Accepting Trouble                       

Humility isn't the subject of very many corporate seminars these days. We are more likely to see opportunities for seminars on "assertiveness training," "winning in negotiations," and "developing that winning strategy!"

"Accepting Trouble" doesn't seem to be a natural response. We struggle against trouble from our childhood. We learn strategies for fighting back. The struggle for dominance becomes an extension of our willfulness and sense of self. 

In Job 2.10 we read Job's response to his wife's anger over the adversity that had befallen them. In situations of trouble and adversity it usually isn't soothing to remind the troubled that "it rains on the just and the unjust." Nor is it helpful to admonish with "sometimes bad things happen to good people." 

I wouldn't advise any husband to respond to his wife by saying, "You are talking like a foolish woman..." That not only isn't wise, it isn't loving. Job certainly wasn't perfect, as his friends would soon point out repeatedly.

However, Job did complete the statement to his wife with a powerful, philosophical question: "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" The question of "trouble" coming from God isn't acceptable to most Christians. It is usually rejected and summarily replaced with a condemnation of Satan as being the source of "trouble." Even Job's friends, while giving pseudo-acknowledgement of God as the source, actually blamed Job's behavior as the source in a cause-and-effect type of blame assessment.

Job's position is understood by the Old Testament prophets, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, as they wrote of the sovereignty of God (Jeremiah 29 being an excellent example). David's understanding of God's sovereignty is seen in his encouragement to "commit your way to God and He will bring it to pass."

The underlying presupposition is that the person will be humble before God. Without humility we will not be submissive to anyone nor any cause. With pride or humility we can "accept" good things, but only with humility can we accept bad things.

It seems that Job's real concern here is humility. There is a huge difference between the Israelite's attitude of what they had accomplished "with (their) own hands..." and David's attitude when he "went in and sat before the Lord and said, 'Oh Lord, who am I and what is my house that thou has brought me this far?' "

Job's awareness of his need for humility was the basis for his statement. Micah summed up the requirement of a person before God, "He has showed thee, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of thee? But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." (Micah 6.8)