Job & The Sovereignty Of God

This week’s Bible study lesson was on Job. Go figure, right? No really, it’s God. It always is. It’s God’s perfect timing. So the subtitle for the lesson is “Trusting God’s Sovereignty.” I really could just end the blog post there, but there is just too many good “nuggets” of info that I can’t leave unsaid.

Here are some realizations that I never really comprehended before. I have read through the book of Job numerous times, yet I had so much to learn. I never realized that God brought up the conversation to Satan about Job – with him saying “have you ever thought of my servant Job?” Doesn’t that just sound kind of mean? When I first read that, I was a little uneasy because God allowed SO much to happen to Job. In fact, Satan told God what he wanted to do and God agreed, as long as he didn’t touch Job (the first time). Verse 1 of Job says that Job was blameless, upright, feared God, and shunned evil. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Isn’t that how Noah was described? I am so challenged by that because I cannot say that about myself. Granted I am striving toward those things each day. I wish I could say I have achieved those characteristics, but I know God has a lot of work to do in me yet. To know that God had complete control over the conversation, with what happened to Job, and that Job was an upright man, says so much about WHO God is.

One thing that stuck out to me is that God cared more about how Job responded and who He believed God to be, than about any of Job’s possessions. Shoot, Job lost his family, possessions, and health. God seemed to not necessarily care as much about his possessions, but more about how Job responded. Then why in the world do I put so much value in earthly possessions? I know that is something that God is just chiseling away at me – chiseling off the desire for more “stuff.” In the end, IT DOESN’T MATTER what I have. It’s what I DO with what I have, that matters – it’s a matter of the heart.

Another interesting piece of information we can recognize is that we knew the conversation that God had with satan. At the time, I don’t think Job knew that. Do you ever wonder what is going on in the spiritual realm that we have no clue about? I have wondered that about our situation – what have God and satan talked about, that we have no knowledge of? There are so many questions we have for God, yet the answers aren’t for us to know.

And Job’s friends. Some friends, huh? Granted they spent 7 days with him first, sitting silently in his presence – then all of a sudden BAM, they lay it all out to him and say basically “you reap what you sow,” meaning Job was suffering b/c of the sin in his life. Then Job’s friend, Elihu comes along and basically says and I quote from the book “What right do you have to demand an explanation from God?” God is not unjust, though it may feel like that.

Here are a few more quotes from the book that made me sheepishly slouch in my chair:

Whenever we sit in judgment on the actions of God, we place ourselves above Him. Guilty as charged!

When we grumble and complain about our circumstances, we are discrediting the judgment of God. We are condemning Him so that we may be justified. Because God is sovereign, any griping about what He allows into our lives is, in reality, an accusation that He is MISMANAGING OUR LIVES. This doesn’t mean we have to deny the pain, nor that we cannot express our pain to Him; what it means is that we must trust God in the midst of it. Boy, that trust factor is so difficult for us mere impatient humans! I would have to say I agree with the statement that worry and lack of trust does mean that I think God is mismanaging my life. That pains me to think that I would think that of God, but I do it to him all the time!

Job’s friends were quick to judge him. I guess we have felt that a little bit – there were some pretty harsh rumors going around as to why Dan was let go and they were very hard to hear. Because of the ambiguity as to why he was let go, that offered a lot of room for rumors. In that, we learned to not be so quick to judge others – it’s so important to have informed opinions. Going to the person right away is of utmost importance because we have realized that rumors spread so fast! And like the book said “uninformed opinions misrepresent God.” Wowzers. That is a challenge!

But then the lesson comes to this conclusion:
Although our trials come in different shapes and sizes, God’s grace and wisdom do too. It is as if He takes a scoop and measures out our trial, then takes the same scoop to measure our corresponding wisdom and grace sufficient for our need. God sovereignly rules over all our trials.

God WANTS us to reflect Him and “look” like Him from the inside out. Today I was reminded that there is no “middle ground.” With EVERY choice I make, I am choosing either Christ or satan. I am either choose “life” or “death.” Either I am living a life for God or not. Either I am choosing to believe in a SOVEREIGN God or I am choosing to believe that God does not have ultimate control over everything. God WILL provide the sufficient grace and wisdom needed. I still look back and wonder how in the world we got through some of those really difficult days. I say with all my heart, that it truly is God’s GRACE. We do not deserve to be on this side of grief – one filled with hope. But it’s because of God’s love and grace abounding, that we are.