{"id":432,"date":"2008-11-07T10:15:28","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T15:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2008-11-07T10:15:28","modified_gmt":"2008-11-07T15:15:28","slug":"job-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Job Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was at the park over the weekend with my three daughters and we were playing on the swings. I noticed a man watching us play, and after a while, he came up to me and said, “It sure is obvious your girls love you.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Thinking it was an odd thing for a stranger to say, I cautiously replied, “Thanks?”<\/em><\/p>\n

He continued, “Aside from\u00a0giving them fun things to do here at the park, I bet\u00a0in this economy, you work hard to give them food, clothes, and a\u00a0roof over their heads.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yep.” Now I was getting suspicious. “I try to provide for them the best I can.” <\/em><\/p>\n

“Well, it’s obvious it is working. They adore you…”<\/em><\/p>\n

I was starting to get a little upset. “I don’t give them that stuff to\u00a0earn their love, but because I already love them. What are you trying to say?” <\/em><\/p>\n

“Well, I’m just saying that\u00a0I bet the\u00a0only reason they love you is because you have provided so much for them. I bet they wouldn’t love you as much if you took some of that stuff away,” he said in a rather haughty tone. “I dare you to take some of that good stuff away and see if they still love you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Now I understood. And I was actually somewhat intrigued by the idea.”Okay,” I said. “Let’s try it. First, I’m going to not give them dinner tonight, and then tomorrow, when they wake up, all their clothes will be gone. When they come downstairs to ask my wife for clothes and food, we will be gone. When they come outside to see if we are working in the yard, I will have the house rigged so it burns to the ground. I’ll have some food sitting out there, but I’ll put something in so that when they eat it, they will get very, very sick. Then, I’ll send some neighbors over to tell them that their mommy and daddy did all this to them because they did something bad and we are angry with them. I am so sure they love me, that even through all this, I bet they will continue to love me.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“I bet they won’t,” he retorted. <\/em><\/p>\n

“We’ll just have to see then, won’t we?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Job Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clearly, this story is fictional. I made it up<\/em>, so don’t turn me in to CPS. Any parent who agrees to do these sorts of things to their children should have their children taken away from them. It’s monstrous, and it made me cringe just to write it. I cannot imagine doing anything so cruel to my three girls.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to my Job problems. No, it is not problems with my job, but problems with\u00a0the premise of the Book of Job in the Bible. Have you ever read the opening chapters of the Book of Job? The opening chapters have God and Satan deciding to test Job’s love for God by taking away everything Job loves and\u00a0all he owns, and then have Job’s friends come and tell Job it is because God is punishing him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’m not surprised that\u00a0Satan suggests such a scheme. What surprises me is that\u00a0God so readily agrees to it! And furthermore, God never tells Job why <\/em>all this bad stuff happened to him.\u00a0Job\u00a0never finds out about this divine wager! God never tells\u00a0Job that he was a pawn in a cosmic game of “chicken.” At the end of the book, when Job finally gets to ask God “Why?” God basically says, “I’m God and you’re not, so don’t question me.”<\/p>\n

I understand that sometimes parents have to tell their children “Because I said so, that’s why!” or “Because I’m the parent!” but\u00a0such answers are not adequate explanations when the parent is abusing the child.<\/p>\n

People say, “Yeah, but God gave it all back!” But would any court in the country allow me to keep my daughters if I treated them as described above, and then at the end of it all, say, “Just kidding! Here’s more clothes and food and a bigger house! Now let’s get back to being a happy family!” I don’t think so.<\/p>\n

I am not trying to be irreverent or blasphemous, but I just have problems with how God treats Job. What am I not seeing? What am I not understanding?\u00a0<\/p>\n

(I am working on a possible solution to this Job Problem, which I will post later, but I want to see what you come up with first.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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