By Ray C. Stedman
Copyright @ 1981 by Ray C. Stedman. All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief excerpts in reviews, without the written permission of the publisher.
Quotations from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, @ 1971,1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, are reprinted by permission. Quotations from The New English Bible (NEB), @ The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and The Syndics of The Cambridge University Press, 1961, 1970, are reprinted by permission.
Discovery Books are published by Word Books, Publisher, in cooperation with Discovery Foundation, Palo Alto, California.
ISBN 0-8499-2932-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 80-54546
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
1. The Test (Job 1)
2. The Pressure of Pain (Job 2)
3. Is It Better to Die? (Job 3-7)
4. The Folly of Platitudes (Job 8-14)
5. Help from on High (Job 13-19)
6. Why Doesn't God Intervene? (Job 20-26)
7. The Wrong of Self-defense (Job 27-31)
8. Youth Answers Age (Job 32, 33)
9. Your God Is Too Small (Job 34-37)
10. The God of Nature (Job 38, 39)
11. The Nature of God (Job 40,41)
12. The New Beginning (Job 42)
13. Lessons from Job
The Book of Job is perhaps the oldest book in the Bible. No one knows who wrote it. Some scholars think it may have been written by Moses--and perhaps it could have been--while some date it as late as the time of Solomon. But one thing is certain, it was given to us by the Holy Spirit. A very profound book, in many ways it touches upon certain themes more deeply than any other book of the Bible. It is also very beautiful, written in majestic, glorious language.
Job was a real man, not a mythological figure. He is mentioned by Ezekiel and is classified as one of the three great men of the Old Testament, along with Noah and Daniel. He is mentioned also in the New Testament by James, who refers to Job's patience and steadfast endurance. According to the opening verse, Job lived in the land of Uz and was probably one of the most prominent citizens of that land. He may well have been a contemporary of Abraham, and if so, this book goes back to the very beginnings of biblical history.
As we will see, Job is a kind of epic poem, very much like Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. It may have been presented at times as a drama in which actors recited the parts of the different characters in the book. Most of the book is poetry but it begins and ends with prose sections which are like program notes given to an audience.
Blameless, But Not Sinless
Chapter 1 gives us the setting, and introduces Job, the main character. We are told first of his piety (v. 1):
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
The most noteworthy thing about Job was his godliness; he feared God. The Revised Standard Version also says he was blameless, and many who have read that have taken it to mean that Job was sinless. But one can be sinful and still be blameless if he has learned how to handle his sin the way God tells him to. Evidently Job had learned how to handle sin, so in that sense he was blameless.
I do not think, however, that this is the best translation of the Hebrew word that appears here. The word means "a complete, or well-balanced man." Job was well-balanced because he feared God. He was not a materialist; he did not look on life as merely a means of getting ahead in the world. Job was also aware of God; he saw God's hand in everything he did. That made him a complete man.
This is not to say that Job was a theologian, however. He was a practical, down-to-earth man. I think these terms are best explained by the last part of verse 1: "[He] feared God, and turned away from evil." That is, he was complete because he feared God; he was upright because he turned away from evil.
The second thing we are told is that Job was very prosperous (v. 3):
He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.
Job was well known for his prosperity. He sounds like a rich Texas cattleman! God gives riches at times, and riches are not necessarily evil although we are warned about the danger and deceitfulness of them. Here was a man whom God had made rich.
The last personal thing we are told about Job is his love, his fatherly concern for his children (v. 4):
His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each on his day [on his birthday] and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." This Job did continually.
That little phrase, "cursed God in their hearts," becomes a kind of theme to the Book of Job. Ultimately, that is the test to which Job himself is put: Will he curse God in his heart? This was a matter of great concern to Job about his children. He had seven sons, and as each had a birthday, that meant seven times a year they had a feast to which they invited their sisters. What Job did, according to the record, was the equivalent of our holding a special time of prayer for someone about whom we have a concern. Job offered burnt offerings, because he recognized that his children needed spiritual help most when things were going well, not during times of stress. This indicates a great deal of spiritual insight on the part of Job. He knew that the pressure to deny God, to forsake God, comes most strongly when things are going well.
Job did not offer a sin offering, because that was something only the sinner himself could do. (Sin offerings are of no value if one does not personally repent of the sin.) But Job offered a burnt offering which, in the Scriptures, is always a symbol of total dedication to God, a recognition of God's rightful ownership of men. When Job made this offering he was expressing the burden of his heart for his children, that they might be wholly God's. He was praying for them by means of this burnt offering. So we have a picture of Job as a godly man, a great landowner, and a good father.
The Curtain Is Lifted
In verse 6 the scene suddenly shifts to that world of invisible realities which, in the New Testament--especially in the Epistle to the Ephesians--is called "the heavenlies." This sphere is not off in space somewhere; it is right around us but we are separated from it by an invisible barrier so that we cannot see what is going on in that world, where God and Satan, angels and demons, function. Suddenly the curtain is lifted. Just as the eyes of the servant of Elisha were opened at the prophet's prayer so that he saw the mountain ringed about with the chariots of God, so now our eyes are suddenly opened to this drama. We see what is going on behind the scenes, what Job himself could not see (vv. 6-12):
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the Lord, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the Lord, "Does Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face." And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand." So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
This is surely a most impressive scene, similar to what John describes in the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation, where he sees tens of thousands and thousands upon thousands of angels gathered in the great audience chamber of heaven, in the very presence of God himself. The angels here are called the sons of God because, like Adam, they were a direct creation of God's hand. But, unlike Adam, they were not given the capacity nor the command to multiply and produce others like themselves. No one knows how many angels there are. There seem to be countless numbers of them, but all of them were created directly by God, and in this instance, were present before God to give a report of their activities.
Surely we need to fling back the borders of our imagination in viewing a scene like this, and realize that God is interested in far more than this little dark planet of ours. As scientists look at the universe today there are many guesses as to how many other planetary systems there are like ours; how many other inhabitable worlds are out there among the millions of galaxies that span the heavens. No matter how many there are, one thing is clear, both from science and Scripture: it all adds up to one universe, one place, and God is in control of it all.
These ministering angels came to report, and in the midst of them is Satan. Satan means "the Adversary," and that is how he first appears in the Book of Job. Although he is there with all the angels, he has obviously already fallen. In the Books of Isaiah and Ezekiel we are told how he fell. Once the greatest of the angels, Lucifer, lifted up by pride, has become the enemy of God, the rebel within the kingdom of God. You can see him sauntering about among the angels, hands in his pockets, picking his teeth, disdainful of all the rest, looking for an opportunity to accuse.
Access to God
The significant fact in this account is that though he clearly is fallen, he still has access to God. That is what we must yet recognize about Satan: he has not been excluded from God's presence. Some books suggest that Satan is bound in hell, committed to a kind of furnace room in the universe, but these are distortions and far from the actual truth. Satan is granted access to heaven, and in that fact we have the first hint of the reason for the Book of Job; it is the first among many tremendous things this book has to say to us about the reasons for suffering.
Why do innocent, even righteous people, sometimes undergo terrible episodes of tragic injustice and suffering? This book will help us greatly with the answer to that question.
But there is a still deeper level of truth behind the Book of Job. Basically, it is given to us to reveal the relationship of Satan to God, that we may not be confused about the power of this vicious enemy against whom we all wrestle. Satan is not the equal of God. We do not have two gods, a good god and a bad god, struggling against each other. This book helps us to understand right from the start that God is in control of all things. All forces are at his command and nothing ever takes him by surprise. Nothing goes beyond his word and his will, including Satan.
