Judging a Person By the Content of His Circumstances

Suggested Reading: Job 42:1-6

Human beings have always had a tendency to judge people based on their circumstances. We see a homeless person under a bridge, and we wonder how lazy or crazy he had to be to wind up there. We see a corporate executive who brings home a seven-figure salary, and we wonder who he stepped on to get there. We see a person whose spouse just left them, and we wonder what they did to drive their spouse away. Hundreds of other examples exist. Every day, we engage in this behavior, judging people from a very superficial look at their circumstances. Even the wisest and godliest among us do it. And then we complain about it when we are on the receiving end of that judgment.

The Book of Job is a very long, detailed account of how Job was judged in just that way. God allowed Job to lose everything in a single day but never revealed the reasons for the loss to the people involved. Job lost his fortune and his family in one swift stroke and then lost his health as well. The only thing that Job retained was a wife, who told him to curse God and die, and three friends. These three friends, very admirably, sat silently with Job for three days while he mourned the death and devastation that had struck him. But then they spoke up, urging Job to confess whatever great sin he had committed that forced God to take everything away. To the reader, of course, the great irony is that Job was struck with devastation not because Job was a great sinner but because Job was so faithful to God.  But for 34 chapters, Job's friends accuse Job of sin while Job maintains his innocence and pleads for God to reveal his reasons for such destruction.

The most powerful part of the story for me, is the last five chapters when God responds, first, to Job and then to Job's friends. God spends four chapters pointing out a human being's inability to comprehend the ways of God while never giving Job answers for why he was made to suffer. The response, though, is enough for Job. The very fact that God was speaking to Job was enough, and the experience allowed Job to experience God in a new way. "I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes" (Job 42:5, NLT).  But then God turns to Job's judgmental friends and expresses his anger at them for their assumptions and their lies, insisting that they will only be acceptable to God once Job prays and sacrifices on their behalf.

We know the rest of the story. Job's fortune and family again grow, and he ends up with twice as much as he had before.  But the lessons of the story are clear. 1) You never know why God allows you to go through terrible hardship; sometimes, God allows it because you are righteous, not because you are sinful. And 2) never judge someone based on their circumstances. We can only tell so much about a person by looking at their circumstances. Sometimes, people are directly responsible for their circumstances, and other times, they have no control over them, and only occasionally do we know which is which.  

So the next time you see someone's circumstances (even your own) and begin to make assumptions about them, stop. Don't judge based on circumstances. Look at a person's character and deeds and maintain your own integrity. In the end, God and God alone can judge a person. Don't try to take God's place.

Going Through Spiritual Chemotherapy

Suggested Reading: Job 1-2, 8-9

Over the last few years, a number of people in my life have had to go through chemotherapy. Chemo is a nasty process; it is brutal and painful and, at times, humiliating. Chemo makes you horribly sick. It can cause you to shed your hair and lose weight. For a time, chemo can seem unbearable and make you wonder if the pain is worth it. Chemo is not something anybody ever wants to go through, but people endure it because there is no other way, at present, to get rid of some cancers.

In the book of Job, God brings Job to Satan's attention because Job is a good and righteous person. Satan gets permission to test Job by making him suffer. Job loses his children, his wealth, his health, and even the support of his wife. Job's friends come to comfort him, but quickly begin telling him good sounding lies to try to explain Job's situation, telling Job how to fix his life and make God bless him again. Bildad tells Job, "If you are pure and upright, then [God] will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells" (Job 8:6, NLT). Bildad was telling Job that if he would just start being righteous, his suffering would end. Bildad tells Job, "Look, God does not reject a person of integrity and he will not support evildoers" (Job 8:20), which was true, except that they thought enduring loss and tragedy was a sign of God's rejection. Job and Bildad didn't know that Job was suffering, not because he was a sinner, but because he was righteous. Bildad was sharing truths with cancer cells in them, he was telling Job lies that were almost true. But the real problem was that Job believed these lies! Job responded to Bildad, "Yes, I know what you've said is true, but how can a person be justified before God?" (Job 9:1, NLT). Sometimes, we can get so caught up in answering Job's question, that we miss the fact that Job believed the cancerous truths; Job believed the lies, and Job spent much of the next 30 chapters wanting to make his case to God that he really is righteous, so that his suffering will end.

