Three Lessons From the Life of Job
In my work as an obstetrician, disaster is always lurking in the form of a hemorrhage, a shoulder dystocia or a sick baby, but by the grace of God, He has always helped me avoid or get through it. One time, I was assisting another doctor in a C-section. The patient was very sick and she was bleeding a lot. Even while assisting I was constantly praying. The case was completed without major complications and I was so thankful to God. One of my phrases in the OR is—“Pressure and prayer”—I hold pressure on an area stubbornly bleeding despite stitches, and I pray. It has worked many a time.
I had a senior partner who didn’t believe in God. Thinking about how much I pray and how much peace and help I get from God and how stressful our field can be, I asked my husband, “How can he do this without God??” My husband replied, “He doesn’t.” It’s true. God was constantly helping my agnostic partner too. Just because we don’t believe in or follow God, doesn’t mean He withdraws His protection. If he did, we would probably be instantly destroyed by Satan.
As I was reading the first two chapters of the book of Job, some lessons stood out to me.
LESSON 1: We don’t even realize how much we owe God, for our health and safety, and of our families.
In the book of Job, Satan is called “The Adversary”—an enemy who fights determinedly, continuously, and relentlessly. Satan accuses God of protecting Job, “Have you not make a hedge around him, around his household and around all that he has on every side?” (1:10). Then God says “All that he has is in your power, only do not lay a hand on his person”
Then, we see Satan’s true intention and character. In one fell swoop, all on one day, he destroys everything Job has. He takes every possession away and even kills every one of Job’s 10 children. The cruelty of Satan is astounding. If he could, he would’ve killed Job himself except God forbade it. Then, when God allows Satan to touch Job, Satan strikes him with painful boils over 100% of his body and doesn’t even leave one area untouched. From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he was suffering.
People, including many Christians, wrongly blame God for suffering and difficulties. “Why is God doing this to me?,” they lament. Even Job and everyone in the book of Job attributed his calamities to God—”The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants.”
Job really believes his sufferings are because God has targeted him, and is torturing him. In Job 7, he asks why God has set a guard over him. He begs God to just leave him alone. “How long will you not look away from me, and let me alone until I swallow my saliva. O watcher of men, why have You set me as Your target?” He begs God to just finish him off—“That it would please God to crush me.”
It’s so ironic that Job begs God to look away from him, to leave him alone. The very reason Job is suffering, is because God has left him alone—because God removed his protection from him and allowed Satan to touch him.
Only in heaven will we realize how vigilantly, tirelessly God has watched over us and our families. Every moment of safety we had, was a direct result of God’s protection. If he could, Satan would instantly strip us of all we have, and even of all the people we love. Christians are Satan’s biggest targets and we owe every breath of life to the “hedge of God.” Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness.”
Many Christians, myself included, think that God’s protection is a right, and not a privilege. We feel entitled to God’s protection and blessings and feel betrayed when something bad happens to us or to our loved ones. We think—"Hey, God, you were supposed to protect me. You were supposed to protect my child. You were supposed to make me succeed.” We think that by becoming a Christian, God owes us something.
But Job (whom God calls “the most blameless and upright man on the earth”), despite his tremendous personal success and status, knew and continued to know that everything he had, including his children, was a privilege and a blessing, and not a right. On the day he lost everything, he fell down and worshipped God and said, “Naked I came and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
As I was reading Job, I was overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for his protection. I looked at my family and realized that the reason every night all 3 kids and my husband and I are safe, is because of God putting a hedge around us, that day. The reason we have food on our table and a roof over our heads is because God has provided them. But all these are privileges—not rights. We need to be thankful every moment to God.
LESSON 2: Often our greatest trials/temptations will come from those closest to us.
Initially, I thought it was merciful of Satan to at least leave Job’s wife alive. Why didn’t he kill her along with their 10 children? Was Satan being merciful? No. It was an additional form of torture. He used her to attack Job at his most vulnerable time. She told Job to curse God and die.
The ones closest to us—our spouses, families, even our closest friends, can be used by the enemy to discourage and hurt us the most. Even Job’s friends were not sent by God to help him but were sent by the enemy to discourage and torment him more. Under the intent of godly friendship, they went on for 39 chapters accusing him and trying to correct him.
As a Christian, our greatest discouragements and temptations will often come from those who are supposed to love and support us—the ones who “have our best interests in mind.” Even fellow Christians and church members can be another source of more pain and suffering.
LESSON 3: The book of Job not only teaches us about suffering, but it teaches us how we should treat those who are suffering.
This book made me think about my influence on others. Am I like Job’s friends? When someone is going through a hard time or suffering, Christians often feel a need to teach or reinforce a spiritual lesson—especially if we think they are suffering from their own mistakes or poor choices.
But does this really help them? Job shows us how we should treat those who are going through a hard time. Job 6:14: “To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.”
He tells his friends in Job 16:1-5: “Miserable comforters are you all! Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do if your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you: But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.”
When someone is suffering, no matter what the cause, we should comfort and strengthen them. We should show them kindness and pity. Job 19:21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me! Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh…For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth: and after my skin is destroyed this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God… Be afraid of the sword for yourselves.”
Before we counsel or correct someone, we should “be afraid of the sword for ourselves.” We need constant prayer and a humble heart that we may speak God’s words. We need to carefully watch what we say. Discouragement is never from God and if we discourage someone with our words, it clearly shows we are not doing God’s work. Our words should bring healing and hope. We need an attitude of kindness and compassion.
The story of Job has a happy ending. Job 42:10,12 “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before… Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.” Job’s story has encouraged so many who have gone through unexplainable suffering or loss over the centuries. His experience was not for him alone, but for others who would follow. While we may not understand why, we can be assured that more blessings will follow—perhaps in this world, but certainly in the world to come. The God who sees even a sparrow falling is the same God who watches over each one of us.
Gloria Kim writes from Westmont, IL where she lives with her husband Chris and their 3 children.