What's the Real Story?

           One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

                Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”  

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.  But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (Job 1:6-12)

 

The patience of Job. The friends of Job. Even those who don’t know Scripture are familiar with the story, about like people are aware of the story of The Taming of the Shrew. Did you know that The Taming of the Shrew is a story about a couple watching the story of The Taming of the Shrew? The husband is so drunk he doesn’t realize that his wife has been replaced with an actor, and, of course, all actors in that day were actors. No women. Like the book of Job, this information is given up front, and never mentioned again. It might be interesting to consider parallels between Job and Katherine, but that would be a major digression.

Returning to the topic of the going getting tough, the story of Job seems at least as obvious as the letters in the book of Revelation as a source of inspiration. Job loses his herds, his livestock, and his family. He gets what might have been a chronic illness and his so-called friends (including his wife) all think he has to be a monster to deserve such abuse. One can’t help wonder about the intelligence of his friends and wife, but when the going gets tough, well-meaning people seem to forget everything they knew about the person in question. “It’s karma. You must have done something really bad. Is there unconfessed sin in your life?”

The conversation between God and Satan is intriguing. Wouldn’t you expect God to say, “Angels! Seize that traitor. Put him in chains in the deepest, darkest part of Hell you can find!” There should be at least one lightning bolt. As Guilo said in This Present Darkness, “Just let me hit him once.” (Or something like that.)

Instead, God seems to say, “Hi Satan! Long time, no see. Want some tea? Here, have a seat. Oh, by the way, did you happen to cross paths with my servant, Job?” By the end of the conversation, God seems to have made a bet with Satan, and we’re off to the races.

When the going gets tough, we do need to take stock, to see if we’ve done something to put ourselves in the bad place. We should consider whether there is unconfessed sin. But once we have given ourselves a spiritual check up and have found nothing wrong, we need to consider whether or not there’s something going on we don’t know about.

One possibility is that what we view as a bad thing may actually be a hard blessing. It may be meant to strengthen us, not to punish us. It might be meant to help  us learn something that we can later teach others.

Or, there might be someone else involved, others who might need to learn a lesson taught through us. Do you have children or friends who need to see how to go through tough times? I think this was one of Mom’s goals when she had cancer – to show her family how die well. In Job’s case, I think God was using him to show Satan and Job’s friends and family a thing or two. Given God’s response to Job’s friends, I suspect He and Satan have had at least one conversation about it since. It’s not that Job handled the situation perfectly. It might be that Job came back.

If Satan were to say, “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more,” (Job 40:4-5) would God forgive him?  Is that the lesson God was trying to teach Satan?

All of this is confirmation that when the going gets tough, we shouldn’t leap to conclusions. By all means, follow the evidence with regard to wrong-doing, but don’t assume that God hates you or is punishing you because things aren’t going the way you want them to.