Bet

The rest of Job chapter 1: One day, the angels come “to present themselves before the Lord.” Satan comes too, being equal to the angels, and God allows Satan to be in his presence at this time. Satan isn’t the complete opposite of God, and his power isn’t comparable. He’s the opposite of, like, the archangels Michael or Gabriel. They are pretty tough and awesome, but they aren’t God. Thinking of Satan as the other side of the power coin (where God is one side), power-wise, gives Satan way too much credit. Satan takes a break from “roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” Unlike God, Satan is not omnipresent.

God decides to brag on one of his kids a little bit. Yeah, God brings Job up, obviously knowing what’s going to happen. God says, “Have you seen Job? There’s no one on Earth like him.” Satan says, “Well, of course he fears and obeys you. You’ve given him protection, riches, and blessings. If things didn’t go his way all the time, and if life wasn’t so good, he’d curse you to your face.” Satan has been watching people, so he throws down this challenge.

Satan knows it’s easy to trust, be loving, and think you have all the rules down when life is going well. He knows that it’s suffering that makes or breaks you. Nietzsche was wrong. That which does not kill us does not always make us stronger. (That which kills us makes us stronger.) There is a personal choice element involved in that. Hardship can make us better or worse. God tells Satan to take everything Job has, but not to lay a finger on Job himself. Satan takes Job’s children and property.

When I was 14, I said to my counselor at Christian camp, “Why would God do this to Job just to prove a point?” I got scolded for asking the question, so I didn’t ever ask  it again. She said, “That’s a horrible way to think about it. If you want to be like that and just be contrary, fine. You’re always so disagreeable. It’s such a good example FOR US to live by.” Well, excuse me for living. I guess my counselor was, like, 22 years old, so I’ll give her a break.

Now that I think about it, I’d say that the point was important enough that it had to be proven to Satan and to us. It’s not JUST that Job is a good example that we can emulate. It’s not like “we too can be so so so good if we just try hard.” No. The point is that good always triumphs over evil, faith can take you through anything, all hope is never lost, and you can prove evil wrong. You can take a horrible situation and literally lay the smackdown on the forces of darkness. And all of Heaven and Earth is watching. This isn’t an earthly conflict, even though it seems so physical. It’s a cosmic battle.

When you suffer, the picture is bigger than what is going on. There’s more at stake than people think. The fight against bitterness after loss has eternal implications. God chose us; he’s always betting on us. He’s betting that the grace thing can actually work and that people really can have a relationship with him if they also have free will. Because this is one of the oldest books of the Bible, this is also one of the oldest, most fundamental lessons God wants to teach us by having this writing preserved for so long.

One of the lessons here is that God doesn’t always do what we think is fair or what we want him to do. He’s not a pez dispenser or Oprah giving out cars. He does what he wants. He has his own reasoning. Like Lewis said, God is good, but he’s not safe. We’re not always going to agree with him. Another lesson that’s hard for us to grasp (since we like humble heroes who glorify themselves accidentally) is that God is doing this for his own glory. But God’s glory is the best thing for everyone. The entire universe: plants, rocks, animals, us. We all need for everything that God is to be affirmed. Is it enough to justify suffering? Job had to decide, as do we all.

My favorite lesson from this story is that you can’t know why bad things are happening to people. In this world, when people suffer, some are quick to point out that it is their fault in some way. I hear lots of Christians say, “Well, God isn’t blessing this man because he didn’t do such-and-such.” God is punishing them, God isn’t blessing them, the law of attraction, etc.

People want to believe that they can control whether bad things happen to them. To a degree, you can. If you live an unwise life, there will be consequences. But you can’t judge people just because you are more blessed than they are. I see it all the time. It’s prosperity gospel.  I’m really glad I can say, “Uh uh, Job. And also the blind guy in the New Testament. Read the Bible.” You can’t know what's going on in the other realms. It's like Stephen King's Dark Tower books. None of the humans in our world know the what's important and being affected by Roland's world. (Okay, nerd aside over).

Also, you can’t know how much God is blessing and protecting a person, even when their lives aren’t perfect. Whose lives are perfect? In this story, God had a hedge of protection around Job, and he lowered it just enough for this bet. He was still protecting Job from death (telling Satan that he couldn’t kill Job). Later, Jesus tells Peter that God has a hedge of protection around Peter that kept Satan from destroying him. Jesus tells Peter that Satan wanted to do much worse things to Peter than God would allow.

I’ve failed Job’s test before, on a small scale. I remember one time years and years ago, after losing something I worked for, that I thought God owed me, my reaction was, “Well, then I’m gonna do THIS. I’m not going to obey this rule anymore. What’s the point? You do everything right, you get nothing. You break the rules and you get power, riches, attention, and love from the world.” I had a setback; I was mad at God. I decided that “all that bull” about him having “a plan for my life” was too good to be true. Obviously, I changed my mind later. 

When Job found out that his loved ones, who he sacrificed and cared for, were dead, he tore his robe and shaved his head. He grieved. But then he worshipped. He said the famous lines, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.” Job’s riches, life, health, children, property, love, abilities, mind, breath, spirit, and everything else came from God. God promises us things and gives us things. He protects and blesses us, but we have no cause to demand anything. We don’t have birthrights.