Praising God is for our benefit not His.

God, who is worthy of all praise, is still fully God whether we praise him or not. He is not ¹diminished by our lack of praise nor in need of it. 

He does not need us or our praise to be complete or fill up something missing. He is the same God with or without us or our praise.

So why is our praise important? It is for our benefit and the benefit of others, not His. Though He fully enjoys our praise, he doesn't ¹need it.

God is not on an ego trip when he calls us to praise, worship, and glorify him. Instead he is calling us to partake of him and his love to the fullest extent possible. He is seeking to love us and bring us into a ²fuller experience of His love. 

God knows we are most fulfilled and whole when we are ²honoring him most. This is why He always calls us to do so. He knows this is essential to our well-being and maximum flourishing.

For a fuller discussion on why God delights in us but doesn't need us click here. 

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¹God is not diminished in who is but He can be diminished in the eyes of others because of our attitude or actions. Others can be drawn to God more when they see our trust, praise and love for Him. When they are drawn to Him because of our actions and thankful disposition, He is delighted for their sake and ours.  

For a further discussion on how God delights in our delight click here.

God is diminished in the eyes of others by our lack of praise and thanks to Him.

He is not diminished in the essence of his being. God is fully God with or without our praise. And this is because he's the God of all glory, honor, beauty, and praise within the dynamic, overflowing community of love among Father, Son, and Spirit from all eternity past.

²God calling us to honor him isn't out of His need for us but our need for Him. We listen best to those we honor most. Our honoring Him is the necessary posture we must have in order to hear Him clearly. 

If God is the all-wise, loving, and powerful being He claims to be it is in our best interest we honor and heed His instructions to us and directions for us.

We listen least to those we respect least. Respecting those who care for us is vital. An illustration of this is our kids. If your kids stop listening to you while under your direct care and provision, it is because they no longer respect you and trust your love for them. 

For a more in-depth discussion on why kids rebel click here. 

Or if you have no kids but are still under the care of parents your attitude towards them reflects this as well. If you no longer listen to them while under their direct care, it is because you no longer respect them and trust their love for you. What can you do if you're in this situation? Recognize God is bigger than your parents and trust He is still working for your good in all things if you love Him, even through imperfect parents. 

The greatest lesson from Job?

Why is the book of Job in the Bible? After all, it appears God never answers Jobs' most pressing question of why he ⁵suffered. At least not directly. So what is the point of the book?

Could it be that Job encountered and wrestled with all his pain so his story could be told ¹primarily for the benefit of others? Is God, through Job's example, seeking to reveal to the rest of us (as well as to Job) how deeply our distrust of God runs when things are hard; how distrust is our most basic problem and trust is our greatest need and not deliverance from pain and suffering? This is where the book of Job eventually takes us through Job's example i.e. that God is God. He knows all things and what is best, we do not. That He is worthy of our total trust and ultimately calls the shots, not us.

Not exactly what we want to hear when we are in the throws of great anguish, is it? 

When we think we're wise we realize we still know very little. At least this is what Job finally recognized. It is a humbling process to realize that God is God and we aren't. That he knows what is best for us and we don't. This is the reversal of the lie Adam bought into. That we can be our own god and don't need God for true life - when in fact we are dependent on God for our very breath as well as everything else.

Revealing to us our deeply buried distrust may be the greatest lesson and key takeaway God seeks to reveal through Job to anyone willing to listen. Job is us and we are Job. When we are in our deepest pain and wrestling with our greatest doubts we are all the same. 

Do we see any indication elsewhere in scripture that distrust - not pain - might be our biggest issue?

Paul cites Job

We get a hint of this when Paul cites Job at the end of Romans 11 in verses 34-36. 

By Paul using key excerpts from Job we may be getting further indication of a primary purpose of why Job went through all his suffering - maybe the main purpose.

Paul had just spent 3 entire chapters (Rom 9-11) addressing the thorny issue of ²Israel's national turning away from and rejection of the Messiah. What an absolute tragedy and apparent failure this must have seemed to many within and outside of Israel. Had God failed His promise to ⁷deliver Israel from their Roman oppressors? 

Interestingly, Paul ends these 3 chapters in Romans citing the same key truths ²Job came to realize in order to address what was a significant area of doubt for national Israel at that time.

The seeming failure of God to deliver Israel from their physical and political slavery was a major stumbling block to Israel's embracing Christ as a nation (even after His resurrection his disciples still wondered when Christ would set up his earthly kingdom to ⁶free Israel from Rome). 

