the problem with Job (and Joel)
So many of us love the story of Job (as told in the book of the Bible named after him). We see a guy who had everything the world has to offer…then we see him stripped of everything. It is quite a long process of suffering but through it all he professed to serve Jesus Christ. We see an illustration of someone holding to their faith, regardless. Then as a result, the account tells of the second half of Job’s life being more blessed than the first. Here is the text from chapter 42:
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so he died, old and full of years.
Now, this is a great and powerful account, but there is one piece that bothers me. Job got everything back at the end of the story right? He was given thousands of sheep, camels and oxen. He was even given 7 daughters and 3 sons. When we tell the story we often point to that as an illustration of everything being restored to Job. We talk about how “all things worked together for good” and that God was faithful to “restore what the locusts have stolen”. I have even heard it told that because Job trusted God, he got everything he ever had back 2 fold.
What about the 10 kids he lost? The problem lies in how we look to this story and reason with simple math that Job was given back what was stolen. I don’t think that is a good argument to make from this text. Misty and I used to talk about this section of the Bible often. It has bothered us for years and every time we heard a sermon on it, we would find ourselves wincing at the idea of someone losing their children to gain a new set of kids. I don’t think that Job was thrilled to swap his kids for 10 more and gain a few goats.
This doesn’t make me think any less of the story. In fact, this makes me respect Job even more knowing that he did not waiver in his faith. It gives me a confidence that even though I’m NOT promised to have everything fixed for me on this planet, I’m still to trust God.
So next time Joel Osteen references the story of Job as proof that it is God’s will to make you prosperous, call him up and ask him if he’d be willing to trade his Jonathan and Alexandria for a couple new kids and some extra goats.
