Job
Job demonstrates the nature of the way we act before a sovereign and Holy God and it addresses the question of the ages: Why do righteous people suffer?
The beginning opens up with how Job was obedient to God and was blessed with prosperity. Then we see the endless restlessness of evil.
God speaks to Satan:
Whence comest thou? From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
This reveals the “endless restlessness of evil”.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1Peter 5:8).
Satan comes to do mischief. He distracts our attention. He sets us to criticizing. He sows dissension in the congregation. He comes accusing and finding fault in you.
When the trials came, Job did not understand the meaning of all his suffering but he knew it was not because he had sinned. There is a reason and value to everything that God allows.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).
God never allowed Satan to prove that God blundered when He made man by suggesting that men only serve God for what they can get out of Him.
The problem of the book and the chief riddle of all times (“Why do the righteous suffer?):
- The shallow view of Satan that the children of God love and serve Him because it pays in riches and honor. He said that Job’s godliness was selfishness, that he served God for profit, that when prosperity ended he would be no more godly. He receive permission to test Job. Satan added, “who wouldn’t serve God for a handsome income of so many thousand a year? What him when his prosperity end.”
- The scarcely less false view of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar that the unrighteious suffer because of their sins and the righteous are rewarded. Hence they reasoned that Job must have sinned, and this suffering was his punishment. Job was a great sufferer; therefore he must have been a great sinner. But Job knew that his heart was true to God, and he could not accept the accusation of his friends. He showed them that their conclusion was false and that the wicked often prospered in the world.
- Elihu had a far more just answer of the problem but his eloquent discourse was marred by conceit. He defended God and saw in affliction the chastisement of a loving Father. But this did not explain the reason of suffering to Job. Elihu argued that suffering was God’s discipline to bring His sons back into fellowship with Himself. He believed that suffering was sent to keep us from sinning.
- God explained to Job (by revealing Himself to him) that when men see God something always happens. The godly are allowed to suffer that they may see themselves first. When we come to the end of ourselves, God can lift us up. Job was a good man, but self righteous. In Job 29: 1-25 you will find the personal pronouns “I”, “my” and “me” 52 times.
It exposes our self-righteousness and our failure to remember what the Bible says about who we are and the nature of the world we live in.
When we fail to take seriously what it says about the world we live in and about what it says still lives inside us, we won’t seek the forgiving, rescuing, protecting, transforming, and delivering grace that is our only hope. I have learned that this world is way worse than I had ever imagined, but also realized that God’s grace is so much greater than I could ever imagine.
It exposes our lack of understanding between God’s discipline and God’s judgement as well as our forgetfulness about God’s ultimate plan of redemption.
- Trials and suffering are for our education and training.
- The athlete is not put under strict discipline for punishment but merely to make him ready for the race.
- He knows the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23:10)
- Christ is ever preparing us for the race that is set before us:
- Let us run with patience the race that is set before, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
We question His justice, wisdom, and sovereignty.
We accuse of God of being a relentless prosecutor and an unjust judge.
Job’s key word is “tried”.
Why do godly people suffer? Why does a good person have to die of awful disease or be confined to a bed of pain?
It is easy to become confused about this problem of suffering. Remember the disciples of Christ thought that suffering was the result of sin in a life (John 9:2). The book of Job gives an entirely different reason for the suffering of Job.
Job should be read as a narrative.
It opens with a scene in heaven and then tells of Job’s fall from prosperity to poverty. This followed by the discussion between Job and his 4 friends. Finally, the climax is reached when God speaks. Job answers, at last in a humble spirit, and the problem is solved.
The problem of the book and the chief riddle of all times (“Why do the righteous suffer?):
- The shallow view of Satan that the children of God love and serve Him because it pays in riches and honor. He said that Job’s godliness was selfishness, that he served God for profit, that when prosperity ended he would be no more godly. He receive permission to test Job. Satan added, “who wouldn’t serve God for a handsome income of so many thousand a year? What him when his prosperity end.”
- The scarcely less false view of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar that the unrighteious suffer because of their sins and the righteous are rewarded. Hence they reasoned that Job must have sinned, and this suffering was his punishment. Job was a great sufferer; therefore he must have been a great sinner. But Job knew that his heart was true to God, and he could not accept the accusation of his friends. He showed them that their conclusion was false and that the wicked often prospered in the world.
- Elihu had a far more just answer of the problem but his eloquent discourse was marred by conceit. He defended God and saw in affliction the chastisement of a loving Father. But this did not explain the reason of suffering to Job. Elihu argued that suffering was God’s discipline to bring His sons back into fellowship with Himself. He believed that suffering was sent to keep us from sinning.
- God explained to Job (by revealing Himself to him) that when men see God something always happens. The godly are allowed to suffer that they may see themselves first. When we come to the end of ourselves, God can lift us up. Job was a good man, but self righteous. In Job 29: 1-25 you will find the personal pronouns “I”, “my” and “me” 52 times.
God has a wise purpose in all of our suffering . God wants to show His manifold wisdom. He wants the trial of our faith to work patience. He wants to bring out the gold as by fire. He wants to reveal real character.
