Dearest hijas and hijo,
When evil breaks into the normalcy of your life do you cry, “Unfair!” When tragedy strikes your home, your life, your family, your friends, or your health, do you shake your fists at the heavens and get angry? Or perhaps you weep and cry and wallow in self-pity? “Why do bad things happen to good people,” you might say. “This is just too much and I can’t take it anymore!” you might shout.
Consider Job. A man of wealth: 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 jennies, and very many servants (Job 1:2-3). He was considered the greatest of all the men in the East.
He lived in the land of Uz (Job 1:1), so named most likely after the man Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah (Gen. 10:22-23), who settled in what is now northern Arabia. From cultural and historical features found in this book named after him, it places these events in Job’s life most likely sometime after the dispersion at Babel (Gen. 11:1-9), but before or at around the same time as Abraham (c. 2100-2000 BC).
The epithet that describes Job: “blameless, upright, fearing God, and shunning evil” (Job 1:1). What follower and student of the Christ would not be honored to have that same epithet ascribed to them?
Was Job without sin? No, none of us are (Rom. 3:10-18, 23). Yet he made it a priority; his life mission, to worship the one and only true God so that it could be said of him he was upright and blameless, fearing God and turning away from evil. May we strive to live lives where that can be truly said of us.
In one day Job’s whole life was turned upside down. You’ve read the account. First, in an act of moral evil by the Sabeans, his oxen and donkeys were stolen and his servants killed (Job 1:14-15). Then his sheep were wiped out along with the servants tending them in what was described as “the fire of God” (Job 1:16), most likely an act of natural evil akin to a severe and devastating lightning storm. Next was another act of moral evil—coveting, theft, and murder—when some Chaldeans attacked, stole his camels, and killed his men (Job 1:17).
This was then followed by another act of natural evil in a tornado or sirocco that killed all seven of his sons and all three of his daughters who were together in the older brother’s house celebrating a birthday (Job 1:4, 13, 18-19). All dead. All gone. What a devastating blow to happen to the same person on the same day. The count so far: 2 counts of moral evil and 2 counts of natural evil (for reference on moral and natural evil see my post Don’t Be a Sir David Attenborough, Either.)
Here was Job’s response:
“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshipped” (Job 1:20).
Here is what he said in that act of worship:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).
And what then does the text say of Job?
“Through all this, Job did not sin nor did he blame God” (Job 1:22).
Some time passes, we don’t know how long (Job 2:1), but then comes the coup de grace. As if the wiping out of his children and his possessions wasn’t enough, Job is inflicted in his body with boils that cover his whole frame. Blistering, pus oozing, stinking and festering boils that drive him to his knees. He sits in the fire pit and ashes and can only try lancing them with potshards to alleviate the pain (Job 2:7-8).
Can you see the picture? Unmitigated disaster for Job. First, his children and possessions are wiped out, then he breaks out from head to toe in festering and painful boils, and all he’s got left is a wife who tells him to “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).
Was this all coincidence? Just accidental accidents that happened to come together in Job’s life in a tragic way? No, the Biblical text says that God allowed it (Job 1:12, 2:6). It was God who permitted it. So that brings up an interesting question for us, doesn’t it? When evil befalls you, do you see the hand of God behind it? Does it make you doubt the goodness of God to allow these evils to touch your life? Do you find yourself questioning whether there is any purpose behind it?
Follow the rest of the story (Job chapter 2 verse 11, thru chapter 37). Job’s three friends hear about what happened, come to visit and comfort him, sit in silence with him for seven days, and then Job finally speaks. He rues the day he was born. The dialog goes back and forth between Job and his three friends for quite some time. They offer reasons and explanations for why all these tragedies must have happened to him. It was bad advice and the wrong reasons (see Job 42:7-9).
In chapters 38-41 the dialog switches between God and Job. These chapters are a marvelous testimony to God’s power and control—His absolute omnipotence and sovereignty over all of His creation including your and my life. He begins by asking Job this question:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!” (Job 38:2-3).
Question follows question in rapid-fire sequence from God to Job throughout these chapters. These four chapters should be read over and over and over again. There are so many nuggets of great truth found in these chapters. Notice there is no answer from God as to “why.” No explanation from God as to the purpose behind permitting it all to happen—only a demonstration of His total sovereignty, total power, and absolute will to do and act as He pleases. God exerts total control of whatsoever comes to pass in the totality and realm of His creation and in Job’s life. At the end, Job is humbled and repents (Job 42:1-6). He has nothing more to say. How could he against the awesome power and wisdom of God? God then blesses him by restoring his former fortunes twofold and giving him seven more sons and three more daughters (Job 42:10-13).
What is the lesson for us? When tragedy strikes, and it will, God doesn’t have to give us a reason as to why. Just know that He has permitted it for a reason. We may not know what that reason is, but God does, and because He is in total control of everything that comes to pass, we can rest assured that the reason is ultimately for our good and to His ultimate glory.
We say like Job says to his wife after she told him to curse God and die: “…shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10).
We rest in the comfort of Paul’s words in Romans 8:28:
“And we know that God causes all things [even tragedy] to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.“
All my love,
Dad
Vaya con Dios!
Luv Notes To Daughters 