This book will help us more than any other book in the Bible to catch a glimpse of the true greatness and majesty of God. We will see what we desperately need to see--that God is not just another man, great in power and authority, whom we can influence and command. God is not a heavenly bellboy, ready to run at our command, but he is in charge of all things, and he will always be in charge. If we are going to deal realistically with life, this is the way we must see him.
A Rigorous Test
We sometimes hear that the Book of Job is the record of a great battle between God and Satan, and that Job is caught in between. Although there are aspects of this struggle in the book, it describes a strange war in which one side must get permission from the other before it attacks. What kind of a battle is that? Can you imagine a German commander during World War II stepping up to General Patton, saluting him, and saying, "Herr General, we would like permission to bomb your troops, to destroy your tanks, and to wreck all your plans!" I'm sure General Patton's reply would have been unprintable. Yet this is the situation in the Book of Job. Satan comes to God and asks permission to attack Job. Now that is not a battle, nor warfare; it is a test. What we must see is that Job's faith becomes the subject of a very rigorous test. Satan is the one who brings it about, but God permits it.
The striking thing about this account is that it is God who challenges Satan, not the other way around. God says, "Satan, where have you been?" "Oh," says Satan, "I've been here and there, looking over the earth, trying to find somebody to attack." And God says, "Have you taken a look at Job? There's a man that I'm proud of!" God's own assessment of Job is that there is none like him in all the earth. Job is blameless and upright, ie., he is well-balanced, and he turns from evil as soon as he recognizes it. So God asks Satan, "Have you tried Job?" Satan says, "Well, I certainly have tried. I've looked that man over very carefully, but I can't get near; you've got him hedged in. I've tried every way I can to get at Job, but you've got him so protected there's no way I can get through."
Two things in particular emerge from this account--the satanic activity and the satanic philosophy. Satan's activity is to go up and down, looking for somebody he can get at. This is in line with what Peter tells us: "Your adversary [and here Peter uses the same term, the meaning of the name Satan] the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8). This is a tremendously helpful picture of some of the forces at work in our lives. A vicious, malicious enemy is looking for a chink in our armor.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks also of giving the devil an opportunity. In chapter 4, verse 26, Paul says, "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and [therefore] give opportunity to the devil."
When do you give the devil an opportunity to get at you? When you hold a grudge, when you get mad at someone and refuse to forgive him, when you keep nursing and feeding your anger. The devil is watching and saying, "Ah, I've got a chance! I'll get him!" The suggestion here is that whoever reflects to some degree the devil's philosophy becomes available to his attack.
The devil's answer to God is, "You've protected Job, and that's why he serves you. But if you take away your protection, he'll curse you right to your face." According to Satan's philosophy, self-service is the fundamental law of life; "What's in it for me?" is the ultimate question for every human being. Put men in the right circumstances, where they have to choose between what is best for them and something else, and they will choose for themselves every time. Thus whoever begins to reflect the devil's philosophy becomes open to the devil's activity.
Now the Lord says to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand." A third fact emerges in this account now. It is satanic limitation. God has set boundaries to Satan's activities. The impressive thing is that although Satan is a rebel and would break the rules if he could, there is no suggestion that he even attempts to break forth from this limitation. There is no possible way by which even Satan can violate God's restriction. He has no power to do it and so he abides by the rules. God is totally in control.
Now the rules of the test are clear. Job is to be stripped of his possessions because Satan's argument is that when they are taken away Job will deny God right to his face. So God says to Satan, "All right, we'll see. Go to it. He's in your power, but don't touch his body."
The last part of chapter 1 gives us the terrible results (vv. 13-15):
Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house; and there came a messenger to Job, and said, "The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them; and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you."
Here came the first messenger of doom saying, "Your oxen and asses are all gone. You know the Sabeans, living over the hill? They came in a raid and took them all, and slew the servants, and I am the only one left, and have come to tell you."
While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you" (v. 16).
Perhaps this fire was some kind of lightning storm. More likely it was a volcanic eruption, in which brimstone and noxious gases sprayed the countryside, and the sheep and all the servants except this one were killed.
While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "The Chaldeans formed three companies, and made a raid upon the camels and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you" (v. 17).
There goes Job's camels, the most prized possessions of the Arab world in terms of animals, taken in a raid by the Chaldeans.
While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house; and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you" (v. 18).
What a terrible day! If you think you have been mistreated, look at this. The next time you get bad news I hope you will read through this chapter. The malignancy of Satan is revealed in that he struck to the full extent of his permission. He went right to the boundaries that God permitted him, and took away everything Job had. Satan did not ease the load, he did not stretch it out, he gave no time for preparation of heart and mind. One after the other, four times, the hammer fell, and every time Job's heart was crushed. And as a final blow, he lost all his sons and daughters.
Divine Permission
In this account we see that Satan is given power over natural forces. Some have misinterpreted this, saying that the devil is always the one who controls the wind and the waves. But I do not think that is necessarily true. Many of the Psalms speak of God's control and power in the natural world. We should remember here that Satan must always obtain divine permission to use these natural forces for his own ends.
When Jesus stilled the wind on the Sea of Galilee, he rebuked the wind and the waves. Now Jesus was not talking to air and water--he was talking to the forces behind them, the satanic power that was using these forces to stir up a storm. Evidently, judging from this account in the Book of Job, Satan had to receive permission from God the Father to bring that storm into being.
Whenever we read of the terrible destruction of hurricanes that come in various places in the world, we must understand that Satan, the god of this world, is at times given permission to bring these things about. I know that atheists often use that fact to present Christian teaching about the character of God in the worst possible light. They say, "Your Bible says that your God allows that to happen. What kind of a God have you got?"
I remember years ago reading a parody of the doxology:
Blame God from whom all cyclones blow,
Blame him, all creatures here below.
Blame him, who knocks down church and steeple,
Who sends the floods, and drowns the people.
The trouble with that is, there is a modicum of truth in it. It is God who has allowed it to happen. This is what makes our faith tremble and quail, and we come up with superficial answers to what is happening.
One Christian defense is to say, "Well, Satan is a kind of independent agent, and he does what he likes. God has given him areas in which he can operate, and has no control over him." But when you read an account of some public disaster, such as a great earthquake, a volcanic explosion, or even, as in this case, a raid by one enemy upon another, you must always read it with a realization that though Satan has been the instrument by which that was done, the will of God is also involved in it. Satan has demanded and obtained from God the power to bring that to pass.
This is one reason why the Book of Job is given to us, to show that there is a far deeper reason for God's permission of tragedy than the superficial answers we often give. This reason will be unfolded as we go on in this book. We will see that God is not, as Satan would love to have him painted, a cold impersonal God who does not really care for us, and who does not mind submitting us to tortures and indecencies and injustices. Rather, as James tells us, God is merciful and compassionate, and out of this book will emerge the revelation of the mercy and compassion of God.
No Complaints
Now we see Job's reaction (v. 20):
Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped.
Job did not complain, he did not blame God, he did not get angry and upset and say, "Why should this happen to me? What have I done that all these things should suddenly come upon me?" C. S. Lewis once remarked when asked, "Why should the righteous suffer?" "Why not? They're the only ones who can handle it."
So Job's response is
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (v. 21).
He is saying, "Thank God for the times when I did have these things, and the enjoyment they gave me; the times with my children, and the blessings they brought into my life. Rather than complain about their loss, I recognize God's sovereign right to do with me as he will. If he gives me things, he has the right to take them away. All I can do is say 'Thank you' for having had them as long as I did." So we read,
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong (v. 22).
He has won the first round. It is clear that Satan's argument has been answered. Take away the possessions of a man like Job, and he still will not curse God to his face. He still loves God and follows him and serves him, and recognizes God's rights. It is a severe test and I wonder, how many of us would have passed it? But the test is not over--there is much worse yet to come. Before this book is through we will see levels of pride in Job of which he was totally unaware. We will begin to see what God is after in Job's life, and in ours, by this kind of testing.
