I have always loved the story of Job. There is something real, gritty and yet profound that leaps from the pages of this real life hero. While there was no particular mention of God’s glory, or specific uses of the words faithfulness and pride, you can see them vividly demonstrated in these first two chapters. Job is a man of integrity; God says a man of “perfect integrity who fears God and turns away from evil.” I doubt very seriously that God would say that of me. What high praise for Job, but really the book is about the Glory of God and how Job demonstrates God’s glory through his life of integrity. It is also a story of faithfulness, that is the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of a man to his God when he doesn’t really understand the circumstances of his life. Additionally, the theme of humility/pride runs throughout the story as Job struggles to maintain his faith in the face of well meaning friends and family who are mistaken about the circumstances of his suffering.
God is the hero of the story, Satan is the villain… but there in the middle is this man Job who trusted God regardless of what happened. He was a strong man, a man of unique character… but at the end of the day he was still a man. That encourages me. It encourages me because I see that one can really live in a way that pleases God and elicits his pleasure. It also encourages me because Job was a real man, with real problems and real concerns just like the rest of us. Maybe we will never suffer to the extent that he suffered, or for the reasons that he suffered, yet Job demonstrates his humanity even before the time of testing came.
This righteous man who walked in integrity, still worried about his children and those around him. The story includes the interesting details of Job’s kids who loved to get together and celebrate. It doesn’t say they went too far or crossed any lines in their celebrations… but just in case, Job would “send for them, purify them, offering burnt offerings on their behalf”… just in case maybe they had sinned in those times of celebration. He was a righteous man, but he was a real man who worried about his kids just like the rest of us. He prayed for them, he interceded for them, he saw himself as their priest who had their best interests at heart. Every father knows that feeling; that desire to protect, to serve, to love and even to sacrifice is something that is ingrained in your soul from the time you feel that first kick in your wife’s tummy and from the time you hear that first pitiful cry on the day of their birth. Give your dad a break and thank God for him as he “watch-cares” for your soul… even the most “righteous man on the earth” worried about his kids!
