Reflections on Job - 1 - Overview

Job tells a story of universal personal pain. Everyone experiences pain, but our responses to it vary. Job's response is one I always want to remember, because Job knew God was there and he never forgot it.

I just purchased a new Bible - the 1999 NASB version (replacing an earlier version) coupled with Zondervan Study Notes. The NASB and the NLT are my all-time favorite versions of the Bible: The NASB because it is a traditional word-for-word translation in modern language and the NLT because it is a word-for-word and then a thought-by-thought translation in my language. My NLT version is the Life Application version, a version I fell in love with from the first words I read. I have used it almost exclusively since I first purchased it, not long after it was originally published. Only recently have I begun to long for my old friend, the NASB, and now I use them side by side,

The NASB-Zondervan ends Job with this explanation:

Despite Job's mistakes in word and attitude while he suffered, he is now commended and the counselors are rebuked. Why? Because even in his rage, even when he challenged God, he was determined to speak honestly before him. The counselors, on the other hand, mouthed many correct and often beautiful creedal statements, but without living knowledge of the God they claimed to honor. Job spoke to God; they only spoke about God...

The words that spoke most loudly to me are in bold. Oh, that I should remember this always. The difference tells what one's relationship to God represents - a God who knows us versus a God we only know about.

Lord, however I perceive my pain, whatever I perceive my pain is, teach me to bring it to you directly - not to my friends, not to my inner self, but let me bring it to you and keep my eyes on you. Teach me to be more like Job.