Remember Who You Are — The Lesson of Job

 

A Modern Picture of Forgotten Identity

The film Regarding Henry (1991) starred Harrison Ford. Ford played a high-powered New York attorney who got amnesia from a traumatic accident. He forgot everything about who he was, and his life in general. His family came around him and sought to nurse him back to health. As he recovered, he learned that, prior to the injury, he was a miserable, selfish, and immoral person. Forgetting who he was gave him a chance to change—no longer doomed to continue those old patterns. He was free to live a better life.

The book of Job also involves the issue of Job losing track of who he was, but not in the same way that Henry did.

 

The Sudden Collapse of a Godly Life

(Job 1–2)

Reading the book of Job is an amazing journey. Job is a good and godly man and loses everything. Usually when we say a person loses everything, we mean it as a poetic overstatement. Job came closer than most to this being an accurate statement. Wealth, possessions, family, health—all taken from him in a tremendously brief period.

Experiencing such unspeakable loss in such a fleeting time is too much of an anomaly to be a coincidence. Something had to be up. And something was up, but Job did not know about it yet.

 

Wrestling With Suffering and Seeking Answers

(Job 3–31)

Most people in pain can identify with what Job endured, but the important part of this book is Job processing these losses with his friends. Seven days of silence begins the process, then Job understandably begins his complaint.

Why had this happened? What could have caused such extraordinary loss?

He and his friends seek all available options. Had Job been foolish? Was there a secret sin that God is disciplining him for?

Job sticks to his integrity. Ready to humble himself before God but genuinely wanting an answer to why this had happened. He had used his wealth and power to do good, to help others. Job felt he deserved an answer from the Lord as to why he lost everything, and his life had become so bitter.

We can understand Job's feelings. The reader has information about what went on in the courts of heaven (Job 1:6–12; 2:1–6), but Job does not even know that much. Yet still, the reader has compassion on Job and hopes that God will explain everything to him.

 

Elihu’s Rebuke and the Gathering Storm

(Job 32–37)

As the arguing grows more contentious, Elihu steps forward. Previously unintroduced, this young man speaks truth into the situation. He rebukes Job and his friends for the man-centered nature of their discussion, the arrogance of his friends in speaking for God, and Job’s boldness in questioning God so directly. As he speaks a storm begins to take shape. His powerful discourse is punctuated by growing strong winds, dark clouds, and the sounds of thunder, yet he continues his wise and circumspect speech.

When he finishes, an amazing thing happens—God shows up.

 

God Speaks From the Whirlwind

(Job 38–41)

God appears here in a storm—overwhelming and terrifying—but speaking clearly in this expression of power and authority.

We can pause here and ask what we might expect God to say.

Job had endured the trial. He had certainly asked the big questions and expressed his understandable confusion and even been more than a bit rude to his friends in response to their ignorant accusations. However, he never cursed or abandoned God.

As far as the contest in the heavenly throne room, God's wisdom and plan were vindicated. Satan's accusations were proven false, and Satan was embarrassed on the heavenly stage—all because of Job's response to this terrible time of loss.

I would expect God to come on beams of sunlight to give Job a commendation—the applause of heaven and all the righteous angels, but God enters the scene differently than we might expect.

He immediately starts by clearing up the most crucial point. God asks Job, in essence, “Who do you think you are?” (Job 38:2–4).

Job had boldly asked for this audience. He thought he deserved answers, and this attitude needed correction before anything else. God reminds Job with poetry and power that Job is not omniscient, omnipresent, or omnipotent. Only God has those characteristics. When Job questioned the character of God, he placed himself in a position of judgment over God.

That was not Job's place.
It is not our place.

 

The Right Relationship Between Creator and Creature

(Job 42:1–6)

God went on to vindicate Job's righteousness and rebuke Job's friends (Job 42:7–9), but not Elihu. Yet it was most important that Job understood the lesson he had learned. He does not stand before God as an equal. He stands before Him as a created being. This is the lesson that every human needs to hear. God exists, and He is above human approval. It is not our place to question God or evaluate Him. He is the only one who has the authority and wisdom to evaluate.

When a person gets the idea that God must meet his or her standards, they are already hopelessly lost—and they will never come to a right relationship with God until submitting to His final authority to do whatever He desires based upon His infinite power, knowledge, and love.

 

Learning to Trust God in Joy and Trial

When this reality is right in our minds, we can finally deal with our joys and our trials. God did not mess up. Nor does His character change. Whatever we experience in our lives should not change what we know of all that He is in His glory. It is a hard lesson to learn, but we must begin with an accurate picture of God's authority. Only then are we ready to see our need for justification before Him—and that He never needs to be justified before us. Only then can we see the incredible power of the saving work of Jesus Christ.