Blessings of Job
Man wants to know “Why”. It is our relentless question. God wants us to ask “Who?”. Knowing God is our most valuable truth yet it so often gets pushed aside by our craving to know why. In this teaching, we watch the two historic questions meet with crushing violence and out of the toxic waste of primal emotions comes an unparalleled self-portrait by Almighty God.
It is high time we reframed the story of Job. It is not about suffering. Or patience. Or the devil. Or the restoration of wealth.
It is about God’s deep desire to reveal himself to us in a transformational manner.
Think of it this way. When I come to see you and stay at your home, you get to show me your family, your pets, your home, your hobbies and your neighborhood. You learn a great deal about me by inviting me into your world and watching my reactions to the things that are intensely personal to you.
Ah, but think of the difference when you come to my home. When you see me in a context which I have defined through my own personality and presence, you will know me so much better. There may be no contradiction between the character, values and vision I revealed when I was with you, but I assure you that you will see a deeper, broader, more multifaceted expression of who I am when you are on my turf, than when I am on yours. There is so much about me that you will never see or know by simply asking me to respond to your world. It is only when you give me a blank piece of paper and allow me to express who I am APART from my relationship with you, that you will see the real me.
Job vigorously invited God into His world. Thereby Job came to know many, many things about the nature of God as God interacted with him and those around him. But in the end, the picture was too small.
So God invited Job to explore the nature of God on God’s turf. God painted a stunning self-portrait of Himself, showing Job so many things about Himself that Job could never see in the small playing field of his own life.
I invite you to step back from our relentless pursuit of a visitation from God on our turf, so you can explore the universe – His turf – at His invitation. You will see things about God through these blessings from the book of Job that you never will see when God visits you.
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