Job 1
1There was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. 2He had seven sons and three daughters. 3He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys, and he employed many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.
4Every year when Job’s sons had birthdays, they invited their brothers and sisters to join them for a celebration. On these occasions they would get together to eat and drink. 5When these celebrations ended—and sometimes they lasted several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
6One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan the Accuser came with them. 7“Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan.
And Satan answered the LORD, “I have been going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”
8Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”
9Satan replied to the LORD, “Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! 10You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” (Job 1:1-11, NLT)
The Daily DAVEotional
What does the Bible say about money and wealth? Actually, the Bible says a lot about money and riches, but what the Bible says may surprise you.
In today’s culture, there are many who decry wealth as being evil. Politically, there is a whole movement that seeks to take from those who have and redistribute it to those who don’t have.
Some have argued that God is “against the wealthy” and “for the poor”. I’ve argued extensively against this thinking in a number of posts that explain key biblical texts on money and wealth. You can read some of my thoughts, here, here, here and here.
So what does any of this have to do with Job?
Job actually provides an interesting example of how God views rich people. Some people assume that God is automatically against the wealthy, because, well, they’re wealthy and God must hate wealth.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
In this opening chapter of Job, we find out some interesting things about the man. The first thing stated about him is that “he was blameless, a man of complete integrity.”
The second thing we learn about Job is that he was extremely wealthy. He owned land and livestock and the text says that “He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.” In today’s vernacular, we might say that he was INSANELY rich!
Another thing we learn from this passage is that God does not consider wealth evil. Notice in verse 8 that God tells Satan that Job is “the finest man in all the earth – a man of complete integrity.” God continues, saying that Job “fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”
If God opposes wealth because it is evil, He could not claim that Job, who was in fact the richest man in the entire area, will have nothing to do with evil.
It’s clear from this passage that God does not consider wealth to be evil.
It’s also interesting to note that Satan himself recognized that Job was wealthy because God had made him prosperous.
For those who consider wealth to be bad or even evil, how is this explained? How is it that God could make Job the most prosperous man in the entire area and yet call him blameless – a man of complete integrity who will have nothing to do with evil?
Clearly, wealth is not evil.
I sometimes encounter others who will stipulate that wealth is not evil but what they really believe is that having SOME wealth is ok but having EXTREME wealth is bad. They may hesitate to call extreme wealth evil, knowing that nowhere in the Bible does God condemn wealth but they’ll use other words such as insane, outrageous or even “filthy rich”.
The truth is that we don’t understand what we haven’t experienced ourselves. I think it’s common for people to want to make themselves the norm and anything that is outside that norm is an easy target for criticism.
For example, I live in a South Orange County, an area that is known for it’s wealth. That doesn’t mean everyone who lives in this area is extremely wealthy but there are many communities in this area that are known to be areas where extremely wealthy people reside.
I find that it’s easy to criticize the person who lives in the “extremely wealthy” community and ask questions like, “why does that person need to drive that expensive kind of car when a less expensive car will do just fine?” Or, “why does a person need a house with 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms?” Or, “why does anyone need to own a vacation home, or a boat, or a yacht, etc.?”
This line of questioning and reasoning is senseless and meaningless. It tells us nothing about real people. After all, while you are questioning why a person in that rich community needs to live in a 4000 square foot house with 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a 4 car garage, there’s another guy, in the next town over, who is questioning why you need to live in a 2500 sqare foot house with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths when he himself is only living in an 1850 square foot house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.
The truth is that nobody really NEEDS to own those things. Plenty of people get along just fine without them.
I think our sin nature causes us to view those who have more than we do as ostentatious and we can question their motives and integrity.
Job teaches us a valuable lesson about this. First off, Job certainly didn’t NEED all the things he owned but God blessed him in such a way that he was EXTREMELY wealthy. God gave him way more than he actually needed and didn’t consider it bad or evil. Apparently, God doesn’t evaluate our integrity based on how much. or how little we have.
This was actually the nature of the the challenge Satan posed to God. He insisted that Job’s integrity was a result of his wealth. He contended that Job was not righteous at his core but it was simply an act based on the fact that he was well off. God allowed Satan to test Job in order to demonstrate that Job’s integrity was not dependent on his wealth and his circumstances.
So where does that leave us?
It leaves us with this conclusion: wealth is not bad. And EXTREME wealth is not bad either. Our integrity is not determined by how wealthy or poor we are.
Hence, there may be some extremely wealthy people who lack integrity and demonstrate an evil heart, but it is not the wealth that made them that way. At the same time, there are plenty of people who are extremely wealthy who have integrity and are blameless, wanting nothing to do with evil, just like Job.
Reflection
What are your thoughts and feelings towards people who are EXTREMELY wealthy? Do you have a hard time thinking that they could be godly people who are blameless and have integrity? If so, why do you think you struggle with those views?
Why do you think God would allow people to have enormous amounts of material possessions well beyond what they actually NEED?
If God doesn’t evaluate integrity based on wealth, how do you think He makes that determination?
What do you think are the reasons that many people (Christians included) oppose those who are rich? What are some possible reasons driving those views?
Photo by Anastase Maragos on Unsplash
The Lowedown 