I never really thought I would hear myself saying this, but here goes: I really do want to be like Job. And therein lies a story of house church, repentance and intimacy with God.

I would dare say that most Christians go through their lives hoping to avoid either reading or understanding the book of Job, much less experiencing it. And I would go on to venture that there’s scarcely a believer among us whose goal or prayer is: "Lord, make me like Job." But I think that should change. And now I need to explain why (Duh!).

O.K., a quick overview. The Book of Job is a "morality play" in six parts: A "prologue," four "acts" and an "epilogue" (scholars have debated this structure for years, but this is the basic breakdown, depending on your favorite commentary). Job is a human actor in a divine drama of which he is unaware. The notion of believers as actors in a cosmic drama is alluded to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 where Paul refers to apostles (and by implication, other 5-Fold leadership) as "spectacles to the world". The Greek word there is theatron from which we get our English word "theater." (The word occurs in Acts 19:29 & 31 in an incident involving Paul, which was probably in his mind as he penned this verse). Get the idea? In the prologue (chapters 1-2) we learn how the "stage" has been set with the major players. It is there that we are specifically told, twice (Job 1:22 & 2:10), that Job was a righteous man who had not sinned. If you miss this point, the next 34 chapters can get very confusing as Job’s religious paradigm regarding sin, righteousness, suffering and God’s dealings with people gets seriously challenged. Job is getting divinely set up for a radical paradigm shift.

Job gets some "help" with his paradigm shift from three "friends" and a stranger. These four people combine to communicate one message: "You’ve sinned, and that’s why God has allowed/done this (O.K., If you’re a Calvinist God did it; if you’re an Arminian He simply allowed it). God doesn’t do this to people who haven’t sinned" (remember the important point I made above). Through four long and sometimes tedious "acts" these four "counselors" repeat their arguments and thereby reveal their "religious boxes" into which Job simply doesn’t fit.

Bildad the Shuhite (known as the shortest man in the Bible - after all, he was only "shu-hite" - you may now groan appropriately) is the "traditionalist," always appealing to what the fathers have said about the situation because there was nothing new to be learned. He is a traditionalist and he looks back in history to find what others have already said. He has a high regard for truth and sees it as inherited, not to be messed with, something wrestled over by the elders, handed down to those eager for wisdom, and eventually passed on to the next generation. (I want to thank Andrew Jones, otherwise known as "TallSkinnyKiwi" for his excellent article "The Skinny on Post Modernity - Part 1" for some insights into Job. His quotes are in italic in this section).

Zophar is the "rationalist" who appeals to rational wisdom and hints that Job is "witless" or stupid. He also gives a formula that "if" Job does certain things, then a favorable outcome will result. I would add that this also makes Zophar an unwitting model for what I call "Christian magicians," believers who are looking for "magic formulas" which they can use to manipulate God: "If you do A, B and C, God will always do D". Such people are the "Harry Potters" of the church who regard the things of God as formulas to be followed or spells to be cast in order to get the desired result.

Eliphaz is the "mystic" in the bunch whose "authority" is to appeal to his experiences to prove his point. He had a dream and his hair stood on end. A spirit appeared. This was proof enough. He sees God as one who "performs wonders that cannot be fathomed".

Then there’s Elihu, the "stranger" who turns out to be the "theologian" of the group. You know the type. The young Turk fresh out of seminary whose passion exceeds his wisdom and whose response is something like, "How dare you question God. Don’t you know this was all dealt with in Book I, Chapter I of the Lewis Battles Ford edition of Calvin’s Institutes, not to mention Berkhof’s Systematic Theology?" (Don’t worry. He’ll grow up. If not, he’ll go to work for John MacArthur!  Ooopps! Bad dog, bad dog!).

These four "counselors" combined together to present Job with "explanations which didn’t explain" and which left Job with a "pain in the mind" (to use Leslie Newbigin’s two expressions) which would not go away. The answers given by his "friends" were the standard "religious" answers of the prevailing religious paradigm as they understood it. Andrew Jones observes, "A funny thing about the Book of Job is that each guy, with such radically differing thought processes, comes to the same conclusion - Job has sinned and is therefore suffering. Even funnier is the fact that all three men are wrong. The truth in this case is something more complicated and mysterious. But watching them think is worth the exercise since they represent how people think in general."

My perspective is that Job’s counselors were all "right" according to the prevailing religious paradigm of the day, a paradigm which Job probably shared up until this fateful series of events. But none of their right answers were valid in Job’s situation (hence, their frustration and Job’s despair). They were offering "boxed" answers to an "outside" the box situation. Like many believers today, they were giving Job the "right answers" to the wrong question. They wanted intimacy with God, but only on terms of their own understanding, which was now being seriously challenged.

Job was on a spiritual journey that no one seemed to understand or appreciate, including Job, his wife, his friends and a significant number of readers and commentators in the 3500 years since then! And in the face of the unknown our first and most consistent tendency is to fall back into "truisms" - answers that are "usually true" and have served us in the past. But not now. It isn’t until God makes a personal appearance, thirty eight chapters into this play, and reveals Himself both to Job and (we may assume) his inquisitors, that we begin to understand the truth of what is taking place. God then spends four chapters revealing His greatness and exposing Job’s (and our) insignificance: "I’m God. You’re not. Get used to it." How profound is this message? Well, after 3500 years, we still haven’t "gotten used to it". Hmmmmm.

