The Other Job

                                               THE OTHER JOB
    When I read that Job was a “righteous man”, it is easy for me to put him in a different category than me. As if, being such a godly man, his response to pain in his life was automatic. And he does make some incredibly perceptive and challenging statements.
    -Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.
    -Shall we accept good from the Lord and not trouble?

I certainly don’t see myself responding with as much faith as he did. So it is good for me to slow down and “read between the lines”  what God allows, even plans for, in his life.    
    Are we in danger of missing part of Job’s story? Most of us have read it many times. But if we read it too quickly, we miss his pain. And if we miss his pain, we miss a huge part of what God is telling us. I can’t imagine that Job effortlessly responds correctly through the circumstances of his life. He strives, with varying degrees of success, to trust God through them. 
    Let’s attempt to feel what he feels. He loses all of his possessions. All of his herds. All of his livestock. Everything materially that he owned. In one day. 
Today’s translation...
    -his job is eliminated through downsizing.
    -his investments disappear.
    -his car and house are repossessed.
   
    Starting to feel it? And then comes the unimaginable horror. His 12 children are all killed. Not the shoulder- slumping, this can’t be true pain of losing one. But try to see what it would feel like to lose all of them. Can you even begin to imagine? I cannot. And I don’t believe that Job’s response, “the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away”, is an immediate reflex, uttered without a single thought,  as godly as it is. I can only envision him saying, “No! No! Are you sure? Could there be some mistake?” And when it becomes clear that it is indeed true, slumping to his knees. Clenching his jaw. Pounding his fists on the ground.  Weeping till his shirt is drenched. Then, getting a grip on his emotions, raising his head to heaven and acknowledging that God is sovereign, still worthy of Job’s trust.
    Now I know none of this is in scripture, and I know I could be completely wrong. But I can’t imagine that Job is anything but a real man with real emotions. I believe he makes a choice. A choice to turn once again  and trust God. The fact that it was not easy is indicated later when he says not to smile and pretend it isn’t so.
    It seems to me that the story of Job shows us the link between God’s sovereignty and man’s pain. God is sovereign, but Job still hurts, really hurts. 
    So what’s the lesson for us? For one thing, don’t fall for the line of reasoning that would say the Christian life will be easy or painless. Scripture never tells us we shouldn’t feel real feelings. We are told not to be ruled by them. To make the choice, sometimes the soul-wrenching choice, to trust him.  In the huge hurts, and in simple disappointments.