The
Character of Job
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the December 24, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“Now
all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every
deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, NIV
There is something about a holiday that fills the hearts
of children and adults alike with joy. There is of course time off from work or
school. That period with diminished accountability has a fanciful appeal, especially
for those who are more inclined to daydreaming and fantasy than the
hardscrabble struggles of day-to-day reality. Every holiday seems to have its elements
of fantasy. Saint Patrick’s Day has its shamrocks, leprechauns and secret
longings to discover that pot of gold. Easter has its eggs, rabbits, and a hunt
for treasure as well, bringing an almost “Alice in Wonderland” element to the holiday.
Hallowe’en with its mummery may be the epitome of fancy when youngsters can be
a Jedi Knight, a beautiful princess, a ninja, or in a more macabre vein in line
with the alternative “Day of the Dead” celebration, fantasies of horror.
Christmas brings us flying reindeer and a jolly, corpulent, red Santa to bring
color and frivolity to the otherwise drab darkness of the winter solstice.
All of these holidays for all of the unique ways they
are celebrated tend to have a common core. They encourage the indulgence in
lots and lots of sweets, with oceans of corn syrup surrounded by chocolate
beaches. Chocolate eggs and bunnies for Easter vie with buckets and bowls full
of chocolatey goodness at Hallowe’en that await those souls with the temerity
to knock at a stranger’s door and shout “Trick or treat!” Not to be outdone,
Christmas has chocolate Santas presiding over cookies and candies made with
chocolate or dipped in it. Chocolate has such a strong siren call, luring
passing souls into its clutches, that it is hard to even write this without
feeling its lure. It takes a very committed soul indeed to turn their back on
these holidays and the irresistible pull of such treats. One can only imagine
the struggle for a child to make such an effort.
Yet we willingly throw children into the midst of such an
overwhelmingly one-sided struggle against desire with a single word when we
approach the immature dragon nested over his or her chocolate horde and say “Share.”
We may do it to spare the child the deleterious effects of consuming so much
sweetness, or we may do it to encourage the better lights of their nature. But
no matter our reason, a great struggle ensues in the heart of that fledgling
dragon. It is as though we have pierced it with a sword capable of dividing
between their desire and compassion,[i] two parts of our nature
that will rage against one another for the rest of our lives. Our desire is to
have all the chocolate we can consume, even though it may sicken us and
eventually kill us. But compassion tells us that joy is something to be shared
with those less fortunate, and instead of bringing the heavy feeling of over
consumption, it brings a lightness of spirit that is ultimately a better reward
than insatiable desire could ever bring. Perhaps that understanding is the
essence of spiritual maturity. The child who is guided by adults who are spiritually
stable has yet to learn its value. But the adult, who may have been taught such
things as a child if they were fortunate to have someone spiritually mature to
guide them, should be well established in the path of righteousness, especially
if they have received that instruction with a willing heart. Job seems to have
been one of those people.
While he was wealthy at the beginning and end of his story, his character was
such that he placed having a right relationship with God and others before his
own material well-being. This was the crux of his character that made him
uniquely suited to the experience he went through. While many feel that the
Book of Job is all about Theodicy, and rightly so, there is another thesis
being played out that may easily be overlooked by focusing too much on the
boils and not enough on the issue of Job’s wealth. Satan approached God with
two theses, not one. While the latter one did focus on Job’s health and what
effect that might have on his character, the premier conflict was over the
issue of wealth. Perhaps we willingly glide quickly past this issue to the
suffering because it hits too close to home for many of us, especially in the
West. In the country where everyone owns two houses, the man who owns one is a
poor man, even though he is wealthy relative to the rest of the world. We are
so used to having so much in the West that has been a legacy to us from the age
of imperialism when we plundered other cultures through trade and conquest that
we take our wealth for granted and don’t see it as such. We may even feel that
we deserve it as though it were some sort of moral right. After all, we are
Christians and when we looted these other cultures they were heathens,
therefore God transferred their wealth to the West as a reward for our
faithfulness. Hopefully we have matured to the point where we can recognize how
ridiculous that perspective is. If not, the Book of Job should wake us up.
Job’s character was not a product of his wealth, and his
wealth was not a product of his character. While he was wealthy before his
trial and wealthy after it, his character transcended his experience without
regard to his wealth or lack thereof. When he had wealth, he was generous to
those who had none.[ii]
But when his wealth was gone, he nonetheless gave what he had, his time, to
others as he sat day after day in the company of his three friends. To our modern
way of thinking, when confronted with the challenges from such friends we would
have long ago removed them from our Facebook Friends List and perhaps even have
blocked them. Instead of cutting contact with them, he patiently remonstrated
with them over their understanding of the reasons for suffering. Doubtless,
this was not easy for Job, because even though they were not vile to him, they felt
his character was in some way flawed and therefore the root cause of his
affliction. They did not shrink from pointing this out. That suffering could
simply be random and unrelated to one’s character was beyond them. Often it is
beyond us as well. We tend to see suffering as a sign of God’s disfavor over
something we have chosen to do or believe.
Who has not heard someone say that when someone gets lung cancer it is because
they have followed an unhealthy lifestyle of smoking tobacco? Yet, I knew
personally of a church elder in Oregon that died from lung cancer in the 1970s
who had never smoked in his life. While those who are students of logic and
syllogisms understand that sequence does not prove causation, we too often
abandon our understanding, and when something bad happens to someone, we try to
ascertain the sequence of events in their life prior to the evil, drawing
conclusions as to its cause from that sequence.
The Book of Job refutes that idea. Even God points out that
Job’s character is exemplary.[iii] So why then do we
persist in seeking for flaws in others as an explanation for what happens to
them? Is it perhaps because we are uncomfortable with the idea that suffering
can be merely random and unexplainable? Even pagans were uncomfortable with the
idea that life could be totally random. They sought to gain a feeling of
control over what might be otherwise random events by sacrificing to their
deities with the idea that they might thereby have some minimal control over
their environment and maybe avoid those random events. Ascribing them to the
capriciousness of the gods allowed them to believe that the right sacrifice
might overcome that willfulness and curry the favor of the offended god. To some
degree, this is addressed in Job, for even though he is defined as someone who
regularly offers sacrifices, those offerings made no difference. They did not
prevent what happened to him and his children. Ultimately it was his character
that carried him through.
There is a lesson here for us today. We may hold important church office or
leadership positions in our community. We may be major donors supporting our
denomination locally and abroad. We may even have executive responsibility over
charitable missions. However, if we do these things with the idea that they
somehow earn us standing with God that will be paid back by His protecting us
from suffering, we have a faith that is little different from those ancient
pagans. If we do these things for those reasons, we are not developing a
character that will see us through trials. We are instead trying to avoid them.
Job shows us the futility of that. But if what we do is an outgrowth of our
compassionate character and is honestly done without regard to our personal
gain either materially or politically, we are well on our way to understanding
his character and discovering the secret of Job’s patience.
