In Good Times and in Bad

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.” (Job 13:15-16 AV)

 

To not trust in God would be hypocrisy.  Job trusted in God when all things were well.  Now that things were against him, his faith is tested.  If he chooses to lose hope in God when things are difficult, then he was a hypocrite all along.  Job may have had his problems.  None of us would have borne up as well under the same set of circumstances.  Losing everything within a matter of days would send a normal person into serious PTSD.  Not Job.  He held his integrity fast.  He saw this trouble for what it was.  At least as far as his response to it.  He may have struggled for some greater purpose in the problems.  He may have attempted to understand the logic behind it all.  He may have sought wisdom from God a bit too aggressively.  But who wouldn’t?  In his statement above, he utters the very purpose for it all without letting what he just said to sink into his heart.  It was this integrity that was under assault by the Devil and it was this integrity that kept him sane and stable through it all.  If he loves God and blesses God in good times, he would be a hypocrite if he didn’t do so in bad times as well.  He knows that if his love and faithfulness are circumstantially driven, then he will not come before God.

Sports are all the rage.  At least they used to be.  People were loyal to their team to a fault.  I lived in western Kentucky and people there are avid UK and Cardinal fans.  Now I live in Wisconsin and almost everyone is a cheesehead.  There are avid fans.  And then there are fair-weather or band-wagon fans.  The avid fans will always root for their team no matter how they might be doing in any particular season.  And for good reason.  The above-mentioned teams have had relative success over the years.  If they have a bad year or two, or a bad decade, it doesn’t change anything.  They can always fall back on the successes of the past.  Yet, there are still those fans who remain in the background until their team is doing well.  They are often shunned by avid fans.  No respect at all even though the jersey may come out in the good years.  It doesn’t matter.  Those who paint themselves from head to toe no matter the season’s record doesn’t want to hang with those who only come to games when the team has a winning record.  They may even be a bit of disdain.  If they cannot support their teams in the bad years, then were they really fans, to begin with?

Crisis has a way of showing us what we are.  Not what we think we are.  We can observe Job’s reaction and his bout with depression, but no one can question his integrity.  He never wavered.  He was not going to lose faith in God no matter how hard things got or how much they did not make sense.  He was not going to sin with his lips.  This was Job.  He knew that if he backed out on God because life took an ugly turn, then he was a hypocrite all along.  He would not let that happen.  He was going to stick with God even though God had allowed very hard times.  No way was Job going to back out on a lifetime of experience with God simply because life was turned upside down.  Not him.  He was not a hypocrite.