Now you may be wondering, "What's going on behind the scenes about me? I wonder what Satan is saying about me now, and if he's asking permission to get me!" If that is what you are thinking, all I can say is, do not worry, live one day at a time. For one thing this book tells us is that if Satan had his way, everyone of us would always be in this kind of difficulty. Satan would wreck us and hurt us and tear us apart all the time if he could--not because he is angry at us, but because he wants to get at God, whom we serve.
But God's protecting hand has been over us. If we have any degree of peace and enjoyment it is because the hand of God has been like a hedge about us, protecting us and giving us great and wonderful blessings. Therefore, the attitude of every human heart ought to be, "Thank God for what I've got! Thank God for where I am now. What the future may hold, only he knows." And if it holds some kind of testing like this, Paul has reminded us in 1 Corinthians, "God will not test you above what you are able to bear."
He knows what you can bear, and he will not put you to a test so severe it must destroy your faith. But there are implications in every test that go far beyond the superficial aspects of the situation. As this remarkable book unfolds, we will see some of the things that God brought to the attention of Job.
Prayer: Our heavenly Father, we are grateful that we have so much blessing in our lives. How much your hand has given! How much it has poured into our life already, in terms of joy, pleasure, peace, relationship, warmth and love. We can only give thanks, Lord. And rather than complain about what we do not have, Lord, help our hearts to be filled with gratitude for what we have. Help us to know that your heart of love is watching over us, and protecting us from a vicious and evil being who would destroy us in a second if he could. Make us grateful for that. In Jesus' name, Amen.
2. The Pressure of Pain (Job 2)
Dr. Francis Schaeffer has said that the first argument of the gospel is not, as we often think, that Jesus died for our sins. Nor is it, as we are sometimes told, "God loves us, and has a wonderful plan for our lives." Dr. Schaeffer says that the first argument of the gospel is, "God is there." There is a God, and he is in control of life.
This is the great lesson of the Book of Job which we are faced with right from the beginning: the presence of God in the life of a man, even though he is going through severe trials. The trial itself proves the existence of God and man's relationship to him.
As we have already seen, Job is being subjected to a severe test. Satan has been permitted by God to take away all Job's possessions in an attempt to prove that if a man's possessions are taken away, he will curse God to his face. But Job has survived that first cycle of tests--tests that took away his wealth, his possessions, even his children. Job is left crushed and broken but, nevertheless, full of faith. The score is one to nothing in favor of Job against Satan.
Chapter 2 opens with another round in the test, and the first three verses tell us that God again initiates action against Job:
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the Lord, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it," And the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him, to destroy him without cause.
This reads much like the first chapter where we have the same glimpse behind the scenes into the heavenlies, where God and Satan are holding a conversation about Job, As we move on in the Book of Job let us not forget these opening chapters, for they give us a heavenly view of earthly trials, and viewpoint makes a tremendous difference.
Here in this chapter we are given a viewpoint of Job and his suffering that Job himself is not permitted to have. We will not be permitted this viewpoint in the times of our own trial. We will not know either, what is going on behind the scenes in our lives when we come into pressures and trials. We will not know what has transpired between Satan and God about us, but the story of Job gives us this assurance that an agreement has been made and that we are being subjected to a test.
A Change in the Rules
The thing that is important here is that God initiates further testing of Job, God challenges Satan and says, "Well, what do you think of Job now? You moved me against him without a cause, and I allowed it to happen, But now what do you think? There is none like him on the earth, He is blameless and upright, and he turns away from evil. You haven't moved him an inch. What do you think now?" Satan replies by asking for a change in the rules:
Then Satan answered the Lord, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face." And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power; only spare his life" (vv, 4-6).
When Satan says "Skin for skin!" he is using basically the same argument that he used in the first chapter. His philosophy was (and is) that men are basically self-centered creatures, When you attack them directly they will give up their faith, their religion, anything, to save their comforts. But that argument has been fully answered, God has allowed Satan to test Job and though he has lost his family and all his wealth Job remains steadfast in his integrity, refusing to charge God with wrong.
It is really sobering to realize that the tests which come into our lives are aimed at getting us to curse God to his face, to tell him he is wrong, he does not keep his promises, he is not the kind of a God whom we have been told he is. You will probably recognize this fact: when you are under pressure the thing you want more than anything else is to cry out in protest to God that he is not keeping his promises, That is where Satan always aims, He has the same philosophy and the same objective today; he wants us to curse God, as he wanted Job to curse God.
But now Satan asks for a change in the rules, He says to God, "You didn't go far enough. You put a boundary about Job and said I couldn't touch his body. That's the problem. It's true that a man may give up his possessions, but one thing he will never give up is his health. You let me destroy his health, and he will give up his integrity and his faith."
"But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face," And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power; only spare his life,"
Once again there is a divine limitation to the power of Satan, but this time God moves the boundaries closer. He says, "You can touch him, but do not destroy him. . . ."
When Satan uses the phrase, "touch his bone and his flesh," he asks for access to the total humanity of Job. We still use that phrase today, flesh and bone, to speak of our total humanity--not only our physical body, but our emotional life as well; not only our soul, but also our spirit. Satan is asking for access to this man Job, to touch him, body, soul and spirit--and he proceeds in that order. This constitutes the argument and basic assault recorded in the rest of the book of Job. Satan knows what he is after. He feels that if he can get at Job in every part of his being he can shake Job's faith and cause him to turn from his trust and confidence in God, to curse him to his face.
In a conversation with two young men on the Book of Job, I found they would not accept the story of Job as a historical event. I asked them why not. Their reply was, "If that story is true, then God is unconcerned about human life for it pictures God as ruthless; Job's whole family was taken from him. We can't accept that as a historical record."
I realized that they were struggling with the same feelings with which many people struggle today. They see God as nothing more than a man, who thinks and acts as a man and has no more rights than a man. If a man took life as ruthlessly as that, he would be justifiably charged with murder and cruelty. It does not occur to them that God cannot be charged with such cruelty because in his hand is the right of life. He determines the length of life for everyone. If Job's children had died from sickness these people would not charge God with ruthlessness and cruelty. But because they were taken suddenly, it seems unfair.
I remember clearly one occasion when my wife and I felt strongly the protests of many to the Book of Job. We received a phone call informing us that a beautiful young woman whom we had met not long before had been found dead. She and her husband, both Christians, were operating a Christian retreat and they had befriended our daughters who were living near by. The young woman and her husband were out for a walk beside a mountain stream. She sat down for a rest while he went ahead to climb a rock. When he came back, he found the body of his wife floating in the stream, drowned. Thus, suddenly, their five children were left motherless. Because they were such beautiful young people, and she was a very unusual mother, it hit us hard. Our hearts protested, "Why should this happen? What is God doing, taking a mother away from five children who need her desperately?"
But this is why we have the Book of Job. It shows us there are reasons and purposes in these trials and sufferings that we do not see. Job could not see what was going on behind the scenes, and neither can we. And yet God knows. He has a purpose for what he allows--a proper and right purpose that will end up manifesting more fully the love and compassion of his heart.
Boils and Recriminations
So Satan is given access to Job, and in the next section we see the physical test that follows:
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and afflicted Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, And he took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God, and die" (vv, 7-9).
Here is the first attack on the body of Job. Some think it was leprosy; other scholars see it as a form of elephantiasis, which not only covered the body with running, putrefying sores, but also caused the members to swell up and become bloated and distorted. Whatever it was, it rendered Job a pitiful spectacle, a repulsive hulk of a man, swollen and disfigured and hurting.
