Job.

I've been spending some time in Job over the last couple of months. Wanted to share some of my thinking(s):

1. In Chapter 1, God offers up Job, the most righteous man on the earth, to Satan, the evil one, the one who prowls the earth like a ravenous lion, looking for someone to destroy. God tells Satan, "Have you considered Job....behold, all that he has is in your hands." I've browsed over this verse many times but I've never actually reacted to it before. This time around, my mouth hung open. God was more than willing to subject Job to gut-wrenching, heartbreaking pain. In our eyes, this does not seem fair. It's probably because it is not.

2. Before Job's friends decided to try to fix him and make things all better, they actually showed Job compassion and sympathy when they sat with him, on the ground, for seven days and seven nights, without speaking one word..."for they saw that his suffering was very great." Wow.

3. For a long time, God allows Job to speak his mind, to complain...to suffer greatly. Job lamented his brains off. Job did not hold back. Which reminds me of a really great quote I heard last week, "So who here has ever gained anything from successfully hiding your true feelings from God?"

4. However, when it came time for God to speak, when God reminded Job, who He was, Job immediately was silenced. I wonder if Job could've fully appreciated and experienced the GREATNESS of God, if he was not so broken. If his heart was not so tender, would he have said "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted...I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know?" Job had nothing left in him. All he could see, feel, think...was God.

5. My favorite part in the entire book is when the LORD rebukes Job's friends: "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...", AND when the LORD restores Job's fortunes. It wasn't like Job expected the LORD to give him twice as much as he had before. Maybe if Job did know that it was God's plan all along, then maybe he would've focused on the prize at hand. Hm. But would that be so wrong? I can't help but look forward to the prize, which is not really the fact that the LORD will bless me--not because I deserve it, but because He is a good God--but that the prize is really Jesus. Somehow, that feels weird to say, even though I know it's true. "The upward call of God in Christ Jesus," is how the Apostle Paul put it in the book of Philippians.

6. I think that the only way Job was able to survive his suffering was simply by the grace of God, which is ironic, because God allowed him to go through those trials in the first place. That is something that is not easy to understand, nor am I going to pretend that I do.

7. I think it's ok to look forward to and even expect God's blessings, for he does bless us in material ways, and in spiritual ways. His blessing may not mean doubling my fortune, or blessing me with 14,000 sheep...but it's going to be something great and worthwhile...a treasure of sorts...with eternal value...