Q The Book of Job is a difficult read - and pretty dramatic. I've heard that many theologians don't even believe it's anything but a fictional narrative. The Doctrine & Covenants makes it clear that Job was real, and his experience was as well. How does Job's experience compare with that of Abraham? Why did the Savior mention Job in the particular scripture, and not Abraham, or Melchizedek, or Adam? What can we take from the book of Job and use in our daily lives?
A That Job was (and is) real is indeed confirmed in the Doctrine & Covenants. Job is one of the first names to come up when discussions turn to trials, but the fact is that countless individuals have undergone the tutelage of trial. In nearly all circumstances, we should avoid comparing trials with others. Though our difficult times may seem to be larger or smaller than those of the people around us, only God has the omniscience to appropriately compare crosses. In any case, each student in the Lord’s school receives custom lessons tailored for maximum growth.
The trial of Abraham was acute in poignancy and massive in its implications. Despite the Lord’s previous promise that through Isaac, Abraham’s dreams of a righteous posterity would be fulfilled; God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son. We could spend a long time listing the number of ways in which this event prefigures and symbolizes Christ, but that may be another post entirely. Abraham’s trial was just that… The Trial of Faith for Abraham.
In Doctrine and Covenants 121:10, Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail pouring out his heart in prayer for the arm of the Lord to be revealed in delivering the Saints. Joseph wonders “How long shall [the saints] suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions”? In answer to Joseph’s pleading prayer, the Lord responds: “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes… Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression…”
The trial(s) of Job were not more or less than that of Abraham (or Joseph Smith). The Trial of Faith for Job was as sufficient for Job as Abraham’s trial was for him. Job violently lost all of his worldly possessions, children, health, influence in the community, and his friends accused him of great sin and offered him no comfort. In fact, even his wife encouraged him to “Curse God and die”. One reason that I believe the Lord mentioned Job in section 121 and not Abraham (or anyone else) is that Job’s trial is easy for us to picture and relate to ourselves. The trial of Abraham involved much mental and emotional anguish and took Abraham to the edge of his faith; but we have no substantial record Abraham’s thoughts, or those of Isaac. We have only a sort of third person narrative. Job’s trial is a bit easier for us to understand and imagine. Because many of his trials were physical, we can imagine how it would feel. We can imagine what boils might feel like, or how it feels for loved ones to die. In addition, we have Job’s thoughts and actions during this time. Because of this, I think the Book of Job can be a powerful textbook while taking the class of ‘Submission and Suffering 5010’. It is a graduate level course, and effort has eternal rewards.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell warned of simply getting through trials instead of using them to purify and improve ourselves. He used these words: “Given the tremendous importance of these virtues now and in the world to come, should we be surprised if, to hasten the process, the Lord gives us, individually, the relevant and necessary clinical experiences? We do not usually seek these, however. Yet they seem to come, don't they, even when we do not remember having signed up for a particular course? Sometimes we find ourselves enrolled again in the same course. Apparently we were only auditing before; perhaps this time it can be for credit!”
When things seem to be going wrong in our lives, it can be due to three things. The first cause of trial is simply the fact that mortal life involves some stress and problems. A serious cause of many (too many) trials is our own choices and sins. Thirdly, there are times when our suffering is divinely prescribed. Neglecting to take full productive advantage of such times of difficulty can prevent us from receiving the spiritual antibiotics that counteract infectious iniquity in our lives. There is a something special about suffering through something that seems a little unfair, unearned, or undeserved that can purge a person of desire to sin like a wildfire through dry grass. When such righteous focus is used in difficult times, beautiful vistas become clearer to the spiritual eyes. When we simply complain through our trials, we may be doing little more than making ourselves miserable and worsening our spiritual astigmatisms. One friend of mine who is at home with the subject has said, “There are times when things are simply so overwhelming that all we can do is “get through” them. Most of the time, however, we can cut ourselves short. When we do have enough strength, because we have used our resources wisely, we can do so much more than “get through.”
In 3rd Nephi 11, the resurrected Christ came to the people in America and took as much time as was required for the multitude to come forth unto Him ‘one by one’. Our invitation is no different than theirs: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matt 16:24) Inherent in this verse is the concept that in order to follow The Master, we must take up our cross as he took up his. For “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Can we expect to learn true obedience in any other way?
