Ep. 57 - Job (Part 2)

Last we left our story, our poor friend Job was really not doing very well. Satan and God had gotten into an argument about Job. God had said that Job was blameless and upright, and Satan had said that Job only followed God because God protected Job. So, God let Satan attack Job…as long as Satan didn’t kill him. And so, all these terrible things started happening to Job. First, all his livestock was stolen (that is to say…all his wealth was stolen), then all of his sons and daughters were killed, then Job himself got super sick…to the point that Job thought he was dying. And while Job was going through all this, Job’s wife came up to him and said, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (2:6) What was Job going to do? Would Job give up on God like his wife was telling him to do? Or would Job stay faithful even though God didn’t seem to be protecting him anymore? Well, let’s find out.

Thankfully, even though he wasn’t in a good place, Job didn’t take the bait. And he said to his wife, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10) So what Job was saying was…ya know, we’ve been happy to follow God all these years while God has been keeping us safe and blessing us with all our stuff…are we going to abandon God just because things are going bad right now? Interestingly, Job’s wife was tempting Job to do exactly what Satan had said Job would do if his protection was taken away…to curse God to His face.

Now, some time went by, and news of Job’s troubles began to spread. People were probably saying to each other, ‘Hey did you hear what happened to that rich guy Job? He lost all of his stuff and all his children died! Now he’s got boils. Crazy right? I wonder what he did to deserve that?’ Eventually, some of Job’s rich friends who lived close by heard about all this. And three of Job’s really good friends - Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite – decided to drop everything they were doing and go visit Job…to sit with him and to comfort him as much as they could. Ya know…the kind of thing that good friends do when something bad happens. And when they eventually arrived, the Bible says that they, “raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven.” (2:12) However many months that had gone by since Job’s troubles had started seems to have really taken their toll on Job…to the point where his friends didn’t even recognize him when they got there. Boy, things were not going well for Job. And the Bible says that the three friends, “sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.” (2:13)

Then, after seven straight days of silently sitting around, Job finally spoke up and began a conversation with his three friends. (Now, before I get into this conversation, just a quick thing. This conversation between Job and his friends is very very long…it goes on for about 38 chapters in the Bible. Just think, the book of Genesis is 50 chapters long, and that took 20 episodes for Papa to cover. And not only that, but these 38 chapters use lots of poetic and philosophical language that can be hard-to-understand…to the point where even experts on the Bible sometimes have a hard time figuring out what these guys are talking about. So, to keep the rest of Job’s story to just one episode, Papa is going to have to really really shorten this 38-chapter conversation. Normally, whenever a Bible character speaks in these stories, I like to quote them word-for-word directly from the Bible. (Actually, I like to quote the Bible as much as possible in this podcast…) But for this conversation with Job’s friends, I’m going to have to take something that is being said in (for example) 20 verses and shorten into say 1 sentence. It’s not the best, but it’s just what we’re going to have to do. Sound good? Good!)

Okay, so Job finally speaks up and says (according to Papa’s shortened version), “Everything bad that could possibly happen to me has happened to me. My worst nightmares have come true. I wish that I could die! Or even better, that I had died just after I was born. At least the dead don’t have to go through what I’m going through.” (3:3-26) Boy, Job was definitely not in a good place. Job had had enough…and he was ready to give up.

But then the oldest and wisest of Job’s three friends – Eliphaz – spoke up, and said, “So…I know you’re probably not feeling like it, but maybe I can ask a question? Do bad things ever happen to good people? No of course not! Bad things happen to bad people. So obviously you have done something bad, and God is letting you know so that you can fix it. So, buck up and don’t be so down about everything that’s happened to you…because once God is done correcting you, you will be all the better for it.” (4:2 – 5:27)

Now this isn’t very nice, is it? I mean, Job is really suffering…and right off the bat…the very first thing that his friend says to him…is to tell him that it’s his fault? I thought Job’s friends were there to comfort him? But in fairness, Eliphaz was probably saying what was already on everyone’s mind. Back then everyone believed that if you were good, then good things happened to you. And if you were bad, well then bad things happened to you. And this was just common knowledge…everyone believed that…especially rich people like Job’s friends (rich people who loved to think that if they were soooooo rich then of course it was because they were soooooo good…something that rich people are still tempted to think even today). So, what everyone would have been asking themselves was, what did Job do? Because he must’ve done something…otherwise bad things wouldn’t be happening to him. So, this was the time for Job to fess up and let God give him some “correction”. But did Job do anything bad? Well…no! As we know from last episode, the only reason that any of this stuff was happening to Job was because Satan and God had gotten into an argument. Yah…that’s the whole reason that all these bad things were happening to Job. So, what was Job going to fess up about? Nothing.

