An Incomplete Message

“Job answered the LORD and said:

‘I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

“Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

“Hear, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.”

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees you;

therefore I despise myself,

and repent in dust and ashes.’

“After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.’ So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

“And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

“And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” [1]

Everyone knows that the Book of Job is the story of a man. But Job is not the key character! Oh, he speaks a lot, and he is the focus of Satan’s attention, but if you read the book with the thought that the story is about Job, you will miss the most important facets of what is written. The unseen God is the key to understanding the book. We witness the Living God at the beginning of the story, and we meet Him again at the conclusion of the account. And throughout the book, we witness an innocent man at the mercy of the vicissitudes of life that any of us might experience. Currents swirl about Job that leave the reader befuddled, astounded, and even confused.

Job is dismayed at the overwhelming torrents unleashed against him. If you’ve never been dismayed, never been stunned by events that hammer you, you are an anomaly. Job is frustrated with God. If you’ve never been frustrated with God, perhaps it is because you don’t know God. Job comes near to charging God with unfairness. If you’ve never been tempted to say that God is unfair, is it because you have had little interaction with God? Job appears angry with God at points. If you’ve never been angry with God, could it be because you don’t really know God?

Every twice-born follower of Christ will have had an encounter with God, an encounter that resulted in the forgiveness of sin and salvation for that individual. Having encountered the Living God, the child of God has been born from above and adopted into the Family of God. However, as time passes, the tendency is that the child of God will slide again into a state of spiritual somnolence, resulting in a tepid relationship with God.

It is not that God moves away from His child; rather, it is that the child of God becomes conditioned by the press of daily life to focus on the mundane, and the humdrum of daily existence drowns out the excitement of walking with God. Though we who are saved still have immediate access into the presence of the Lord GOD, our prayers become routine, pedestrian, almost rote. We move farther and farther from the Lord, and our walk with the Master no longer causes us to anticipate those times—we become casual in our time with Him, even taking Him for granted until…