"He is blameless"

I've been doing some reading in Job recently. There are two main thoughts and perspectives I have on it, this is one. This one is about Job himself. The Almighty Himself said of Job "He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless - a man of compete integrity." When The All Knowing Himself says that of you, it really means something.

Why did The Almighty say this of him? Because Job sought the Lord with all his heart. He had complete and utter faith, to an extent I can't even understand; though I would like to emulate it. I would just hope that I can avoid the great trials Job went though... but without those I would never know if I was that faithful. Scary thought...

At first, Job shows what seems to be the faith that anyone can show. He is very rich and famous, so the Devil says (paraphrased) "of course he has such great faith! Look at all of his blessings". That is why I have faith right now too, because I have blessings. This easy time is drawing me closer to the Creator, in preperation for the trials I know are ahead. However, Christianity today seems to promise only these blessings. It does not prepare anyone with the faith required when the blessings are taken away, and curses rain down upon us.

I hear estimates that Job was around 60-70 years old in the beginning of the story. He was known worldwide (literally, all around the globe) as a very rich, wise, and Godly man. No one could find fault with him. Then the trials came.

I don't want to repeat the entire story here because I'm talking about my views on the story, if you don't know the story go read it. It's in the book called "Job". Almost directly in the middle of the Bible.

Long story short, The Almighty tells The Enemy that the only thing he cannot do is kill Job. That was the one thing requirement in the final phase of Job's testing. Job had already lost his riches, his family, his friends, everything. Even a few "friends" of his who had traveled from locations possibly all over the world to meet with him, weren't all that encouraging. They insisted that he had done something wrong and this was punishment. Yet, The All Knowing called him blameless. They did not know this, but we do.

Job's former friends and even wife had told him to curse the Lord and die. Job refused. It got to the point that Job was stratching the boils covering his entire body with broken pottery. He had a terrible sickness and was lying in ashes with no one to help him. He was even being told that this was because of his sin. Yet he knew otherwise.

Think about it. The Almighty told The Devil that the one and only thing he could not do to Job was kill him. Satan took full advantage of that as well. I can hardly wrap my mind around that. Most of us, including me, complain when we are low on money, or food, or have someone cursing God, or something else like that. With Job, The Enemy could do anything he wanted, except kill him. I can't just stop reiterating this! As I said, it just blows my mind! Not that this happened to Job, but what Job did inspite of this. Or, I should say, what he didn't do. The Enemy was simply trying to make Job curse The Lord one single time. Even when he was allowed to do whatever he wanted to torture Job, he couldn't break him.

Oh, one other interesting twist. Most Christians today know that whatever hardship they go through will be rewarded with the gift of Heaven once they die. Job didn't know that. He thought that when you died, you died and that's it. Or at least that seems to be how he understood it. Yet, when he was suffering the worst that the Enemy could throw at him, he simply trusted the Almighty. A simple, child like faith. I can't comprehend it! He did not know why this was happening, when it would end, or what would happen next. He thought that the Lord had turned away from him, he believed that it was The Lord Himself tormenting him! Yet he did not break.

Job would have considered it worth to simply die from all this torture in faithful service to the Creator, even though he didn't know that he would live in perfect Paradise with Him. Job would rather go through all of this torment, trial and pain while staying faithful to the Lord and then simply cease existing when he died, then he would to reject his Creator.

I am having a hard time finding a way to put enough emphasis on this. Job did not know why his children were dead, riches stolen or destroyed, why his wife left him, or why the Creator had seemed to reject him. He did not know that the Almighty was allowing the Enemy to test him. He did not know that if he died he would get to live with the Creator. He did not know that when the trials were done, he would be given twice of everything he had before. He just simply wanted to die and cease to exist to get away from all this pain without reward, and cursing the Lord was not an option.

I have run out of words for now. I can't even remember if I explained my original point. This is just something that has been boggling my mind.