Who Do You Think You Are?

The book of Job is the first time that the great question is addressed. The question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Although they may not have asked the question quite that way, the prevalent understanding in the Old Testament is that God is active in the universe and everything that occurs happens because God does it. Therefore if bad happens to you, you deserve it. Also, when good happens to you, you deserve it. This is quite different from the thought that developed in the Greek world. Roughly, their understanding was that everything happened because something previous to that caused it to happen. Like a chain-reaction with God as the first cause. 

I encourage you to read the book of Job if you have not, or to read it again if you have. Although more than one person had their hand in the writing of the book. The oldest part – the core of the book – is about Job who succumbs to a whole series of tragedies in his life. We are told that he was blameless, upright, feared God, turned from evil, and was a wealthy man. So what caused his hardship? If God did everything it was God and if God did it then he must have offended God. Three of his friends try to convince him of this fact. They each argue with Job three times. But Job remains steadfast. He had not sinned. He did not deserve the fate that he had received. 

After his friends failed to help him find his wrong and confess, God visits Job in a whirlwind. And the twist of the story hits us. While we expect God to reward Job for being faithful even during this time of great calamity, God chastises Job. Who was Job to question God? Did Job create the heavens and the earth? God goes on for three more chapters until Job is humbled before God.

How many times are we like Job? Complaining that we do not deserve our fate. That we have been faithful and blameless and caring and do not deserve the hand that we have been dealt. Or how many times have we been envious of what others have, especially those who are selfish, mean, and unholy? Both of those attitudes are expressed in Job. The book calls us to examine our own lives to see where we have tried to tell God what should happen, to ask forgiveness for that, and then to ask for the courage and strength to proclaim God’s saving grace in Christ Jesus. To all people not just the ones we like or are like us but all people.

You already know that God does not dole out good and bad based upon your lifestyle. If so, you would not have the things you have. For all have fallen short of God’s expectation and yet we are called to be God’s holy priesthood. Answer your call. Love others as God has loved.  Give yourself to the world by sharing God’s love.