The Ministry of Inference

10.25.13

Job 16.12 12 “I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target...” – Job (ESV)

I have labored for years under the misconception that Job spoke the truth and his friends, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad spoke error. I’m wrong. There I said it, I’m wrong. Now, lest you think I think I speak the truth and the characters in the book are wrong, then I would say you are wrong. I read Job’s account and I find a very different conversation going on than what I previously determined was going on – I think they all had their closely held opinions of who God is and what God does, but I think they, like us, attempt to tackle the understanding of the Almighty with feeble human understanding.

This time through Job, I think God is truth, and speaks the truth, and we men are at various places of understanding with regard to that truth and some understand more than others but like Job and his friends, we tend to filter God through our own day-to-day lives and then when we get to church we turn up the preening a notch or two so that others may think we have a firmer grasp of the truth than we actually do. (Sigh)

Here’s where I think I am wrong, or have gone wrong. In Job 1.8 we read: And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Part of Scripture reading is what I would term: the Ministry of Inference. (Or the foolishness of jumping to conclusions.)

What is inferred here is not that Job spoke the truth, but that Job pleased the Lord; and God considered him His servant. What Job did and how he lived is what pleased God. I think we can infer from the above that Job lived a God-conscious life. In the subsequent narrative we can infer that God basically said to Satan, Go ahead, do your worst, but Job will still stick with Me!

What I cannot infer that God’s view of Job made Job any better or worse than anyone else. What I can infer is that somehow in this narrative, Job’s life was pleasing to God and that Job wasn’t a Jew, and Job didn’t quote Scripture or declare himself God’s man. I can infer that Job lived his day-to-day life understanding the reality and presence of God. But I cannot infer that God’s pleasure made Job smarter or truth-ier than anyone else.

Here’s what I can infer from what I read today: Job wasn’t ready for his life to become a train-wreck. Nor am I. Nor are you. Stuff happens and our permission isn’t sought. But in the midst of our train-wreck, can we believe we are pleasing to God? Or do we jump to conclusions that God is somehow mad at us and punishing us unfairly? I think God wants us to believe we are pleasing to Him. Just sayin’…

Father, like Job I have no control over any conversations You have with anyone within or without my realm. All I know is that You have told me in Your word and I have inferred that You love me without question. If I, in my ease, am struck with calamity today, then I have no choice but to believe You love me – You always have and always will. So help me to correctly infer what it is You are really saying to me so that I can help others in that regard as well – Amen.