Job 1:20-21 - To His Glory

Job 1:20-21 (ESV)

[20] Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. [21] And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Job is described as “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1). By the end of the chapter Job has lost his livestock and his children. He is devastated, yet he replies, “Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job is the ultimate story revealing the truth that life is not about us (I don’t use the word “story” because I believe that it is fiction, but because it is told in narrative form). When we approach this story from the perspective that life is about family, then this story makes no sense. Yes, Job’s wealth is returned and increased in the end, but that is not really the point of the story. Yes, Job gets more children in the end, but the children that died are still dead. How do more children recompense for those he lost? It was never intended to. Life is not about Job. That is the lesson of the book. Life is not about us; it is about God.

God didn’t create in order to make us happy. Yes, he intended that we should find joy in his creation, but it wasn’t about us. He didn’t make us stewards of his creation for our benefit, but for his own glory. He didn’t save us for our benefit, but for his own glory. Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” He died in our place because of the joy set before him. We struggle with this. We expect that life should be about us. The very idea of being a person with self-awareness seems to suggest that life is about us. But self-awareness just makes our worship more meaningful. It doesn’t make us the point of creation.

Can a painting say to the painter, “I don’t like the way you shaded my flowers,” or “I prefer a different shade of color for my sky?” Of course not. The painting is not for the painting. The painting is for the glory of the painter and the good of those who will get to see it. A painting is never for the painting. Creation is never for the created thing. It is always about the creator. How can Job say, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:2)? Because he understands that life is not about him.

I fear not only that we have built a theology on the foundation of life being about us, but that we have trained a generation to believe that life is about them. The arguments I hear to excuse sin are almost always built in some shape or form around the idea that “God wants me to be happy.” Health and wealth theology is built around the idea that God wants us to be happy. Revival theology, on the other hand, was built on the idea that God can only be glorified through our own brokenness. Life is not about us. Revival and renewal can never happen as long as we pursue a faith that is about us and our happiness. We subtly fall into that thinking without even trying, and we have trained a generation to believe it without even thinking.

Maybe Satan learned something from dealing with Job. The way to turn people against God is not to take everything away from them. It is to convince them that life is about them. When they fall for that lie, it doesn’t take much to push them over the edge. It is time that we, as God’s creation, begin to think like created beings instead of creators. It is time that we realize that we are here for his glory. He is not here for our comfort. When we find our proper place, we find that we are surprised by the joy of being what we were created to be. When we continue to pursue for ourselves the glory due to the creator, we find only frustration and failure. When bad things happen do we respond, “Blessed be the name of the LORD,” or “Why me Lord?” Our response reveals our heart.