Another Option

Another option.  As we read the Book of Job, it is easy to become frustrated with Job or his friends because we know what is taking place and we know the ending.  Job has lost everything, including his health, and he seems to be growingly frustrated.  His friends are not helping his situation at all.  What we know is that Job is a righteous man.  However, the perspective that Job and his friends are wrestling with are just one of the possibilities, and they have not even considered another option.  The possibility they are considering has to do with the punishment of sin.  Job has suddenly lost everything and his friends are arguing that it must be because he as committed sin against God.  Job is arguing that he has not sinned (not that he has never sinned, but that he did not commit a sin deserving of such suffering).  Some of the language Job uses becomes a little hard to read for me.  For example, Job says “understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in his net” (Job 19:6).  Remember Job is a man, just like you and I, and he is enduring all of this, trying to understand why.  Job’s friends continue to press him about the matter of sin and that it must be his fault, his failure, that has brought about such suffering from God.  However, it is not God that has brought this about.  Yes, God allowed it, but it is Satan that is inflicting all of this on Job.  And the purpose for God allowing it is not to be cruel.  God was actually so pleased with Job’s faithfulness that He offered Job up as an example to Satan by saying, “Have you considered my servant Job”.  This is not punishment from God.  It is infliction brought about by Satan, but allowed by God in order to prove Job’s faithfulness to Him.