Twenty ninth Page: Oh, What a Sublime Job!

I googled a man in the land of Uz. The returns came in milliseconds – before I could say “what, ho?” Bertie Wooster style:

Job

perfect

upright

one that feared God

eschewed evil

Wow………nonpareil…….peerless……beyond comparison ….ஒப்பீடுக்கு அப்பால்….Jenseits des Vergleichs……Au-delà de la comparaison……Más allá de la comparación……… (please go to Google Translate for other languages)

Indeed you’ve really got to get up and salute this man. No body … repeat no body knows for sure who put those words there in the Bible (Job 1:1). But they are there. Now you can be forgiven if you do not want to believe it as the gospel truth, since you do not know who is saying it. But wait a sec, they are backed up…by God Himself!! Check out Job 1:8. Where God does a bit of boasting about Job and the words come out …verbatim. Salute that guy again, Job. Must have been quite a character.

Perfect? Surely no man can be perfect. Only God is. Right. But in several instances in the Bible, man is called upon to be perfect or described as being in that condition, to the extent he is obedient to God, and follows His precepts. That is as perfect as man can be. And our man Job ranks right up there!

Upright? This is actually tougher. While perfection is something God confers in His grace and generosity, upright – in my reading – is how man comports himself and acts, in all the rough and tumble of life in an essentially unrighteous world. For instance no dissembling; i.e., harbouring one thought and voicing another; no prevarication. Being wishy-washy, woolly or wobbly, speaking from both sides of the mouth, leaving the listener clueless where you stand ! No cosying up to someone disingenuously , no buttering up another. Nor worming up to obtain his good will. No downplaying or whitewashing that persons’s failings. Singing paeans in his praise without sufficient cause. No bribing. Not subverting due process by fraudulent means. Not buying something for money, favour or service, over and above what is just and right. No swerving, no swaying. No bending to every wind of opinion. Not employing euphemisms to mislead people. Not easily pliable. Grouted firmly in one’s own beliefs and convictions. Really tough, eh?

I guess the other two character traits need little amplification: fearing God and eschewing evil, but no less easy to practise for that reason. If you thought this guy was some superior god-man, leading an ascetic life up in the Himalayas breathing pure mountain air, unsullied by the rest of mankind, you have another think coming.

And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:2) This is remarkable. This guy is not all that different from us. Growing up, marrying, begetting children, bringing them up, educating them and so on and so forth. The normal family life. Surely his ten children quarreled among themselves every now and then necessitating parental intervention, sometimes with a stick in hand. Who knows, it might not have been an easy task packing off ten of them to school, lunch boxes,water bottles and all. I bet the school camel was missed a few times!

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Wealth brings its own problems. Why, occasionally there could have been ugly competitions between the camel drivers and sheep keepers when the Owner had to step in. Mark you, the Lady of the House was no wall flower. She asserted herself whenever Job was down and never lost an opportunity to get under his skin with an (un)timely nag. Job’s friends, while attached to him, had minds of their own resulting in frequent debates and disagreements. Through all this, the man was god fearing and he apparently brought up the children well too. He had instilled in them the spirit of unity; the boys had been taught to respect and care for the girls amidst them.

On the matter of worship and intercession however, Job seemed somewhat legalistic. Every time his children had a party “Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually” (Job 1:5). Continually? It wasn’t a one off show of reverence and supplication. It wasn’t just a Sunday special. Job was conscious that sanctification is not an occasional activity. And he wasn’t taking it casually. He was right earnest – getting up early in the morning to offer sacrifice. Seven sons, and he never played favourites. He offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. He treated them all alike. A model father who cared deeply about his children. Not only their physical well being and enjoyment of life but also their spiritual health. He was constantly restoring their relationship with God. Phew!

You can’t help noticing another thing. He rose up early in the morning to seek the face of the Lord and plead for his children. Now, we know that Job was something of a Zamindhar. It wasn’t as though he faced a daily grind and therefore had to make an early start. He had plenty of servants to do his bidding. He could have lolled about in bed all day and gone to God at a convenient time. Moreover the children were all grown up by this time; his wife and he inhabited an empty nest. No matter. First place to God and that right early!

