Lessons from God’s shocking behaviour towards a God-fearing man

I needed a Biblical explanation for my world collapsing. Enter Job.

During the production of my first EP “Good Grief!”, I was experiencing a range of traumas stemming from living through several worst nightmares simultaneously. The Book of Job seemed fitting book to read, given all he went through.

Job is one seriously blessed guy. Ten children, a mass load of cattle, a whole bunch of servants. That’s the good life right there. But even more importantly, he was blameless, feared God, and took God seriously. Up in the heavens, Satan confirmed that indeed God had blessed and protected him.

But here’s where I started to raise an eyebrow: God deliberately points Job out to Satan, giving Satan a bait it seems he couldn’t resist. And then, God actually permits Satan to inflict harm on Job and his family. Not once, but twice.

Pause for a moment. God has poured out his blessing on a good man. Job and his wife have put time and effort into raising ten children. And then God gives the green light to the bad guy, allowing him to inflict harm on the good guy. Are you feeling uncomfortable? So am I. But the story goes on.

In one horrific day, Job loses all his animals, his servants and all his ten children. Satan has had a field day, because God let him. Job and his wife are left with practically nothing, and presumably in psychological anguish. But in an act of incredible strength, Job keeps God on the throne and does not curse him. Yet despite this, God allows round two, and Satan is permitted to harm Job by inflicting him with ill health. So now poor old Job has lost his kids, his wealth, his servants and his health. There isn’t really much left, except a broken body and a broken soul.

It is a horrifying story when viewed through western eyes. Who is this God who allows his most faithful to go through hell? Well, in my own hell, I came to realise that it is the God I do not really know that well. The depths of His character are so far beyond my own understanding, that I have created a rather pleasant God out of my own lack of understanding for who He is. So with my limited understanding for who God is, it’s simply too easy to zoom in on the bad bits and create myself a shocking headline that labels God as a hideous unloving tyrannical warlord.

Right now, that season of my own hell is more or less done with (I hope!). But even so, I’m still piecing together the character of God. It’s a life-long puzzle I doubt I will ever finish on this earth. I am seeing a God who will actually go to extreme lengths to help us get to know Him. I’m seeing a God who is not scared when our world falls apart. I’m seeing a God who will always have boundaries around us to prevent Satan from going too far, even though in our minds “too far” is nothing like what God’s definition of “too far” is.

Much of the book of Job is filled with Job’s human friends trying to help Job explain his circumstances through human eyes. In reality, they have no idea what’s been happening in the heavens. And ultimately, God responds with nothing except a rehearsal of who He is, not what He has done.

The price Job paid to know God a little closer was ten children, a mass load of cattle and a whole bunch of servants. But the return on investment in knowing God a little better was ten more children, and double what he had before. He also went on to see four generations of children and grandchildren.

I do get quite sad about the loss of his first ten children. The thought of losing my own two kids terrifies me, so I cannot imagine what it would be to lose ten! But these children give me two tiny little clues that shows me how Job’s heart has changed having met with the Lord.

First, the writer of this story lets us know that Job put his daughters into his will along with his brothers - something which I believe would have been uncommon in that time. That’s a bold culture-defying move for this dad to be making. It’s a move which shows reckless love for his daughters, and I love it.

Second, no other daughters were as lovely as Job’s. How could this be? Well, I suspect Job would be savouring every second he had with his sons and daughters, through the pain of losing the first ten. That love would have flowed through his daughters and out into the world. That’s what lovely kids look like - a reflection of the love they receive from their own parents. This is a lesson that partly influenced my single, “Dad Life”, in acknowledging that as a dad I really need to value my own kids for the time I have them, so they can be lovely adults when they flee the nest and head solo out into the world. I’m grateful that Job was able to learn that lesson for me, so I can pour everything I can give into my own kids - without having to lose them!