Job - A Modern version of the Story: 约白的现代的故事

Mr. Job Li is not his real name. But this story is based on the true story of the life of a faithful Christian person who lives in Singapore.

李承谋 不是他的真名。但是，这个故事是根据一个生活在新加坡的虔诚基督徒的真实故事改编的。NOTE: A full version of this story in Chinese will be posted later.

Since time immemorial, our Almighty God had set up a team of four of His angels charged with the sole responsibility of developing and strengthening the Christian faith of His people. This responsibility also included the testing of a Christian’s faith in God. This story is therefore about the testing of the faith of this person, Job Li, living in Singapore.

The members of this team include (1) Xuan Zang, also known as Tang SanZang;

(2) Sun Wukong, sometimes also known as the Monkey King;

(3) Zhu Baijie; and (4) Sha WuJing.

There is also a fifth member but he is seldom mentioned in all of the stories of the team’s past deeds. He is often referred to as 白龙马 White Dragon Horse, the horse that has wings and thus is able to fly through the sky, carrying Xuan Zang with him.

We can read all the past stories about this team from the internet. A drama series with English subtitles about the team’s journey to the West can be viewed on YouTube. The first episode in the series is given below.

我们可以从互联网上阅读有关该团队的所有过去的故事。可以在YouTube上观看有关该团队西游之旅的英文字幕电视剧。该系列的第一集如下。

The Journey to the West https://youtu.be/K3KNpyKILHM

Now back to our story on Mr. Job Li.

The Location: The Hawkers Centre, next to Cold Storage, Orchard Road Car Park, Singapore.

When: 8:00 pm on Halloween Day, Tuesday 31st October 1972.

The Team of four (no, five) had all changed themselves into the local attire. Almighty God, in His Whatsoever Form, was present in overall charge, as always. Xuan Zang or Tang SanZang was chairing this informal meeting and they spoke in local Hokkien slang. His White Dragon Horse had changed himself to a pet chameleon, sitting quietly next to Sun WuKong, dressed as a local youth of the day.

Zhu Baijie portrayed himself as a lovely soft-spoken lady. Sha Wujing dressed as an elderly man with his regular fighting tool as a walking stick.

God: “A random Christian has now been selected as our target. His name is Job Li. Our mission here is to see how loyal he is to his Christian faith. He has been successful, very successful in fact, up to now, truly blessed and truly endowed. Do whatever you like to see how he loyal he is.” With that, God disappeared from sight.

Tang: How shall we begin to do this assignment?

Sha: I can go and catch him, lock him up and take him hostage.

Zhu: I shall tempt him with my new-found beauty.

Sun: Come on, wake up, please! Our mission is to test his obedience to God’s commands. How can we do this with your suggestions?

Tang: Now, now, now, let us think this through logically. Taking him hostage or exercising charm on him cannot be a rational answer by itself.

Sun: I shall go to the Archive and check Li out.

With that, Sun made a huge somersault and he was back to Heaven’s Archive Desk. After just twenty minutes of checking (or googling as our modern term expresses it), he was back at his teammates’ table, this time at Swee Kee Vegetarian Rice Shop at Kim Seng Road.

Sun: Job Li has a successful professional consultancy practice with offices in both Singapore and Hong Kong. He is a good person, well blessed by God with the love of his mother (solo parent since he was eighteen months old). He has the love and care of his loving wife. He has three nice and well-mannered daughters in their happy childhoods 7 years old, 3 years old and a year and a half years old). His wife is expecting a baby boy by November this year. He has completed his professional studies on a Government scholarship and the Singapore Government is one of his many steady clients. He has prospered with many landed properties, holiday home, and chicken and pig farms in Malaysia. We need to make things difficult for him just to test whether he, without his worldly possessions, will still be loyal and faithful to his Lord.

Tang: Our assignment is to test his faithfulness to God. How shall we proceed?

Sha: I shall modify my stance and shall instead give him a ransom call to say that without a million dollars, I shall take his only son hostage, shall I?

Sun and Zhu: Agree.

Job received that call. He was frightened. His wife was frightened. His mother was even more frightened as her grandson was the only one who is bearing the Li surname into the future. Job reported to the Singapore Government as any worthy citizen would have done. What did the Government do? The Government asked Li to engage a government-owned private company CISCO to afford 24-hour surveillance at Job’s house for a fee of $500 a month. Job prayed to God and finally agreed to the arrangement.

Now rumors spread. Somehow, other government departments were aware of Job’s predicament. Somehow, other private clients of Job’s also know about Job’s ‘protection fee’. Job’s business turned bad as a result.

But still, Job prayed to God and praise God, “God,” he prayed, “Loving God, You give and now you take. I know that you must have a purpose for this and I bless You for that. God, You know best.” That prayer worked in strange ways. His wife, amidst her caring for her four children, started to listen seriously to the Bible for the first time.

Tang: Well, Fellows, Job is still faithful to our Lord, in spite of the fact that he is now almost broke financially. What shall we do next?”

Sun: I know as a fact that Job’s friends have left him, saying that he must have done something wrong against God to suffer such a big financial loss. Shall we stop here?

Sha: We have not received any instruction for God to stop.

Zhu: Yes, we shall now start the next process of tearing him down to see whether without health he is still faithful to our God.

Tang: Agree.

By that time, Job and his family members, all seven of them - his mother, his wife, his three daughters, and his son - had migrated to Auckland, New Zealand. Job had to restart building his career again, working as an insurance salesperson for AMP.

Suddenly, one day, Job had developed a skin disorder and his entire body was covered in sores. In total discomfort, he prayed to God, “As I said before, naked came I out of my mother’s womb and naked shall I return thither. If it is Your wish Lord, take me now. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Tang: Job is now on medical care every day but he is not blaming God. He is not cursing God.

Sun: We have to do even worse to test him further.

Zhu: No, I disagree. We shall report this to God and ask God if He wishes us to stop.

Sha: I’ll second that.

Now in 2020, Job is in happy retirement, at almost eighty years of age. He is not half, no, not even ten percent as rich as he was. He is in good health, doing his Tai Chi every morning at Waiatarua Reserve with his wife. Both are relaxed and their four children are blessed. They have seven grandchildren and they are blessed too.

Praise the Lord!

The Bible Story of Job: https://youtu.be/GswSg2ohqmA

The Bible Story of Job another version (Part 1) - https://youtu.be/95EYjHfqMxw

The Book of Job (Part 2): https://youtu.be/kLVbo4Vqfq4

What is the moral of this story? Simply this: When things are not going well in our lives, do we blame God? When we feel like being cheated by others or when we are blamed for being Christ-liked, do we curse and swear? God has plans for all of us. His rewards may not come at the time that we desire.

Sheridan Voysey wrote a beautiful testimony of God’s work in the real-life story of Anthony Ray Hinton, who, in 1985, was charged with the murder of two restaurant managers. It was a set up as he was, at the material date, miles away from the crime scene. At the trial, Anthony was found guilty but what was his reaction to the verdict? He forgave those who lied about him. He said that he still had joy despite the injustice. He said to the public, “After my death, I’m going to Heaven, where all of you are also going.” He battled the judicial system for thirty years until 2015 when finally his conviction was overturned by the United States Supreme Court.

“I did experience supernatural joy in the face of injustice,” Anthony said upon his release from prison as his eyes met the sun after a long thirty years, ” the joy that I have there - they could not take that away.” The point remains that God exists even though He’s unseen and He’s ready to sustain us in our own periods of suffering. After all, we (representing Mankind) have sinned and we are born here to suffer.