THE SUM OF OUR FEARS

We all have those fears that grab us in our darker moments.

They are the things that could go wrong in our lives, but these fears also reflect what we hold most dear. For most of us, these would include things like the death of family members, loss of our own health, serious financial setbacks or uncertainty, loss of our place in our community, and even doubts about the sustainability of our faith.

All of these things happened to Job in quick succession.

Significantly, this is how we are introduced to Job.

He “was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” He had a large family. We are given a list of his wealth, assets, and household.

And just in case we are still unconvinced, we are offered this summary: “He was the greatest man among all the people of the East” (Job 1:2, 3).

Then, it is all taken away in a blunt seven-verse description of the tragedies that befall him in a single afternoon (see Job 1:13–19). Soon after, his health is attacked, and his wife is quick to call his God and his faith into question (see Job 2:7–9).

These circumstances, Job’s culpability, and God’s role in all of it become the topic of the next thirty-five chapters as Job wrestles with his sorrow, confusion, and anger while his sincere but less-than-helpful friends try to set him straight.

We wince with Job as he endures blow after blow because all his losses are our fears—if not also our current experiences. This is why Job’s story is important.

In his fear and dread, his suffering, and his urgent questions, there is so much with which we can identify. But the story of Job also gives us an insight beyond what Job was able to see—the argument between God and Satan that precipitated and perhaps necessitated Job’s trials. His suffering did not make sense to him, but it mattered in ways he could not imagine.