In my early twenties I went through a siege of boils that lasted about two years. They came mostly one at a time, for which I was grateful. On one occasion I had two or three at once. Nothing is more painful, I think, than a boil, and it is the kind of pain that cannot easily be relieved. Day and night it throbs away. It was a severe test to my faith to have even that limited trial.
But here is Job, totally covered with these agonizing sores. He was not only physically afflicted, but he was also painfully humiliated. He ends up sitting in the ashes, scraping the pus from his sores with a broken piece of pottery. To cap it all, the one to whom he ought to have been able to turn for emotional support turned against him. His wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity?" It is evident that her faith has crumbled under this attack. She no longer believes that God is loving, compassionate, and just. She sees this as proof (as many of us have done in times of trial) that God has forsaken his promises, that the Bible is not true.
How many times I have come to comfort people going through trials and had them say to me, "I tried these promises, I tried believing God--but it doesn't work." Have you ever said that? That is getting very close to what Satan was trying to get Job to do: "Curse God, and die." Job's wife is his instrument, just as Eve became the instrument to get at Adam in the Garden of Eden. So the assault upon Job's emotional life comes through his wife.
She advises him to do two things: "Give up your faith" (i.e. apostatize) "and curse God" (actually, in the Hebrew, the word is "bless" God, but it is properly translated "curse" because the word "bless" is dripping with sarcasm.) ". . . and die." She is clearly suggesting suicide: "It would be better for you to take your life than to go on like this." So poor Job, bound by physical pain, sits in humiliation with a disfigured body, and suffers from a sense of emotional abandonment by his mate.
I wonder if women fully understand how much their husbands depend on them for support in emotional crises. Husbands often draw emotional strength from their wives far more than either they or their wives realize. Here was a severe attack addressed to the very soul of Job, in which he felt even his wife abandoning him, advocating that he turn from his faith and renounce his God.
A Gentle Rebuke
But now in verse 10 we see the results of this second round of tests:
But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job's rebuke is a gentle one. He did not call her, "You foolish woman!" He said, "You speak as one of the foolish women." He is not attacking her; rather, he is suggesting that this is a temporary lapse of faith on her part and that for the moment she has begun to repeat the words of stupid, foolish women who have no knowledge of the grace and glory of God. In that gentle rebuke you can see something of the sturdiness and tenderness of Job's faith. In this great sentence he again reasserts the sovereignty of God: "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Job's wife had the philosophy that life ought to be pleasant and if it was not, there was no use living it. That philosophy is widespread in our own day, and a mounting suicide rate testifies to the broad acceptance of it.
But Job is given to show us that life is not to be lived on those terms. The reason we are here is not necessarily to have a good time. There are meaningful objectives to be attained in life, even when it all turns sour. When the pressure comes, when living is no longer fun, life is still worth living. A philosophy that wants to abandon everything as soon as things become unpleasant is a shallow, distorted view of life.
Job reaffirms that, "Shall we not take both good, and evil from the hand of God?" We take God's joy and his pleasure, the pleasant things of life, with . gladness and gratitude. If he chooses to send something that is difficult, shall we then abandon that gratitude and begin to curse him in protest, all because life is suddenly different than we thought it would be? God, in his grace and glory, does give us many, many hours of joy, and it is right for us to give thanks. But do not abandon that attitude when the time of pressure comes, for this is what Satan wants us to do. He wants us to complain and protest to God, to become upset and angry and resentful, to stop going to church, or to cease reading the Bible.
Well, Job has won again. The score is now two to nothing, in favor of Job. But Satan is not through. Remember that he obtained permission from God to assault this man in every area of his being. He has not only taken Job's children and all his possessions, but he has also taken away his health, and all the pleasure of his physical life. He has attacked not only his body but he has also assaulted Job's soul, making him feel abandoned by his wife.
The Final Stronghold
Satan now proceeds to attack the final stronghold: the spirit of Job, the ultimate reality of his life. In the closing verses of this chapter we see him beginning to move up his heavy artillery to attack the citadel of Job's faith. The big guns that he seeks to employ are rather unusual:
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to condole with him and comfort him (v. 11).
We are now set for the major argument of this book. The supreme attack on the faith of Job comes not through his physical trials, but through an attack on his spiritual relationship with God himself. And it comes, ironically, through the hands of well-meaning friends. Here are misguided but sincere friends who want to help, and hope they are helping, but actually they are an instrument of Satan to assault the castle of Job's faith and almost cause it to collapse.
We will learn more about these men as we go through the arguments they bring forth. Evidently they had to come from distant places, and a good deal of time has probably elapsed during which Job has been suffering physically. Word had to come to his friends about Job's disaster and they had to agree together by sending messengers to one another to meet at an appointed time and visit Job. So weeks, if not months, have probably gone by while Job is subjected to this severe pressure upon his faith. When the friends arrive, they are utterly shocked at what they see:
And when they saw him from afar, they did not recognize him; and they raised their voices and wept; and they rent their robes and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great (vv. 12, 13).
They can hardly believe their eyes! This monstrous, repulsive hulk of a man--could he really be their dear old friend Job? Could this creature, sitting huddled in a heap of ashes, scraping himself with a broken piece of pottery, swollen and disfigured, be the man they had known and loved? They are so shocked that their actions strongly suggest they think Job is on his deathbed. In effect, they hold a funeral service for him. These men do what was customary at funerals--raise their voices, mourn and weep. They tear their coats, sprinkle dust on their heads, and finally end up sitting on the ground around Job, observing him in silence for seven days.
He Deserves It!
Now while they were sitting there they were thinking. What they thought will come out in the arguments given in the next section of the book. It is enough for us to see at this point that while they were waiting in silence around Job they came to the conclusion that he was suffering under the hand of God for some terrible sin he must have committed--and that it was right for God to make him suffer this way. Their hearts, therefore, were hardening against Job. They had come to comfort him, but they were confronted with the feeling that many of us have had; there was not much they could say because in their heart of hearts they believed Job deserved what he was getting. The silence probably means that they were wondering how to begin, how to put their message in terms to which Job will listen.
As we go on we will hear Job's plaintive cry of protest against God, and we will read what these friends have to say as they try to explain to Job what he is going through. Much of our own philosophy will be reflected in what they say. But let us never forget that it is God who is bringing about this trial, and he has an aim in view. Because he does not tell us at this point what it is, we too must suffer through this with Job. We must feel to some degree what he is feeling, and sense the protest, the anguish, the emptiness of his life. Nevertheless, we must remember that there is an answer; God does have a reason, and it will be made clear as the book unfolds.
Sooner or later we all come to these times of trial and testing, for in some degree God visits them upon us all. If you are going through such a time this book will be of great help. But if you are not, be thankful that God has given us this book, and be thankful that, for the moment at least, he has chosen to maintain his protection, his loving care over you.
If Satan had his way, we would all perish. But God has guarded us and kept us. If he temporarily lifts his hand we have assurances everywhere in the Word of God that it will never be more than we can handle. Job proved that. It never was more than he could stand, although he thought it was. Sometimes this is the way we feel. We think God is going too far, pushing us too hard, but he never does; he is teaching us our limits. This is what the Book of Job will do for us as we go through it.
Prayer: Our Father, we are sobered by this book. We see something of the blood and tears that life can confront us with, and of the ruthless pressures to which we can sometimes be subjected, and still be in your will and in your hand, guarded and guided by your love. Lord, we do not understand that, but that is because our understanding is so limited. We pray that as we go through this book we will have our eyes opened to the kind of God we deal with, and to the ways you work, and what the ultimate meaning will be in our own lives. Teach us now by your Spirit, in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.