Joseph Smith said, ''You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as Abraham and other men of God, God will feel after you, and He will take hold of and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God.” In another place he said, “When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth's sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life.”
What a hard doctrine! This may seem difficult, excessive and even unfair to us. But trial and suffering is a reverent path that is not spoken of often. While it does prove heart wrenching, difficult, and a little scary, we do it “That [we] may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings”. (Philipians 3:10)
Do you know anyone that feels their entire life has been one long miserable trial with no rewards, reasons or remunerations? President Brigham Young explained one possible reason this may occur. First, he notes that "As to trials, why bless your hearts, the man or woman who enjoys the spirit of our religion has no trials; but the man or woman who tries to live according to the Gospel of the Son of God, and at the same time clings to the spirit of the world, has trials and sorrows acute and keen, and that, too, continually." (Bolding is mine) Job 5:17 gives the following command: “…despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” for “happy is the man whom God correcteth.”
For me, one of the most comforting scriptures during overcast times is as follows: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son [or daughter] whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons… But if ye be without chastisement… then are ye bastards, and not sons. (Hebrews 12:7-8)
When we feel heavy trials pressing upon us and taking us to the edge of our faith and patience, we can know that God is thinking of us as His child. And “If [we], being evil, know how to give good gifts unto [our] children, how much more shall [our] Father which is in heaven give good things to [his children] that ask him?” (Matt 7:11)
Truly the road to a personal Golgotha, no matter how small, is a Holy walk.
In my own very limited experience with the divine tutoring of trial, I know that such times are bittersweet with blessings. I earlier mentioned a quote where Brigham Young spoke of trials, and I think there may be a deeper meaning in his statement that “the man or woman who enjoys the spirit of our religion has no trials”. I do not think he means by this that the suffering is not intense, that the anguish is not real, and that copious amounts of patience and faith are not required. Following about three months of battling a serious upper respiratory infection, I managed to obtain a prescription for third round of antibiotics that was much stronger than those taken previously. It was these antibiotics that would finally enable me to stop being sick. After I had been taking the medication for nearly two weeks out of the prescribed month, I found myself in a terrible Quinolone reaction. There are many symptoms caused by this very rare reaction, but the primary one is intractable joint pain. The irony of it all was not lost on me. I had severe pain for which I was prescribed medication, but the medication required me to eat. Unfortunately, I had canker sores that made chewing excruciating and a sore throat (from original sickness) that made swallowing what I had managed to chew very uncomfortable. Despite the amount of patience and waiting upon that Lord that was required, and despite the faith it took to continue living righteously in every way I could… I was physically miserable, but I have never felt more honored by the Lord. At the very end, after I had proven myself faithful (in my limited way) my blessings far outweighed my pain. The quantity and quality of the spirit which I enjoyed continually, more than compensated me for the 4-ish months that the trial had taken from me. Surely we should count ourselves blessed to be tutored by the Lord. In a small way, I felt a sense of loss at beginning to feel better. Truly there is a fellowship of suffering that deepens our understanding of what Christ took upon himself.
The scriptures can be a great wellspring of aid in anytime; but especially in times of suffering. Job gives us some passages that can teach us profound lessons. Firstly, Job showed us the proper way to react when trials, difficulties, and suffering come upon us. The first thing Job did was humble himself and worship God (Job 1:20). Then he said, “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.” (Job 1:21) Every day we can remember that the Lord is the source of all our blessings. Does He not also have the right to remove those blessings for our benefit? Job said it this way, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)
At the conclusion of our tests, hopefully the statements regarding Job will also be true of us. “In all this did not Job sin with his lips” and “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” (Job 1:22; 2:10)
Although speaking about a different topic, I think the words of e. e. cummings (adapted slightly) apply equally to the topic of trials. “And so my advice to all young people who wish to become [like God] is: do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world - unless you're not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die. Does that sound dismal? It isn't. It's the most wonderful life on Earth. Or so I feel.”
"Strengthen your faith; cast off your doubts, your sins, and all your unbelief; and nothing can prevent you from coming to God... We require as much to qualify us as did those who have gone before us... If the Savior in former days laid his hands upon his disciples, why not in latter days? ..." Parley P. Pratt
