JOB (5:11)

By Rev. Richard Burgett

"As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered" (5:11, NIV). But you cannot persevere unless there is a trial in your life. There can be no victories without battles; there can be no peaks without valleys. If you want the blessing, you must be prepared to carry the burden and fight the battle.

The Book of Job is a long book, and the chapters are filled with speeches that, to the Western mind, seem long and tedious. In the first three chapters you have Job's distress: he loses his wealth, his family (except for his wife, and she told him to commit suicide), and his health. In chapters 4-31 we read Job's defense, as he debates with his three friends and answers their false accusations. Chapters 38-42 present Job's deliverance: first God humbles Job, and then He honors Job and gives him twice as much as he had before.

In Job's case, what was "the end (purpose) of the Lord?" To reveal Himself as full of pity and tender mercy. Certainly, there were other results from Job's experience, for God never wastes the sufferings of His saints. Job met God in a new and deeper way (Job 42:1-6), and, after that Job received greater blessings from the Lord.

"But if God is so merciful," someone may argue, "why didn't He protect Job from all that suffering to begin with?" To be sure, there are mysteries to God's working that our finite minds cannot fathom; but this we know: God was glorified and Job was purified through this difficult experience. If there is nothing to endure, you cannot learn endurance.

What is the answer? "My grace is sufficient for thee!" (II Cor. 12:7-9) Paul's thorn in the flesh was a "messenger of satan." Paul could have fought it, given up under it, or tried to deny that the thorn existed; but he did not. Instead, he trusted God for the grace he needed; and he turned satan's weapon into a tool for the building up of his own spiritual life.

Surely James is reminding us of our Lord's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5; 34-37). The Jews were great ones for using various oaths to back up their statements. They were careful, however, not to use the name of God in their oaths, lest they blaspheme God. So, they would swear by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem, or even by their own heads! But Jesus taught that it is impossible to avoid God in such oaths. Heaven is His throne, earth is His footstool, and Jerusalem is the "city of the great King. As for swearing by your head, what good is it? "Thou canst not make one hair black or white" (Matt. 5:36) - or even keep one hair on your head.

ONE OF THE PURPOSES OF SUFFERING IS THE BUILDING OF CHARACTER.

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