If you ever want to be completely overwhelmed by God, blown away by His awesomeness, brought to your knees in reverence, or made to rest in His eternity-bearing arms, read the book of Job.
I know, I know. When you hear the name Job you immediately think if the poor man on the ash heap being tormented by Satan, surrounded by friends who do him very little good and a wife who's like vinegar on his sores.
All that is true in a sense. But there's a lot more to the book of Job than that.
The first interesting thing about Job is his name. It means "hated." The Hebrew word that is used, "lyowb", comes from a root word which means, "to be hostile to, to treat as an enemy." It interested me that God would show great and terrible power to and speak in person with a man that He named "Hated." But as I studied more, I saw it became a significant part of the story. God wasn't the one who hated Job, Satan was. God wasn't Job's enemy, Satan was. But why? Why did Satan hate Job more than any other person alive? One reason could be because God Himself commended Job saying, "there is none like him in all the earth."
What sort of man would God say that of? Who was this Job who drew such praise from Almighty God? There is a brief but powerful character description in the first few verses of the Book of Job.
The first word is (in the old King James Version), perfect. Some versions say blameless. The Hebrew word means, "complete, wholesome; a quiet ordinary sort of person," from a root word that means, "to be completed; to be consumed; to be completely crossed over." Hmmm. That's exactly what we as Christians are supposed to be like. Completed in Christ; no more need for the things of the world. Consumed with Him; no room for ourselves. Completely crossed over to the side of the Cross; no fence-sitting for Kingdom warriors.
The second characteristic is upright. In Hebrew it means, "correct, just, straightforward," from the root word that means, "to make right; to make straight." It reminds me of Hebrews 12:12 "...make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed." In Matthew, Jesus calls us to follow Him on the straight and narrow path of Godliness. Walking a straight way indicates a destination and a firmness of purpose that will not allow you to deviate or compromise.
The next one is he feared God. I've always struggled with this concept of fearing the One we call Father. As with many things in the Christian life, there seems to be a contradiction-- there is not. As it has been explained to me, to fear God is to reverence Him; "to be held in awe," as the Hebrew says. In theory it's comparatively simple but in practice, much more difficult. Because the character of God is so varied so must be our responses to Him. He is our Father Who loves us as His children. He is our Judge Who condemns us for our sin. He is our Creator Who knows every little thing about us. He is the High King of Heaven, the Ruler of all universes and as such we should fear Him in reverent awe. But just as I am a sister, daughter, friend, aunt, niece, etc., and I never cease to be one when I'm the other, so God never ceases in His other functions when He is revealing Himself to us in a certain way. The appropriate response to such a God should be awe and reverence.
The last characteristic God chose to have written about Job is that he shunned evil. Or "eschewed," as it says in the old King James. :) This Hebrew word means, "to depart, remove, dispose, reject." Job didn't just disapprove of evil or turn a blind eye to it, he actively opposed it. There is so much permissiveness on the part of Christians today. Political correctness and tolerance have worked their way into the Church so that what was sin is now called a "wrong choice." Too often I find myself on tottering on that gray line of permissiveness. But in God's eyes, sin is sin and it's ugly and horrible and He could strike us dead on the spot because of it. We as Christians are to hate sin as God does and actively reject and remove evil from our lives.
The consistency of the Bible is beautiful and holds me in awe of our God. Those few words in the Book of Job are exactly what the entire New Testament is about... just expanded... a lot. But it's the same message. From the same God.
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