3. Is It Better to Die? (Job 3-7)
At this point in the Book of Job, Satan leads three of Job's friends to come and comfort him. When these friends arrive they are so shocked at what they see that they sit in silence for seven days before they can muster up enough courage to speak to Job about his troubles. Furthermore, they have begun to suspect that perhaps Job really deserves what he is going through. We will see how Satan uses this to increase Job's torment and anguish.
Chapter 3 begins with a dialogue between Job and his friends. The first thing we hear is a bitter lament from Job. Weeks have gone by since he was first afflicted with this painful disease, and God does not seem to explain what he is doing. Baffled and buffeted, tormented with physical misery, Job now opens his mouth with a tremendous cry in which he longs for death.
I do not know if you have ever felt that way, but there have been times when I wished I could have dropped out of the earthly scene entirely and gone home to heaven. I once received a card from a friend that referred to a trial my wife and I were going through. It said, "You may feel so very helpless now (which indeed you are for the most part) but I know when you are out there and the crutches one by one are stripped from you, God's words and his love will stand before you irresistibly and constantly until Jesus becomes your only alternative. Otherwise, death would be the only seemingly logical relief." That is where we find Job now, crying out for death, cursing the day he was born.
Let the Day Perish
In this chapter he asks three poignant questions. The first one is, "Why was I ever born?" Listen to the eloquent way he expresses it:
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said: "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, 'A man-child is conceived.' Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it: let the blackness of the day terrify it. That night-let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. Yea, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning; because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes" (vv. 1-10).
This book is written in marvelous poetry. Here Job is saying that he hopes his birthday will be forgotten: "May the anniversary of it be ignored. Let it be a day that is darkened, let no one rejoice in it. Let it be a day of cursing instead of blessing." All he has enjoyed in the past seems of no value in the fact of this tremendous anguish. You can see the pressure is increasing, and Job is beginning to break and crumble under it.
I do not think anything is harder for us to bear than unexplained trouble. If we could see some reason for what we have to go through we could endure it much more easily. But when trouble seems to be pointless and nothing is accomplished by it, it is a terrible strain upon the soul.
In verse 11 through 19, Job's second question is, "Having been born, why didn't I die at birth?"
"Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?"
"My life has been totally meaningless," Job says. "It would have been better to have died when I was born." Then he goes on to give us his view of death, a view that is much more primitive than what we have in the New Testament. It is a more natural view, widely held by many people who do not know anything at all about the Bible.
"For then I should have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then I should have been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, [an abortion] as infants that never see the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master" (vv, 12-19).
Job views death as a time of rest, a period of solitude and quiet after the tumult and trouble of life. I think many people see death that way. In the play, "Our Town," there is a vivid scene in the cemetery where the dead are talking among themselves. To them, death is the absence of all opportunity to fellowship with those left alive; all is quiet and peaceful. These verses indicate that Job's understanding of life after death needs to be enlightened a great deal, and that is one of the reasons why this suffering comes into his life. At the end of the book Job's view of death is quite different than it is here at the beginning.
Job's third question is, "Why can't I die now?" His questions have a logical sequence "Why was I born? But, having been born, why didn't I die when I came out of the womb? And since that didn't happen, why can't I die now?" In verses 20 to 26 he asks:
"Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures; who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes as my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes." [keeps coming]
Job's argument is, "What's the purpose of my life? Of what use is a life that is so filled with misery that you can do nothing but suffer and feel anguish? My life produces only fear and trouble, so it would be better to end it now." Many people feel that way. I do not think Job is thinking of suicide-he is asking God to end his days. There is no purpose to life, he says, when it is not enjoyable.
At this point we get the first of the replies of the three friends of Job. They are named Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. These friends all come with the same solution to the problem, but they approach it in three distinct ways, according to their personalities. They might well be nicknamed: "Eliphaz the Eloquent," "Bildad the Brutal," and "Zophar the Zealous."
Follow Your Own Advice
Eliphaz is evidently the oldest, for there is a smoothness about him, and a courtesy (at least at the beginning) that indicates he has learned how to say unpleasant things in gracious ways. Bildad is brutal and plainspoken. He lays it on Job and does not care what the effect is. Zophar is compassionate and emotional, but he speaks with a great deal of force, trying to move Job. Eliphaz's first argument breaks down into six main points, and when you hear what he has to say you will know what these three friends will be saying all through the rest of the book. He starts out by saying to Job, in effect, "Follow your own advice."
"If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? [Notice the courtesy with which he starts!] Yet who can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?" (4:2-6)
Basically Eliphaz is saying, "Job you have been a counselor to many people, and you have been able to put your finger on their problem and help them to deal with it. You delivered them, you found the key to what was troubling them and helped them to face up to it. Now your turn has come; follow your own advice and you will be relieved." Then Eliphaz goes on to state just what the problem is, and in verses 7 to 11 we learn his basic principle of life:
"Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered."
Eliphaz uses a family of lions to describe the natural strength of human beings--it appears to be strong, but in God's judging hand, it is broken. His argument is that the righteous are never punished; only the unrighteous suffer. "Where did you ever see an innocent man perish?" he asks Job. "Where did you ever see an unrighteous man succeed?" His argument is, clearly, that Job's problem is caused by his own sin, something he is hiding. "There is something wrong, Job. If you will only admit it you'll be all right."
I remember years ago picking up a Christian magazine that specialized in attacking men in public ministry. The editor of the magazine said of Dr. Billy Graham, who had just had a certain illness, that it was a judgment of God on him because he associated with the wrong kinds of people. But what fascinated me was that in the next issue the editor announced that he himself had fallen down a flight of stairs and broken his leg! His explanation of it was that Satan was attacking him, trying to stop his God-given ministry! This is so characteristic of humanity. We all see clearly that the suffering of others is caused by their sin, but our suffering is always caused by something else.
Unbalanced Theology
Eliphaz goes on to tell Job that if he will fear God and admit his sin, things will be all right. He breaks down his message into two parts. First, he says, he learned this truth in a vision that came to him at night. It is a rather spooky passage:
"Now a word was brought to me stealthily, my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face: the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: 'Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth. Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish for ever without any regarding it. If their tent-cord is plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?'" (vv. 12-21).
That is an argument based upon the fact that infinite justice rules the universe. Eliphaz sees God as a God of holiness and purity, so spotless that even the angels of God stand defiled before him. What chance would a man have to stand before him and claim to be sinless? In a sense, that is good theology. As we will see before the end of the book, it was a problem Job was really facing; he did not understand all his own heart, and he so confesses this at the end. But the trouble with Eliphaz's argument is that he thinks there has to be some known but hidden sin which Job is unwilling to confess. Eliphaz sees God only as a God of justice. He sees nothing of love and compassion and forgiveness, or of discipline and training from the Father's hand. So, because of his unbalanced theology, even though what he says is true it becomes false in its application.
In this way, much error creeps into the way some people use Scripture. We can quote truths from the Bible, but when we try to apply them out of a false premise, we end up wrong. Some people make a habit of going around with a Bible, quoting verses to others. They end up virtually beating others over the head with these verses. Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, used to speak about "preachers who went about with a theological revolver in their ecclesiastical trousers." This was Eliphaz's approach.
In chapter 5, verses 1 to 7, Eliphaz argues that trouble comes only from sin:
"Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple."
"That is what is wrong; you are vexed and jealous, and that is why you have trouble!"
"I have seen the fool taking root [apparently prospering], but suddenly I cursed his dwelling [it all fell apart]. His sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them."
What a low blow! That is a hidden reference to the calamity that befell all Job's children in one day. Eliphaz is suggesting that such things happen only because there is something wrong in Job's life.
"His harvest the hungry eat, and he takes it even out of thorns; and the thirsty pant after his wealth. For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground; but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward."
