Job

The book of Job in the bible has always intrigued me. I could never understand why God would let someone who was upright in His eyes be so humiliated by the devil. Of all people to be toyed around with, why Job? This same brother Job who feared God and shunned evil?

Well I've been facing a few challenges and I have been asking God questions. Yes. Some folks are of the opinion that we shouldn't question God. I'm not sure I entirely understand what they mean. When I am confused, I ask God questions. Thankfully so far He hasn't sent the Holy Spirit to flog me :).

By divine purpose (some may call it coincidence), I was with my phone one night and two of my friends caused me to read certain chapters in Job. One of them tweeted a general tweet and the other told me to do so in the course of our bbm convo. I had read the whole book of Job some years back and was curious to see what the content of those chapters were. All this happened close to midnight and I was sleepy so I left the bible study till the next day.

After studying the chapters, my questions were 90% answered and I learnt a few lessons which I will now share.

1. We hail Job that he feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1). Well guess who put the fear of God (wisdom) in him? God! God says in Job 39:13-17 that because He did not give the ostrich wisdom it behaves foolishly. It reminds me of that scripture that says blessed is the man whom God causes to approach Him (Psalm 65:4). 

My lesson: Be thankful to God for the wisdom to fear Him and keep His commandments. Don't take it for granted.

2. Job was a guy who knew all the formulas. He feared God, shunned evil, was righteous (Job 31) and constantly sacrificed on behalf of his children. He even writes a chapter (Job 28) on where to find wisdom. Yes he was the man. But things still went wrong at a point.

My lesson: God does not want to be primarily seen as a robot/computer/calculator/atm that you punch in formulas and get a certain result. He still has the prerogative. Serve Him for Him and not just rewards.

3. Job lost everything. EVERYTHING. He was bereaved, sick and poor. The wife and friends he had left were not helping matters at all. It seems like God was more concerned about Job being in His will than He was about how comfortable and smooth Job's life was going. The doctrine preached at modern churches these days is that the richer you are as a christian, the more likely it is that you are truly applying God's word. It is not so. They that say they must be rich fall into a trap (1 Tim 6:6-10).

My lesson: God is more concerned about you having eternal life and fulfilling His will here on earth than He is about your fleshly comfort. Let your christian walk not mainly revolve around applying the seed principle so that you will live a wealthy life. 

4. After Job accepted that God had the final say in his life, God restored him to a better state than he was at the beginning.

My lesson: Challenges come and go. God's blessing at the end will make the process worth it.