JOB’S CALAMITY

            And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD.” –Job 1:21

The book of Job deals with the issue of why the righteous suffer. A blameless and upright man, Job feared God and shunned evil all his life. But it did not spare him from great sufferings.

From Job’s calamity and his response, we can see that Job put God first and above his own family. Although he was in utter grief, he was able to endure and find comfort at the end of his trials because he had God. As long as we have God, there is nothing we cannot walk through. With Him in our lives, we will never lose what is the most important. Family and all our possessions are God-given, but God alone is the source of all things and our only unchanging foundation. Job’s realization of this allowed him to withstand such a calamity, so that he was able to acknowledge that the Lord gives and takes away. And whatever his circumstance, Job blessed the name of the Lord.

Job feared God and had a spirit of obedience towards the Lord. So even though he did not fully understand why he was suffering at first, he still accepted his lot and did not sin nor blame God. Likewise, as long as we fear God we will not leave Him and, if we wait patiently, we will see His will in our lives.

Job put his faith in God and, while he did not understand and as he questioned Him, God guided him and manifested His mercy and compassion by forgiving Job’s ignorance. God sees our hearts as He saw Job’s heart. As long as we have the right perspectives and priorities, God will help us find what we still lack to make us more perfect. Just like Job, we can grow to be more upright and blameless as we face our trials.

            Questions for reflection:

            1.  How was Job able to accept his calamity without fully understanding why he encountered such sufferings?
2.  How was Job’s faith proven through his sufferings?