At least part of the reason that God allowed Job to endure all of this loss and tragedy was that God needed to kill those cancerous lies. God needed to expose the lies that had wormed their way into the truths Job believed - both for Job and for us. So, God brought Job face to face with, both, his own suffering and his own righteousness, until the lie was finally exposed as a lie. It was painful. It was agonizing. And, in the end, God did move on Jobs behalf to restore his home, but Job had learned the truth that a person's righteousness doesn't mean God is going to restore things right now. Too many people believe the lie that, if you are a righteous person, God will restore things right now, that if you live like you are supposed to and have the faith you should have, God will bless every area of your life right now. Too many of us, like Job, believe these cancerous truths, these small lies within a larger truth that require God's own version of chemotherapy to kill.

What cancerous lies have you allowed yourself to believe, lies that are mostly true but with just a lethal bit of falsehood added in? If you want to avoid going through spiritual chemotherapy, study God's Word diligently so that the lies come to light on their own. Maybe you can catch the lies early, before they have a chance to spread.

Finding God at the Center of the Galaxy

Suggested Reading: Job 33:1-12

When it first premiered, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was almost universally panned by critics and fans alike because the movie told the story of Captain Kirk and crew following Sybok, a Vulcan mad man, to search for God. As the movie progressed, Sybok convinced more and more people that God was waiting for them at the center of the galaxy. Sybok and his followers sincerely believed that they would find God. They believed it with all of their hearts. They were willing to risk death crossing the Great Barrier into the center of the Milky Way because they believed so deeply. But when they finally arrived, "God" turned out to be nothing more than a convicted prisoner, sending out powerful telepathic messages to lure people in and then use their ship to escape. Sybok and his followers were sincere and devoted in their belief, but they were wrong.

In the story of Job, after God allowed Satan to destroy everything that Job possessed, three of Job's friends tried to help Job own up to the sin in his life, so that God would remove what they saw as a punishment from Job's life. One of Job's friends, Elihu, assured Job, "My words come from my upright heart, and my lips speak with sincerity what they know. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:3-4, HCSB). Job's friends were sincere in their belief that Job must have sinned to bring such a terrible disaster on himself. But Job's friends were wrong. God, ironically, had allowed these disasters in Job's life because of his righteousness, not because of his sin.

At times, we can become convinced of the rightness of our beliefs simply because of the sincerity with which we or someone else believes them. Sometimes we believe something so much, we just know it must be true. But being sincere doesn't mean we are right. Very often we are sincerely wrong. Many people sincerely  believe that "God hates fags," but they are wrong. Many people sincerely believe there are ways to reach God aside from Jesus, but according to scripture, they are wrong. Many people sincerely believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil or that confronting people about their sin is "judging" them and therefore prohibited. But all of these people would be wrong.

No matter how sincere we are in our beliefs, we must be willing to reevaluate them in light of Scripture and the evidence we encounter. When we find something in scripture that commands us to warn people about their sin or we discover things in Genesis that don't read the way we thought they did, we must be willing to alter our sincere beliefs.

We can all be wrong, no matter how sincere we are. Our goal should be discovering the truth, not proving we are right.

Gang Rape and False Accusations

Suggested Reading: Job 17:1-16

A few years ago, the Duke University lacrosse team was accused en masse of gang raping a female student at the university. No one wanted to be seen with them. No one wanted to stand up for them. Such an accusation was so despicable that no one wanted to have anything to do with them. Because of the accusations, the players suffered massive consequences. The entire team was suspended and their season forfeited. The team's coach was forced to resign. Then, later, the accuser recanted, admitting she had made up the entire story. But for those months and months when the accusations were still out there, I have often wondered what it was like for the members of that team, to be falsely accused of a terrible crime with no one willing to stand up and defend them. I've wondered how I would handle a similar set of circumstances.

But Job did encounter similar circumstances. When God, making a statement about how good and faithful Job was, allowed Job to lose everything he had, his closest friends concluded that Job must have some terrible, secret sin that was so horrendous God had no choice but to punish him for his transgressions. No matter how many times Job denied any  wrongdoing, no matter how many times his friends failed to come up with a single example of sin in Job's life, they persisted in the accusations. Finally, Job cried out to God, "You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. You have closed their minds to understanding but do not allow them to triumph" (Job 17:3-4, NLT).  In the middle of his difficult circumstances, the only thing left for Job to do was to plead for God to defend him. 

Twenty-five chapters later, God does stand up for Job. God says to Job's friends, "I am angry with you…for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has. So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf" (Job 42:7-8, NLT).  God waited until the proper time, but when that time arrived, God himself stood up for Job and not only vindicated him but indicted those who had falsely accused Job. God even told the accusers that they would have to go through Job in order to be right with God again!

