The Meaning Of Life

I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who said that the Book of Job was the greatest literary work, perhaps, of all time.

My sister says the Book of Job is her favorite book of the Bible.

I on the other hand, really have a hard time understanding it. At one minute it all makes perfect sense, and the next minute it seems to me the complete opposite is being said. Then again, I’m not that smart, and I’ll be the first to admit it. Things have to be written pretty simply for me to understand it.

Therefore, I struggle with Job. And no matter how many times I read it, I still struggle.

Before we start, you might ask why we’ve abandoned the Book of Genesis to stop and talk about Job. The reason being is that chronologically, the life of Job paralleled the life of the descendents of Noah. And I assume it wasn’t so much the life of Job that mattered as much as this controversy between God and Satan did, and Job was just the topic of discussion when relaying what Satan challenged and how he lost.

It all starts by saying that God was having a meeting with the “sons” of God. Who are the “sons” of God? Sorry, I don’t have a clue. Some people believe them to be angels, others believe they are people that have died and went to Heaven, but I personally believe that if God were having a meeting with his angels, it would simply say, “One day God was having a meeting with his angels.” And I’ll let some of the cat out of the bag right now, I don’t believe when you “die” you are transported to Heaven or Hell. I believe when you die, as Jesus said about Lazarus, we sleep in our graves, but we’ll discuss that in the future and cross that bridge when we get there. The only people in Heaven are the ones the Bible tell us are in Heaven, some we know specifically by name, like Enoch, and others that came out of their graves and ascended into Heaven when Jesus was crucified, who remain unnamed.

Enough chit chat, let’s get into the book.

1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man of all the people of the East.

4 Job’s sons would take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

Job was a wealthy man, and I get the impression that wealth back then was measured by the assets that you owned and not by the amount of cash you had in the bank or how much your stock portfolio was worth. And Job obviously had quite the collection of animals. And with that had to be the ownership of enough land to keep and feed them.

Job is described as “blameless” and “upright”. It leads you to believe he was without sin, but I doubt he was…the only sinless person that walked on earth was Jesus. But Job had to be pretty righteous, like Noah, even though Noah had sins. I do believe though, that Job a pretty good servant of God.

And Job sacrificed to God for the sins that his children might have committed…or as he put it, “they might have sinned or cursed God in their hearts”.

6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satana also came with them.

7 “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan.

“From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”

What do you think about that? I think that through stereotypes of Satan and children’s Bible books, we tend to believe that Satan lives in Hell. He’s down there right now with his horns, his spiked tail, his red suit, and holding his trident that he keeps the sinners in line with. But we forget that Satan was once Lucifer, the most beautiful of all angels, and he and a third of Gods angels were cast to earth. Satan doesn’t reside in Hell, we lives on this earth. We may have passed him several times and not have known it. He is in charge of the earth, we will later discover. Yes, God created earth. It was His, to be perfect, as I like to this of it as Heaven on earth. But when man sinned, he gave permission to Satan to take over. It is our sins and only our sins that keep allowing Satan to roam the earth.

8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.”

9 Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

12 “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

God gives us free-will. He isn’t a tyrant who rules over us, He gives us the ability to make our own decisions, good or bad. And that is because He loves us so much. It’s like our own earthy children; we try to teach them the right way, we try to encourage them when they do good and direct their wrong actions back down the right path, but in the end, we have little control over how they turn out. But we do it all because we love them very deeply.

Now Satan, Lucifer, is not God. He wants to be God, but he is not. He does not have wisdom, he does not have the power of property, he is not all knowing. I once heard a pastor say that we often aren’t tempted by Satan to sin, much of the temptation comes from Satan’s angels who do his dirty work for him. But, he went further, Job was such a good man, that Satan knew him by name. Wouldn’t it be great to be such a good Christian that Satan actually knew us on a first name basis?

Another aspect to look at is that Job was such a good man, he had the protection of God. Somewhere, I think, it mentions that Job had a “hedge of protection” around him. And God had to remove that protection to let Satan do his little experiment. Another of life’s lessons; be of such good character and spirit that you have a hedge around you, or as they say later in the Bible, the “armour of God”.

13 One day, while Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The fire of God fell from heaven. It burned and consumed the sheep and the servants, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

18 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21saying:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will return.

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

22 In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

These verses describe the loss that Job experienced; the loss of his children, his servants, his livestock. And despite losing everything, Job remained faithful to the Lord. How many times today do we see a tragic tornado, or earthquake, with the loss of property and the loss of life, and most of the time we hear people say, “Why did God let this happen?”, or “Where was God when we needed him?” A few good people with say things like, “Our house can be rebuilt, the good news is we’re all alive.”, but the majority dis on God rather than uphold Him.

And despite all that Job went through, despite all of his losses, not once did he disparage God.

God, thank You so much for your protection. Yes, we face troubles each and every day, but they are nothing like the trouble Job experienced. You protect us from danger and harm. You keep us alive and well. You wake us up every morning. And if you don’t, it is because we haven’t allowed You into our lives, into our homes. Thank you Lord. In the Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.