Piety and Prosperity - Job 1-2

Job 1:1-4 (ESV)

Job’s Character and Wealth

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

Job was pious and prosperous.  Not unheard of, but must be rare.  Especially in these days.  Having a love for God, above all else, and still wealthy is not the norm.   We can come to that truth by observation, but also in our study of the Savior’s teaching:

Matthew 19:24 (ESV)

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Look how many times Jesus told His disciples that they could not come to His Father if they were still in the love with the world:

John 12:25 (ESV)

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Luke 14:33 (ESV)

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26 (ESV)

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 10:39 (ESV)

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25 (ESV)

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 8:35 (ESV)

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Luke 9:24 (ESV)

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Luke 17:33 (ESV)

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

John 12:26 (ESV)

If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, wrote:

Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being and you will find eternal life.  Keep back nothing.  Nothing you have not given away will ever be really yours.   NOTHING IN YOU THAT HAS NOT DIED WILL EVER BE RAISED FROM THE DEAD.  Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay.   But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with him everything else thrown in.”

Job had learned this truth. He is our example of that truth.   He had seven sons, the number of perfection, and three daughters,  the number of deity.   That makes 10 children.  The combination of his livestock comes out to 10,000.  The is all to point out that His righteous piety had lead to the complete prosperity since these numbers (3, 7, 10) all are used in Scripture as a symbol of completeness and finality.  

Job gives us an example of so much suffering.  But we ought not to forget that he also gives us the best example of piety and prosperity walking together in perfect harmony.   That is a rare example, even in Scripture.