You would expect that his godly habits were noticed on earth. But God was watching as well! El Roi – the God who sees me (Genesis 16:13). Don’t ever deceive yourself that “no body knows”. Hey, what do you know, the devil is equally interested in your conduct – with an entirely different motive of course! People begin to pay close attention to your walk and your talk, if you stand out. Your life becomes public and it is as though you are living in a glass house. You’ve got to be careful brother.

God was pretty excited about such a super man. Thus it was that when He was holding court about this time, He took the first opportunity to hold Job forth as a shining trophy. Satan however was quietly making his own calculations to take the shine off. Now, why should Satan put in an appearance in the heavenly court is beyond me.

Notice, he comes along with the sons of God (Job 1:6), a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The likes of us can easily get fooled by the attire, demeanour, attitude, elocution and his consummate handling of the Word of God. But, Sir,you cannot deceive the Lord of lords and the God of gods – however white your raiment, whichever church you attend, however long your face, however many Bible verses you know by heart, however many hymns you have memorized, however many Amens and Hallelujahs you pack in a minute, however studded your speech is with Praise the Lords, whatever number of times your repeat the chorus, whichever decibel you touch in earsplitting crescendo, howsoever high you jump in praise and worship or indeed whatever your ecclesiastical title is. He knows everybody through and through. The only relevant question is “are you bearing fruit?”Yes, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). Even if Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) he gets quickly exposed, as God immediately picks him out.

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“And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.“(Job 1:7). Yes your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). But God had only one purpose in asking that question – though of course He knew the answer beforehand. This was His way of showing off His pride, His delight, His trophy – Job. (I know you are wondering if there is any thing in you that God would want to show off; I’m with you!)

Knowing the story, it is verily right and meet for us to have such thoughts, but the poor bloke Job hadn’t a clue on what was happening in the heavenly realm; completely nescient that he was something of a show piece in God’s sight.”And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” (Job 1:8). The trickster that Satan is, he poses a loaded, a leading question much like his deadly performance in the garden of Eden. “Doth Job fear God for nought?” (Job 1:9) he asks, and goes about his terrible scheme of hurting Job.

And God lets him, putting all that Job has in Satan’s power. Satan cannot do what God does not permit. Satan’s mission on earth of course is to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy “(John 10:10). And he immediately sets out to do what he does best: spoil, undermine, frustrate, wreck, sabotage; why even murder was not beyond him.

Job was stunned. But he didn’t ask the first question that should have come to his mind: Why do bad things happen to good people? On the contrary Job simply accepted this devastating blow that reduced him in one stroke – from a wealthy man to a pauper, a zamindhar to a supplicant, from someone with a quiver full of children to a bereft destitute. “And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” – in a spirit of worship (Job 1:20).

I say, this guy is quite extraordinary!!

A diversion. According to Google, “If there’s one thing the world knows about the Philippines’ infamous (former) First Lady, it’s that she can’t say “no” to a pair of shoes”. At one time Imelda Marcos owned 3000 pairs of shoes! Today she is over 90 years old and when she dies, I doubt if she will be shod in more than one pair. Jayalalithaa, the former Tamil Nadu (India) Chief Minister is reported to have owned a total of 10,500 sarees. When she died some years ago, she wore but one.

Job grasped these home truths implicitly when he was afflicted, and alluded to the futility of amassing wealth, when it is abundantly clear that we cannot take anything with us at the end of life’s journey. But that doesn’t stop some of us from engaging in feverish pursuit of mammon, does it? Quality time with family and friends gets a quiet burial; the question of any private time with God does not at all arise.

Thank you Job, for this valuable lesson. It was probably several centuries later that Habbakuk wrote the immortal words “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habbakuk 3:17). But here was Job doing an unforgettable, pitifully poignant lec-dem! And the chapter concludes: ^“In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly“(Job 1:22).

Advantage: God (Job 2:3)

But the devil does not easily give up. He is hell bent on destroying Job and seeks permission from God to physically distress the hapless creature. Job’s wife couldn’t bear to see him suffer thus without a cause and says somewhat reasonably (and caustically, as wives are wont to do), “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). Job doesn’t buckle under pressure. And he speaks these memorable words in response: “shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?“ In all this did not Job sin with his lips (Job 2:10)

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Advantage: God, again

A slap in the face of the devil. He may be orchestrating your downfall but remember he is still subject to God.

