Ah, What Trouble?

(Today's reading Job 1-3, Acts 7:1-19)

I have read the story of Job several times in my life. I still struggle with it. Why would God turn a good man over to Satan for testing? Why would he allow the devastation of Job's life? I am encouraged every time I read of Job's devotion to God and I wonder if I have what it takes to be like him. I pray that I never have to find out.

The story goes like this. Satan comes before God and asks permission to strike Job so that his faith would be tested. Satan is sure that it is because of the blessings in Job's life that he has faith in God. God allows the testing. Job looses everything... almost. His wealth is gone. His children are gone. His servants are gone. His wife remains. (I am not convinced that she is not part of the testing) He holds up well until God allows Satan to attack his person. Job is covered with sores from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. He takes pot shards and scraps his body. Sounds like a party to me. His wife tells him to "curse God and die". (My earlier point reinforced) His response to her is amazing... He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (2:10)

Next Job is visited by three friends. When trouble comes, true friends show up. Some folks talk about you and your troubles, but true friends show up. I am thankful to have so many true friends! Take a moment to read the account of their visit... When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. (2:11-13) That my friends is friendship. Sometimes just showing up is enough. Sometimes words just get in the way (and they do in the next few chapters). His friends come and sit with him, hurt with him and cry with him.

After a while, Job speaks and what he says makes sense to me. He questions why he was born and why he lived. When tragedy strikes, isn't that always the question... why. Why me? Why did this happen to me? I wish I had never been born! I wish I was dead! Job goes through all of those thoughts. He is human and humans ask those questions (and that is ok). He closes his thoughts in Chapter 3 with these words...
"Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil." (3:23-26)

I am thankful that our Bibles are filled with stories of real people, who have real problems and make real mistakes and suffer real consequences. For Job to react the way he did helps me to understand the human condition. Each of us will have days filled with joy and each of us will have days filled with pain. When wonderful days come, may we praise God and remember that He gives us just such days. When painful days come, may we remember that our lives are a gift from Him and that even in difficult situations His love is present and we can be enriched by our suffering. What kind of person would you be if you only experienced good days? Would you be of any value to those around you if you could not sympathize because of your experiences?

I am reminded of a scene in the movie Jeremiah Johnson. He has become a true mountain man. He has lost his wife and son. His home has been burned to the ground. Just watch... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ND_fwX2fM

Trouble, what trouble? May each of us determine to have just that attitude in our lives. "You've come far pilgrim... Feels like far... Were it worth the trouble?... Ah, what trouble?"

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus told his disciples that trouble would come. Life isn't lived without it! But He tells us, you and me, that in Him we may have peace. In Him we can say... "ah, what trouble". Job takes us there if we will let him. In all his trouble, his love for God and God's love for him is never in question. Let us learn from him. Amen.