What I learned from Job

Job is one of the best books we have on learning how to suffer well. I have learned the same lessons that Job learned regarding my own suffering; how inward I go when I hurt.  I have looked at my own righteousness and justification, spending a lot of time rationalizing why I shouldn’t be suffering or spending a lot of time pondering on the good things that I have done (my righteousness) and therefore should not have to suffer.  Simply, I play the victim.

Job did this same thing. In chapter 31 Job spends the whole chapter speaking about how good he's been on Earth. He claims he fed the hungry; he clothed the naked. If you read all of chapter 31 in almost every verse Job says “I have done” this or that. In chapter 32 his friends even quit talking to him because they realize Job was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu comes on the scene in Chapter 32 and rebukes Job for justifying himself, or making himself seem like a god. In Job's mind and heart he had no reason to suffer; in Job's mind and heart he had no right to suffer because of all the good he had done. This is where I go when I hurt. I point out other people’s sin to the point where I can't see my own sin.

God comes on the scene in chapter 38 and almost sarcastically rebukes Job. It's like God is saying “really Job, you have done all these things? That was you who clothed the naked? That was you who fed the hungry?” God basically blesses Job by telling him, “you are not God”

I don't think the sin of self-righteousness just suddenly came out of Job, I think it was there the whole time, but it took suffering for Job to reveal the sin of self-righteousness. The same thing has happened to me.  The past several months have been the hardest season I can recall but at the same time I realize how self-righteous I had become. Yet God has blessed me the same way he blessed Job by saying, son, you are not God”. 

You know what the amazing thing is? In Job 42:5 Job says, “Before all this happened to me it was my ears that heard of you, but now my eyes see You!” This is amazing because Job now sees God even clearer than before. God used Job suffering to open him up more to His presence. I too, can say (now that I can repent of my self-righteousness) I see God in a greater way than before.