Perhaps it is a study of Job’s story (along with Psalm 46) that inspired Martin Luther in the 16th century to pen the words of the great spiritual warfare hymn “A mighty fortress is our God”. With the benefit of the knowledge of the goings on in the divine court ( a scene utterly hidden from Job), Luther writes

For still our ancient foe

Doth seek to work us woe

His craft and power are great

And armed with cruel hate

On earth is not his equal

at once bringing out the diabolical schemes of the devil and the dark powers he wields in the world – in his mission to torment the children of God. Hunted and persecuted as he himself was, Luther was in a position to view matters from Job’s poignant perspective. He goes on:

Let goods and kindred go

This mortal life also

The body they may kill

God’s truth abideth still

His Kingdom is forever

Then come three of Job’s long time friends. Apparently they are not ‘Uz’is and they travel from their several far away places in order to mourn with him and to comfort him. Failing to recognize his broken and loathsome body from afar, they weep. Upon approaching Job, they were speechless for seven days, for they saw that his grief was very great and sat down with him on the ground. After this Job opens his mouth and gives a mournful discourse. His friends Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite listen, and then they speak one by one.

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The thrust of their argument is that Job’s sufferings are the result of his sinful life. Now, we have no clue when these guys became friends with Job. Maybe they were all childhood playmates, starting with marbles and progressing to tops and gilli-thanda. Maybe they attended school and some sort of moral instruction class together and had been imparted lessons on the character of God. But whereas Job seems to have graduated to a greater understanding of God, and developed a close connection with Him, Eliphaz , Bildad, and Zophar seem somewhat stunted in their spiritual understanding at the Sunday School level as they branched out to far off places. Their view of man-God relationship is black & white, purely transactional. Man good, God blesses. Man bad, God punishes. Nothing more, nothing less. To my mind, having observed silent mourning for seven days, they could at least have prayed together with Job before starting their exertions. This might have aligned their attitude somewhat to Job’s.

Not having taken that crucial step, it was a struggle for them to come to terms with Job’s claims of innocence. Oh, but Job’s friends certainly cared about his welfare. They were sympathetic towards him. After all they traveled long distances to visit him in his distress. They communicated with one another and made concerted plans. When they saw from a distance Job’s pathetic condition, they lifted up their voice and wailed. As we already noted, they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and nights without uttering single word! A lesson in meaningful mourning.

Generally speaking, there are three kinds of comforters A,B & C: A is a soothsayer type that takes it upon itself to say “don’t worry, you will be alright. I will pray for you”. It is another matter that in the heart of hearts, they don’t think the character will last more than one week! However, clever dissemblers as they are, they may even start a lighthearted song Bobby McFerrin style:

Here’s a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don’t worry, be happy
In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don’t worry, be happy
Don’t worry, be happy now

The extremist A type will go a little further to say,” you will be okay by Wednesday”. This type presumes special relationship to God presumably denied to the afflicted. It is also capable of quoting a lot of Bible verses – never mind that these are equally well known to the sufferer. If the prediction doesn’t come true, the extremist A transmutes effortlessly to a different kind as we shall see.

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Type B is philosophical. It takes the line that “this too will pass” (as they keep saying of the Corona virus!). “You’ve just got to be patient; grin and bear it”. The third type is spiritual and (therefore) somewhat of a cavil nature. It would point out to known bad habits. “Brother” it would say, “it is time you gave up smoking”, “God will bless you”. This kind believes in a direct correlation between deemed sin and perceived punishment. Somewhat simplistic.

