Abraham & Job

by

The Rev’d Fr. Michael Shier, SSC

"There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job." Thus begins the saga of the Patience of Job. Job is the righteous man who endured terrible sufferings. As Abraham is the example of the righteous Jew, so Job is the example of the righteous Gentile. As it was recorded of Abraham that he pleased God, so Job has the lord's own testimony that this man hath done nothing amiss, "a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil -- him will I accept." Abraham is acceptable because of his faith, Job because of his integrity.

          What do we mean when we say a man is a man of integrity. That he sticks to his principles. Yes - Job's integrity means that he is true to himself. That's what annoys his comforters. But there's more. His wife is annoyed too. 'Why doesn't he face facts. Curse God and die.' She at least recognises that his integrity is not founded on himself but on somebody beyond himself - on God. The basis of his integrity is loyalty, loyalty to God: that is what makes him the man he is, that is the secret of his dignity and his consistency. God is to be blessed and trusted whatever happens and however discouraging the circumstances.

          The integrity of Job is much like the faith of Abraham. Abraham rests on God's word of promise, Job rests on God's sovereign goodness - God is to be worshipped and blessed whatever he sends, whether it appear to be good or evil.

          Satan, of course, maintains that it is easy to bless God as the author and giver of all things, if good things are all you have ever received from him. Satan asks; "Doth Job serve God for naught. Hast thou not put a protective hedge around him. Thou has blessed the work of his hands. But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath and he will renounce thee to thy face." God allows the terrible challenge to be made and Job is handed over for the destruction of the flesh. You know the sequel. Job, like the starving Sudanese, barely alive, retains his integrity still blessing God. "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return. The lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the lord."

          This testing of Job reminds us of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac on Mt Moriah. This also nearly ends in death. It is also a real testing. What God commands seems to be utterly absurd and irrational. Abraham has been given his only son Isaac, miraculously, the son of promise, specifically so that he may become the father of many nations. Yet now he is commanded to offer the boy as a burnt sacrifice before he has even reached puberty. Nevertheless he obeys. "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

          The moral, if you like to call it that, of both these sagas is that man receives all that he has as a gift from God, and must be willing to surrender it all to God again, gladly and willingly whenever God wills. The faith of Abraham and the integrity of Job consist in their awareness of their utter dependence on God and their willingness that it should be so.

          And so the final and complete culmination of the faith of Abraham and the integrity of Job must be a willing death, a willingness to surrender everything to God, to let everything go, even life itself, with no guarantee of a return, of a resurrection, except the promises and goodness of God.

          St Gregory the Great thought Job was the spitting image of Christ. Job brings home to us the manner of our Lord's victory over Satan, not by power but by humble obedience and suffering. Job and Abraham should be seen together, as two side of the one coin. On the one side Job himself - an offering delivered over to the Devil as the price of righteousness. On the other side Abraham - an offering delivered up to God as an acceptable sacrifice.

          They bring home the manner of Our Lord's sacrifice: who is both the price of righteousness and the acceptable offering, delivered up by Judas and yet freely laying down his own life.

          Yes a price is paid. But Satan was fooled and Judas should have known that he would be fooled too. 30 pieces of silver turned bloody in his conscience and he went out and hanged himself. The book of Job shews us Satan losing all credibility as an agent of Justice. The aweful idea that all suffering and disaster are a consequence of God's wrath and a penalty for sin go out of the window.

          Satan is cut down to size in the book of Job. like Judas he turns out to be a creep. And Job is proved right. His sufferings are not a penalty for sin. They do not proceed from anger. They proceed from love. As with Our Lord, the purpose is that Job's integrity be manifested, and not only manifested but matured and brought to perfection. Job like the Saviour learned obedience by the things that he suffered, not in the sense of progressing from disobedience to obedience, but in the sense of progressing from immature, untried, obedience to obedience tried and tested, matured and perfected to the uttermost. By suffering, Job becomes more perfectly Job than he was before, and this to the glory of god that God may be glorified in his saints.

          Christ restores man's integrity through chastisement rather than by bearing the brunt of a divine curse. His sufferings are not penalties. They are chastenings. And these chastenings are to be shared in by all his members. We co operate in our redemption and the victory of Christ is to be won over and over again. Every Christian must be another Christ, that is another Job. As St Peter says, we are armed with the mind of Christ. Therefore we are to take the tribulations of the world, the sufferings of the flesh, and the malicious afflictions of the Devil as something thankworthy, as divine chastisements, which, if we receive them with the mind of Christ, will conform us to the image of Christ ... deepen our faith, actualise our penitence, restore our integrity, that we may be true men and women to the praise and glory of God whose handiwork we are.