Just to be clear, I did not miss an indefinite article.
I did not mean "a job" or "Have you considered getting a job."
You have a job. Today's job is to consider Job, the man and the story. It is your story and mine. It is also your job to ask Job's questions, especially, today, "Why am I here?"
Check out this picture, Job by Léon Bonnat (1880). Have you ever seem a man look more pitiful and desperate?
Maybe you have. perhaps you have in the mirror.
Job Pops Out of the Woodwork - Every Person's Story
We all have our own stories, but we also have a common story in which we all participate. The story of Job is offered to us in order to help us see how one man related to some of the deep questions and perplexities of life.
Job's story comes out of an ancient culture somewhere in Asia. Job pops out of the woodwork without a lot of historical context to draw us into the dialogue where we are moving toward a meeting with God.
Have You Considered Job?
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? -Job 1:8
This was a defining moment for Job and he was not even aware of it at the time. Something was happening in the spiritual realm that would translate to the world of time and space and he was about to be tested.
There are such times in our lives that are defining. Often we are tempted to believe that God is giving Satan a free hand to harass us. When we peek into this heavenly transaction, it would appear at first sight that God is doing business with Satan, dealing with him and inviting him before his court of justice as if he had the right to appear.
This is not the whole story. Satan's name means adversary and is the same word that can be used for "prosecutor." He is always accusing and his case is always before the bar of God. God, the judge, is defending His chosen servant, Job as well as weighing the evidence.
God knows how Job will emerge from this trial because He is his helper and advocate. God knows that Job is about to enter a deeper dimension in his fellowship with Him and that through a series of questions, Job's wisdom is going to grow dramatically.
God is both defending you and weighing you even now. He is your best advocate as well as your judge. In the same way that He believed in Job, He believes in you because He sees you through His Son. When trials come, He is in your corner taunting Satan. "Have you considered my servant, (your name)?"
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. -James 5:11
Why Am I Here?
Why died I not from the womb? - Job 3:11
Job is entitled to a few seconds of self-indulgent pity on his way to deeper faith. At least, he thinks he is. One of his early questions is one that we ask today: Why am I here? Job poses it from the place of pain. When all was going well, the question did not cross his mind - though it is one of life's most important considerations.
He actually approaches the matter from the negative. If life is full of hardship and agony, why should a person even be born? The question presupposes that the purpose of life is ease, comfort, and freedom from trouble.
Job would learn along the way to ask better questions with a seeking and honest heart. He would learn to be willing to let God answer them His own way and in His own time. But for a season, he had to struggle and wrestle with human emotions and doubts.
What does it take in our lives to prompt us to ask the difficult, penetrating, and yet, vital questions that define our significance? How do we come to the place where we ask, with open and earnest expectation, "Why was I born?"
The ancients summarized it this way: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. There was nothing in Job's predicament to impede or prevent that process. Nor is there anything in your experience that can ultimately separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ (see Romans 8). That is why you did not die in your mother's womb - because you have the potential to bring glory to Him through your life and the hope of enjoying His presence eternally.
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. - I Corinthians 6:20
