{"id":444,"date":"2008-11-18T15:31:39","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=444"},"modified":"2011-03-31T15:42:58","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:42:58","slug":"job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion from the previous post<\/a>. These comments, along with several email comments I received,\u00a0have helped form my tentative solution over the next few days. This first post will simply provide some personal background for why I am asking these questions in the first place.<\/p>\n

Autobiography<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you have probably guessed, my questions about the book of Job are not purely academic. Many times during the past year, my wife and I have literally yelled\u00a0to God, saying “We are not Job!” I dread waking up in the morning, because\u00a0it seems the first question that pops into my mind is “How is my life going to get shredded today?”<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0people say, “Well, God must be disciplining you for something. Fix it, and life will get better.” Such people need to read the book of Job a little closer and see what God had to say about Job’s friends. Furthermore, people who believe that if you just “get right with God” then everything will be “peachy keen” are living in a fairytale land. In fact, if someones life is full of ease and comfort, I’d suggest that they are the ones who might need to “get right with God.” But I’m getting ahead of myself…<\/p>\n

Not everyone is like Job’s friends. Many people have been telling us to “just focus on the positive things.” We tried that, but it seemed that just when we started focusing on something positive in our lives, it got taken away from us too. I also noticed that\u00a0whenever I prayed for something, exactly the opposite happened. If I didn’t pray for something, but just hoped,\u00a0things turned out as I hoped. It seemed that praying for something or focusing on something positive caused these things to become targets for God’s\u00a0heavenly pea-shooter.<\/p>\n

I know that lots of people have gone through far worse than I have. And lots of well-meaning individuals tried to remind me of that not-so-encouraging fact. To the contrary, becoming aware of how terrible some people’s lives have turned only tends to surface the question, “What in the world is God doing?”<\/p>\n

This question brought me back to the book of Job. As stated in my previous post, I have always had\u00a0issues with\u00a0God’s treatment of Job in the book.\u00a0The opening chapters of the book of Job remind me of the movie Trading Spaces <\/em>where two rich, old men, in an attempt to answer the\u00a0“nature vs. nurture” debate, decide to gamble\u00a0with the\u00a0lives of two hapless victims for $1.<\/p>\n

So in an attempt to figure out what God might be trying to do in my own life, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the book of Job,\u00a0and the events\u00a0it describes. In my last post, I raised the\u00a0issue.\u00a0I want to\u00a0propose a possible solution, but as I wrote it, it became too long to\u00a0publish in one blog post,\u00a0so\u00a0I will spread it out over\u00a0the next couple days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion from the previous post. These comments, along with several email comments I received,\u00a0have helped form my tentative solution over the next few days. This first post will simply provide some personal background for why I am asking these questions in the first place. Autobiography As you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[12,19],"yoast_head":"\nJob Problems (Tentative) Solution - Part I<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution - Part I\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion from the previous post. These comments, along with several email comments I received,\u00a0have helped form my tentative solution over the next few days. This first post will simply provide some personal background for why I am asking these questions in the first place. Autobiography As you have […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Redeeming God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-18T20:31:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-31T19:42:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Mailchimp-Header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"182\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"headline\":\"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution – Part I\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-18T20:31:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-03-31T19:42:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\"},\"wordCount\":521,\"commentCount\":10,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"keywords\":[\"Bible Study\",\"Discipleship\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\",\"name\":\"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution - Part I\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-18T20:31:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-03-31T19:42:58+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution – Part I\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\",\"name\":\"Redeeming God\",\"description\":\"Liberating you from bad ideas about God\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Myers\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution - Part I","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution - Part I","og_description":"Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion from the previous post. These comments, along with several email comments I received,\u00a0have helped form my tentative solution over the next few days. This first post will simply provide some personal background for why I am asking these questions in the first place. Autobiography As you have […]","og_url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/","og_site_name":"Redeeming God","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_published_time":"2008-11-18T20:31:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-03-31T19:42:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":562,"height":182,"url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Mailchimp-Header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeremy Myers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@redeeminggod","twitter_site":"@redeeminggod","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Myers","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Myers","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"headline":"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution – Part I","datePublished":"2008-11-18T20:31:39+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-31T19:42:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/"},"wordCount":521,"commentCount":10,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"keywords":["Bible Study","Discipleship"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/","name":"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution - Part I","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-18T20:31:39+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-31T19:42:58+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/job-problems-tentative-solution-part-i\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Job Problems (Tentative) Solution – Part I"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/","name":"Redeeming God","description":"Liberating you from bad ideas about God","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c","name":"Jeremy Myers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeremy Myers"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}