Its variant is somewhat virulent: it simply assumes that the afflicted is guilty of unknown transgressions. Smugly clothing itself with a “holier than thou” cape, it talks about the wretched creature’s presumed shortcomings with superciliousness. It’s easy to see that Job’s friends fall in this category. The transmutation of type A also lands in this slot. Far from comforting, this type – especially the virulent variant – ends up in irritating, infuriating and exasperating the afflicted. C might not have been ever harmed by the afflicted but yet in a strange spiritual way, this type enjoys the other’s discomfiture. Since all three types above fail to impart genuine comfort to those in grief, there must be another type – let’s call it D – that lends its shoulder for the afflicted to cry on, without uttering a word. Actually Eliphaz , Bildad, and Zophar started in this fashion, but when Job opened his mouth in chapter 3, they changed their stance. Which type are you?

Mostly it is type C that we see in common. Let’s take a real life event from the New Testament. “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9: 1-2). Sin is assumed to be at the bottom of it all. It is instructive to consider the reply.”Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him“ (John 9:3). As always Jesus takes it further. To something that would reveal the glory of God.

Permit me to give you a personal example. I was born with a rare congenital metabolic disorder. I got to know its proper name only about 25 years ago – Alkaptunuria – AKU in short.

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Without getting lost in a lot of medical detail, this simply means that I am a production house of HGA – Homogentisic Acid – that deposits itself all over my body all because one enzyme failed to show up in my DNA. When HGA accumulates in the joints, they tend to fuse, causing extreme pain and mobility arrest. There is no known medical cure until this day.

In order to overcome this handicap, I have had about 6 surgeries, including bilateral hip and knee replacements. If the Psalmist can say ” I am fearfully and wonderfully made”(Psalm 139:14), am I not entitled to take an even higher ground? As I noted, this condition is extremely rare and affects but one in a million people on the average. My mother finds it hard to see me walking around with a crutch or rollator. I should mention here that she feels guilty in part for I am a product of union between consanguineous cousins, a proven cause of such problems.

She frequently echoes the question posed by the disciples and satisfies herself with the answer given by Jesus; she believes that the AKU will disappear one day leaving me a whole human being. “With God all thing are possible”(Matthew 19:26) of course. But again, the revelation of the works of God need not necessarily imply a miraculous cure. I gather from medical input that this condition is medically incurable and indeed quite irreversible – even with the experimental drugs now being tried out in the U.K. and elsewhere. But is that the only way in which you can see the glory of God being manifested in man? What about Joni Eareckson Tada?

It is of course true that some times disease is the direct result of sin; there are Bible verses that suggest that there could be a connection. “There is no health in my bones because of my sin” (Psalm 38:3) “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven”(James 5:15). But it is never a good idea to start with a premise that all sickness is due to sin and start digging for sin in those who are sick. Job’s senior friend Eliphaz who did most of the talking – 119 verses out of the three friends’ 222 – makes this mistake: “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” ( Job 4:7-8) Noble thoughts on God’s behalf but extremely hurtful to man. Asaph, born several centuries later seems to have had a different experience altogether. In his Psalm 73, he writes:

“For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills” (Psalm 73: 3-5)

I am sure we know several stories in our times that resonate with Asaph’s complaint that it is the bad who have it good. Yet we cannot say that Eliphaz gets it all wrong. Several pearls do drop from his mouth as he describes the character of God and paints the story of man: Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward (Job 5:7) Who can find fault with the sense and sensibility of this beautiful poetry? The well-meaning threesome go on with clever arguments anchored in sound logic. Would you say these are words like apples of gold in pictures of silver? Sadly no, for Job didn’t seem to consider them words fitly spoken (Proverbs 25:11). The three friends together accounted for over 200 verses after Job served first with 26 verses. Then the exchanges go back and forth with assertions and rebuttals alternating.

Something interesting caught my attention. “So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes” (Job 32:1). Isn’t this nice?

They knew when to stop!

That is much more than what we can say for ourselves, especially our preachers. Long after they’ve stopped making an impact or maybe even sense, long after the congregation has switched off its collective hearing, they meander on meaninglessly. In a puerile effort to engender interest, they ask questions like “how many of you are happy today”? or some such silly thing. They ask you to turn left and right and repeat to your neighbour the pearls of wisdom dropping from the lectern. On the contrary, Job’s three friends just shut up and give place to a younger man.

