Job & Us

A few days ago, I read a post shared by a friend about the book of Job. We all know Job was a person in the Old Testament who was considered to have lived comfortably. He was surrounded by his family and children, he had servants all over, he owned cattle and sheep. One day, everything disappeared. His children died, his servants died, his flock was all dead. After Job received all the news (which was by the way all at once) he said "....The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." Job 1:21-22. Just when you think things could not have gotten worse, Job got severely sick, his skin was covered in boils and it started pealing.

I decided to start reading the book of Job. I stopped at this verse "So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?" Job 1:9 in Arabic its literal translation is "and does Job worship God for "free"?

Do we love God for free? Or do we only love him when we need him? Or when we need something? Or when our life is going perfectly? I got 100% on the test, I got into that program I wanted, I got accepted into that university, I got my dream job and the list goes on and on...I love you God thank you. Imagine one day, all of this is gone or plans did not go as we hoped. Are we still going to love him? I don't think so. We would be so upset with him and yell at him and ask why (I am the first to be guilty of doing this) and maybe even start asking him, why you left me? why don't you love me anymore? Why did you put this on me I can't take it? and so many non-ending questions and complains about this terrible situation or tough time we're going through.

Job said this to his wife when she told Job he should curse God and die “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” and the verse continues to say "In all this Job did not sin with his lips."

We all know how the story ends, we know Job was given everything back 100 folds. I wonder if Job ever found out why he had to go through all that. We usually try to calm ourselves with this verse "For I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord" but sometimes we don't really mean it. We want to know why and we need to know NOW (also your friend is guilty of this lol)

Our God is a God of miracles. He is our loving God in our good times and also our bad times. He is holding our hand though it all.

Sandra Sobhy

April 4, 2019