Sovereign grace and Job

I love Job! In today's reading in our Chronological Reading Plan, after absolutely devastating

calamity befalls Job, his friends show up. And good friends they are! They agreed to go to Job to show him "sympathy and comfort" (Job 2:11), then sat on the ground with him for seven days!

They want to counsel him and help him. Job utters a beautiful prayer (sings a song?) ruing the day he was born but not blaming God. He is suffering in his circumstances but not angry at God. 

Eliphaz tries to counsel Job, telling him innocent people don't suffer this way (Job 4:7-9). Then Eliphaz drops the bomb, "...For He (God) wounds but He binds up..." (Job 5:18). Clearly, in Eliphaz's mind, God is the one who has inflicted all this on Job! God is punishing Job!

We have to be careful not to make the same mistake Eliphaz makes, not to assume we know what is happening in the heavenlies based on what we perceive here on earth. We have to be doubly careful not to judge someone by their circumstances, assuming they are not good people or have sinned because something bad has happened to them, judging them by their outward appearance and circumstances rather than by their heart.

What Eliphaz does not know is that Job is a "blameless and upright man", declared so by God Himself, twice, once before the calamity strikes (Job 1:8) and again after it (Job 2:3). God has allowed Satan to subject Job to an extreme ordeal (Job 1:12, 2:6). Satan is subject to God's sovereign authority. But it is not by God's hand that Job is wounded. God will use Satan's attack to refine Job, draw him closer. But, God is not the punisher. Ultimately, toward the end of the book, we will see that God is the giver of grace and mercy.

One of the great lessons of Job is that God promises to use

everything in our life to bring us closer to Him (Rom 8:28). He does not punish those whom He has declared just, blameless and upright (Rom 5:8-9), people like Job....people like those who have been made righteous by the righteousness of His only Son...people like those who truly believe...people like us. Christ has already received our punishment. God's wrath has been fully vented on Him. 

We may endure hardship and pain. It is not a sign that we are being punished. Indeed, God is still loving us, still with us, still using our trials to draw us deeper. What amazing grace! What an incredible God! Even the calamity in our lives is subject to His sovereign grace and holy wisdom!