Job

[Rob McNair]

I just finished Job. There is a lot to chew on here but I think overall the message I take away is this: if we believe God is good and if we believe that God loves us, then the logical conclusion is that everything that happens to us in this world happens for our own good. Only God has the power to take pain and suffering and transform it into strength and power. And we must seek his counsel to understand. As Job confesses at the end, after having lamented at great length about God being malicious toward him: "Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know" (Job 42:3).

Now that is easy for me to say because my experiences with pain and suffering pale in comparison to that of people who have experienced unimaginable trauma. But think of all those great people we find inspiring: Jesus (of course), MLK, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Anne Frank, etc. and these people's names would be meaningless without the presence of pain and suffering in their life. The reason we look to them is because their strength and power was fueled by pain and suffering. As Victor Frankl said, "What is to give light must endure burning."

[Amber Kalina]

Yes, it is hard to understand pain and suffering, even when it happens every day in this world. Though, when God first created the world, he didn't intend for there to be suffering and killing, the devil and sin brought us down to that. So, we have to persevere and get through it. Still, some don't make it. They think "Oh, this life is too hard, I can't bear it." It is those that can get through, or help others to get through, that make this world a truely remarkable place to be.

[Abby Kalina]

dude i just go to job! yesterday!
yeah, i've believed for a long time now that when God allows something bad to happen,, something good usually happens later.
like in this movie we watched for drivers ed. this guy died in a motor bike crash and he was a doner. his heart ended up going to this guy who would have died in a few months if he hadn't gotton that heart. so one person died and yet because of him another lived.
awsome right?

[Rob McNair]

Yes, that is awesome.

[Abby Kalina]

what no big spiritual thing j-bob? that has to be the shortest thing you have ever written in the history of forever!
jk
i don't know if i would be able to handle all that being put on me all at once like job. i mean he got message after message after message telling him that such and such just happened!

[Rob McNair]

Yeah.

[Abby Kalina]

ok.... your really not going to go into full detail j-bob? really?

[Amber Kalina]

Why is it that Job gets mad at his friends for preaching to him about going to God. Even if you're innocent, is it not good to ask forgiveness of God anyway?

[Rob McNair]

Yeah Job definitely has a pride issue...more toward the end of the book he starts in on how great he is, how he took care of the widows and orphans and everyone loved him cause he was the cat's meow. So he doesn't feel like he needs to ask forgiveness. Funny that they all shun him when calamity strikes! He is definitely arrogant and boastful.

[Abby Kalina]

very. in the begining of job i thought that he was like awsome because he never said anything bad about God but then later on i got annoyed with him for being so, like you said, boastful. i mean it was like he was saying that God was evil.

[Amber Kalina]

Why did God get mad at Job's friends? They tried to make him see the error in his ways and make him confess. They told him what happens to the wicked, so does that mean that they were being hypocritical? How is it that Job ends up being honored in the end and not Elihu? He sounded like he was in the right.

[Rob McNair]

It never states what happened to Elihu but in 42:9 it does state that the other 3 were reprimanded by God. Elihu basically says that God is just and anything that happens is for your own good. So if adverse things happen it is to help you become stronger and you must rely on God for only he can transform the bad into the good. The other three basically told Job he was a sinner and he should repent, which made them self-righteous. Like they were saying, "Hey, look at us. We're good, upstanding people and God is good to us. But you...you're a sinner and God punishes you." Elihu clarified that there is no good and bad from God because it is all good! If God is good then he is good. So what we perceive as bad things happening are actually good things to help us grow, learn, and change into better people.

[Amber Kalina]

Yeah, I get that. It's just kinda weird that Elihu would be excluded from the final judgement that God brings down.