The Purpose of Job

As I am crossing over to the phase of life where most of my anecdotes are from the perspective of a parent, rather than the perspective of a child, I often find myself giving the answer that drove me crazy as a child, "Because I said so."

The answer seems so arbitrary as a child.  It seems so inferior in its presentation.  It seems as though we are being left out of the decision-making for our own destiny, and we don't like it.  As a parent, it is exasperating to have more wisdom and have that wisdom questioned.  It is frustrating to have someone whose decisions clearly lead to devastation and despair attempt to engage you in an argument that his decision is better.

So, much like a dog chasing a mechanical rabbit, I delve into the book of Job, and I see that God is the ultimate parent.  God sees things that we don't.  I'm even willing to guess that there is still much to the story of Job that we, even if we've read the text twice in the last couple weeks, still don't know.

I also come into the reading with two truths behind me (hopefully I know more truths than two, but there are two specific things that I think I must accept before reading Job, and let's call them Isaiah 55:8-9 and Romans 8:28-29).  While I am tempted to ignore the bulk of the book completely and just comment on the parts at the beginning and the end where we see the Sovereignty of God more clearly on display, I fear that would make me just as error-filled as Job's "comforters."  To completely neglect the majority of the book would require me to inject my own thoughts about incomplete data.

Job had three friends that we hear from quite a bit—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. According to Maimonides, each of Job's friends represents a different position on divine providence: "Eliphaz represents the biblical or rabbinic tradition—Job is being punished for his sins; Bildad expresses the view of the Mutazillites—Job is being tested to receive a greater reward; and Zophar presents the view of the Asharites—Job suffers because of God's arbitrary will."

Now, I cannot speak for what the Jews, Mutazillites, and Asharites believed in the Middle Ages (or before), but I can clearly see that the general populace often looks for an explanation for God doing things.  Many people look for the easiest answer to explain a God that is too complex for them to understand or simply doesn't fit with what they want to believe about God.  

This is the underlying purpose of Job.  God is not made in our image.  God is not bound by our definition of fairness.  As we view God, sometimes we, like a child, think we know best.  We believe that our lives would be better if we did not lose family, friends, or finances.  We, however, see through the story of Job that God worked in this situation not to achieve the blessing of the creation, but rather, as the Creator, he had an inherent knowledge that surpassed Job's knowledge.

The certain reaction to this firm grasp of the obvious is to worship.  To begin to fathom the greatness of God, the very God who created a world so fantastic that we are but a speck in it, is to understand that this God must be worshiped.  When combined with the rest of Scripture, we can appreciate much more about God, but those are potentially discussions for another topic.