The Lord said to the Adversary, ‘Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil!’
Job 1:8
In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy finds herself in a new “place” following a terrible tornado. This land was like no other, she wanted to go home but before she could she had to find her way to one that could allegedly help her. Along the way there were witches who kept the inhabitants captive, Dorothy came and in her own way defeats the witches and frees the people.
Here we have Uz . . .
I hope God is not bragging about me to any of the heavenly council. This “bragging” will not be to our best interest, it was not to Job’s. In this story we are transported to another land, a land where bad things happen to good people.
Those of us reading needed to travel through this land. We have been on a journey with the Israelites that has us almost convinced that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.
Now we must face the adventures through this land. There will be witches, inhabitants needing freedom, and a person needing to be transformed by this experience.
Then there are those of us who are reading. We know the truth. Sometimes life surprises us, shocks us, and hurts us. What are we to do?
There are also serious challenges in this story. What are we to do with a God that plays with us, uses us to make a point, and allows for such devastating things to happen to us? What are we to do with an adversary who has so much power over us?
I must admit that this is not one of my favorite stories in scripture. I struggle with what is says about God, about the things that happen in our lives, and about the assumptions we make when bad things happen to good people.
Let us go on this journey in the next few days . . . if we pay attention we might be able to “click” our heels and return home.