Paul uses the same truths revealed to Job to address national Israel's distrust and why God can and should be trusted. In doing so, Paul seeks to show how God - through Jobs' suffering and doubt then and in Israel's doubt and rejection of Christ at the time of his letter - is in total control and knows exactly what he was doing when it appears otherwise, i.e. we all are called to trust God when circumstances seem to say just the opposite i.e. that God cares about us, knows what He's doing even when there is *no relief from our pain. Our pain may actually be when God is working most in our behalf.

If not for Job's suffering being recorded along with the key lessons Job learned, Paul would not have his example to point to when we (or Israel) wrestle with our own suffering and doubts about God. Observing Job's suffering (and ultimately his turning back to God in deeper trust) is for all our benefit, not just Job's. 

What are the key takeaways from Job that Paul summarizes at the end of Rom 11?

“For

* who (Job 15:8) has known the mind of the Lord, or

* who (Job 36:22-23) has been his counselor?” “Or

* who (Job 35:7; 41:11) has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things (even the hard things). To him be glory forever. Amen. - Rom 11:34‭-‬36

The following are the passages from Job that Paul appears to be pointing back to:

* "Have you listened in (on) the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?" - Job 15:8 i.e. is your wisdom true and the only wisdom there is? Who might have greater wisdom than you, a mere creature? How about the all-wise, all-powerful, everywhere present Creator!

* "Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?"  - Job 36:22‭-‬23

* "If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? " - Job 35:7‭

"Who has first given to me (God), that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine." - Job 41:11 ESV i.e. you can't give to me what I already have and rightfully own.

The answer to each rhetorical "who" Paul asks is no one except God i.e. God is God and knows what is best i.e. only He is all-wise. He also doesn't owe Job - or you and I - anything, including an explanation of why He does what he does the way he does it (hence God never directly answers Job's most pressing questions). 

Through Job God is telling us (and Paul is reminding Israel via Job) that only He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfectly just (righteous) in all He does. It was Job's, Israel's, and our own arrogance that demanded God tell him (us) more. 

To ask God why we suffer is completely legitimate. He invites us to pour out our cares to Him. But to demand an explanation is not. He does not hear our demands any more than he heard Job's or Israel's (give us a sign i.e. proof you are the Messiah) at the time of Christ. God tells us what we need to hear not what we demand to hear - or think we should.

This is not the answer we want or ³like. It grates on us and exposes our deep-seated distrust of God and arrogant trust in our own understanding - wisdom - logic. It exposes how our primary objective is relief, not truth. 

For us to acknowledge the full extent of our distrust requires humility... not only for Job but for us as well. Job is simply a primary example and illustration of this fundamental problem we ⁴all have - a deep-seated,  ongoing, and arrogant distrust of the only true, infinite, and all-wise God. 

We think we know better than the all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving God regarding what is best for us. When we consider all it takes and means to be God, it exposes how absurd this notion is and how arrogant and rebellious we truly are.

This is a central issue - and truth - addressed not only in Job but throughout scripture. Job happens to be the most dramatic example of this. 

We see this distrust at the very outset of humanity's existence with the first lie we bought into in Eden. The lie that we can be our own god - i.e. all wise and no longer in need of the one true God; that we can determine what is right and wrong without God's input or direction. Exposing this arrogant distrust and calling us to turn from it is the key takeaway from the Book of Job.

What about our suffering? How should we handle it?

Not only is it true that Job and all he suffered isn't just about Job. The lessons he learned aren't only for his benefit, but for all of ours. In Job, we observe our own struggles and doubts in suffering and the overall issue we all wrestle with...distrust.

What else can we learn from Job's example? 

As Job is an example to us of how to trust God in suffering, we are reminded that we too can be an example of humility and trust in God for others who watch us in our suffering the same way we observe Job in his.

By observing how God addressed Job and how Job ultimately responded we are given an example of humility and trust that we too can be for others in the face of our own suffering. This may also be a primary reason any of us suffer i.e. for others to see how we trust God in spite of it. 

Those closest to us my tell us to curse God and die, as Jobs wife did. But our trust in God says to others, God is life itself and more important than relief from suffering. 

Our trust and submission to God in our suffering says to them He is worthy of their trust. It is a call to them that they too can trust Him in their own suffering.

Do we whine and complain in our suffering or do we submit to God thereby displaying to others God is worthy of our trust and therefore also worthy of theirs?   

