Today our Church commemorates Righteous Job the Long-suffering.
Being fully devoted to the Lord, Lord was a very pious man, whose devoutness is extolled by God, who considers him the most blessed man on earth. However, Satan doubts the genuineness of Job’s piety and virtue, which he considers to be false and motivated by the egotism and self-interests of Job.
In order to highlight the integrity of Job’s piety and his devotion to Him, God allows Satan to test him, but without disturbing his soul.
When Job was beset by Satan, he took his wealth, his family and his friends. With devastating blows from the devil, Job lost all his wealth and his beloved ones; he lost his servants and his ten children who died after the collapse of the house of his firstborn son. This ordeal, however severe, did not bend Job’s steadfast faith. He did not curse God for the death of his children, as Satan expected. Instead, he glorified and blessed the holy Name of God, accepting the test with immense perseverance, because he believed that everything was a test sent by God.
The second phase of temptation was even more painful. Job was suddenly afflicted with a terrible disease, which deformed him and made him suffer greatly, both physically and mentally. Then, since he was expelled, he was isolated from relatives, friends and acquaintances, he was despised, abandoned and finally forgotten by everyone, he spent his miserable life as a stage of ultimate humiliation.
One question arises: why should the just and virtuous man suffer from such terrible and abysmal trials?
Job is visited by his three friends, who, when they saw him, were speechless for seven days. Job’s friends, believing that the cause of every tragedy is some great sin committed in the past, try to persuade him to repent. But they fail to convince him. A fourth person named Elius fails to convince him, who agrees with Job’s three friends and criticizes his attitude. But what was Job’s attitude?
The righteous Job opposed the argument of his friends steadfastly and unwaveringly, pleading his innocence by invoking God’s justice. But both sides insisted on their views. That is why God intervened and offered the solution. He restored Job as a mediator between God and his friends in order to forgive them, because they had wronged Job, gave him back his health and wealth, and blessed him with a new family who lived for many years, peaceful, undisturbed and above all happy. And after many years, surrounded by the multitudes of his descendants and living with the blessing of divine justice and love, Job peacefully fell asleep in the Lord.
The phrase “Jobean patience” has remained proverbial. So let us have patience, courage and love with faith in the Risen Jesus Christ.
