The trials of Job are all neatly wrapped up into the first two chapters of the book. In chapter one the picture of a man of enormous wealth and impeccable integrity (He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. Job 1:1 ) who was also a very compassionate and loving father who was attentive to the health of his children. (He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice. Job 1:5 ) It is not unreasonable to assume that a man of this kind of integrity and compassion, would have good relationships and care deeply for those others in his charge, those servants who worked his fields and tended to his livestock. In this single chapter his fortunes, his servants, and his children are taken from him. Yet, his integrity stayed intact.
Chapter two opens with Job’s second calamity, his health. What the scriptures do not tell us is how much time has elapsed in between his first calamity and the second calamity – the loss of his own health (One day the members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves before the Lord… Job 2:1). In the midst of the grieving process, most people have the opportunity to entertain thoughts and rationalizations that could easily lead them to blame and become angry at God. Given that Job’s second calamity may not have happened the “next day”, it is understood that Job’s integrity still remained intact at the time his health was attacked. Almost immediately upon his plague, his wife emotionally crashed. His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9) Yet in the midst of his grieving, the pain of the plague upon him, and his wife’s emotional crumble, Job 2:10 tells us that “So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.”
How does one get to this kind of peace and integrity? What is it like to be totally OK with WHATEVER God says, does, or allows in my life, so long as it brings Him glory?
I have to say… I, for one, am not there but there is something very appealing about being there…