God doesn't candy coat or hide Jobs' anguish and struggle but lays it out for everyone willing to see. And in the end, after all of Job's complaining and questioning of God's fairness and justice, he shows how Job, to his credit, ultimately 

humbled himself before God and put his full trust in Him again. 

Job's trust in God made a major leap forward through his suffering and we were allowed to observe it and all Job went through to get there. 

Through our suffering, we too can be an example for others (as Job is for us) on why they should also trust God. 

Usually, we only see how our immediate, temporary, and personal suffering affects us (as I suspect Job did also), not how our faithful handling of suffering can be an example and potentially have a positive eternal effect on others. In our suffering, we have an opportunity to show how ultimately, the best, wisest, and most perfect perspective belongs to God, not us. 

Was this not also what Christ? Is Job actually a picture of Christ in a most significant way?

God alone is the all-wise, all-powerful source and giver of life, love, and all things, not us. Our acting accordingly in our suffering can be a key example of trust for others to consider in the same way we do Jobs' example. Our suffering is an opportunity to show others that God is life and trustworthy. Our trust is an encouragement and invitation for them to trust Him also. 

And who illustrates this even more than Job? Jesus Christ himself, the ultimate example of faithfulness in the face of the greatest suffering.. 

Christ trusted the Father perfectly (even though he wrestled with the prospect of impending pain while in Gethsemane - "if possible take this cup from me" - and also on the cross - "why have you forsaken me"). And he did so as an example for us of perfect trust in the face of ultimate suffering far greater than anything Job, you, or I will ever go through. He did this to restore us back to God, not just to be an example of faith.

Christ is the ultimate ⁴example of trust in the face of overwhelming pain and suffering. In so doing He invites us to trust His Father as He did, demonstrating the Father's trustworthiness.

Two potential effects Christ's suffering has on us.

*Humility - as we too come to trust God as exemplified by Job and ultimately by Christ.

Or

*Anger, fear, anxiety - because Christ's example of complete trust rebukes us and exposes our distrust when we face our own suffering. When slapped in the face, Christ turned the other cheek and even prayed for his enemies. Christ trusted the Father when and where we do not. 

To realize all this can either be upsetting or humbling. It all comes down to what we believe and who we trust to best "have our backs," God or ourselves.

In addition to all this Christ offers to legally assign His trust of the Father to us and gives us credit for it as if it was our own. If we accept His offer we are fully received and embraced by God and can now be treated by the Father as if we are perfectly trusting when we are still deeply distrusting.

For a discussion on why God allows evil and suffering to continue, click here.

For a discussion on how our suffering can aid us in seeing God's love better click here.
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¹At least our immediate pain. Christ took on the pain of our rebellious distrust so that we ultimately will be delivered from it for all eternity. 

⁴Starting with Adam.

¹That's not to say Job didn't benefit from his suffering, but he was (and we are) never given a direct answer or explanation for why God allowed him to go through all he did (this article is an attempt to explain why). God exposes Job's distrust and how Job turned from it and back to God in the end. This is why addressing distrust appears to be the main point of the book. 

² Isn't the primary purpose of Job to illustrate the importance of faith when faced with the most difficult questions of life and possibly this very specific and difficult question of national Israel's falling away from their messiah? This would certainly explain why God never directly answers Jobs' questions. From the conclusion of the book, we get a clear indication God had other reasons for including it as part of His divinely inspired writ.

³No more than Israel liked hearing that Christ came to deliver them spiritually and not circumstantially i.e. physically or politically.

⁴and because of His trust in the face of the greatest suffering of any man, we are invited to come to him without hesitation when faced with our own suffering. 

⁵and why Job went through all he did i.e. the loss of everything of greatest earthly importance except his wife. And ironically the one person that we hope would be a support in our time of greatest need was just the opposite. She encouraged him to abandon God.

⁶The irony is that Christ did deliver Israel but from spiritual oppression, not circumstantial oppression. Because Israel was looking for the wrong kind of deliverance, they missed the most important kind of deliverance - i.e. the spiritual and eternal kind.

⁷The primary point Paul was making in Romans 9 through 11 was God had not failed but in fact did bring deliverance not only to them but all nations through Israel by Christ their Messiah. Paul was explaining how the promised deliverance was spiritual. Which ultimately would result in His physical reign and deliverance for all who place their trust in Him - but not until eternity. Paul cites Job at the end of these three chapters to drive this home. 

The bottom line? God knows exactly what He's doing and always has. For us individually, for Israel, and for the world as a whole. His ways are higher (greater and wiser) than ours! He calls us through Job to trust Him!