THE LESSONS OF JOB

In Lecture 3 of Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith said that there are three things necessary 'in order that any rational or intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation':

1. The idea that God actually exists;
2.  A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes;
3.  An actual knowledge that the course of life he is pursuing is according to His will.

The Book of Job proves this teaching to be true. To exercise true faith and endure in faithfulness one must be convinced that God exists, know what He is like and be assured that his life is acceptable to Him. All three necessary attributes listed above are reflected in Job's life. When he proclaimed "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (19:25), he was basically bearing testimony of his existence. When he said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (13:15) he signified that he knew what God was like because you cannot trust someone who you do not know. He went on to prove this by his proclamation of God's power, greatness and strength (26:6-14).  Job also knew that the life he was living was according to God's will and this he proved by recounting his good deeds ((29:12-17) and by asserting his righteousness (27:2-6).

Job offers us many lessons for developing 'faith in God unto life and salvation'. There are many things we do not understand in this life, the whole point being that we need to live by faith. Because of modern day revelation we know the Plan of Salvation and that suffering is a part of that plan. We also know we need to suffer in order to become like the Saviour and sample a part of His suffering for us. The Book of Job in itself does not answer the question 'why does God permit suffering to come to His children' but rather 'how we should respond to that suffering'. It helps us see that faith enables us to believe in spite of our afflictions rather than because of our blessings. It is easy to believe when life is good but it takes faith to keep your head above the water when it threatens to engulf you in its' deep. Some of the lessons we can learn from Job are these:

• We can continue to be faithful to God in spite of our pain and lack of understanding thereof by adhering to these three things:  1. Integrity:  "As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.....till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live" (27:2-6);  2. Testimony: "Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (19:23:27); 3. Trust: "Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (13:13-15). Note that all these three Job had developed before his trials. It is far easier to survive in a house of brick when the winds come than in a house of straw. The stronger you are before the suffering comes upon you, the easier it will be to trust and hold on.

• When trials and suffering come upon us, we should not rely on man's wisdom to make sense of our suffering. Job's well meaning friends ended up being his accusers, accusing him falsely of sins he had never committed as they tried to offer explanations for his situation. "The purpose behind many tragic experiences can be learned only by personal revelation, and this usually comes to the aggrieved party rather than to a well-intentioned, self-appointed comforter" (John S. Tanner, "Has Thou Considered My Servant Job?" Ensign, Dec. 1990, p 49). We should likewise, refrain from offering explanations to others who are suffering as we do not know God's will for them. In our extremities, we should be proactive rather than re-active and in our seeking to understand God's will for us, we should ask the right questions: What am I to learn from this? What am I to change? What am I to do? When we are willing to submit in humility to the teaching moment the Lord is putting us through, we are in the strongest position to receive the maximum help from Him (Richard G. Scott, "Trust In the Lord", Ensign, Nov. 1995, p 17). God will ensure that mortality gives us what we lack. In Job's case, it was perfect faith (Job 42:5).

• From the failure of Job's comforters, we learn that the only true comfort must come from the Comforter himself. Job doesn't need his friends to solve the mystery of his suffering, he needs renewed witness that God has not forsaken him. This is what he craves the most. It is nice to have friends offer support in your time of need but the ultimate comfort and peace can only come from God. Even people who have experienced the same situation as you cannot fully relate to your circumstances as everyone is different and therefore everyone's response to the same situation is different. Only God knows your capabilities and the extent of your endurance. He is therefore the one we should turn to most during our duress. 

• It can prove to be a calamity of great proportion if our hearts are attached to the things of this world. When Job lost all his worldly goods his response was admirable: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21). In other words, nothing here is mine, it can be taken away just as well as it is given, it is all fleeting and we can take nothing with us when we leave. Job's attitude regarding the loss of temporal things reflects his righteousness and understanding of his total dependence on God. President Harold B. Lee spoke on the importance of being 'poor in spirit': "To be poor in spirit is to feel yourselves as the spiritually needy, even dependent upon the Lord for your clothes, your food, the air you breathe, your health, your life; realizing that no day should pass without fervent prayer of thanksgiving, for guidance and forgiveness and strength sufficient for each day's need.....It is indeed a sad thing for one, because of his wealth or learning or worldly position, to think himself independent of this spiritual need. It is the opposite of pride or self-conceit. To the worldly rich it is that 'he must possess his wealth as if he possessed it not' and be willing to say without regret, if he were suddenly to meet financial disaster, as did Job, 'the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord' (Job 1:21). Thus, if in your humility you sense your spiritual need, you are made ready for adoption into the 'church of the Firstborn', and to become 'the elect of God" (Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1975, pp 343-344). To some of us suffering may prove to be a blessing and prosperity a trial. Suffering can lead us to salvation whereas prosperity has the power to lead us to spiritual self-destruction. When we are prosperous we can easily be tempted to get complacent and forget the fountain of our blessings. Prosperity can also lead us into worldly paths where we can easily be lost. "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matt 16:26). We have to very clear on where our priorities lie and ensure that the power belongs to us and not to our riches.

• We live in a world of opposites and we have to accept the good and the bad. When things couldn't get any worse, Job's wife advised him to curse God and die but Job replied: "Thou speaketh as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10). Job understood that this world was not only created so the opposites can exist but so that they can be experienced. Brigham Young said: "Facts are made apparent to the human mind by their opposites. We find ourselves surrounded in this mortality by an almost endless combination of opposites, through which we must pass to gain experience and information to fit us for an eternal progression" (Journal of Discourses, 11:42). Elder Jeffrey R. Holland confirmed this fact: "....we now live in a fallen world filled with opposites, a world in which God is the most powerful but decidedly not the only spiritual influence. As part of the doctrine of opposition, Satan is also at work in the world, and we knew before we came here that he would bring grief and anguish with him. Nevertheless, we (through Adam and Eve) made the conscious choice to live in and endure this mortal sphere of opposition in all things, for only through such an experience was godly progress possible" (Bruce Satterfield, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth", Meridian Magazine). We can never know good if we do not experience evil and 'men are that they might have joy' could never be without our experience with sorrow. 

• Job showed great fortitude in his loyalty to God not only by his actions but words: "As God liveth, who had taken away my judgment; and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul; All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit" (Job 27:2-4). Early in Church history, Joseph Smith warned the Quorum of the Twelve that they and the rest of the Church membership will be called upon to undergo tests of loyalty and if they passed these tests they would receive great blessings. He said: "After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsty after righteousness. and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, "Son, thou shalt be exalted". When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p 150)

• By enduring suffering and trial Job has shown us that all who do so are always rewarded and blessed for their faithfulness. Under duress and extreme despair Job started wishing that he would die.In fact, he started wishing he was never born (Job 2:3). Undoubtedly he couldn't see the end of his suffering and might have presumed that he would continue to suffer until death. What Job did not foresee is that his life would take a turn for the better. This turn did come where 'the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning' (Job 42:12). Job lived another 140 years in prosperity and wellness after the trial of his faith. It is so with us. The end of the tunnel can never be seen when you are standing in it in darkness but the end is nevertheless there and we must endure the darkness before we can see the light. The challenge is to remain faithful at all cost, to trust and have faith that 'this too shall pass' and the dawn will come. In the meantime, we can lay claim to the only reward for righteousness that the Lord gives unfailingly and unreservedly and that is 'peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come' (D&C 59:23). "But even this peace must be found amid persecutions, not in their absence (John 14:27, John 15:20).