Use Job As a Your Role Model and Encouragement

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil…

The book of Job can be read as an address on “The Problem of Evil.” Job can be interpreted as Everyman and his situation as a picture of the human condition. Job’s three “friends” insist that his extreme suffering indicates extreme sin in Job’s life and tell him he must admit this or else he is accusing God of being unjust. Job refuses to acquiesce that he must be guilty of wrongdoing. Yet, he does not “curse God” either, as his wife tempted him to do (Job 2:5, 9-10).

Ultimately, God answers Job in a series of questions that he can’t answer and he confesses as much.

Then Job answered YHWH and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:1-6 ESV (mostly)

At the end of the story, Job is miraculously healed, restored, and established as more wealthy and fruitful than before.

As far as we know, Job never learns “why” he suffered. That is, he never learns about how Satan claimed that Job only obeyed God because God blessed him and that he would denounce God if God allowed him to suffer. As Jeff Meyers has argued here [part 1] and here [part 2], God’s reply includes his sovereign rule over Satan. But even that doesn’t reveal to Job the contest between God and Satan that we are told about in the first two chapters.

And even if Job did learn about the accusation of Satan, I’m not sure how that would really be an answer to why Job suffered. God plainly baited Satan by extolling Job. And God himself describes his actions toward Job as being “without cause” or “without reason” (Job 2:9 NASB, ESV). This riddle is why we think of Job as a meditation on the problem of evil.

Whatever Job’s value as an analysis of the problem of evil, I think we are missing an essential feature of the story if we don’t see it as a road map for our lives.

That seems impossible because,

1. Those of us who are not delusional know that we are not so righteous that God will have any reason to point us out to Satan as exceptional among all the human race (Job 1:8).
2. Most of us don’t experience suffering and loss anywhere near the level of Job’s suffering and loss.

While these problems seem to be insurmountable, they actually solve one another and make Job’s experience more applicable to all Christians. No we’re not as righteous as Job, but were not being targeted by Satan in the dramatic way he was either. We aren’t as righteous and we don’t suffer as much. But if our suffering isn’t caused by our personal wrongdoing, then it still needs to be accounted for. Why is God doing this and how should we respond?

Job’s story is more extreme, but that doesn’t prevent it from being our story as well. As a story, Job has a definite beginning and a tidy ending. Our lives involve many trials, blessing, resolutions, and complications running concurrently. But Job’s story still applies to all of that. Job himself had other crises in his life, and some other resolutions. His extreme story gave him a pattern to apply to them as well.

I am not guessing here. Job is held up as an example in the Bible to Christians who are suffering:

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James 5:10–11 ESV

Job remained steadfast. His wife urged him to curse God and die but he remained steadfast, cursing the day of his birth rather than God. His accusers demanded that he confess to wrongdoing, but he remained steadfast. And as a result, he was not simply rewarded, but transformed:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full [or mature or perfect] effect, that you may be perfect [or mature] and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2–4 ESV

It is a superficial reading that assumes Job’s new wealth and children are meant to be a list of prize luxuries. Job’s wealth gives him influence and authority and his heirs give him a hope that his righteous influence will spread. Job 29 describes this in detail. Job’s story is about a man of great wealth and power in the ancient world who faithfully serves God, gets virtually destroyed, and then is raised again to be a more powerful influence in the ancient world.

Which means this is the story of Jacob (with Esau and Laban, his accusers) and Joseph (his brothers, Potiphar’s wife, his enemies and accusers). It is the story of David and Solomon (who almost was turned away from the kingship), Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego on their way to the furnace in Daniel 3, and of Daniel being taken to the Lion’s den in chapter 6.

It is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, unable to get support or understanding from his three friends. As Jeff Meyers wrote, “the book of Job is prophetic of Christ. Jesus, the Greater Job, will suffer as the Lord’s uses Satan to further His salvific purposes for mankind.” This accurate observation only accentuates that the story of Job is a model for all believers. If Jesus can tell believers that Psalm 2 applies to them (Revelation 2:26, 27), then no one can object to applying the book of Job in that way.

So don’t let the value of the book of Job to Western philosophy make you miss the story. The story of Job is like the parable of the nobleman who entrusted his servants with his money (Luke 19:11-27). God’s abandonment of Job to suffering is the master going “into a far country” (v. 12). But when he returns, he finds the servant faithful and productive. In response, he entrusts the servant with more authority and responsibility.

And he said to him, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.”

Luke 19:17 ESV

And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

Job 42:12–15 ESV

Of course, Job didn’t appear productive. It didn’t look like he had anything to show God to claim he was being a faithful servant. But staying loyal while suffering is subduing the earth and taking dominion over it. Job had faithfully maintained his own integrity for God could entrust him with more.

So, count it all joy, brothers and sisters, when God punishes us for obeying him.