Dialogue With Job

Job lived in a time when his culture believed that prosperity on earth was connected to a person’s goodness and consequently suffering was connected to an individual’s sin or offensive thoughts, words and behaviour. As a result of these beliefs, false perceptions were formed about the Creator of the universe, self and others.

Job was very rich, prosperous and in good health. Therefore he was considered to be a good man, blameless and upright. He was someone perceived to fear God and shun evil. In fact ?he was so highly respected, that he was considered one of the greatest people of the east. ?Great praise indeed!

Sadly it was perceived that Job’s prosperity was a result of his own goodness and that God ?had blessed him accordingly. Due to this false belief of self and God, Job lived with pride of ?his own goodness and resultant fear of God. He thought his sons may have cursed God in their heart and caused an offence, so every morning out of fear, he would offer sacrifices to God ?on their behalf.

At the time and throughout the ages much has been thought and said about Job. His story reveals a lot about humanity, the evil one and ultimately God. So we begin the journey with Job. We are introduced to the evil one who is very cunning. He speaks lies and deceptions out of selfish desires and pride of self. The evil one is totally opposed to God and is always seeking worship of self. In the blindness of pride he falsely accuses God of blessing Job for self gain.

Job 1:9-12 'So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.'

As we journey with Job it is important to remember that humanity gave power to the evil one, ?right back in the beginning. God gave the first man and woman power and dominion over all the earth, yet they chose to believe the evil one’s lies and elevated them above God’s truth. They followed the counsel of the evil one and chose to became one with both good and evil. As a result they gave the evil one their God given power over the earth. At that moment evil was activated ?and death, sickness and brokenness entered into this once perfect world that God created.

God is only good. When He created the heavens and the earth it was good. However as a consequence of humanity’s actions, both good and evil are active in this world.

Back to the story of Job.

Remembering Job and his friends believed they were blessed because in their own eyes they were good. They also had a false belief of God, accusing Him of being the source of evil and ?that He cursed those who were not good.

They therefore reason that if they do good they would be blessed by God. They would actually ?be able to control God and even bribe Him into blessing them by doing good. Consequently if they did bad, they falsely believed that God was also the source of evil and would bring evil upon them.

So when Job lost his earthly wealth and physical health as a result of the evil one’s access, ?His friends had much to say about it. Out of their own false beliefs they wrongly judged Job, accusing him of some evil in his heart. They even spoke wrongly about God, in that God was punishing Job for the evil in his heart.

Then Job has a lot to say also. He falsely accuses God of crushing him without cause and filling him with bitterness so that he now despises himself and his life. Job actually believes that it is God who has brought about his suffering.

Out of Job’s false belief he questions, what is the point of doing good if God doesn’t care. ?He reasons that if God doesn’t acknowledge Job’s own goodness by declaring that he is innocent, that what is the point of living? Job laments about his birth and desires that no one had seen him or knew him.

Sadly Job wrongly believes that God is sadistic, unjust and doesn’t care. Yet He retorts, that if it is not God who is the source of this suffering, then who else could it be?