Spiritual smelting

I've really enjoyed reading y'all's notes on the Bible so far, and I've been meaning to write something, but Job, for me, is a really difficult book to connect with or even to think about. I think it's pretty incredible that God has included a book in the Bible that basically asks the question, "Am I really good?", and leaves us to sort it out for forty-two chapters. Today, Job said, "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit. I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live" (27:1-6). Job lived his whole life before this blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil. He dedicated his resources to the good of others. He served as priest for his family, offering sacrifices to cover them just in case they had sinned. How many years had he done this? Enough for each of his children to be grown enough to have a house. His reputation in front of God was the same as his reputation in front of people, and then one day, everything disappeared. The richest man in the east lost all of his flocks; the loving father lost all of his children. Eventually, he couldn't even say, "Well, at least I still have my health," and then his wife told him she wanted him to die, and his friends who should have been his supports systematically attacked him, Bildad especially with blistering accusations. He had refused to speak ill of God through incredible loss, and only the sustained pressure of false comforters goaded him to the extent that he justified himself over God, "who has denied me justice...."

Some things stick out to me here. How much adversity did it take for false views of God to surface in Job's life? I think his statement in 23:10 is significant: "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold." Whether or not Job was entirely aware of his statement, it nevertheless rings true. In this cauldron of suffering, God melted Job until the dross rose to the surface. By the end of the book, he does come forth as gold. This is amazing to me; Job had to undergo the loss of every earthly delight before his dross came forth. It takes very little pressure to bring mine forth (when He has tested me, I will come forth as pewter?). What Job knew about God, he knew from personal experience and from probably only the first eleven chapters of Genesis. I have the whole Bible. I have Job's whole story; I can read it with a full apprehension of the end. He had a few chapters, some stories, and a lifetime of experience that had suddenly turned far south. He spoke a chapter on wisdom that I'm pretty sure inspired Proverbs and quite a few of the Psalms. He had a pretty huge view of God, and he really knew God: "How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when His lamp shone upon my head and by His light I walked through darkness! Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil" (29:1b-6). If God tested me this way, how would I come out? What is incredibly amazing is that God brought wonderful, bright gold out of Job's life and experience and shared it with eternity. I want Him to do that with mine too (though, to be frank, I'd rather He did it with a minimum of pain).