Job and the Church

Job. What an intense book. 42 chapters of straight misery. Not only is the guy deprived of everything, covered in boils, and left to die, but he spends his time around 4 guys and his wife that offer him no consolation. Or do they?

I mean, sure they say a lot of good things. They talk about God's kindness. They speak doctrinal truths about God being righteous and human beings fallen. They try their best to lead Job to "repentance" and to a happier life.

Then you've got Job. He does nothing but curse and yell. He demands answers from God, declares his innocence a thousand times over and condemns his friends for their words. He sulks and screams.

But, in the end, God honors Job and dismisses his friends. God states that Job was righteous through this whole thing and that his friends were wrong. In the end, it was Job's sacrifices and prayers that spared his friends from God's burning anger.

Does this seem strange? It might. It certainly did to the people of the time. I mean these people were taught that God punishes sin and wickedness, that those born with handicaps and those inflicted with diseases were so because of their own evil. Further, there was cultural stigma to evil. Sin, evil was unclean and affected the surrounding area of its stead. You've heard "bad company corrupts good morals" but this was just the beginning of the cultural stigma of sinful people.

Even to our eyes, though, it seems a bit strange that the guy who complained and cursed God would be uplifted in the end as righteous. Meanwhile, his good friends who preached to him, quoted scriptures, and did their best to convict him and guide him to God are condemned.

I think there's an incredibly important message here. Putting myself in Job's shoes, I realize exactly what he's saying. Here I am feeling forgotten by God, having everything torn from me...I'm pleading with God to give me some kind of response, to restore me, to just throw me a bone. Then, my friends chime in and say, "You know, Troy, God only punishes people because they're evil. That's obviously the problem. You should repent." I can imagine my response being pretty similar to Job's in saying "How long will you torment me and crush me with words?" or "Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can a mortal man be righteous before God?"

I see myself, covered in boils, grabbing these guys by the collar and screaming "You think? I've spent the last week, day and night, pleading with God, begging God to show me my error so that I can repent. I suppose you're right though, maybe I should try being a better person. Maybe I've missed something in my straight 40 hours of praying...since I can't sleep with the pain of the boils."

Then, how do the friends respond? They give him proverbs and promises. They tell him that he doesn't really understand God and if he just understood what they got so perfectly, he would be saved...because God saves those who repent and remain righteous. "If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent...the Almighty will be your gold...then you will find delight in God." It's like they're saying "Troy, John 3:16...Troy, read Romans 8 again...Troy pray more and learn to trust in God....Troy Corinthians says that you have to rejoice all the time, despite your trials....Troy Jesus said that if you seek you will find, so just seek."

Then Job replies, as I'm sure I would "I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! Will your long-winded speeches never end?" It's like he's saying "No crap, Sherlock! You think I don't know this stuff? Stop with the endless, empty platitudes and just listen to me, just sympathize with me. Love me. Pray for me."

Does any of this sound familiar? Interestingly enough, Job is supposedly the first recorded book of the Jewish Scriptures. So, long before God saw any need to explain beginnings or the Israelite nation, wars, floods, any of that...God wanted people to understand this story.

I get 2 distinctive messages from this story. The first is that God loves our questions. He wants us to scream out, rather than close up; to pour out our hearts, rather than sit still in silence and reverence. Part of "seeking God with all our hearts" is laying everything on the table, holding no emotion or thought back regardless of its apparent "holiness" or "wickedness" in our eyes.

The second message is equally important and I truly believe it is one of the biggest issues in the church today. How do we relate to people in love? We are called to many things: to disciple, to love, to serve, etc. But, how? What is our role in this whole process?

I think we can learn from Job, that our role is not conviction, our role is not to judge and convict people. That is God's position. I believe that in desiring to convict people, we not only screw up something that only God can do right but we steal from and interfere with God's doing it. Certainly we are called to discern, to be wise. We are also called to counsel, to confront people in love. But, that is not by spouting verses or by giving mini-sermons on how God works. First, we should have the humility to know that we truly cannot know the mind of God. That being said, our approach should be as fellow struggler, as partner, as equal. Not that we can't offer advice and wisdom, but that we should be ever so careful not to interfere, ever so careful to not mix loving advice with judgemental pride.

Our main priority, I believe, our main responsibility is to compassion. God convicts hearts. God restores, God awakens, God regenerates. Our job is to come alongside. To aid in whatever way possible. Whether our friend is a Christian or an atheist or...whatever...the response should be the same: honest, humble, and loving compassion. A love that seeks to understand and sympathize. A love that truly seeks restoration. A love that admits shortcomings, honestly and openly. This means that my first response to a person who says they feel disconnected from God or that they're angry at God, or any number of other spiritual or emotional crises, should be to understand. To remember when I was in that place, to know that I probably will be in that place again in the near future. Not to grab for a doctrine or verse, but to really listen before saying a word.

I believe God will break open our influence, enlarge our ability to love and help people as we listen to the words of Job. As we seek compassion and benevolance, God will not only gift it to us in overwhelming amounts, but will teach us how to act in love. Not that we forsake the extreme value of these tenets and Scriptures, but that we listen first, that we understand and embrace, so that God may have the victory in convicting, in romancing, in calling all of us to himself.

How do I read the Bible?

I've been researching for the past few months for a big honkin paper I have to write and it's all centered around the Bible. That being said, I've spent hours looking at biblical texts, seeking out answers to various academic questions. Am I, then, using the Bible to my own end of writing a defendable paper?

I'm searching for "truth" but not necessarily the kind of truth that's going to form me into a better person, that's going to place me more in line with biblical morality. Rather, I'm trying to write a strong paper and make defendable points.

People do this all the time in academia, art, business. Pastors do it when they write sermons to an extent.

What about the marketing of Bibles? Christian bookstores sell a Bible for just about everyone in every circumstance; "Teen Study", "Nursing Mothers", "Men Who Eat Chocolate On Tuesdays." What about biblical iconography? Or the protestant Bibles of the 18-19th centuries with more bling than T-Pain's cadillac?

Is it right? Is there a "proper", "God-honoring" way to read the Bible? Are there lines and boundaries to be drawn (and where)?Or, can the Bible be manipulated and used to yield certain results without the necessary intent of transformation and TRUTH (with a capital 'T')?