Things I Learned from Job

Most people look for simple/quick answers to just about every life event. In the Book of Job, God presents the basic argument that life is too complicated for the simple answers we all seek. When we try to analyze our situations by looking to God for simple answers, we are most often asking Him for information, that if He gave it to us, we would never be able to understand. God is telling Job, and us, that He (God) is the only one who can deal with the trials that often come into our lives. Our role, at this point in any situation, is to trust God and continue to bring Him glory by our responses to the good and the bad. Although Job's life was filled with tragedy, he continued to "worship" God in those times. The Book of Job gives us a great picture of God's response to Job's faithfulness, "and Job died, and old man, and full of days" (Job 42:17, RSV). 

Human suffering continues to be a result of Satan's original challenge to the hierarchy God established in the beginning. Job, as far as we know while alive, was never given an answer for his suffering. Likewise, we will more than likely never have exhaustive answers to suffering we face in life. The lesson from Job is that there will be times of suffering and hardship in life and we will never have the total picture. Most of the time God will not reveal the "reason(s)" for the struggle, but our role is to trust His plan and to bring Him glory through our actions in those times of struggle. Our witness before a lost world often depends more on how we behave (actions) than what we say. 

Bottom Line:
We need to trust God's plan, because life is too complicated to handle alone.

Verba docent, exempla trahunt
"Words instruct, illustrations lead"

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Moses-Style Leadership

I’ve always found it fascinating that Solomon, the wisest king to ever rule Israel, understood the value of getting advice from other people. If God had already gifted him with wisdom, why did he pursue advice from others? It seems like it would have been appropriate for Solomon to say, “My wisdom and understanding comes directly from God. I will make decisions about my next steps based on that wisdom alone.”

The Moses Complex

There’s a dangerous trend I’m seeing in churches today that embraces this theology of leadership. I refer to it as the “Moses Complex.” In these environments, only the senior pastor can receive a vision from God and it only happens through a Mount Sinai-type experience.
In churches that embrace this theology, everyone waits for the pastor to receive a vision, and then all the staff “leaders” are responsible for executing the vision God gives the senior pastor.

The problem with this theology is that it discounts many passages of Scripture that offer contrary perspective on attaining wisdom. It’s based on broken theology and, in practice, it leads to an unhealthy and dysfunctional leadership culture.

Are you seeking advice from others?

Ironically, in the wisdom that God granted Solomon, the wisest man in the world understood the value of receiving advice from others. For example, Solomon offered:

• “Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more” (Proverbs 9:9).
• “Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers” (Proverbs 11:14).
• “Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others” (Proverbs 12:15).
• “Plans go wrong for the lack of advice; many advisers bring success” (Proverbs 15:22).
• “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life” (Proverbs 19:20).
• “Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice” (Proverbs 20:18).

God granted Solomon wisdom, and part of that wisdom from God was that we need to seek wise advice from others. That’s not how I would have handled that if I was God. If I was God, I would say, “Wisdom comes from me alone. Don’t listen to the advice of others.”