Job

I have been reading through the book of Job lately and it has confronted me with a few issues:

1) Job thoroughly expresses the darkest possible human emotions from a completely spiritual viewpoint. In college it was always tough for me to express the negatives of life because of belief that those down times were colored by a lack of faith rather than hope in God. While unbridled pessimism is a lack of faith, complete and utter honesty shown by Job's laments are as spiritual as the exalted praise towards the end of the book. Job didn't start being "spiritual" in chapter 38, he is spiritual from chapter 1. We shouldn't be afraid to honestly pour our hearts out before God in prayer during those times when we are laid low in the dust before God....but this brings up

2) Job was very righteous. Therein lies the conflict, when I "bellyache and complain" before God, I cannot stand on my integrity the way Job does. Does that mean the book of Job is something alien to Christian experience, and therefore unusable in life? No, and for two reasons. I. Job is a picture of Christ righteously suffering the wrath of God at the behest of the enemy in complete submission and obedience. Christ is the fulfillment that Job is pointing towards. There is suffering not linked to sin, yet it is still from God's hand. God works with good and evil, yet always for our good as Romans 8:28-30 assures us. II. Through Christ, though we bear the consequences of our sinful actions, we are not condemned by our sinful state. There is a sense in which Job's laments, through Christ, can become our laments. We may bear the pain of our own sins, yet as Job longed for God to deal with Him fairly due to his integrity, we can plead for God on the basis of Christ's integrity.

3) The book confronts us with the angst Job experiences because there is no mediator between God and himself. In his mind, there is no one who may take his claim before God. Job is alienated from God and His blessing in his mind, yet he is very comfortable with his integrity; whereas a Christian is communing with God, yet our righteousness seems so alien. Our pole of relation is completely the opposite of Job's it would seem. He knows his righteousness, he is at odds of his God. We know our God, we are at odds with our righteousness. Here's where Christ comes in, He knows God, He knows His righteousness. The one who suffers wrongly, suffers only in line with what Christ has suffered. The one who is blessed undeservedly, is blessed in line with what Christ has suffered. All suffering, and all blessing, passes through nail-scarred hands to the saints of God. He is the mediator for all events, the filter as it were, through which all events become encased in grace: whether they are ill or fair, they are for our eternal good because of Christ, who purchased these things for us by His death.