The existential crisis of Job: The search for meaning

The phrase " existential crisis" may sound deep and far fetched to you so lets use Job's story to set it up. Let's introduce Job, a wealthy man with kids who do what most rich kids do, they party. He has lots of land. Set up a large farm in your  mind and add some 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 1000 oxen  and 500 female donkeys. You need a lot of land to hold all those animals! He is a man with so much integrity that one book of the bible is dedicated to him. The question is why did he have so many trials? Everything went wrong in Job's life, yes e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. It all started with something he could not see in Job chapter 1. God boasts about Job and Satan tells God that the only reason Job serves him is because of the things God does for him.  His proposition is for God to let him , Satan, switch things around so that Job would curse God. God agrees but states that Satan cannot take Job's life.

                 Alas, Job loses everything, his kids, his wealth and his health. Job is struck with boils in chapter 2 and while he sits and mourns his fate, his wife who one would expect to provide some sympathy asks him to curse God and die. Rather than hope things would get better she decides it would be better if he just doesn't survive this. She says "do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" Job responds by telling her that her words are unwise and that he should accept adversity from God as well as blessings (Job 2 verse 9-10). Job does not know his adversity is not from God.
                Although Job does not curse God, he naturally is unhappy about his situation. He makes statements cursing the day he was born, in Job chapter 3. He even curses the moment of his conception! You can tell when reading this chapter that he is in a lot of agony. At this point he not only has lost his possessions, he has lost the heart of his wife and subsequently we see that he later loses the support of his close friends. I call them his close friends because they come to sit in silence with Job for days. Job 2:13 states that they "... sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no on spoke a word to him , for they saw his grief was great." They should probably have stayed silent instead of adding to Job's agony.  However, Job's friends  did not grant him a quiet environment for long.
           Job starts to ponder the meaning of life. He wails about the frailty of life. However, Job's friends respond by probing him to find out what sin he has committed that brought this great misfortune on him. Eliphaz says God does not trust angels "... how much more those who dwell in houses (bodies) of clay, whose foundations are in the dust , who are crushed like the moth " Job 4: 19. His friends make statements that seem pretty wise and knowledgeable. I found that some of their statements seemed so wise that I had to focus on the story line in order to not get distracted by their depth.  They prod and prod Job and insist that he needs to search deeper within himself for a fault that he has, an error he may have made that he had forgotten.  Do Job's friends remind you of anyone?
Human beings have the propensity to say things with assurance that we are not sure of . Sometimes we claim we know why someone is going through a particular situation when we do not actually have an answer. At other times we speak before we have the complete story.  Job responds by stating "I am become one who is a laughingstock to his friend; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him-a just, upright (blameless) man -laughed to scorn!" Job 12:4 AMPC . Although Job is distraught, he maintains his innocence and he gets to a point that he has to point out to his friends that he is not inferior to them ( Job 13:2 ). I like that Job did not totally lose his self confidence or his confidence in his relationship with God. He asks God some deep questions and God responds by pointing out the wonders of the universe, the intricacy of creation, asking Job questions he is not wise enough to answer. At this point Job stops questioning God . He is eventually restored and gets back double of everything he lost.
            The book of Job is considered a book of wisdom.  It presents questions that many ask without answers. Why do we have trials? Why do good people sometimes struggle? Is it okay to ask God "real tough questions" ? Does God want to know how we really feel? I like the honest conversation between God and Job because something about honest prayer makes a striking difference in my life, it brings peace more than just going through the motions.