What made Job Righteous?
This morning I was reading through the book of Job. I think it is safe to assume that anyone who has been in the church for any amount of time could tell you the theme of Job. Even if the only word that came from their lips was ‘suffering,’ they would have pretty much hit the nail on the head. But, the fuller picture for this book, and this is important for my reflection today, is that Job was a righteous man, and yet still he suffered. At the very beginning of Job, before all the bad stuff starts happening to him (so really within the first 6 verses of the book), the author is trying to make a case for Job’s righteousness.
What struck me this morning, is what the author decided to highlight in order to convince the reading audience that Job was, in fact, righteous. Job turns away from evil. Ok, got it…what else. He had many children, servants, and livestock. Cool, the guy was blessed…what else? The author then describes how Job and his family would enjoy meals together; how they would feast together often. It is this next bit that I found interesting, or at least I had never noticed before. When Job was not feasting with his kids and their families in their homes, what does he do? Verse 5 gives us some insight here,
And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This is what Job always did.
When Job was not with his family, he would wake up early in the morning and pray for them just in case they had sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Job, the most righteous man in the land, would wake up and pray on behalf of others. This is, at least one thing, that the author of Job wanted to point out as proving Job’s righteousness.
What I am taking away from this is that prayer, and specifically prayer for others, makes us righteous. Prayer for others has some benefit for our own souls and our relationship with God. Some of you might be saying to yourself at this point, “if my motivation for praying for others is for my own benefit, how can this be considered a good thing? Isn’t it selfish to pray, or do anything for others, when I have my own self-interests in mind? My response is this: there are certainly times when doing things for others with our own self-interests in mind can be a bad thing. But Jesus has also made clear that it is by understanding our own self-interests that we know how we should love others. Jesus’s command, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” is a perfect example of this. Loving ourselves first gives us insight into how we should pray and serve others. But I am also reminded of the prayer of St John Chrysostom found at the end of our daily prayer services. Chrysostom’s prayer ends by putting in our mouths, “Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen” (Italics added). Praying for others as a motivation for growing in our own righteousness is actually a pretty natural thing and has deep roots in our Christian moral and spiritual tradition.
The second this I want to emphasize is related to the above, but can also be thought of as the other side of the coin. Righteousness is praying for others: Righteousness is others focused. In this case it is specifically the action of prayer for others. There is a necessarily relational piece to righteousness. In fact, righteousness and justice in this historical and religious context are synonymous.
My takeaway from my reading of Job this morning is that I could certainly spend more time praying for others. Not only for their good, but for mine as well. And that praying for others is a matter of righteousness and justice. I don’t know if you have set yourself a New Year’s Resolution this year, but praying more for others, is a pretty darn good one, and one that I will be committing to this year.