Job (Part II)

I am making good progress trying to catch up with my bible reading - managed to cramp in 3 days' reading since Wed (chapters 14-23). And yes, that handsome duo on the right are indeed R1 & R2, they must take after their Dad. ;-)

The book of Job is interesting and yet tricky to understand because there really is just a fine line between what Job and his friends say.

But first, a quick synopsis: Job is a very wealthy/successful (Job 1:3) and righteous man - God calls him a "blameless and upright man" (Job 1:8). Satan asks and gets permission to test him severely, taking from Job his riches, children and even health. At his lowest point, Job suffered both physical (Job 7:5) and mental/spiritual (Job 7:13-14) torment. It is also at his lowest point, that his friends came to him with noble intentions of comforting him (Job 2:12-13). However when Job starts voicing his grievances to the Lord, it seems his friends felt that as good believers, they should jump to the defence of God, and in doing so, they can only conclude that Job has brought his sufferings upon himself simply because he is not truly blameless and upright. Finally, God answers Job, but He did not explain why He allowed Satan to test Job. He merely reminded Job that He is God. Job repents and reconciles with God (Job 42:5-6). The Lord also finds Job's friends guilty of speaking falsely of Him, and they had to receive intercession from Job (Job 42:7-8). The book of Job ends with God restoring everything and more to Job, and he lived a blessed life to a ripe old age (Job 42:12-17).

To me, the tricky bit in Job is to figure out what Job's friends said about God that was declared to be false (by God Himself)? It is tricky because there is actually a lot of truth in what Job's friends said (which Job agrees to), for example:
1. God is almighty and omnipotent - He is always in control.
2. God is perfect and beyond reproach, compared to Him we are all sinners.

3. God is just - the unrighteous do not profit forever, neither do the righteous suffer forever. (The limitation with them was the length of time - Job and his friends did not have the benefit of the New Testament message of eternal life, and thus judged only by what transpired during their time on earth).

Perhaps the big difference between what was said by Job and his friends is that his friends insisted that bad things don't happen to good people - i.e. if bad things happen were happening to Job, there must be something wrong with him. This is clearly not the case with Job, whom God Himself calls a "blameless and upright man" (Job 1:8). Job couldn't understand why the bad things were happening to him either, but he stubbornly refused to give up on God - he never stopped pouring out his grievances to Him. How kewl is that? More on that in Part 3...

Talking about kewl stuff, robtherunner has also signed up for the email bible reading plan. I am humbled.