In the very first chapter of the Book of Job, our hero loses everything he has. He loses all his wealth through murderous attacks upon him by his enemies, and then he loses his family through an apparent act of God (Job 1:13-19). Job’s reaction was to accept it all as from the Lord. After he was destroyed, Job said: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21)! While folks who heard Job’s reaction might think he was a holy and religious man, we need to consider the fact that the text really doesn’t say Job spoke to God, but only about him. He never addressed the Lord over what was done, only that the Lord had done all those things, but he (Job) would accept it all, just as he had accepted all the good things, the Lord had given him over the years (cp. Job 2:10).
While nothing Job did was evil, not even his reaction to the sad things that occurred to him, his acceptance of the Lord’s table, vis-à-vis that which he received from the Lord, was commendable. In other words, Job’s reaction was to accept what the Lord had done. However, this doesn’t translate to a relationship with God. If one has a relationship with someone, intercourse is expected. Folks talk to one another, when they come together. It is ludicrous to believe a couple would dine together but never speak. What would be the point of dining together, if there wasn’t an exchange of the heart or the mind?
In the context of Job’s tragedies, what does it matter, if Job accepts what the Lord dishes out, but never speaks to him? If Job always wanted to do the right thing, why wouldn’t speaking **to** the Lord be the right thing to do? Walking with someone implies a conversation takes place along the journey, but there doesn’t appear to be anything like that going on in the first two chapters of Job! This brings Job’s heart into question.
What does Job actually think about God? Does he even believe God is a person like he is? Is God someone who would welcome personal contact. vis-à-vis a table-talk type of conversation? Has Job ever tried to do anything like this, or has it been all sacrifices and offerings, faithfully completed in order to appease that generous, but far away god who created all things? If we consider only the text, I don’t believe Job had ever sought personal contact with the Lord! Notice the comparisons between Job’s reaction to losing his wealth and family (Job 1:22) and the loss of his health in Job 2:10. In the former, Job didn’t blame God for what occurred to him, but in the latter the text simply says Job didn’t blame God with his lips! Is there a heart problem here? Did Job accept his troubles in chapter one without blaming God, but in chapter two that wasn’t completely so? Did Job blame God in his heart, but kept from revealing what was on his heart and saying so publicly?
There is nothing like being around friends who think pretty much the same as you do to bring out what one is thinking in one’s heart. After mourning over the loss of his family for seven days with his friends, Job begins to cry out what is upon his heart. In the third chapter of the Book of Job, Job admits he’s depressed. He wishes he’d never been born, and he looks forward to death, when all his troubles would be over. What has begun to occur is: Job begins to admit his worldview is wrong. The formula has been broken, and Job simply doesn’t have a good replacement for it, which might appease his depression. As a man sows, that shall he reap, while this is a truism that seemed to have worked for both Job and the friends their whole lives, and although it probably includes a selective memory, the truism isn’t working now. It’s broken, so how should a righteous person then live? What should I do? What can I do? I’m in the dark. I may as well be dead.
These things, or something similar, express how Job feels and admits to in his first discourse in chapter three. He sees nothing but chaos. All order in his world has collapsed. Nothing works; woe is me! Then the three friends feel provoked and believe they must speak out, because their shared worldview has been challenged. Job, suddenly throws it all away and claims it isn’t working. Therefore, they begin to tell Job that he is wrong. They imagine that he must have done something evil to bring all these troubles down upon himself. The problem is that good morals have nothing to do with one’s salvation, but Job and the friends are ignorant of this. If good moral behavior could save a person or even aid in one’s salvation, Jesus would have spent more time with the Pharisees and less time with the harlots and tax collectors. Thus, and returning to Job’s dilemma, the Lord seems to be getting through to him, but Job isn’t there yet. He and his like-minded friends need to discuss these things together in more depth, because talking it over with the Lord is something of a tabu in their culture. Be that as it may, something good is happening, because evidence in the dialogue shows the Lord has broken through to Job!
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