"Trouble comes from sin," says Eliphaz. "If you've got trouble, sin has to be the reason."
Get It Out in the Open
In the next division, verses 8 through 16, he suggests to Job that there is no use playing games with God because God knows too much.
"As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause; who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number: he gives rain upon the earth and sends waters upon the fields; he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night. But he saves the fatherless from their mouth, the needy from the hand of the mighty. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth."
God is in control, Eliphaz argues, and he is so clever and wise that you cannot deceive him. "You can't hide from him, Job. He'll trap you, he'll uncover your sin. You might as well get it out in the open!" Eliphaz closes with a section which says, in effect, "Just give up, and God will bless you."
"Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal. He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven there shall no evil touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. You shall know that your tent is safe, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. You shall know also that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season. Lo, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good" (vv. 17-27).
Eliphaz argues that if Job will cast himself on God's mercy, he will forgive him and restore him and everything will be fine. Job can be confident that he will be protected and kept, even to a ripe old age. Now of course the truth is, that is not what happens. Anyone who has lived a few years at all knows it is possible to find godly people who are not protected, who still go through times of trial and peril and suffering. Though this sounds like good theology, it does not take in all the facts. This story is given to us so that we might learn to correct our theology, and to understand that there are deeper reasons for suffering than sin.
A Right to Complain
Job's reply to this comes in chapters 6 and 7. It is divided into two sections. In chapter 6 Job rebukes his friends, speaking to all three of them. (Probably there were others present, listening to all this--a silent audience, except for a certain young man who comes in at the end of the book.) In chapter 7 Job addresses his complaint to God. There are three parts to each chapter. First, Job says he has a right to complain.
Then Job answered: "O that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash" (6:1-3).
He admits he has been speaking very strongly, but he says, "If you were where I am, you'd understand. My sorrow is so terrible it gives me a good reason to complain. . . .
"For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild ass bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the slime of the purslane? My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me" (6:4-6).
"You never hear an animal complain," Job says, "when he is well fed and taken care of. That's why I am complaining. You cannot take that which is tasteless and loathsome without trying to improve it with salt, or something. So I have a right to complain. It helps me to bear my troubles." Many people talk that way; many feel that if God sends them tribulation, they have a right to tribulate! Then Job speaks of his inability to bear more:
"O that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire; that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! This would be my consolation; I would even exult in pain unsparing; for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me" (6:8-13).
"I have no strength to handle this. What does God think I am made of, stone or bronze, that he subjects me to all this?" Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever said, "Lord, you promised that you would not tempt me above that which I'm able to bear, and Lord, we went by that point weeks ago!" But God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows how much we can take. So Job's cry goes unanswered.
Then Job rebukes his friends, expressing his irritation at their lack of understanding (vv. 14-21):
"He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brethren are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as freshets that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. In time of heat they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place. The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste, and perish. The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope. They are disappointed because they were confident; they come thither and are confounded. Such you have now become to me. . . ."
Job says, "You friends are like a mountain brook that is full of water in the wintertime when nobody needs it. But when the hot summer sun comes out, and you long for the refreshing of the water, it is nothing but a dry, gravel-filled stream bed. Even the caravans of camels looking for water for refreshment find nothing there. You said you came to comfort me, and all you've given me is trouble. You only rebuke me." Job is obviously irritated at these friends (vv. 22, 23):
"Have I said, 'Make me a gift'? Or, 'From your wealth offer a bribe for me'? Or, 'Deliver me from the adversary's hand'? Or, 'Ransom me from the hand of oppressors'?"
"Did I ask you to help me? I didn't send for you. You came to comfort me and instead you rebuke me!"
"Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have erred. How forceful are honest words! But what does reproof from you reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind? You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend. [You'd even beat your grandmother!] But now, be pleased to look at me: for I will not lie to your face" (vv. 24-28).
Job is simply saying, "If there is something wrong, then tell me, for I don't know what it is." His dilemma is that he knows God is doing this to him, but he cannot find a reason. He knows there is nothing in his life that he has not already confessed and dealt with. While he is not claiming to be sinless, he is saying that he has handled whatever sin he has been aware of, so what else is there?
Then he turns to God, and complains about the hardness of his present experience (7:1-6):
"Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hireling? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope."
How painful are the days of this troubled man! We become concerned when we get a pimple on our face, but Job was covered with boils! Then he complains about the hopelessness of the future:
"Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while their eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him any more" (vv. 7-10).
I Will Complain!
He has given up. He thinks he will never see any relief, that he will go on like this to the end. And out of that meaningless suffering and hopeless darkness, he cries out in honest despair:
"Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that thou settest a guard over me? When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,' then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones, I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. What is man, that thou dost make so much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him, dost visit him every morning, and test him every moment? How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? If I sin, what do I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have I become a burden to thee? Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be" (vv. 11-21).
Have you ever felt like this? "Lord, leave me alone, I've had enough! Why are you so intent on making life miserable for me? Why don't you just let me go?" Now, even at this point in the book, we must constantly remember that in every time of trial there are two purposes in view: Satan has his purpose, and God has his.
Satan's purpose here was to use the pain of Job's illness to affiict his body; to use the priggish, well-intentioned comfort of his friends to irritate his soul; and to use the silence of God to assault his spirit and to break his faith. But God's purpose is to teach Job some truths he never knew before, to deepen his theology and help understand God and himself much better. God's purpose was to answer Satan before the principalities and powers of the whole universe, and to prove him wrong in his philosophy of life. God's purpose was also to provide a demonstration for all sufferers in the ages to follow that God knows what he is doing.
Prayer: Our Father, thank you for the sufferings of Job. What marvelous lessons they teach us about our own lives and our own sufferings. Help us to view them in the light of the revelation of this book, and to know that we know more truth than Job knew, and we have far less reason to give up than he did. Grant to us, Lord, strength to stand in the midst of pressure, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
4. The Folly of Platitudes (Job 8-14)
The three men who came to comfort Job prove to be the severest trial he has yet to bear. The eloquent and lofty arguments of Eliphaz only leave Job angry and irritated, crying out for enlightenment from his friends and relief from his pain. Now the second of Job's three friends takes up the attack. He is Bildad the Shuhite, but I have called him "Bildad the Brutal." His short discourse opens by attempting to use logic with Job:
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the power of their transgression" (8:1-4).
Bildad's style is to ask questions in an effort to focus everything into a logical framework. He is the cold, intellectual thinker who debates the issue at the level of the mind. His first question, "Can God do wrong?" is a good question to ask, and the basis of much philosophy. Of course, the logical answer is, "No, God cannot do wrong." After all, ideas of what is wrong and what is right are based upon the very nature and character of God himself. Rightness is being like God; wrongness is being unlike God. So to ask this question is to ask, "Can God be unlike himself?" The answer is no, God cannot be unlike himself. God cannot do wrong.
So Bildad moves on from that basic premise to draw a logical conclusion for Job: "If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the power of their transgression." "When your children died, Job, on that tragic day when the tornado blew down the house and killed them all, you can only properly conclude it was because they did something terribly wrong." Bildad is following through the line of argument that all three of these friends pursue; God punishes all wrong, therefore any tragedy is the result of some definite though perhaps hidden sin.
Bildad goes on to argue that God will respond to repentance, and he summons the past experience of the fathers to confirm this:
"For inquire, I pray you, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have found; For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow" (vv. 8, 9).
There is much truth in what these men say to Job. In fact,
it is difficult to find anything specifically wrong in what they
say. Bildad is simply reminding
Job that the experience of the past confirms the fact that God
blesses those who turn to him, and that he rebukes and punishes
those who turn away.
Then Bildad supports his argument further with various common sayings of the day (vv. 11-13):
"Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless man shall perish."
