Job 29 REFLECTION: DANGERS AND BENEFITS When our Lord Jesus Christ was here, he often spoke in parables. A parable is a well-thought-out illustration used to get across to listeners an important point to be made to affect the hearers in some way. It is still a useful technique by which the windows of understanding are opened.
It was in this way, after a pause to let his friends digest what he had already said, and time deliberately taken to arrange in an orderly poetic form his thoughts, that Job starts to speak again. His three friends had nothing to say, so there must have been a time of conscious and careful consideration on Job's part as to what he wanted to say and how best to say it.
In North America, and maybe some other parts of the world also, there is a different way of communicating. People often do not take time to think before they speak. "Off-the-cuff" comments are thought to be spontaneous thoughts from the heart, but may be only to be heard or be a personal reaction said without considering how it will affect the other people. Casual, irreverent, careless and irresponsible speaking can quickly deteriorate into polarized positions of thought that should never have been taken.
In this part of Job's discourse, he deliberately looks back in his life to the material prosperity he enjoyed before calamity struck and took everything away. He did acknowledge all he had was because "God preserved me." God was the One who was watching over him and provided for him. He knew all he had did not come to him just because he was smart and/or hard-working, but God had prospered him.
To review our past, and the ways God has been with us, helped us and prospered us, are a good exercise of our souls. Thankfulness for divine preservation and protection needs to be acknowledge both to God and to people around us. This will keep us from being lifted up with pride and in our own estimation of ourselves. The abundance of the necessities of life and things that make us comfortable is not just because of our skill and willpower. God honors those who honor Him and gracious gives to us from the storehouse of His fullness until we are full and running over. That is His right. It is also His right to withhold from us for His own reasons.
Job was conscious not only of the fact that God was preserving him in the prime of his life, but also that "The Almighty was yet with me." God was the Source of his "butter and oil." The abundance of his wealth that he enjoyed so much had come from the gracious hand of God, and he knew it. His personal life, his family life when his children were around him, and his prosperity were all from the Lord in whom he had placed his faith. He gave God the credit for all that he enjoyed.
In this parable based on his own life's story, he moved from personal and domestic blessings in which he was conscious of God's power and provision in making his life comfortable and wealthy, to his position in society. In the community in which he lived, he was notable among the people and he knew it. It is in this part of the parable that he runs close to the dangerous area of personal pride. There is no mention of God in this part of his speech. It is full of the "I... me... my..." talk that is indicative of deceptive pride. As he walks down this borderline between sin and sanctification, his perception of himself in the public sphere of his life comes close to self-exaltation.
This is a place we all come to if we make a success of something or even of ourselves. We claim some credit even when our business and our children seem to be going ahead by leaps and bounds. When we start to take personal credit for the good things that happen to us, we fall into the trap. A man who owned a schooner said when regaling himself, "I got my schooner all fixed up, painted and looking good. I got it all provisioned and went down the Labrador coast and I caught a whole load of fish. I brought it back, I salted and dried it and then I took it into the city and I sold it. I loaded the schooner with provisions and I took it back to our community. Then I went up the bay and I cut a whole load of firewood. But on the way back the boys lost her and she sank." He took credit for everything but the loss.
We can almost see Job though his own words, walking with self-conscious dignity out of his house and moving slowly with measured steps down the street. He would nod with condescending grace to the admiring people he met or who stopped what they were doing to look at him. Likely there were murmurs of admiration as people would say, "Look, there's Job! He's on the way to the place of the judges. You just watch how he does business! Look at the old men stand up as he comes closer, and the younger men bow their heads! See, everybody stops talking because Job is coming! What a man!"
It was true that not only had God prospered Job, but his position of honor was because he "feared God and eschewed evil." The respect given to him by people was because of his reflection of what they knew was right and honorable in life. Job's life in public was a reflection of his faith in God. He knew how people looked at him with esteem, and how they respected him because of his wisdom in business and political matters. The poor people may have been looked down on by many, but they knew Job would help them. Those in poverty, the orphans and widows, the sick and helpless knew Job would stand up for them when they were picked on by wicked people or when they were in desperate need.
To us we would think just by reading what he said about himself, that he was full of himself. Vitamin I, seems to stand out a lot in the monologue. But we are wrong if we pass a judgment on others until we have the whole picture of another person's life and know all the circumstances surrounding what they are speaking about. We need to learn not to think more highly of ourselves than we should, and we should remember not to recount our successes, our generosity or even our opinion of ourselves. It is normal to look at our lives through our own eyes only, and think other's opinions of us is the same as ours. But wisdom keeps our mouths shut until we have something that is worth saying, and then to say it through the eyes of a neutral observer. It is of greater wisdom on our part, to recount the blessings God had abundantly bestowed on us, and assure ourselves and others to whom we speak, that we know "every good gift, and every perfect gift" comes down from above.
"Pride cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall." Job was a righteous, honorable man of integrity and dignity. He was honored by other people, and rightly so. He was considerate and helpful to the needy, and wise in his dealings with those who were older, as well as with his peers. However, we learn from his parable that to experience blessing, respect and honor most times, does not mean we deserve it nor should we assume it will be the same all the time. It is only because of God's grace and mercies that we are not already consumed.
In his life Job had many important positions which likely made him assume all of his life would be like that to which he had already enjoyed. In a way that does seem like a reasonable assumption - if we forget the fact that "our times are in Thy hand." Job recalled how people waited for him to speak because they recognized the wisdom of his counsel, and often had nothing to say afterwards. His words were supported by his actions, and they could not be denied nor demeaned as partial, irrelevant and unimportant. People didn't challenge his verdicts because they were as sensible, reasonable and helpful like a perfect rain on fields of human ignorance, It is a good thing for all involved when there is a wise judge who knows what it is like to be successful in his personal, family and business life. Then when he is given a responsible position in society, he knows what he is talking about when he makes a decision and passes judgment on a matter.
A casual reading of this chapter would make us think Job was a man full of himself and full of pride. Then after reading it with care we realize there is a point to be made that he gets to after. Even if he had made fun of others, or they made fun of him, they took it good because they knew he was not putting them down for their hurt. By talking about himself and his past life as he saw it, he established a position relating to his past happiness. This led into the sudden loss of everything and the pain and suffering he was going through at the present time, and why he was so confounded as to why all this happened so suddenly and without any known reason.