means ‘strange,’ but a thing to be expected.”[5]  But there are still those today who think it “strange” and therefore not of God. And rather than having to sometimes embrace suffering, trials, and hardships of all kinds, they have succumb to the lie which has led them to believe that all they have to do is exemplify some kind of God ordained “righteousness” by faith and they will have what they desire: health, wealth, and one great-big happy life and family.

I challenge you as Job was challenged: Accept the fact that God in His perfect wisdom has you where He wants you for the time being. Because no matter what you do, like Job, you will eventually have to admit, “What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released….You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet….You have set limits he cannot exceed….He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass” (12:14; 13:27; 14:5c; 19:8). Dig down deep, and dig a well where you are at! And begin to drink deep from your own cistern. Because, more often than not, your friends, like Job’s, may be just too few and far between to rely upon for help. Your own, deep, personal relationship with God will be all that matters. Without that, you might just as well as have nothing! Begin to reflect upon what God might be wanting to do in and through you, and all for His glory. “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint…” (Rom. 5:2-5).

If we do not allow this “character” building in our lives then, in effect, Satan has pulled off one of his most powerful and deceptive ploys: he has gotten you to believe that God doesn’t use such things as a means for refining us and using us in this way for the manifestation of His glory; therefore we become people just like Satan—with no character, no patience, and no godly attributes. We become people with no mercy or compassion (like Job’s friends). We become people who exercise, at a lower level, the fruits of the Spirit, as opposed to those who have gone through the fires of God’s choosing without resistance, rebellion, or rebuke. It is only those who do not resist that become the meekest and mildest people “in all the earth,” similar to Job. Like Job, they are vessels “fit for the Master’s use.” And they alone, shall inherit the earth!

Another striking example of this is when Jeremiah had prophesied to the Israelites that they would soon become subservient to the evil king Nebuchadnezzar, and that if they did not resist him all would go well with them (Jer. 21:8-10; 27;11-12). They thought this to be a “strange” thing. So they tormented the prophet (33:1; 36:26; 38:1-9) and resisted the Babylonians. In time though, they were the ones to be tormented and eventually killed with the sword (39:1-7ff).

Another interesting twist to this story is the fact that Jeremiah (also a righteous and blameless man) was carried off into exile with the rest of the sinful nation. But it was just another test of a “righteous” man’s faith and integrity. And because Jeremiah remained faithful to God, the Lord caused Nebuchadnezzar to find favor with Jeremiah, releasing him from among those who were bound as prisoners in chains (39:11-14; 40:1-6; cp. Rev. 2:10). Click here for part 2.




Footnotes:

[1] Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit sermon series, vol. 26, #1518. Listed under the heading: NOTES OF A SERMON, Beloved, Yet Afflicted.
[2] Be Patient. USA, Canada, England: Victor Books, 1991, p. 57.
[3] ibid, p. 56.
[4] ibid, p. 78.
[5] op. cit. above.