HAVE a different PERSPECTIVE of LIFE

May 24 Bible Reading: Job Chapters 1-3

HAVE a different PERSPECTIVE of LIFE

Job was an extremely wealthy and influential man who lived in the land of Uz that was located in northern Arabia. At a time when one’s wealth is assessed by livestock, Job’s enormous wealth and position is described in Job 1:3: "Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East" (Job 1:3). Job's patriarchal family-clan and the offering of sacrifice by Job as the head of the family (rather than a priest) indicate that Job lived during a time period before the Exodus of the Israelites. It is probable that Job was a contemporary of Abraham.

However, more significantly Job is described as “blameless and upright” and as “one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). He was a good father of his ten children, and loved them enough to pray and intercede daily for them (Job 1:5). It was when calamity struck Job head-on due to no fault of his life that we are able to understand that Job had an entirely different perspective of life.

When Job lost all his ten children and his entire livestock all within a matter of hours, we can see how Job reacted to this tragedy: Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. (Job 1:20-22) Job was aware of three important aspects of his life:

• He came into this world carrying nothing and he will leave this world carrying nothing.
• Everything that he had was a gift of God from His bounty. “Blessed be the name of God”.
• The God who has gifted him can also take it back as well. “Blessed be the name of God”.

After this, the intensity of Job’s problems increased when God allowed Satan to inflict Job with painful boils (Job 2:7). This was when Job’s wife instead of being a ‘helper’ to him (Gen 2:20) suggested that he should ‘curse God and die’: Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:9-10). Here again Job’s perspective towards life is reflected – he was willing to accept both good and bad from God with complaining or rebelling.

Job was willing to accept adversity that came to his life along with the good things that he had enjoyed earlier from God (compare Job 1: 10 with Job 2:10). The Apostle Paul also learned to rejoice both in plenty and in want (Phil 4:10-13). Let us have a different perspective in life – like that of Job and Apostle Paul. Let us know that God is working everything good in our lives – whether good or bad. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)