Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Was Job a bad man? God said of him: "There is none like [My servant Job] on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil" (1:8). And God repeated that in 2:3. Yet we find Job wanting to take God into court and put Him on trial!
"If [God] lets me speak, I can't believe He would listen to me. He sends storms to batter and bruise me, without any reason at all. ... He has filled my life with bitterness. Should I try force? Try force on God? Should I take Him to court? Who would make Him go? I am innocent and faithful, but ... everything I say seems to condemn me. I am innocent, but I no longer care. ... Innocent or guilty, God will destroy us. When an innocent man suddenly dies, God laughs. God gave the world to the wicked. He made all the judges blind. And if God didn't do it, who did?" (Good News Bible, 9:16-24). And that was "a blameless and upright man"??
More: "You know that I am not guilty, that no one can save me from You. Your hands formed and shaped me, and now those same hands destroy me. Remember that You made me from clay; are You going to crush me back to dust? ... You hunt me down like a lion; to hurt me You even work miracles. ... Why, God, did You let me be born? ... Leave me alone! Let me enjoy the time I have left" (Job 10:7-20). "A blameless and upright man"?
Yes! God said so; and Job wanted to take God to court for trial!! But that pleased God. (At the end, He again upheld Job, 42:7-9.) God loves to be taken into "court" so justice can be done! Job's problem was not that he had rebelled against God; he had rebelled against Satan--and that's what made God proud of him. Job just hadn't known who was who; it was a simple case of mistaken identity. He really wanted to haul Satan into court; his whole soul was enlisted in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan" and he was totally on God's side.
There are billions today in Job's shoes; they don't know who's who in "the great controversy." They await that message and that Voice from heaven when the earth will be "lightened with the glory" of "the everlasting gospel" at last made totally clear (Rev 18:1-4).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 28, 2000.
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