10/20/2024 Word Count – 402 Reading Time – 1.8 minutes

I was in a discussion with a friend and the story of Job came up. We both agreed that Job was subjected to harsh and unfair treatment when viewed in a narrow, short term perspective. I’ve pondered Job’s ordeal several times and even wrote a blog on it in one of the July 2024 posts at this site. But as I revisited my thoughts on this most recent consideration a new thought occurred to me. Was Job perhaps made for just this event? Did God, in His all knowing and all seeing, not bound by the constraints of time omniscience anticipate His confrontation with Satan and have a player in reserve who was just the right guy at just the right time to be put into the game for just this play? And was Job, in his fierce loyalty and unparalleled devotion to God the player who kept saying “put me in, coach”? Was Job, at least at the spiritual level, that combatant who was willing and eager to give his all for the good fight? Instead of focusing on the terrible injustice and monumental sacrifices made by the underserving and faithful Job should we be looking at his season of anguish and suffering as his moment of spiritual glory and recognition as a mighty warrior for God?

I don’t want to make this out to be a case for predestination. In my perspective there is a lot of grey area in the idea of predestination and I have not devoted enough thought to it to have a clear and solid position on that topic. However, I do believe that our existence on earth is a time of training in which we are tasked with developing our spiritual skillset and strength. I also believe that there are some among us who are more naturally adept at performing than others. I tend to view incidents that some could call acts of predestination for certain individuals as times when God takes advantage of an individual’s natural strengths and inclinations to encourage a certain outcome. Just as a coach might put in the receiver who is particularly adept at going deep, getting in the open, and pulling down the long bomb when the play calls for it, God may have a deep bench full of individuals with skills and desires that make them a good choice to gain advantage when the right opportunities come up.

In any case, the story of Job is, for me, another example of how the same scripture can keep revealing new lessons as we read it over and over.