Why I love the book of Job

There are a ton of things to love about the book of Job.

It's a relatively large book that tackles virtually one topic: God and pain and suffering.

It's written in a beautiful flowing poetic manner in it's presentation.

We all suffer but the book of Job tackles a stunning number of angles that seem to constantly be increasing.

When I read the book today it feels very different next month and the month after. I connect to it differently. I have a different perspective of my own pains and those around me with each month.

Job is corrected. His friends are corrected. Elihu is not. God is holy and perfect.

Job, a man who deeply desires purity and righteousness suffers. He turns his eyes to heaven until the pain captivates his attention and he cannot look upward and hope. Then the story takes a turn Job becomes jaded.

His friends seem to be defending God but they feel that in order to do that they must condemn Job because we only get what we deserve. Their descendants are the Pharisees and the self righteous.

Elihu says God is and he does what he wills and he will do what he does. He is holy and he goes on a rant about how God's ways are higher than ours and how holy and magnificent God is.

A side note. Elihu says many things that God says immediately after Elihu but Job is not going to listen. He has become unable to be reasoned with and requires God to intervene.

I love Job; he is my brother. I understand when you feel that you were given what you did not deserve. I understand what it feels like to feel that you try harder than is normal and still you reap thorns and a punch in the face by a fist that feels like it's from heaven.

I wish that it was Elihu that I had listened to. I wish that a man's words and reason could have helped me out of the hole of despair. I can never tell if I could have gotten out with a word from a friend or it did indeed require God to pull me out of that hole and set my feet on solid rock but it would appear that I find myself there.

I don't know of any passages in the book where a man talks about the splendor of God like Elihu does for pages and pages.

I don't know of any place where God talks about his majesty like he does here or that this length. It seems that this book is avoided because of the suffering and the pain and the hard questions. God keeps the good stuff on the top shelf and at the back of the cupboard.

Seekers get the good stuff. If you want the majestic God you need to deal with the pain, struggle and the suffering.

I have a bookmark in the book. I don't read the first 33 chapters every time I come here to get to Elihu. I just start there.

Then I read chapter 38 through to the end.

I train my children to trust me and do what I say by faith so that when they are older they will have character and I won't have to watch them destroy their lives, embarrass their name and dishonor God.

They cannot understand at 5 or 6 how their trajectory will affect their future and I only know so much but God know both and mine.

We are called to live by faith and be seekers of him who was, and is and is to come. The one who's ways are beyond even tracing out and who's way don't change. They are forever above us and beyond us.