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 1:21
The first line in the book of Job sounds like a fairy tale: “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”. But as we know, it was about to be anything but a bed of roses for Job. Yes, it had a happy ending, but the journey to get there was brutal.
Can you imagine being persecuted by Satan himself with God’s approval (Job 1:12)? Certainly this is something our finite minds cannot fully comprehend – the relational dynamic between God and the ultimate fallen being.
By the end of the first chapter, it seemed that Job had essentially lost everything over the course of just one day: servants, animals, and all of his offspring. In the midst of unspeakable mourning, he stated the above declaration. Oh, if only that were the end of his misery!
Next, Job was afflicted from head to toe with painful sores. What follows is chapter after chapter of sorrowful soul-searching dialogue between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Unfortunately, they were not very helpful and didn’t give the advice God wanted (42:7).
Did Job actually lose everything? Well, not quite. He lost everything but his faith in God. It was tested to the extreme for sure, and he seemed to have doubts and frustration, but God never left him even when it felt like it.
Then a great thing happened in Chapter 38:1: “Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm”. Job had passed the test after great sacrifice. “The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part” (42:2). Job went on to have over twenty thousand animals, ten children, and many grandchildren.
There is a statement made by Job responding to Zophar in the midst of all this that has greatly ministered to me in my times of trouble. It is the first half of verse 15 in Chapter 13: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him”. When things look rather bleak, I lean on the words of a man whose faith had been tested far beyond anything I have experienced. You should too.
No matter if it’s persecution, illness, abuse, disaster, etc., we must put our hope in God. This means having faith that His Word is true, He is in control, and He has the victory. Tribulation and death are but two small grains in the sand dunes of eternity.