Job is a remarkable man of faith! Notice the four reports he receives in Chapter 1. His sheep, flocks, herds, and children were all destroyed; some by what might be described as a natural disaster, an act of God, a tornado and a fire, and some stolen by terrorists, or invaders. Just one of those reports would have been enough to send us into a tizzy, but the cumulative effect of all four must have been devastating. Yet, Job, our hero, replies with a verse we all should memorize. In Job 1:21, he says, “Naked I came into the world, and naked from it, I will go. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
You’d think things would get better for Job after such an expression of faith in light of the circumstances and that God would protect him. But then the Lord allows Satan to strike Job once again, and now his health is gone. He’s described as having boils and sores all over, and of course, he’s even unable to sleep. His regular practice was to get up early to do his worship time with God, but now He cries out to God all night long for relief but doesn’t get it! In a day when there was no morphine, Prozac, or anything for physical or emotional pain like we have today, Job felt the entire experience in a way we probably will never have to. I understand how he finally arrived at the point that he says in Job 7:10, “I hate my life and don’t want to go on living.” He even gives up all hope. 7:6 says, “My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle. They end without hope.” Yet, amidst all the suicidal language, He hangs on. He doesn’t let go and “curse God and die,” as his wife suggests.
Thousands of years later Job is still talked about. James reminds us of the outcome. He writes in his epistle, Chapter 5 and verse 11, “you have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about…” I think the operative word in that verse is “finally.” It took a long time, but the verse goes on, “…the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” Tim Allen, who plays Peter Quincy Taggert as the Captain of the Star Ship in Galaxy Quest, is famous for saying, “Never give up! Never Surrender!” The movie makes that sound as corny as ever, but that seemed to be Job’s motto. They don’t sound so corny, however, when you are facing a trial or a hardship in real life. Winston Churchill spoke words like these as England faced a potential invasion by Nazi forces. He said, “We shall go to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”[1]
[1] Tan, Paul Lee. 1996. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.