Job lost his 500 oxen, 500 female donkeys, vary many servants, and his sons and daughters all on the same day. Job had everything beside his wife stripped from him.
His response?
Job tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped the Lord.
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” Job 2:10b
Job was not denying his pain – tearing his robe and shaving his head were significant representation of grief; however, he brought his grief to the Lord and chose not to sin.
So what is Sin?
Tim Keller puts it well:
Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated virtually nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors can be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge (Prodigal God page 43).
While Job was in tremendous pain he chose to still worship God instead of lashing out in anger and bitterness. Anger and bitterness is communicating that God does not have control and he does not know what he is doing. Job chose not put himself as God and say I know a better way. He simply brought his brokenness to God.
As I am personally wrestling through a challenge it is easy to want to play God, ask why, and be bitter. I am reminded by Job to trust that God does have a plan and that I am called to say, “Lord, you are good and you are the giver of good things – even if they are hard – I give you the situation and my brokenness.”
Sixty-six books in a year 