So, Job, feeling like he was being accused of something that he didn’t do…and feeling like his “friend” was being hard on him, replied to Eliphaz, and said, “Hey why are you being so hard on me? Aren’t you supposed to be my friend? As far as I know, I haven’t done anything to deserve this. I am not perfect, and I’ve certainly made mistakes…but have you seen what’s happening to me? Look at my skin…look at all these boils that crack and break out all the time…look at all these worms crawling all over me. What did I do to deserve this? Oh God, have I done something wrong? Have I sinned somehow? Why are you punishing me? Why is this happening to me?” (6:2-7:21) Job was understandably feeling betrayed by his friend. Job was going through something horrible, and he needed his friend to stand by his side and comfort him. And as far as Job knew, he hadn’t done anything bad. But you know, Job had two other friends there with him…maybe the next one to talk will get the hint and try to be a bit more supportive.

Well, the next friend to speak was Bildad, and boy he certainly did not get the hint. And Bildad said to Job, “What craziness are you talking about. Of course you’ve done something wrong! Why else would all these bad things be happening to you? Bad things happen to bad people…end of story. It’s what we all believe and even what our great ancestors have believed as far back as anyone can remember. It can’t possibly be wrong. So, whatever it is that you’ve done, just confess your sin to God. And I’m sure once you’ve done that, God will bless you and everything will go back to normal.” (8:1-22) Bildad really didn’t like Job saying that he’d done nothing wrong. Job seemed to be saying that bad things didn’t only happen to bad people. And that maybe…bad things can happen to good people too. And that really seemed to rattle Bildad. And instead of comforting his friend in his time of need, Bildad spent his words defending what he believed and further accusing Job of doing something wrong.

So, Job, again feeling like his friends were being hard on him, replied to Bildad, and said, “As far as I can tell, I haven’t done anything wrong! But maybe I’ve missed something? No one is perfect in comparison to God. I wish that I could just speak to God and ask Him why He is doing this to me? Why is He punishing an innocent man? Oh God, everything that I have and everything that I am is because of You. But why create me and then let me be tortured like this? Why even let me be born if all that will come out of it is all this suffering?” (9:1 – 10:22) Job was sticking to his guns. He didn’t think that he’d done anything to deserve what was happening to him.

The third friend to speak up was Zophar. And if Eliphaz and Bildad were being hard on Job, well, Zophar was going to be super hard on Job. And Zophar, the least friendly of the three friends, said to Job, “Why do you keep talking like this? Do you think that we’re just going to stay quiet while you say these things? God’s wisdom is better than yours. And ya know, you keep saying that you want to talk to God…but you know what God would probably say to you? That you deserve more even more punishment! Bad things happen to people who have done bad things. Instead of saying that you are innocent, just confess. Tell God what you have done wrong. And if you just do that, everything will go back to normal…it will be like all these bad things never happened.” (11:1-12) Wow, Zophar didn’t mince his words eh? Not only did he think that Job had done something wrong, and not only did he keep up with the bad things happen to bad people thing, but he thought that Job deserved even more punishment!

Poor Job, now feeling like all of his friends were being hard on him, answered Zophar and said, “Don’t you think I know that God’s wisdom is better than mine? Do you think this is a new idea to me? Everyone knows that! But listen carefully to what I am saying. If bad things only happen to people who have done bad things…then tell me…what have I done? You seem to know that I’ve done something…what is it? I’m not saying I’m perfect, or that I’ve never made any mistakes…of course I have. But what bad thing have I done to deserve this? And by the way…in case you haven’t noticed…sometimes bad things don’t happen to bad people. Sometimes bad people do bad things their whole lives and nothing ever happens to them! You know what I’m talking about because you’ve seen this too. So, how does this ‘bad things happen to bad people’ thing make any sense? Oh God, why don’t you talk to me? If only we could talk and then I could set things straight. Why can’t you help me understand what is going on?” (12:1 – 14:22) So because Zophar didn’t hold back, it seems that Job didn’t hold back either. Job questioned Zophar’s supposed wisdom and then really went after this idea that ‘bad things happen to bad people’…saying that it was obvious just from looking around and using common sense that this wasn’t true…even if everyone believed it to be true.

And Job and his friends went on and on like this…back and forth and back and forth…with Job’s friends insisting that Job had done something bad (because bad things happen to bad people), then Job denying it, getting frustrated, and turning to God for answers. This went on for another two more rounds…and actually this back-and-forth conversation is what most of the Book of Job is about.  And eventually, after trying in so many ways and after trying so many different angles, Job’s three friends gave up and went back to sitting in silence. And the Bible says, “So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eye.” (32:1) It was a frustrating silence, and apparently Job’s three friends weren’t the only ones sitting around. One of these other people kinda sitting in the background, a man named Elihu, even spoke up and got mad at the Job’s three friends…not for being hard on Job, but for not being able to convince Job that he’d done something wrong. But after Elihu was done venting, neither Job nor his friends even bothered answering him, and they were back to sitting there in frustrated silence.