His argument is clearly that man, by nature, must have God's blessing in order to prosper. If he does not have it, if he has done something to cut himself off from the blessing of God, then he will simply wither like a reed without water. Then he points out how God always cuts off those who seem to prosper because of evil in their midst, and he closes with an exhortation to Job to repent:
"Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more" (vv. 20-22).
This is a heartfelt and earnest exhortation to Job to own up to whatever it is he is hiding from them and from God, and perhaps from himself.
When you read these arguments, you have to ask, "What is wrong with this? It sounds so true and right." It is an argument you hear repeated many times today. What Bildad says is true and logical, and supported by plausible argument both from the experience of the past and from the testimony of Scripture. What, then, is wrong?
It's What's Left Out That Hurts
At the end of the book, God appears and says that Job has been saying the right things and that the friends are wrong in what they say. But at this point we have to ask, "What is wrong with this?" The answer, of course, is that it is said in the wrong spirit, and what they leave out makes it wrong.
There are three things wrong with their approaches. First, they answer Job's words without trying to find out what lies behind them. They zero in on what he says, without understanding his agony. Job has already admitted that he speaks rashly, but it is because of the unceasing torment he is going through. Any of us who have gone through deep, unrelenting pain knows how this can try the spirit to the utmost, and we become testy and sharp. Because Job says certain things that sound extreme, his friends leap upon his words and try to analyze them without identifying with his hurt.
This is a common problem in marriage. Husbands often are coldly analytical when their wives are pressured, or weary, or frightened about something. Husbands hear only the words and try to analyze them--and nothing can destroy a woman faster. The problem is that there is no identification with the hurt.
The second thing is that these friends' theology is incomplete. They always speak with the utmost confidence that what they are saying is the final word on the subject. There is no apparent understanding that perhaps there were aspects of God and dimensions to his Word which they had not yet seen. As many of us do today, they judge only on the basis of a rigid theology that takes note of certain aspects of truth, but ignores others.
The third thing wrong with these friends is that they never pray with Job. They never ask God for help to open their minds and to illuminate their understanding so that they can help their friend. The book is filled with prayers, but they are all the prayers of Job, crying out to God in the midst of his sufferings. His friends never seem to feel the need for further illumination on the subject. Yet you cannot find much wrong with their arguments. What a testimony to us of the need to speak cautiously when we deal with the deep hurts and problems of life.
Job's Dilemma
In chapters 9 and 10 we have Job's reply to Bildad. In chapter 9 he sets forth the difficulty he has with God, and he opens with a statement of his dilemma:
Then Job answered: "Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be just before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times" (vv. 1-3).
We must carefully understand what Job is saying here. He also has an inadequate theology; he accepts the principle that trouble comes only because of sin. He would have analyzed another's problems along the same line before his own trials began. But in the long dark hours of searching his own heart he has not been able to put his finger upon any sin with which he has not already dealt. So his dilemma is, "I'm not aware of sin in myself, yet the trouble is there; therefore, the problem must lie in God."
But Job has no way to examine God, and he goes on to state this in very eloquent terms. First, he says that God's wisdom is beyond man:
"He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength--who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?--he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger; who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the sea; who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number" (vv. 4-10).
"How can you get hold of a God like that to debate with him the issues that are causing the hurts of life?" Job asks.
In verses 11 and 12 he recognizes God's invisibility:
"Lo, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him? who will say to him 'What doest thou'?"
In verses 13 and 21 we have a marvelous statement of the sovereign activities of God in history.
"God will not turn back his anger [he does not change his mind]; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab [Egypt]. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause; he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a contest of strength, behold him [obviously the winner]: If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? [Who can judge the judge?] Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life."
First Ray of Light
In verses 22 and 24 he goes on to describe how life becomes incomprehensible where there is no understanding God. The reference point is gone, or uncertain, or vague; you cannot make sense of anything in life. And in verses 25 through 31 we see the effect this has on Job; he is filled with bewilderment, fear, and despair. But then in verses 32 through 35, out of the deep darkness that surrounds this suffering saint, a ray of light breaks through. It is the first break in Job's gloom. He says of God:
"For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together."
Then comes the awareness of what is missing:
"There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself."
"What is needed is a mediator, an arbitrator who understands us both, and who can bring us together," Job says. For the first time in this book we begin to see why God is putting Job through this protracted trial. For now Job begins to feel, deep in his bones, the terrible gulf between man and God that must be bridged by another. We who live in the full light of the New Testament know that he is calling out of a deeply felt need for just such a mediator as Jesus himself. Job is laying the foundation in his own understanding for the tremendous revelation of the New Testament: God becomes a man. God takes our place, lives as we live, feels as we feel, and solves the great problem between us and God, bringing God and man together. For the first time in Job we begin to sense what God is driving at. There is a verse in Psalm 119 that says:
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes (v. 71).
You can learn theology out of a book, you can study it and get it clear in your mind, but until you go through the hurts and difficulties and trials of life, you never really understand what the truth is. It takes suffering to get a clear vision of what God is saying to us.
In chapter 10 the darkness closes in again around Job. Once again his torment drives him to prayer, and this chapter is breathed out before God, in the presence of his friends. There are two things Job asks in this prayer. In verse 2 he says,
. . . ."let me know why thou dost contend against me."
Then in verse 20 he cries to God, "Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort." So his prayer consists of these two cries, "Let me know, or else let me alone; one or the other!" Anyone who has gone through suffering knows that this is often our feeling.
Examining the Possibilities
In the first 17 verses of chapter 10, Job is searching for answers, examining all the possibilities that might explain why he is going through this torment. It is apparent that they reflect the questions every sufferer faces when he is going through a difficult time. In verse 3 Job asks:
"Does it seem good to thee to oppress, to despise the work of thy hands and favor the designs of the wicked?"
That is, "Do you get some kind of pleasure out of this? Is that why you put me through this?" I do not think Job is being sarcastic. I think he is really asking, "Is God that kind of a being, that this pleases him? If that is the explanation, at least I am contributing to the pleasure of God by going through this!" Then he asks in verses 4 through 7:
"Hast thou eyes of flesh? Dost thou see as a man sees? Are thy days as the days of man, or thy years as man's years, that thou dost seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although thou knowest that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand?"
He is asking God, "Do you somehow limit yourself to man's circumstances and capabilities? Is that why you put me through this? Despite your wisdom and knowledge and might, do you limit yourself to our knowledge, put yourself where we are, and let yourself act and think only like a man? Is that what is behind this?" Here we have certain intimations of the Incarnation, the great underlying truth of the New Testament, that God will limit himself and become a man, putting himself in our place, that he might fully understand how we feel.
In verses 8 through 13, Job argues, "You made me, you formed me, and now you tear me apart. Is that a reasonable thing to do? You who put me together are now destroying me. Is that logical, is that right?" Then in verses 14 through 17 he asks, "What can I do? What recourse do I have? How can I please you or change in such a way as to alleviate this suffering?"
"If I sin, thou dost mark me . . . If I am wicked, woe to me! If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head, . . . And if I lift myself up, thou dost hunt me like a lion. . ." (vv.14).
And he closes (v. 17):
"Thou dost renew thy witnesses against me, and increase thy vexation toward me; thou dost bring fresh hosts against me."
"What can I do? Where can I turn?" Every argument that has ever occurred to a suffering saint is brought out here in the Book of Job. In fact, every nuance of suffering, whether mental or physical, is explored to its utmost throughout this book. All the tormenting questions are asked. All the haunting dilemmas are faced. Anyone going through suffering will find that Job has felt whatever he has, and has articulated it eloquently. The questions are not answered at this point. They will be answered before we are through, but in a way we could never anticipate.
