God finally talks to Job. But he doesn't answer any of the questions Job asks. Basically God calls him out and says, "Who do you think you are? I'm God. I know what I'm doing. And I'm allowed to do as I please, even if it doesn't fit into your little system of understanding the world." There didn't appear to be a lot compassion for Job's situation. It was a big fat SUCK IT UP and DEAL WITH IT. And do you know how Job responds? And this part blows my mind:: "Okay. I'm sorry. You are right." No sarcasm (which is how I would have said it). No more questions. Pure, sincere acceptance of that answer.
WHAT?!?!?!?!
Who is this guy? Who responds like that? I mean, I know it's God telling him this and all, but I know I wouldn't respond like that. I would want real, solid, concrete answers for why everything in my life was taken from me. Props to Job, that's for sure. We should probably all learn to be a little bit more like him.
After I realized what had just happened....I stopped and thought about
what I had just read. My mind made a slight change of topics.
what I had just read. My mind made a slight change of topics.
When you hear the story of Job retold in church it becomes this black-and-white-Job-was-right-and-didn't-sin-and-his-friends-were-incredibly-stupid-and-wrong thing. Moral of the story:: Don't be like the friends, be like Job. And while the moral of the story is still relevant, the way the story is told is wrong. The whole Job didn't sin through the whole process doesn't hold up. I mean, God rebuked Job. And you can't really be rebuked unless you did something wrong. Thus...Job did something wrong. #logicforthewin. I'm not quite sure what he did wrong, that isn't perfectly clear. But he sure as hell was rebuked. Read Job 38-41. I promise.
BUT, he maintained his integrity. Who knew you could, in the same situation, sin and maintain your integrity? I sure didn't. So I looked up integrity. Dictionary.com, wikipedia.com, and biblos.com all have one thing in common when describing this trait:: honesty, wholeness. Job maintained his integrity because he was honest about what he saw and what he knew of God. He didn't try to change things in order for them to make sense. Instead he asked God to explain it.
I'm not entirely sure what the moral of the story is. Sure, be like Job. But, you're still gonna get rebuked. Integrity doesn't mean being perfect. So you may have more integrity than anyone else you know, but you're still not gonna measure up to what God requires. Deal with it.
(I couldn't resist this picture. I'm not quite sure what the caption says, but Mufasa is definitely what I think of when I think of integrity. Don't you?)
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