Job, a man prepared

Adversity tests a man like fire tests gold and silver (Proverbs 17:3) and like a whipping gale tests a building foundation (Matthew 7:24–27).

But as in the case of metals and houses, things of inferior and superior qualities may appear equally good in easy times. What I would like to suggest is that the time to see to preparation is not in the middle of the storm but before (as the five foolish virgins of parable discovered.

I was thinking of Job’s words—and his wife’s words—after waves of calamity hurled into their lives and their marriage. Mrs. Job said:

“Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9, ESV).

We had better be very careful of judging her, as if we would necessarily do better. This is a woman who just lost her property, her income, and her children. I know a man in Glenside who was speaking like Mrs. Job after a few nights of insomnia.

Note Job’s words after the same experience of loss:

“Shall we receive good things from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10, ESV)

I believe that Job did not come to this position after personal calamity but before. I believe he would have fallen, just like his wife, if he had not tended to the foundation of his soul earlier than the events narrated in Chapter 1.His statement is the statement of a man who has done some thinking in more pleasant times, and who came to a resolve when the cotton was high and the livin’ was easy. It is in the days when we can see and taste acutely the love of God that we best make resolution to remember these delights in a future trial.

This is in fact what Habakkuk appears to have done as well—this kind of preemptive soul-establishing and rooting of faith:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, not fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herds in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD” (Habakkuk 3:17–18, ESV).

To be settled in one’s spirit about the fact that a pleasant life is not guaranteed is to live a life that cannot be taken by surprise, a life that will not succumb to turning against God. The words of Job are deceptively easy to take on our lips. They are in fact the fruit of hours and days in his prayer closet. And courage is always private courage.