Whatever your circumstances, whatever false accusations are being made against you, however your character may be deceptively maligned at the moment, rather than trying to force your adversaries to acknowledge their lies or own up to their agendas, turn your case over to God. Ask God to stand up for you and to defend your case. God may not step in at the moment of your choosing, but when the time is right God will vindicate those who have been falsely accused. When no one else will stand up for you, God always stands by and holds up those who trust him. 

A He-Man Like Depression

Suggested Reading: Job 6:1-13

When I was five, I experienced my first TV cliffhanger. He-Man had battled one of the weekly bad guys and knocked over a tower to do it. Unbeknownst to anyone, He-Man's nemesis, Skeletor, had disguised one of his evil minions (one who literally didn't have a heart) and placed him where He-Man would think the tower fell on him. When He-Man checked his heartbeat and discovered there wasn't one, he blamed himself for killing the man and fell into depression. He turned back into the ordinary Prince Adam and then chunked his magic sword into a bottomless pit so that he could never again become He-Man and abuse his power. Then the show cut to commercials. I was a devastated five year old. He-Man hadn't done anything wrong! How could he fall for the enemy's trick?! The hero can't get depressed and feel sorry for himself!

But He-Man isn't the only good man to ever get depressed. Job was also a very good man who had done nothing wrong and yet became very depressed. Job finally proclaimed in his depression, “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire. I wish he would crush me. I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me. At least I can take comfort in this: Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One. But I don’t have the strength to endure. I have nothing to live for" (Job 6:8-11, NLT).  Job did not know that God was holding him up as an example of righteousness rather than being angry with Job. All Job knew was that his life had suddenly become very difficult and very painful very quickly and he wasn't sure how he could move on.

Far more commonly than we would ever care to admit, we will encounter people who are depressed, sometimes even ourselves. A depressed person has not necessarily done anything wrong, anymore than He-Man or Job did anything wrong. Sometimes, it just means that they are missing some key details. Sometimes it means life is painful beyond their control, that life is hard and there doesn't seem to be anything to be done about it.

The next time you encounter someone who is depressed, whether it is a friend, a family member, a co-worker or yourself, cut them some slack, pray for them, bear with them, listen to them, and be patient. Even the best people can face depression.

Remembering a Tragic Attack

Suggested Reading: Job 1:13-22

Today is the anniversary of 9/11, the day tragedy struck our country because an enemy wanted to make a point, killing more than 3,000 people and bringing down four different planes in three different places in order to do so. A lot could be said of our reaction as a country to the events of that day. Some people would argue that we responded well that day, coming together and unifying, but that we later splintered apart again. Some would argue that we responded poorly to that day, focusing on security at the cost of freedom. In some ways that day brought out both the best and the worst in us, as we became a people that proved we run toward those in need in order to save them and that we are a people who respond with anger and sometimes let it carry us away. But what is the proper way to respond to enormous tragedy like what happened on 9/11? I think we would do well to learn from the example of Job.

If you remember the story, Satan had wanted to make a point to God. So God let Satan try. Satan used Job's life as his illustration. In one day, Satan struck and killed Job's children, destroyed his livelihood, ripped away his wealth, and then took his health as well. In one day, Job lost everything and everyone he cared about. The only things he got to keep were his life itself and a nagging wife, who urged him to just curse God and die. But how did Job respond? "Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying: 'Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of Yahweh.' Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything" (Job 1:20-22, HCSB).

Job mourned. He shaved his head and tore his robe. But in the middle of his grief, he also directed his attention to God. He fell to the ground and worshiped, remembering that whatever tragedy befell him, that God was still in control. And then he refused to do anything rash such as blame God. Job refused to allow the tragedy he had endured to change his world. He chose to believe that God was still in control and he chose to continue worshiping the God who had blessed him so much up until that terrible day.

Job understood that the world we live in includes tragedy and sorrow. And Job lived consistently, whether he was in the middle of a time of extended blessing or in the midst of unfolding tragedy. One of the reasons God brought Satan's attention to Job was that God knew who Job was, that Job was a man of consistent faith and integrity, whether things were going well or he was experiencing extreme hardship. God knew that Job would not allow tragic circumstances to change his perception of reality or his character.

As we remember the tragedy that struck on 9/11, and as we continue to face tragedy in this fallen world, how will we react? Will we choose to be consistent, God-seeking people who worship in the midst of suffering or will we allow ourselves to be irrevocably altered? Will we continue to live like we trust God or will we react in fear and anger? Will we remember that the world hasn't really changed, that tragedy is striking us just like it has always struck people in this sinful, fallen world?

Nothing has really changed. God is still God. We still live in a sinful world where God is constantly working to bring us back to Himself. When tragedy strikes, let us mourn. But let us also choose to live consistent lives of integrity and worship regardless of the tragedy we have faced.