Job, because he was only seeing life from an earthly perspective, believed God had hedged him in, imprisoned him in his suffering. Jesus declared the very opposite: Freedom, recovery of sight, the oppressed freed; instead of living as though God had withdrawn his favour, Jesus promises that we will live in the Lord’s favour.
Job maintained his faith because of a lifetime of exercising that faith. Job was a man of prayer, a man of devotion, a man who practiced righteousness and when he failed in righteousness, he practiced repentance. This life of spiritual discipline enabled him to know that he was in a relationship with God where he was loved and valued.
Normally we think of judgement as a bad thing. We fear judgement, or we get angry at the prospect of being judged. But there’s real comfort in knowing that God will judge, even if that means he’s going to judge us because it shows that God is sovereign. He rules, he reigns; not all of the sin and consequences of sin that plague our world.