All of a sudden some one new enters the picture – Elihu. Whatever the merits (or lack of merit) in Elihu’s arguments, we cannot fault him of being hasty (Job 32:4). He waited till the elders finished talking. This is a lesson for some of us who think the whole game of life is a quiz; we jump off our seats – like Jack in a box – to answer even before the question is completed. Not infrequently we sink back abashed. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath says James (James 1:19)

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Taken together with the efforts of “Johnny come lately” Elihu (chapters 32 to 37) and God’s final pronouncements in chapters 38 through 41, this whole section going up to chapter 37 is a most delightful poetic work laced with several quotable quotes from a variety of spheres – physical, spiritual, metaphysical and whatever. Let us consider some vignettes (obviously for an exhaustive list you should read the book of Job. The good news is, at 42 chapters it is not much longer than this effort of mine!):

Recognition of Divinity

For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us (Job 9: 32-33)

For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another ( Job 20:25-27)

Wry humour

No doubt you are the people, And wisdom will die with you!(Job 12:2)

Trenchant humour

You are all worthless physicians(Job 13:4)

They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity(Job 15:35)

Miserable comforters are you all!(Job 16:2)

Shall words of wind have an end? (Job 16:3)

The Futility of human help

My relatives have failed, And my close friends have forgotten me (Job 19:14)

The Brevity of Life

The memory of him perishes from the earth (Job 18:17)

And the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment (Job 20: 5)

Astronomy

He hangs the earth on nothing (Job 26:7)

Prophecy

They do not hesitate to spit in my face (Job 30: 10)

My bones are pierced in me at night (Job 30:17)

Man’s (Job’s) Righteousness

But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23: 10)

Mockery

For I shall not find one wise man among you (Job 17:10)

Trust

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him (Job 13:15)

Sexual Purity

I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman? (Job 31:1)

Wisdom

For the price of wisdom is above rubies (Job 28: 18)

And multitude of years should teach wisdom (Job 32:7)

Great men are not always wise, Nor do the aged always understand justice (Job 32: 9)

God the Creator

The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life (Job 33:4)

I also have been formed out of clay (Job 33:6)

The smallness of Man

Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth (Job 40:4)

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6))

Metallurgy

Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore (Job 28:2)

Geo-Science

As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire (Job 28:5)

Petroleum Technology

The rock poured me out rivers of oil (Job 29:6)

Then the Lord appears on the scene. By posing just a few pointed questions He overawes the little knot of humanity known to us in the land of Uz. His fearsome query, ” who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?”(Job 38:2) is enough to give the quietus to all our uproar and silence us for ever. Yes it is true that when we “turn our eyes upon Jesus, the things of the earth grow strangely dim”.

Then comes the pivotal verses: And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends (Job 42:10) And as we know The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters (Job 42:12-13).

There is a question as to why the livestock is now double whereas the number of children – and the gender mix – are the same as before. As I heard one preacher expound this, it is simply because Job’s first set of 10 children are already in heaven; in time, it will be one large family of 20 children in eternity! Doesn’t the Bible say “thy children like olive plants round about thy table” (Psalm 128:3).

Yes, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:9). Not only does our God care about us in this world, He is our God for eternity.

Let us read on: And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. (Job 42:15) Talk about beautiful women, property rights of girl children and women’s empowerment!

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Ah… but we are getting ahead of ourselves. We keep talking of Job all the time. What about Mrs.Job? The woman who makes a brief appearance in chapter 2 full of frustration and anger, has been a silent listener all along . To all of 222 verses by Job’s three friends, 519 verses by her husband, 165 verses by Elihu and 129 by God, she never “said a mumbling word”. Hey, but she shows up in chapter 42 with a baby bump; not once – mind you – a total of ten times in all!

To think she actually slept with her husband, the one she was willing to let die in bitterness and anguish rather than undergo suffering. The same woman who had so obviously concluded that God had set His face against them for no reason at all and therefore deserved no veneration whatsoever. Yes, the very same person who had given up on the Almighty and looked forward to nothing but day after day of abject misery.

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Talk about the defeat and disappearance of the devil, talk about the change in circumstances, talk about restoration of former glory, talk about new birth, talk about laughter, talk about joy redux!

God can do it! Oh, yes He can!!

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