O.K., I know I’m passing quickly and lightly over a lot of material (like 42 chapters worth). I’m moving quickly because I want to get to "the punch line" which is found in the "epilogue" in Chapter 42.

The five "poetical" books of the Old Testament are all about "intimacy" with God, but on His terms, not ours. The Book of Job teaches us the sovereignty of God, sovereignty over His created order and over human suffering. An understanding of the sovereignty and greatness of God should lead us to the worship and fear of Him, hence the book Psalms which follows. Worship and fear give way to wisdom (Proverbs), give us understanding and stability to confront, understand and overcome the seeming "vanity" of life (Ecclesiastes) while challenging and encouraging us to pursue and respond to God as one pursues and responds to a lover of our soul (Song of Songs).

In the epilogue, Job comes to his personal realization of the greatness and sovereignty of God. It is a rude but necessary awakening. We see this realization unfold as Job quotes God’s own words back to Him, ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Job comes to the realization that he has "declared that which I did not understand". The sense of the Hebrew here is that Job had "boldly proclaimed, held forth & published" things about God regarding which he really knew nothing at all. What a humbling realization that must have been can be seen in the words which follow next. Job quotes God’s own words again, "‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask Thee, and do Thou instruct me.’" Earlier, God had "invited" Job to teach Him. Now, at last, Job understands who is the teacher and who is the student. That’s a humbling realization for the "know-it-alls" among us (ahem!).

So, where’s the "punch line" ("Wait for it dad, wait for it!")? In verses 5-6: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees Thee; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes". Three things happen here that we need to notice. The first is that Job comes to a new understanding of who God is. He moves from a knowledge of God that was handed down by what he had heard from others ("by the hearing of the ear") to a knowledge of God that was personal, experiential and, yes, even intimate (ha! told you to wait for it!).

The second thing that happened is that Job had one of those rare moments of personal introspection when he realized how wrong he had been about God and the result was genuine grief and personal self-loathing. The NASB rendering of "retract" represents (I suspect) more modern psychology than Hebrew nuance. The older KJV is closer to the sense of the Hebrew: "I abhor myself". If you have never had one of those moments alone with God when you weep the tears of the broken hearted over a personal realization of how wrong you have been about God - and how you have shared that ignorance with others in a very authoritative manner - then let me be the first to tell you that your journey into genuine intimacy has a "road not taken" that is just waiting for you.

The third thing that happened to Job is the result of the other two: He had a genuine change of heart, mind and attitude toward God. In other words, he repented. There are two primary Hebrew words for "repent" in the Old Testament. The first and most common is "shuwb" which simply means "to turn," resulting in a change of behavior or direction. The second word is "nacham" which means "to have a change of heart, attitude, mind or purpose." This second word is the one used here in Job 42:6. Based upon what he had experienced and learned about God, Job had a change of heart & mind about God and His dealings in his own life, resulting (I believe) in greater personal intimacy with God.

O.K., let me try to summarize what all of this has to do with our personal journey into greater intimacy with God. From Job’s experience I come away with the lesson that personal repentance and growth in our intimacy with God are related, even inseparable. Without a spirit of humility and repentance there can be no genuine intimacy with God, because such intimacy is a function of and somehow dependent upon our willingness and ability to humble ourselves, repent and learn "new" things about the God Whom we worship. These "new" things we learn may be as old as Job (or as C.H Spurgeon said, "If it’s new it’s probably heresy"), but they are new to us and our experience. And embracing them may require profound personal humility - maybe even a moment of personal self-loathing - and genuine personal repentance.

O.K., now we’re back where we started, but hopefully having gained some insight during the journey. Let’s be real. None of us (except those manic depressives and sado-masochists who really do need a hug followed by counseling and Prozac!) want to experience what Job experienced. But I am convinced that a loving, sovereign and omnipotent God understood that such was the path required in order for Job to achieve the degree of spiritual insight, humility and, eventually, intimacy that God wanted for Job. With all due respect, that was his "best life now" (see my article "Umbrellas, Crosses & The Kingdom of God," posted in our e-letter archives on our website).

What I want from Job, and what I would hope we would all want, is the humility and willingness to repent of my wrong understandings of God and embrace the "new" ones He wants to offer me. My goal is intimacy with God, and the path to that intimacy leads through self-awareness, humility and repentance. I only hope (and pray!) that it won’t take Job’s experiences to get me to my destination.

Job had his religious paradigm radically shaken. How about you? If you are part of the house church/organic church movement I suspect that your paradigm has already been (or is being) radically shaken. I suspect you’ve already encountered some things which you have had to repent over. If not, you might want to prepare yourself for "the road not taken" (and you might also want to check out Wolfgang Simson’s "5 Steps of Apostolic Migration" posted on our website under "House Church Resources"). The road into genuine intimacy with God will look different for each person, because God deals with each of us as individuals. There are no formulas or programs for this. Intimacy is personal and relational, not formulaic or programmatic. But occasionally you can recognize people who are on this journey. My two sure-fire indicators that I have encountered a fellow traveler on this journey are these. First, when they think no one is watching you will see them walk with a limp, the left-over reminder of a divine encounter that changed their life and started them on this journey into intimacy. Secondly, when they think no one is listening you will occasionally hear them whisper a quiet prayer: Father, forgive me. I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees Thee; therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes."