When a person suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury, their life is forever altered–how they think, how they process information, how they move. They often talk about their lives in the context of “before” the injury and “after.” This is the same of anyone who has experienced a traumatic event whether it is a house fire, a hurricane hitting the city or tornado, a major earthquake or tsunami. There is a “before” and an after.”
In chapter 29 Job will talk about his life “before” being stricken, and then in ch 30 his life “after.” What is notable here is once again what righteousness looks like. It’s powerful and is unchanging.
First of all Job laments his life lost, when the days it felt like God was looking over him and was with him:
“If only I could be as in months bone by, in the days when God watched over me….when God’s friendship rested on my tent, when the Almighty was still with me” (Job 29:2,5).
He then goes on to describe how the people treated him.
“When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the town square, the young men saw me and withdrew, while older men stood to their feet. City officials stopped talking and covered their mouths with their hands. The nobleman’s voices were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths” (Job 29:7-10).
Then he says why people looked at him with such respect, and that it was because of his righteousness:
For I rescued the poor man who cried out for help,
and the fatherless child who had no one to support him.
The dying man blessed me,
and I made the widow’s heart rejoice.
I clothed myself in righteousness,
and it enveloped me;
my just decisions were like a robe and a turban.
I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy,
and I examined the case of the stranger.
I shattered the fangs of the unjust
and snatched the prey from his teeth.
Job was a man of great righteousness, caring for the poor, the needy, the orphan and widow while at the same time fighting injustice and rescuing them. If you were in trouble, Job was the person of the hour.
“Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my advice. After a word from me they did not speak again…If I smiled at them, they couldn’t believe it; they were thrilled at the light of my countenance” (Job 29:21-25).
In one sense this is extremely arrogant of how people fawned over him. But in another sense this is true of many that are famous and known. Actors, sports heroes and others all experience this. It’s odd to talk about it but this is the experience of many rich and famous even today.
But this was the before. This was a life that Job thought that he would have the entirety of his life (Job 29:18-20). He had committed himself fully and unswervingly to righteousness.
But then his world shattered. Everything fell apart through no doing of his own. And it would test him to his very core. He would be tested on what he believed about God, tested about what he believed God thought of him, and tested by how others treated him.
