This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text,

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

The book of Job wants to teach us wisdom—particularly,
how to think wisely about God, especially when we suffer.

The book introduces us to an innocent,
moral, and upright man named Job.

He has a large family, a massive amount of
wealth, and Job is careful not only to obey

God, but to also continually sacrifice
for the potential sins of his children.

And it’s then we are introduced to a heavenly
council meeting and a character called the Accuser.

God praises Job’s innocence and integrity.

But the Accuser suggests that Job is being moral
only because he’s after God’s rewards.

The Accuser accuses God
of mismanaging his universe.

He believes God’s policy of rewarding good behavior
means that Job’s morality is purely transactional.

The only reason Job
obeys is to get God’s stuff.

While rewarding good people and punishing bad
people might get God external and ritual obedience,

the Accuser believes it won’t
cause Job to bless or love God.

In fact, if God takes away Job's rewards,
the Accuser fully expects Job to curse God.

So, God allows the Accuser to put him and his
management of the universe on trial. If an innocent

Job suffers and curses God, the Accuser wins and
God’s policies are proven to be flawed.

So, God sends the Accuser to take
away everything good Job had been given.

God grants permission to
cover Job in open sores.

But despite the Accuser’s
predictions, Job refuses to curse God.

Instead, Job blesses him and recognizes that integrity and
innocence don’t always guarantee blessing.

But the trial of God’s management
of the universe has only just begun.

It’s easy for us to believe that God works
through some type of transactional system.

Suffering is caused because of our sin; health
and wealth are connected to our morality.

You even hear this thinking when TV personalities
try to explain things like wildfires and hurricanes

as the result of some
law passed by a nation.

Thinking of God transactionally in this way
can make us feel perpetually worried.

We’ll always be concerned God is just waiting to punish
us for some sin, some infraction, or some mistake.

We will always be suspicious that our suffering
is really God’s way of getting back at us.

So, we’ll either beat ourselves up to
prove God doesn’t need to punish us,

or we will resent God
for being so nitpicky.

This is exactly the dynamic the Accuser claims God has
instituted in the world and will cause Job to curse God.

But God is not transactional.

As Job says, God is good both
when he gives and takes away.

Blessing and suffering don’t operate according
to strict equations but divine wisdom.

The whole book of Job will explore
this idea, but Jesus proves it true.

God blesses us while we were still sinners.

Jesus died for our sins when our
bad deeds outweighed our good.

Jesus did not demand what he was transactionally owed by
his title as God’s son with his perfect life and sacrificial death.

Instead, he gave it up.

And through his death, everything that
belongs to God now belongs to us.

God does not rule his universe according to strict
transactions. He rules with lavish, loving,
and self-giving wisdom.

Like Job, we don’t need
to resent or curse God.

We can bless the one who took away our sin, gave
himself to us, and doesn’t give us what we deserve.

This is the first step in thinking wisely
about God, especially when we suffer.

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to
see the God who gives and takes away.

And may you see Jesus as the God whose life was
taken so that we may be given what we do not deserve.