A congregational study of the Book of Job. By Pastor Jose Luis
Session Four. Read Job 2, 9-10
Job is ill, poor, devastated, grieving for his family losses. Now his wife contemplating Job´s devastation expresses her own frustrations with these words:
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Not Job, but his spouse reacts as Satan had expected! She interprets the situation from the perspective of the frustrated and prostrated humanity: “maybe God doesn’t care of Job and humanity.” Here we face the challenge to answer what is called the “Theodicy,” that means: how we vindicate divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil.
If God is good, why all these evil and disgrace are happening? For Job´s wife a loving God cannot allow evil and suffering to take place in this world, if all these disgraces are happening God should not be good according to her theological interpretation.
Job answers: Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
For Job, God is sovereign. God is beyond our judgements. If there is an answer to the Theodicy, it needs to be found in the sovereignty of God. We need to find the answers to our disgraces and sufferings not in a theology of prosperity versus suffering, but in assuming that whatever we receive from God is always a mystery that needs to be interpreted.
In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (v.9)
How do you apply Job´s answer to this moment in your faith journey? Tell me your impressions. pastor@lcostampa.org