So, what was going to happen? Poor Job was wasting away in his sickness and sorrow, not feeling any better for his friends coming by. Would Job just die and that would be that? And then everyone would think that Job got what he deserved? Well, no. Because as we know from the beginning of this story, Satan was not allowed to take Job’s life. Ok, so then would they just sit there forever in frustrated silence…a never-ending stalemate? Well, thankfully no. And this is when God finally makes an appearance. While everyone was sitting there, out of nowhere, a big storm picked up. And the Bible says that “the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (38:1) Ah ok, finally and at last, God is going to explain everything to everyone, right? He’s going to tell everyone that indeed Job had done nothing to deserve this, that the reason this was all happening to Job was just because of an argument between God and Satan, and that Satan was doing this to Job and not God, right?

Well, no! Actually, God wasn’t going to get into any of that…not anything about the argument in heaven, not anything about who actually took Job’s stuff, not anything about who actually killed Job’s kids, not anything about who was making Job sick. Instead, all God basically says to Job is, “Job, I need you to think about who I am and how much bigger I am than you.” And God asks Job all kinds of questions to help Job think about this, like “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … Who determined its measurements?… Who laid its cornerstone?” (38:4-6) And, “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place?” (38:12) And also, “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?” (38:16) And God continues like this and asks him more things like, do you know where light come from and how is it diffused? (Which BTW kidzos, even today scientists still can’t say exactly what light is and how it works.) Do you know where the rain comes from? Did you set the great constellations in the night sky? Can you send out lightning and thunder? Can you even tame a wild ox? Do you even know why the ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground where they can be stepped on? Did you give the horse it’s strength? Does the hawk and the eagle fly when you tell them to? Just think…I made the Behemoth (which we don’t know what animal that was…but it seems like it was some kind of huge land animal) and I made the Leviathan (which again we don’t know what that was either…but it sure sounds a lot like a sea dragon!). Think about who I am!

And after helping Job to understand who God is just how much bigger God is than him, the second thing God says to Job is, “Would you indeed annul My judgement?” (40:8) That is to say, “Now that you know better who I am and have had a taste of just how much bigger I am than you, do you still think that I’ve overlooked something or missed something?” You see, while Job hadn’t sinned or cursed God like Satan said he would, Job had been pleading to God to talk to him directly…both to understand why this was happening to him, but also because Job thought that God had somehow missed something. And if only Job could talk to God, then they’d get it all straightened out. And this was Job’s one mistake (not a sin…but a mistake)…to think that he knew something more than God did and to think that God had made a mistake. And Job, feeling the weight of what he’d done, answered God and said, “I have uttered what I did not understand.… I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you.” (42:5) Job admitted that he hadn’t understood who God was, and that he had made a mistake in questioning God in any way.

But now that God had clarified this one mistake with Job, God then turned His attention to Job’s three friends. And while Job had made a mistake in his suffering, Job’s friends had been harsh and uncaring and even cruel with someone who was already badly suffering. And so, God said to the oldest friend Eliphaz, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” (42:7) Interestingly, this seemed to settle the 38-chapter argument. When it came to this ‘bad things happen to bad people’ thing, Job was right - bad things don’t just happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people too. But the main thing was that Job's friends had treated him badly. And so, God continued, “Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly.” (42:8) And of course, Job’s friends quickly offered up the sacrifices and Job graciously prayed for his friends…despite what they’d put him through.

And this is a good lesson for us too kidzos. Ya know, sometimes we can make the same mistake that Job’s friends made…can’t we? When someone, say, gets into a car accident…well obviously they were driving recklessly…that’s why that happened to them. Or when someone loses their job…well obviously they didn’t work hard enough…that’s why that happened to them. Or when someone gets sick…well obviously they weren’t eating very well…that’s why that happened to them. This is exactly the same spirit as that of Job’s friends…that bad things happen to bad people. And another thing that even well-meaning Christians will say sometimes when bad things happen to you is that God somehow wanted it. I remember when someone died in my family a long time back, some well meaning Bible-believing people (well meaning just like Job’s friends) quoted me Romans 8:28 – “All things work together for good for those who love God.”… hinting that God somehow wanted or intended for this person to die. The big thing to take away from this story kidzos is that while we live on this earth, bad things are just going to happen. And it might not be for any reason other than that this world we live in is fallen. And that Satan rules here on this earth…and will continue to do so until God comes again and sets everything right. And when our friends and loved ones go through hard times, it’s usually not the time to preach to them or help them find meaning in what’s happening…its just time to comfort them and to be there for them…just like what Job‘s friends should have done for Job.

After Job prayed for his friends, things got a lot better for Job. The Bible says, “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.” (42:10) Presumably after Job was feeling better, all of Job’s brothers and sisters came to visit him, and a bunch of other people that Job knew, and each gave Job some silver and gold to help him get back on his feet. Eventually, Job had entirely recovered from his ordeal. Job had more children, 7 sons and 3 daughters…exactly the same number as had died before (though I’m sure he missed all his children who’d died). And not only that but God blessed Job with double the wealth that he had had before. And Job went on to live a long and wonderful life. And the Bible says that, “Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.” (42:16-17)