No one said a
word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was (Job 2:13).
Why do bad things
happen to good people? That’s the basic question in Job. Theodicy is a
defense of God’s justice in spite of life’s onslaught of overwhelming evil.
This question has plagued mankind since... well, since the time of Job.
Retribution theology
can be summed up in the phrase: What goes around comes around. We read
this thinking in the book of Deuteronomy: Love the Lord your God . . . then
you will live and increase... But if your heart turns away . . . you will
certainly be destroyed (NIV 1984, Deuteronomy 30:16-18). We get the same
kind of thinking in the book of Proverbs: Whoever listens to me will live in
safety and be at ease, without fear of harm (Proverbs 1:33).
When Job lost
everything he had, he must have thought: “Wait! This isn’t supposed to
happen to me – I read Proverbs. I signed up for the extended warranty!”
But we all know bad
things do happen to good people, don’t we?
That’s why, even
though Job can at times get tedious, there’s something about these writings
that keeps bringing us back. It’s as if we can identify with Job, unlike some
of those Bible characters who are a little too good to be true. Haven’t we all
wanted to say to God at times, What gives?
TODAY’S MEDITATION
So you had a bad day. The
book of Job teaches us that bad things happen to good people and, when they
happen to us, we’re not alone. Pray through Psalm 23.
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