The problem of suffering has had much light thrown upon it from the New Testament-especially from the cross of Christ. Here we see the world’s most righteous Man, the world’s greatest Sufferer. We know now that the righteous suffer with the wicked today because of sin which fills the world with misery. We know there are natural consequences of sin, for the godly as well as the sinner. We have already noted that chastening is sometimes for training and correction. There is suffering which Christians must endure for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s.
The book of Job tells us much about human suffering. Job’s friends, as thousands do today, made the mistake of thinking that all suffering was God’s way of punishing sin. They asked:
Who ever perished, being innocent (Job 4:7)
God allowed Stephen to be stoned, Paul to be thrown in jail and killed, John the Baptist was beheaded, Peter and Jesus were both crucified.
God trusted Job; therefore He assigned to him this great problem of suffering. Because He loved Job He allowed him to be chastened,
for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth (Hebrews 12:6).
When Job was in the midst of his anguish he realized that it is only the gold that is worth putting into the fire. Anything else would be consumed.
Count it all joy when you fall into various temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience (James 1:2-3).
When Job was prosperous and upright and benevolent, he was in danger of becoming self-confident, and could easily forget that he only held his power and place in this world, as a steward of God. God does not give us great gifts just to please ourselves. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Even Christ pleased not himself. He came to glorify the Father.
Job never really saw himself until he saw God. Job was all ready to reason with God, as many do today, about His dealings with him. He could not understand Him. It was a vision of God Himself that completed the work in Job and brought him to the dust. The wisdom of man is foolishness with God.
God kept dealing with Job till he came to the very end of himself! We find Job a chastened, softened servant. Job no longer asked a question but made a statement:
I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after mys skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God (Job 19:25-26)
Job’s vision of a future life, that had been uncertain before was clear now. We had heard him asking a question that multitudes asked, If a man die, shall he live again? (1 Cor 15, John 11:25)
SATAN AND THE SAINT (1:6 – 2:10)
Satan’s charge against Job was that a man only fears and serves God based on his life circumstances. The limitation God imposed on Satan’s testing demonstrated the Lord’s desire that Job be a trophy of God’s grace even in his suffering. The real conflict here is between God and Satan.
The sons of God (angelic beings/messengers of God) present themselves before the King. The mystery is that Satan was among them. he was angelic, but he had fallen. In contrast to the Almighty we have a figure of the adversary. Satan as the adversary is depicted with great clearness, representing a real being, not an imaginary one. Our strange idea of the devil is derived from Dante’s Inferno, as well as other poets, where he attempted to paint this grotesque, gigantic, monster of hell. His description is magnificent but is has little justification from Scripture. The bible tells us that:
Satan comes as angel of light to deceive and to tempt (2 Corinthians 11:14)
Satan could bring up the hosts of Sabeans and Chaldeans and have them carry away the oxen and asses and camels of Job. He could slay the sheep by lightning, and cause the wind to kill Job’s children, and even smite Job himself with boils. Remember, he is the prince of the power of the air. (Eph 2:2)
- Satan has great power, but there are limits to his might. Satan is mighty, but God is Almighty. He can break through only where God allows. God will never tempt us above what we are able.
- We are meant to feel grief. Sorrow has its use in our life. We are told not to “despise the chastening of the Lord” but to be “exercised” thereby.
- Job recognized that loss and sorrow are laws of life. We have to learn that all possession are transient. We are losing something every moment. We cannot stop and weep over everything that is taken from us. We have to learn a hard lesson- that we can live on in spite of all our losses. Begin to learn while you are young that nothing is necessary but Christ.
Only pure gold can stand the fire. God is the great metallurgist of heaven, puts us in the fire, but He watches and tries us Himself. He trusts no other. When the fire has burned long enough to destroy the impurities, He pulls us out.
God speaks to Satan:
Whence comest thou? From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
This reveals the “endless restlessness of evil”.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1Peter 5:8).
Satan comes to do mischief. He distracts our attention. He sets us to criticizing. He sows dissension in the congregation. He comes accusing and finding fault in you.
When the trials came, Job did not understand the meaning of all his suffering but he knew it was not because he had sinned. There is a reason and value to everything that God allows.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).
God never allowed Satan to prove that God blundered when He made man by suggesting that men only serve God for what they can get out of Him.
Sometimes we will have to wait for an answer on the reason for our trials and experiences.
Jobs friends all had a reason; they wished to tell Job why they thought he was suffering as he did. They all agreed that he must have sinned miserably to have caused this suffering.
- Eliphaz backs his argument by a dream.
- Bildad by some old proverbs.
- Zophar by experience and reason.
- Elihu came closest arguing that it was God’s discipline to bring the soul back to fellowship with God but it was not the whole truth. God called Job “perfect and upright” so His friends were wrong in charging him with sin as the only possible cause of his calamities.
Many times we look to find comfort, understanding, and peace on our that always leave us unsatisfied. God
The chief question returns: “Why does God permit the righteous to suffer?”
THE RIGHTEOUS COMFORTER
I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. (42:2)
Then comes the great confession:
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I count myself out, and repent in dust and ashes (42:5-6)
This is the victory of submissive faith. When we bow to God’s will, we find God’s way. Stoop to conquer. Bend to obey. This is the lesson of Job.