MOVE OVER JOB

When Job's three friends arrived to comfort him, Job was sitting on the ground amidst the ashes and scraping his body sores with a broken piece of pottery.

His vast financial holdings, his family, and his health were all destroyed and ruined, sending him to sit upon the ash heap. His wife suggested that he curse God and die. His friends sought to find the sin in his life that caused his troubles. Job cursed the day of his birth, but also said, "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"

At different times in my life, I thought Job might be my blood relative. When my children began working through their teen-age years I knew we were somehow related. I don't think anyone really appreciates the life of Job until troubles arise and afflict the righteous.

People always have a hard time when bad things happen to good people, especially to you and to me. But, good people do get cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and polio. Missionaries in God's service have buried their children and spouses on foreign soil. I saw a beautiful Christian slowly die with AIDS contracted from a blood transfusion. Suffering always claims innocent victims too: husbands and wives, children, friends and neighbors - these people suffer together with the afflicted one.

What wrong did a three year old child commit whose mother contracted breast cancer and died? In this area there is a lot of speech and dialogue - most of it is not very comforting. Like Job's friends, everyone has a theory as to why bad things happen to good people. But, this is an arena where the afflicted person walks alone, really alone, humanly speaking. Only God can walk beside the suffering Job's of this world. Only God can bring relief, comfort and affirmation when the sky is dark and the situation is hopeless. The problem is that we really don't know what to say or think when tragedy crosses the path of good people. After all, we expect God to treat us differently than the wicked, don't we?

But, as you survey the lives of the men and women of the Bible, you discover that heartache came to all of them; no one completely escapes affliction, adversity, and hard times. And then God adds insult to injury. He does a "Manasseh" on us (c.f. II Chronicles 33:19). He takes utterly wicked and evil people and saves them - murderers, rapists, drug addicts, people deserving every punishment known to man and God. He redeems and saves them - bringing them into the very kingdom of heaven and bestowing blessing upon their lives, while people whom we perceive as "good" continue to suffer affliction.

Jesus said, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be." Jesus died on a cross for you, you will never give that much! Eternity is not 70 years long, nor is it played out on this terrestrial globe. No, eternity is spent with the one who formed you, the one who died for you, the one who will return for you.

So, be of good cheer. You haven't gotten to the last page of the book yet!