Promotion not Punitive

The book of Job has always been a bit disturbing to me but also intriguing. Job was righteous, upright and loved God. And then it was suggested by God himself as someone that satan could test to the core. The conversation between God and satan was wether or not Job loved and followed God because he was richly blessed by God or because he simply delighted in God himself.

Satan was convinced Job was righteous because he was rich and famous and life was good. God knew differently. But he allowed satan to test Job nonetheless. The word test doesn’t even seem appropriate. Torture seems more like it. Job lost so much in one day that it feels more like a fiction horror movie than a true story. How he wished he was only a character in a fiction story. In one of his rants he said he wished he had been stillborn. Graphic and hard words to hear. But keep in mind at that point he had lost all of his children at once, his servants, his cattle and was now plagued with boils all over his body.

As a group of ladies we are studying this book of the Bible with Lisa Harper’s study Job: An Unlikely Joy.  I thought I’d share a few things from the first video session that stood out to me.

• Pain is relative but it’s not avoidable. Everyone will have pain and suffering in this life.
• Dealing wisely and compassionately with pain is crucial.
• We can’t love well if we can’t comfort well.
• Pain is a conduit for God’s glory.
• It’s not about deservedness (Job was the best you could get on earth) because none of us deserved the sacrificial gift God gave us through his son Jesus.
• That God would offer up Job to test was a promotion not punitive (punishment).

Our prayer as a leadership team is that God will help us develop a right and godly view of suffering through the book of Job. That we will become better comforters to others and that we will know God is sufficient and enough no matter what our circumstances are. We’re also praying that we as a group will be okay with not coming away with pat answers to why suffering. There is no easy answer and if we come to Bible Study looking for a cut and dry answer we will be disappointed. But we are trusting God to reveal himself to us individually and personally through his word and therefore we will be equipped to develop a biblical grid in which to sift our suffering through.