Thoughts on Fear and Control in the Book of Job

I recently finished teaching a study of the book of Job and took away an interesting angle on fear and control.

“Job’s comforters” is a term referring to people who attempt to console but just make you feel worse when they’re done visiting.

Why did Job’s miserable friends treat him in such an awful way?

I think it has a lot to do with fear and control.

Of course they meant well

Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite all meant well. They traveled great distances when they learned of the horrific calamities which befell Job. The tragic list includes the loss of his home, livelihood, servants, money, prestige and all ten children in an exercise overseen by God.

When Satan taunted God that Job still had his health, God gave Satan permission to take that away as well–to the point of death but no further.

Job’s family’s catastrophe was profound.

His friends came to sit with Job in silence for seven days. The four men said nothing, simply grieved. I suspect this is where the Jewish concept of sitting shiva comes from.

But after a week of mourning for the loss of his children–children for whom Job had daily made a sacrifice lest they had sinned and not confessed it themselves–the friends felt they had reason to speak.

Even though Job’s exemplary behavior was famous throughout the region, they were convinced he must be hiding a secret sin for which God was punishing him in this over-the-top way.

None of the actors in the book of Job knew about the deal made between God and Satan (described in the opening chapters for the readers).

Their intentions the first seven days were good–they had come to comfort their friend. The rest of the book details how they sought their own comfort at Job’s expense.

Fear made them want to control?

If God could do this to Job, what could he do to them?

If they could figure out, force, Job to confess what dastardly sin he had committed for God to punish him in such a way, they could soothe their own fears because, well, they’d never do anything like that and thus they would be safe.

Right?

I don’t think so.

Such thoughts are mere superstition and that, definitely, is not at the core of the book of Job.

They wanted to calm their own fears by controlling God–because if they didn’t commit the same horrible sin, God would spare them, right?

How often do you see that in your own life?

Are our behaviors motivated by fear?

How often do we try to control events so we won’t be afraid?

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” Psalm 111:10 tells us, but the fear it refers to is not the knees-knocking, teeth-rattling fear that happens when we confront our worse nightmare.

The fear in this passage means reverence for God–the Creator of the Universe, the being who spun the planets across the universe while he put together the tiniest bits of DNA in your body. It means holding him in awe and honor.

If we begin there, believing the being who created us is to be awed and worshipped–as Job did–we can take our fears and worry to him to control.

Job argues throughout the book with his friends and God that he did nothing wrong. He did not deserve the nightmare that happened.

He’s correct. The terrors that befell him–and which he never explained, by the way–had everything to do with God’s purposes.

They didn’t have anything to do with Job’s actions or even the attitude of his heart.

God arrived

When God arrived after 36 chapters of mourning and debate, He pointed out He controlled the universe.

God fed the birds, put the oceans in their place and originated the concept of “greenhouse effect.”

He didn’t need to be scolded by Job and his friends for his decisions.

God chastised Job’s friends for their poor behavior and challenged Job on his attitude, but in the end, rewarded Job with a double portion of everything God had allowed Satan to take away.

(We don’t hear in this book what happens to Satan, but those who’ve read through Revelations know God wins).

While Job received back all his possession and more, his ten children did not rise from the dead.

That’s why I think this book’s ending is bittersweet.

Ten more children were born to Job and his wife; ten children were in heaven with God.

Job and his friend learned the hard way, they could not control God–no matter what fear tactic they used.

How often do we think we know more than God about how the universe should be run?  What inaccurate understandings about God has fear driven you to think?

Tweetables:

Thoughts on fear and control in Job. Click to tweet.

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How to insult God from Job’s POV. Click to tweet.