Job 1-5 & Testing Faith

I've read only the first five chapters of Job, but I am LOVING this book already. It's written in a very poetic way, and it's just great. I never would have thought that I would have a favorite book of the Bible or anything like that, but Job might be changing my mind. So now that I'm done gushing...

Here we've got the story of Job. He was a righteous and blameless man. And he was pretty wealthy because he has, like, a million different animals in his flock. He's also has a bunch of kids, and his kids are a bunch of partiers. But Job is so righteous that he constantly praises God; he even offers sacrifices to God on his kids' behalf just in case they're sinning while they're partying. Job is basically just an all around good guy. And he's a pretty stellar dad, too.

Well, Satan thinks the only reason Job praises God so much is because everything is great in Job's life. So Satan basically dares God to bring hardship to Job to show that when Job has it rough, he'll curse God. God accepts Satan's dare, and He allows Satan to bring trouble to Job's life. But Satan isn't allowed to physically harm Job. So Satan kills all of Job's flock and all of Job's servants. He even kills Job's children! But Job still praises God. 

Satan then makes an excuse and says that the only reason Job didn't curse God is because he wasn't actually harmed. So God says that Satan can harm Job; he just can't kill Job. So Satan then causes Job to break out in boils all over his body. And even though Job's wife tells him to "curse God and die" (Job 2:9), Job still praises God. 

Then Job's friends - Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar - get wind of Job's misery, so they go visit him to offer their sympathies and comfort. And the four men sit together in silence for seven days.

I think the reason I'm liking the Book of Job so much is because it's speaking to something I firmly and wholeheartedly believe to be true: that God would never give us anything we couldn't handle. In the first two chapters of Job, we learn about the relationship between God and Satan, and to much comfort, we learn that God controls Satan. Contrary to what I thought to be true up until I started reading Job, Satan isn't some uncontrolled being that can do whatever he wants. He can only bring us pain and suffering if God allows him to. This just goes to show that God is the most powerful, and He won't let Satan get to us if He doesn't think we can handle the pain he will bring.

(One question (or three): Does all of this happen before or after Satan becomes a Fallen Angel? Where is that story in the Bible? Or is Satan always a Fallen Angel?)

And that might seem harsh of God. Why would He allow us to experience pain and suffering when He can fully prevent it? The answer is that God wants to test our faith. When we are faced with trials, God is saying, "Look at what you can handle. Trust and have faith in me. With faith, you will overcome this adversity. I know you can do it." How encouraging is that?! I've always known that God wouldn't give me anything I couldn't handle. But now I have confirmation that when God brings me trouble, He's doing it because He wants my faith in Him to grow stronger. He's saying, "You're doing so well, but now I want you to do better." He has faith in us just as we have faith in Him.

After reading these chapters I went to look up some commentary, and I ended up learning another important lesson: the difference between trial and chastisement. Job is facing trial, which is God testing Job's faith. Chastisement, on the other hand, is God disciplining us for disobeying Him. Also, when we're chastised we know exactly what we've done wrong apparently. I'm eager to read a story about God's chastisement so I can get a firm understanding (and concrete examples) of the difference between these two struggles.

Chapters 3-5 give us the beginning of the conversation Job has with his friends after this week-long silence.

Job speaks first, and he basically has a pity party for himself. He wishes he was never born and curses the day he came into this world. Poor, poor, pitiful Job. 

Then his friend Eliphaz speaks, and he goes on and on trying to comfort Job. The problem here is that Eliphaz isn't offering the best advice despite his good intentions. He pretty much suggests that Job is being chastised. He thinks Job must have sinned, and he needs to repent. It's almost like Eliphaz doesn't know about trial; he assumes all people on earth face suffering only when they've sinned. Well we know this isn't true about Job because of what we read in chapters 1 and 2. Also, Eliphaz has a vision one night, and it kinda trips me out.

I can't help but see a similarity in how Eliphaz tries to help Job and how people nowadays try to help their own friends. When our friends are going through a hard time, it's natural for us to want to help them and offer advice. But what we see in this story is that Job's friends aren't giving him the best advice even though they mean well. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people give advice, and it's just really bad advice. I'm sure even I have given bad advice.

Here's the thing, we know from the beginning of this story that Job isn't being punished for sinning. It's made very clear to us that Job is a righteous man, a blameless man. It's made very clear to us that Satan is bringing Job pain and suffering, and he is doing it with God's permission. And we know God is allowing it because he's testing to see if Job will curse Him. With this knowledge, we know that all the advice Eliphaz is giving is misguided.

It's a lesson to be careful of providing advice to friends in need. It's so easy to assume the reasons a friend is going through hard times. And it's so easy to offer advice based on our own assumptions. It's not wrong to offer advice, but we have to make sure the advice we are giving is wisdom that is completely true and in line with God because the last thing we want to do is lead our friends in the wrong direction. And now that I've started reading Job, I'll be much more conscious of the advice I give to my friends.

Also, what's up with the vision? Is Eliphaz a medium or something? I wasn't expecting to read about this kind of stuff in the Bible, so I'm a little thrown off here, and I don't know what to think of it. The commentary I read said to beware of visions throughout the Bible, but it doesn't give a reason why. What do you think?

I'm excited about the Book of Job, and I can't wait to get through the story and know exactly how it plays out.

*****

How do you overcome adversity when you're faced with it? When have you been forced to face trial and grow stronger in your faith? 

How do you make sure you offer the right advice to those who need it? How do you offer God's wisdom? And what do you make of Eliphaz's vision?