Do Not Seek To Fill God's Shoes

Only God Is God, And Only God Can Judge

Men of understanding will say to me, and the wise man who hears me will say: ‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.’ Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men. For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.

Job 34:34-37

The Book of Job challenges our common apprehensions of God.

We want to believe God is merciful, and that God is kind, and that God will always make smooth our path and ease our pains.

We want to believe when our path is not smooth, and when our pains are not eased, that it is some failing of ours that is at issue—some unresolved sin, some act of atonement left undone.

We want to believe that every bad thing which happens to us happens because of our own sin and our own weakness.

The Book of Job does not tolerate that belief. The Book of Job condemns that belief.

We know this because we see the assumption of Job’s friends that his misfortunes were the consequence of his sin, and that he was being prideful in claiming not to know of any sin he had committed.

We are told in the very first verse that Job was “blameless and upright.” These are not words used to describe the average sinner. These are words used to describe the average saint.

We are told right after that first verse that Job continually offered up prayers and sacrifices for his sons, just on the off chance that they might have sinned. Note that we are not told Job is offering sacrifices for himself, but he is offering sacrifices for his children. Thus we are told directly that Job’s thoughts are naturally directed towards the well being of others.

We are also told that Job’s righteousness is so remarkable that God comments on it to Satan—to the adversary, the original “Devil’s Advocate.” And God gives Satan leave to test Job with pain and suffering and misfortune, which Satan does.

We are then told that Job passes the test. Despite pain and misfortune, Job does not sin or blame God for his misfortune.

God gives Satan leave to test Job a second time, and still Job does not sin or blame God.

Yet despite all of this Job’s three friends naturally assume that he has sinned, that he has done something wrong, and that he is just being stubborn by not confessing that sin that he may atone for it.

Let me repeat myself: The Book of Job tells us explicitly that even in his misery Job did not sin. The Book of Job tells us explicitly that Job was blameless and upright, and he remained so even after tested not once but twice by Satan.

The Book of Job tells us explicitly that Job’s friends are completely wrong about Job.

Job even calls out his friends, asking them to say how he has sinned.

Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’? Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? Or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of oppressors’? “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have erred.

His friends cannot answer that challenge, other than to reproach him again for not confessing and admitting his sin.

Let us ponder that for a moment: Job tells his friends plainly he does not know how he has sinned or what he has done that is sinful. He is aware of no misdeed, of no mistake, of no sin he has committed. He is not denying that he has sinned, he is not rejecting that possibility—he is simply stating that he does not know what he did that was sinful.

What man can repent of a mistake he does not know he made?

Yet Job’s friends do not listen. They insist he must have sinned, and that he is just being prideful and stubborn in not confessing that sin.

Job’s friends do not listen, and we know they do not listen. They are so sure they “know” God’s mind, they discount any possibility that they are wrong.

They are convinced Job is wrong. They are certain Job is in error. They never once consider the possibility that they are wrong, that they are in error.

In their arrogance, in their certainty they “know” God and God’s mind, they completely forget the possibility they are wrong.

By their arrogance, they are the ones who are prideful and stubborn. By their arrogance, they are the ones who are sinning.

This is made plain at the end of the Book of Job, when God rebukes Job’s friends, and commands them to go with Job to offer up sacrifices of atonement and repentance, telling them that Job’s prayer for God’s mercy on their behalf will stand between them and God’s Divine Justice.

Job, the “blameless and upright man” condemned by his “friends” for being prideful and stubborn, is chosen by God to be the intercessor for those same “friends” being called to atone for being prideful and stubborn.

Job, the man we are told at the beginning was focused on caring for others, is called at the end to care for his “friends”, who in fact have sinned against God in their hearts. The concern Job had for his sons at the beginning was the task only Job could complete at the end.

We should not imagine, as Job’s friends imagined, that we know God’s mind at all, let alone that we know it well. Among the many messages we find in the Book of Job is this message of simple humility—that we err when we presume anyone’s seeming misfortune is the direct consequence of some misdeed on their part.

We do not know why anyone suffers the trials and tribulations they do. Just as Job was reminded that God does not share His plan for us with us except in its unfolding, neither does God share His plan for anyone else with us at all. We cannot say “this is the consequence of sin.” We are not given that information, and we will never be given that information.

We are not big enough, mighty enough, or wise enough to ever fill God’s shoes. He alone knows all that there is, and He alone is fit to judge who has sinned and who has not.

We are not big enough, mighty enough, or wise enough to ever fill God’s shoes—and we commit a grievous sin any time we are arrogant enough to even try.