Job, History’s Most Significant Sufferer

Job, History’s Most Significant Sufferer

Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground before God. –Job 1:20

I studied Job’s story two weeks before Hope’s birth. I’m sure I had read it before, but somehow that week it came alive to me. This man who lived during the time of Genesis became a real person, and his loss seemed real, as did his response to loss. I could hardly wait to get back together with my Bible study group that week to talk about what struck me in his story.

First, I noted that Job was chosen to suffer because of his great faith. God brought up Job’s name in his conversation with Satan, saying that Job would be faithful to God, no matter what happened to him. I marveled that Job must have been so faithful to God leading up to that point for God to have that kind of confidence in him. And I wondered about my own life. Would it be possible to become so consistently faithful to God that he would have that kind of confidence in me? It seemed like a lofty but worthy goal.

But most amazing to me was Job’s initial response to the loss that God allowed Satan to bring into his life. He had lost everything—his possessions, his family, his health—and what did he do? In the midst of the deepest kind of agony and pain from loss, he fell on the ground to worship God. It amazed me because I knew my first reaction would probably not be worship.

Is it realistic to think that you and I can worship God, not after we’ve figured it all out, but as our initial reaction to loss in our lives? Job shows us it is. Worshiping God does not require that we understand or approve of what God has allowed into our lives; it simply requires a heart that desires to trust God and a will that is bent toward obedience to God regardless of our feelings. We worship God because he is worthy, not because we necessarily feel like it. And as we worship in the midst of our pain, we are able to gain perspective on that pain. This is a costly worship—which makes it all the more worthwhile and precious to God.

Almighty God, sometimes I feel like a hypocrite as I sing and say things about you in worship that I am questioning here in my pain. But I worship you today because I know you are worthy, and I believe that as I focus on you rather than on my pain, you will give me a new perspective.

DIGGING DEEPER