Once upon a time, in the land of Uz, there lived a man whose name was Job. He was an extremely pious man, “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”, habitually offering burnt offerings as a pardon for the sins of his sons and daughters.

One day, God asks Satan of his opinion of Job, an apparently pious man. Satan (which means “the accuser” or “the adversary” in Hebrew) replied that Job was pious only because of his prosperity. God hence gave Satan permission to strike Job with calamity to test his piety. Consequently, Job lost his possessions and family and was inflicted with boils.

I think Job is the true epitome of what “With Christ in the vessel we can smile in the storm” means! Even when he is racked with pain and misery, and when all his friends and his wife tell him to “curse God, and die”, he does not, replying instead, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Very often we fall into the trap of being fair weather Christians – we revel in and accept God when He showers us with blessings. But once we meet small setbacks in our walk with Christ, our first reaction are often to complain or to stop in our tracks or retreat from this setback.

Though Job was severely afflicted, he never once complained against God. He really set an example for us in faith and piety – in turn, we should ask ourselves: To what extent will we defend God’s word and our identity in Him? When our worldly possessions are stripped away, will we still continue to serve Him?

Sometimes we hear people say, I will serve God when I have more time/money etc. but well, serving God should not depend on the approval of our worldly circumstances! As the Creator he has freedom of control over his creation; God does not require our approval. Yet he allows us to make our own choices. So yup, make the right choice!

In his period of testing, only three friends visited him: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. They argued that Job must have sinned and therefore must deserve his misfortune.

This argument is based on the theological assumption that God always rewards good and punishes evil with no apparent exceptions allowed. In other words, in the view of theology, God awards karmic points. But no, this is not true! We must not forget that God’s ways are higher and more mysterious ways than ours; we cannot use human measurements of justice to perceive them.

This happens because the three friends have forgotten God’s sovereignty, righteousness and gracious mercy. They use their own human reasoning to “reason” out Job’s “just” or “deserving” punishment for his wrongdoings, misrepresenting God’s righteousness and discrediting his loving character – as Job says, “how can a mortal be righteous before God?” – God sees all our misdoings and flaws; if God was really an “eye-for-an-eye” God, then all of us, being sinners, should be inflicted with calamities throughout our lives. Instead, God chooses to forgive us and shower us with blessings out of love. [1 Corin 13:5].

In the end, Job is restored to health, wealth (with double the riches of before), and familial bliss. He has 7 sons and 3 daughters (who are the most beautiful of the land), and lives another 140 years to see his children to the 4th generation before dying peacefully at an old age. So yup! In Job we see the example of how a child of God could remain so faithful to God despite his circumstances (which are so much more severe than the mild setbacks we face in life today!) and how, through his faith, he persevered to experience God’s happy ending for him.

So whenever you meet downturns in your life, think of this victorious story of Job and know that, with faith, God’s unique happy ending for you will come true! :)