I recently heard a sermon that completely shattered my view on a person that I once considered to be a hero of the Bible.
That man was Job. When most of us think of Job, we think of the man who did no wrong, yet lost everything. One who remained faithful to God, and whose life was restored to him at the end of his days. However, if we dig a bit deeper, we find that that's not actually the case.
At the beginning of his life, Job did not know God. He was arrogant, self-righteous, and had no understanding of God's heart. Sounds a bit like someone else I know...
Don't believe me? Let's go take a look at Job 1. It says that he was blameless before God, that he feared God and shunned evil. On the surface, it looks pretty good. But if we look at the Hebrew roots of these words, we come to an interesting conclusion. The word translated as blameless or righteous actually means self-righteous. He prided himself on the fact that he did no wrong. The word used here for the fear of the Lord means just that: FEAR. Not the awe-filled reverence for His holiness; outright terror of God. And if we go a bit further down in the chapter, we understand why. Job didn't know God's heart. We read a story about how his kids would have huge celebrations all the time. Like, massive, leave-nothing-undone, no-wine-untasted kind of raging parties. And whenever they would finish, Job would get up the next morning and offer sacrifices to God for them, in case they sinned. Again on the surface, some may say "Well, Job was being a good dad, looking out for the well-being of his kids." But look at his actions. If Job truly understood God's heart, he would know that God desires obedience from the heart, not sacrifices.
We see this lack of understanding continue even after Job has everything stripped away from him. Instead of recognizing his own pride and seeking God's forgiveness and mercy, he basically shakes his fist at God and says "I want my day in court!"
Quite the switch from the humble, can-do-no-wrong guy normally portrayed, huh? Yet I see such a similarity to my own selfish heart in his story.
So you may be wondering, what is the rest of his story about? I believe the point of his story is simply this: God will do whatever it takes to bring you back to Him.
I mean, let's take a look at the rest of the story. God could have looked at Job's arrogant heart and moved on. Instead, He basically says "Hey, I love this man, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to bring his prideful heart back to Me." So what does He do? He starts baiting Satan. When Satan comes before God, He says "Hey, have you checked out Job lately?" And what is Satan's knee-jerk response to someone God's interested in? "God wants him? I'll kill him!" I love this. God uses His enemy to bring about a man's redemption. Though this seems to be a recurring theme throughout the Bible... :) So God allows Satan to strip Job of everything he has, everything he is. And for a while, Job's arrogance continues, but eventually, he comes face to face with the living God and falls down in awe of His mercy and holiness.
And at the end of the day, Job not only has his life restored to him, but he has his heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh.
So my encouragement for you today is this: my God is relentlessly pursuing you. He will stop at nothing to have all of you.
That's how much He loves you.
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