The Job Crucible

Bob Sorge's book

"But He knows the way that I take,
When He has tested me
I shall come forth as gold."

Job 23:10

Bob Sorge is one author that I consider to be one of God's greatest gifts to me. Many authors write from their intellects, Bob writes from his heart. And this is one reason why his books really minister to my heart.

Bob is a worshiper, and an intercessor. There is a relationship between a writer and a reader, and having read several of his books, I really feel like Bob is an old friend. He doesn't talk above your head, he is a fellow traveler, a companion.


In today's post, I share a brief excerpt of what he has written about Job in his book Pain, Perplexity, and Promotion.


Those of you who are going through a season of pain will find great comfort in reading this book. Job's life is the story of a man who knew how to persevere and to endure to the end.

Here's the excerpt:


The Book's Theme

...In broad strokes, the life of Job is a pattern for all believers of how God takes a blameless, godly man, with a life of personal purity and a yes in his spirit, and brings him through the fire to a higher inheritance.

Job came out of the crucible with a life message that has been spoken to God's people ever since. Here are some of the poignant truths Job's life declares:

- Sometimes God is totally perplexing.

- There are things going on in the spirit dimension that you don't see.

- If you've been walking blamelessly and faithfully before God, and something incredibly mystifying and even traumatic happens to you which seems to have no reasonable cause, then heighten your spiritual alertness -- God might be in the process of bringing you into spiritual promotion.

- If you will guard your purity, increase your pursuit of God, and commit yourself to unquestioning obedience, He will eventually unfold His purposes to you.

- Realize that God loves to glorify Himself by salvaging the calamities of his saints, producing the superlative out of the impossible.


A Pattern to Get Your Bearings

Job's life message serves as a model or a pattern against which others can measure God's disciplines in their lives. When you have a grid for measuring what is happening in your life, you're able to cooperate with God's purposes. But without that grid or pattern you're very likely to partner with the accuser, cop an attitude toward God, and end up aborting the process. Without any prototype for understanding God's dealings, it's very difficult to say, "You have done well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word" (Psalm 119:65). Instead, it's easy to echo the accusation of the Israelites, "'It's useless to serve God'" (Malachi 3:14). God wants us to steer clear of that pitfall so He has given us the pattern of Job.

Job, then, was a pioneer, a pathfinder, a forerunner whom God baptized into "the School of the Spirit," in order that he might serve as a living parable to all generations after him. His life serves as a compass, enabling us to get our bearings when we're under the disciplines of God.

Sometimes we think we know who God is. God says, "None of you know who I am! Unless I show you." So God devastated every understanding Job thought he had of God and began to rebuild Job's theology on the truth of Isaiah 55:9, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways." So Paul cried, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).

God operates in a dimension that totally surpasses our human analysis. And here's a signature of God's ways: He loves to redeem impossible messes. He loves entangled imbroglios that have no human solution, that are hopeless catastrophes apart from divine intervention.

Sometimes God allows the saint to be reduced to seeming defeat, filled with anguish and reproach, with Satan gleefully savoring his upper hand. Or sometimes the saint is trapped by crushing circumstances beyond his control. When it appears that God has abandoned you, Job would cry out: "Don't quit! Trust God! It's never too late! This is the kind of situation that God loves!"

In some situations, God steps back and says, "Too easy. If I step in now, they won't glorify My name for the answer." Thus He waits things out a bit, and lets the situation become even more critical so that there will be no question about the source when He intervenes with HIs sovereign deliverance. He loves to do the impossible!

...Redemption's Greatest Crossroads

In fact I want to suggest that Job became a forerunner for the most eminent of saints, helping them navigate the greatest crisis points of redemptive history. At the crucial crossroads of God's redemptive plan, when everything was at stake, Job's life served as a pattern enabling them to make the right choice...

We are now facing another critical moment in God's plan: the return of Christ. In preparatin for Christ's coming, God is taking many of His saints through the Job crucible. A fire has been kindled in the earth to awaken the bride with passion for her Bridegroom. Will she persevere to the end, or will she abort God's purposes? Thankfully, she has Job!

Everybody had Job for an example, except for one man: Job! This is why Job is so admirable. He persevered through the crucible with no predecessor, no forerunner, no pattern from which to gain comfort. Job had nobody. He was charting virgin territory, going where no man had gone before. He was making an unprecedented foray onto the swirling battleground of spiritual warfare, where God's purposes and Satan's incitements and people's opinions combine to season the soul.

As a result of Job's faithfulness, God decided to use his example to comfort every generation, providing them with a compass to help them interpret their pathway. We enjoy the same benefits today. Instead of aborting His purposes in our lives, we are now able to cooperate with His grace and enter into our highest inheritance...


An excerpt from Bob Sorge's book, Pain, Promotion, and Perplexity (Oasis House: 1999), pp. 25-28

About Bob Sorge

Bob Sorge’s life story articulates the human heart’s capacity to unreservedly trust the utmost sovereignty of its Maker.

Bob served for thirteen years as senior pastor of Zion Fellowship in Canandaigua, New York and at the same time functioned as music director at Elim Bible Institute. In 1992, however, he suffered a vocal injury that left his voice extremely weak and painful to use. He had to resign his pastorate; he could no longer sing. (Read more here.)