Dad Devotional Day 30

Wandering in Darkness

The Book of Job

There are great dads, there are bad dads, and then there are all of us.  We try our best to read the Bible, take our family to church, and not lose our temper the rest of the time.  I knew this journey reading through the Bible would eventually lead my son and me into the valley of Job. And I would have to navigate our way through the oldest book of the Bible.  Honestly, just between you and me. This scared the crap out of me.  Not because of the heavy subject matter or God throwing down a divine gauntlet, but because there are 41 chapters of which 38 are confusing ancient poetry.  If “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16); He ate some rank garlic before He spoke this one. 

A bit of background may help to put us all on the same page.  The book of Job opens in a land far away with a very righteous and successful man.  He has a large family and is so God fearing, he even offers sacrifices just-in-case his children sin and offend God.  Then one day in Heaven, as all the angels and God are hanging out; in walks Satan and God starts bragging about this guy Job.  Undeterred, Satan says, “Sure, he worships you; he has a good life and big family!” God tells Satan to take it all away and the game is on.  Stripped of everything except his health and wife, Job still remains faithful.  The next time Satan shows up in Heaven, God basically yells, “Scoreboard!” Satan replies, “Yeah, but he still has his health.”  Which leads to Job sitting in dirt, covered in boils, wondering what he did to deserve this.  The following 38 chapters of the book, Job argues back and forth with his three friends about his innocence until God finally appears in a thunderstorm.  God tells Job, “I’m God and you’re not.” and then restores all of his possessions.  The End. 

This is the story that most people know, but my son and I are planning on spending a month reading through all the stuff in the middle.  Discussing my fears with my brother-in-law, he pointed out that sometimes the process is the purpose.  With this in mind, my son and I plunged into the confusingly dark world of Job.  Many mornings we would read a chapter, grasping for the slightest bit of understanding.  Sometimes, when it seemed to make sense, the next chapter would throw us back into confusion.  It went on like this for thirty days.  “Am I wasting our time? Is this kid even getting anything? Maybe I could fast forward to the end?” I asked myself.  My only hope lay in finishing it someday and God providing a lesson through all this pain. 

About half way through, I began to reflect on my role as a father.  What gives a father’s words value?  Sure, I am older.  I have seen more of life.  And presumably, I love my son more than anyone else.  But why should he listen?  Then, the point of Job’s story struck me.  The currency of a father are his actions.  My words only have value when my actions impart them value.  Each day that we sat there struggling is a day that I lived out fortitude.

In a beautiful way, even though we sat there together in our confusion, we were not alone.  We were sitting with Job in his confusion, wondering what in the world God is doing?  I cannot tell you about the debates between Job and his friends or any deep theological truths.  All I can say is that the three of us sat there together looking for God.

Being a dad is not about providing top schooling or telling your son to go to church on Sundays.  It is about continuing to learn and lean into Christ myself.  Only because of my own actions should my son listen and follow my instructions.  Which is exactly why Christians call God our “Father”.  He descended from his seat in Heaven to become man. He acted out His ministry, died on a cross and gave His words eternal value.