We all suffer and go through things that are beyond comprehension. One of the unique things about being a pastor is you end up hearing the things nobody else does: addictions, chronic health problems, betrayal, affairs, depression, abusive relationship, the death of a child, and so on. I’ve found that everyone seems to think that they are the only one with problems. It feels like everyone else is living their “Best Life Now” and you’re getting the raw deal. 

 

So when we read the book of Job we are tempted to think that Job’s story is unique. That somehow he’s the only guy in Scripture that went through difficult times. But what the Bible shows us is that everyone has a “Job Story”. The only difference is that we are given a lot more detail about Job’s story than we are with everyone else. It may be mentioned in just one verse, but that doesn’t mean it was any less painful or difficult for that person to go through. Consider just a handful of people in the Bible and what they went through.

  • Adam dealt with the pain of one son killing another son. After Cain killed Able he left home for good and never came back.
  • Abraham & Sarah unable to have kids until they were senior adults
  • Essau duped by his brother out of his inheritance
  • Jacobduped by Laben into marring the wrong girl after working for him for 7 years
  • Joseph, sold as a slave by his brothers, then falsely imprisoned for 14 years
  • Moses, separated from his mother at birth, forced to live in exile for 40 years than wandered the desert for another 40 years with people who blamed him for everything only to not get right up to the edge of the promised land and told he wasn’t allowed to go in to it. 
  • David, his life was a soap opera before soap operas were invented. As a youth he was told he would be king and everything was looking up until his world came crashing down, he forced to live in caves and the desert for many years. Dealt with the pain of having one of his sons rape one of his daughters, had another son murder the son that committed the rape, had another son lead a rebellion against him and force him out of his home and city and sleep with some of his wife.
  • John the Baptist, Jesus and all of the disciples were imprisoned and unjustly executed. John the Baptist in the midst of his “Job Story” even asked Jesus, “Are you the one or should we be looking for someone else.”
  • John was the only one of Jesus’ followers that was not to executed but he was forced to live in exile on a remote island for the remainder of his life separated from his family and friends. Having spent the better part of his life separated from everyone he loved by the ocean, is it any wonder that what he first noticed about heaven as recorded in Revelation 21:1, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
  • Stephen, James, and Paul and several others were all beaten and executed

And yet in spite of all of this, Satan whispers in our ear and says, “You’re the only one whose ever had to deal with something like this. God must be out to get you.” In the book of Job, those words come from the other people in Job’s life: his wife and friends. In my life Satan has rarely had to use other people to plant seeds of discouragement. His words of discouragment are voices in my own head that saying the same things that Job’s wife and friends said. Things like:

  • “Why don’t you just forget God and give up on life?” (Job 2:9)
  • “The reason all this is happening to you is because of something you did or didn’t do and God’s getting you back for it.” (Job 26:7-12)

We all have a “Job Story”. Jesus said it this way: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33) Before we can even begin to deal with our Job Story we must first realize that everyone has a Job Story.