The Word today is the bottom line in the book of Job, the story of the man from the land of Uz who was blameless and upright and who feared God and turned away from evil. The man had prospered. He had seven sons and three daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses and very many servants. We could say that he belonged to the affluent society, a rather rare type in his day because the record makes it clear that he was the greatest man of all the people in the East.

We will take the Book at its word, but how anyone who is blameless and upright and fears God and turns away from evil can revel in prosperity like that while half the world is starving is beyond the mind. Across the chapters of his story, there is not much to suggest that he was any great philanthropist…