An Idiomatic Life

And Job died, an old man and full of days.  Job 42:17  NASB

Full of days– What is the result of a life devoted to God?  In Hebrew thought, it isn’t getting to heaven. It’s living out the full purposes of God’s design here on earth.  In other words, it’s experiencing a life “full of days.”  The Hebrew idiom, śābēaʿ yamim, is an expression of satisfaction.  If we wanted to convert this idea into modern terms, we might say that Job lived a fully satisfied life.  That itself is quite a statement.  After all, he lost all of his first children.  He experienced the sarcastic anger of his wife.  He saw the true colors of his friends.  And he suffered and struggled with God. Yet, in the end, the text tells us that he knew satisfaction.  Can we say the same for ourselves?

We discovered that Job grew beyond the discipline of duty.  He experienced the pliability of relationship.  His faith was transformed from declaration to dependency.  Drop by drop, he lived in harmony with the dangerous God.  For this reason, Job helps us define trust.

Perhaps we think of trust as assurance (something Melanchthon suggested to Luther in the translation of Hebrew 11:1). Perhaps we think of it as confidence and reliance.  But Job demonstrates that trust is fundamentally relational, and that means it is the choice to continue in fellowship in spite of ambiguous evidence.  It’s not simply a response to another’s behavior.  It is our decision to maintain the dialogue, continue the reciprocity, and vouchsafe the continuity even when our observations and emotions point us in another direction.  More than anything else, Job underscores the decision to believe.

God’s actions are not always obvious.  In fact, there are times when God appears as a contradiction, an enigma, a dangerous encounter.  But the end of Job’s career in concert with God is a statement that God does not fail.  Satisfaction is God’s goal too.  Lives well lived, full of purpose, devoted to things beyond our grasp is God’s engineering. John Piper is known for the statement, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  But perhaps Job asks us to alter this.  God will be satisfied when we are glorified with Him.   How that occurs is the theme of Job’s account. From discipline to dependence is the transition from fulfillment to contentment.

Job ended with an idiom.  “Full of days” is the declaration of a life spent on God’s behalf.  Will that be your epitaph?

Topical Index:  satisfaction, full of days, Job 42:17

Originally published 14 November 2017