Now, because of the silence of God, Job closes this chapter by crying out, "Let me alone! Life is useless; death is but darkness. Whatever it is, anything is better than this. Let me alone."
A Scorching Rebuke
In chapter 11, Zophar the Naamathite (let us call him "Zophar the Zealous") moves up to bat, and he opens with a scorching rebuke to what he sees as Job's sinful folly:
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: "Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you? For you say, 'My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God's eyes.' But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips to you, and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves" (vv. 1-6).
One can almost see Zophar shaking his fist in righteous indignation in Job's face. He accuses Job of wordiness, of foolishness, of mockery, of self-righteous smugness. He says that Job's punishment is richly deserved; he is only getting what is coming to him, and not even all of that. What a sweetheart this man is! He goes on in verses 7 through 12 to describe Job's stupid ignorance, in contrast to God's deep wisdom and inscrutable ways:
"Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven--what can you do? Deeper than Sheol--what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If he passes through, and imprisons, and calls to judgment, who can hinder him? For he knows worthless men; [guess who Zophar has in mind!] when he sees iniquity, will he not consider it? But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild ass's colt is born a man."
That is, it will never happen. "Anybody as stupid as you, Job, will never get any help." He lays it on, heavy and hard. Then he closes with a vivid description of the shining possibilities that are ahead, if Job will only repent:
"If you set your heart aright, . . . If iniquity is in your hand, . . . Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure, . . . You will forget your misery; . . . And your life will be brighter than the noonday; . . . And you will have confidence, . . . you will be protected. . . You will lie down, and none will make you afraid; . . ." (vv. 13-19).
Then a sharp word of warning at the end,
"But the eyes of the wicked will fall; all ways of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last" (v. 20).
Once again there is no identifying with Job's hurt, no empathy. This man just lays it on him with ruthless zeal. He sees only the cold, analytical logic of the situation. Zophar, of course, speaks with a great deal of passion and force, but there is no intimation that he is offering understanding help.
This is the difference between mere theology and the counsel of a man taught by the Spirit. Theology can be clear and proper and correct, but it is all in the head. When you are dealing with the hurting problems of life, you must add a deeper dimension--the compassion that Jesus manifested, the sympathy that identified with the hurt and opened the door of the spirit to receive what light might be given through the words.
The first round of dialog ends with Job's sarcastic defense in chapters 12 through 14. The first part is Job's answers to his friends; the second is his prayer before God. (We will leave that prayer for the next chapter.) Now Job speaks to his friends:
Then Job answered: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you" (12:1, 2).
We know exactly how he felt; these men have all the answers! Job says, "When you pass from the scene, there will be nothing left. You know it all." From verse 3 on to the end of the chapter, he points out that they deal with elementary truths, things anybody could know:
"But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?" (v. 13).
"You haven't helped me. Anyone knows this; you haven't added anything to my knowledge." Then he begins to detail it:
"I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock" (v. 4).
Why? Because--
"In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. . ." (v. 5).
"You don't understand because you've never been here. You haven't felt what I feel." (How familiar that argument is!) And then Job says, "You haven't faced all the facts" (v. 6):
"The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand."
"You tell me God always punishes unrighteousness, but look around you. There are idolaters who openly bring their idols in their hands. There are robbers living at peace; God is not punishing them. Life itself testifies that you are wrong."
In verses 7 through 12 he says nature confirms that God deals as he pleases; there is no way of predicting his actions:
"But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. . . In his hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."
Finally, in a beautifully moving passage filled with great passion, Job shows that he understands God fully as well as they do (vv. 13-25).
A Plea for Silence
In chapter 13 Job continues his defense before these men. He says their words have not helped; their silence would help more:
"Lo, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all. Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!" (vv. 1-5).
In verses 6 through 12 he tells them that if God judges him, he will also judge them; if God overwhelms him, he will overwhelm them also. They are in exactly the same boat. So his final plea is to let him alone, that he might come before God himself and debate this whole matter (vv. 13-19):
"Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope; yet I will defend my ways to his face."
Verse 15 is translated quite differently in the Authorized Version. This is the famous passage often quoted from Job:
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."
It is a great cry of hope and trust, but it is not really what Job said. What he said, I think, is best translated in the Revised Standard Version:
"Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope; yet I will defend my ways to his face."
He is determined, Job says, to defend himself, but he expresses one bit of hope in verse 16:
"This will be my salvation, that a godless man shall not come before him."
"If I am really godless, I will not get a chance to come before him. But if he will give me a chance, I have my case all prepared. And the very fact that he will listen to me indicates that at least I have a chance." So he concludes:
"Listen carefully to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.
Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be vindicated. Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die" (vv. 17-19).
Beginning at verse 20 through the rest of the chapter and on through chapter 14, Job presents the case that he has prepared before God, and he tells us what he would say if he could talk to God. But here he simply makes a plea that his "comforters" stop arguing and listen to him, and help him by their silence.
Surely, if nothing else, this Book of Job should help us to be careful in our approach to the suffering of others, so that we do not add to it. These friends of Job are so rigid in their theology, so blind to the great dimensions of God, that neither they nor Job understand they are only increasing the torment of this poor man. This is why Scripture exhorts us to "Weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice."
Prayer: Our Father, help us to understand more of your great nature, the majesty and glory of your being, the compassion of your heart, and the wisdom that prompts you to put us through times of difficulty and yet offers to support us through them, without fail. Lord, help us to learn from this book, that we might better handle that which comes to us. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.
5. Help from On High (Job 13-19)
Men who are waiting for trial often haunt prison libraries to study law books for their own defense. Sometimes they become such experts in law that they actually assume the presentation of their own case before the jury. Job is like that, for chapter 13 describes how, through long hours of anguish, he is planning what he would say if God ever gave him a chance.
He has four major points he wants to make. The first is a plea for certain conditions that he feels must be met before he is able to stand and talk to God:
"Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. Only grant two things to me, then I will not hide myself from thy face: withdraw thy hand far from me, and let not dread of thee terrify me. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and do thou reply to me" (vv. 19-21).
C. S. Lewis has well said that to argue with God is to argue with the very power that makes it possible to argue at all. Job senses this; he knows he must have mercy from God before he can even stand before him, so he asks for two conditions to be granted him. First, he asks that God will lift the pain and anguish he is going through so that he does not have to speak out of constant torment. Second, he asks God to so veil his presence that Job will not be terrified by the awesomeness of a mighty God. It is a vivid revelation of the sense of God that Job has, even in his hour of anguish.
One thing Job never loses is his consciousness of the character of God. Even though he wonders at what God is doing, and feels that he is being mistreated in many ways, he retains a vivid sense of the majesty of God. Here he asks that he be delivered from fear so that he might present his case.
A Right to Know
The next division contains Job's cry for knowledge. He needs further information before he can go on:
"How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin" (v. 23).
It is universally recognized in any court of law that a prisoner has the right to know the charges placed against him. Job does not know what his sin is, although he has searched his heart. His theology along with that of his friends-tells him that punishment and suffering come because of sin. But what sin? That is what he cannot answer. So he cries out, "What have I done? How have I offended?"
Then he protests the silence of God, and God's apparent anger against him:
"Why dost thou hide thy face, and count me as thy enemy? Wilt thou frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff? For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me inherit the iniquities of my youth. Thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and watchest all my paths; thou settest a bound to the soles of my feet" (vv. 24-27).
The only thing that occurs to Job that may be an explanation of his unrelenting pain is that God is going back and picking up the sins of his past, even the sins of his youth, despite the fact that he had offered sacrifices for them according to God's program.
Then in chapter 14, in two marvelously moving passages, Job brings out the helplessness and the hopelessness of man before God. First, he is helpless to control his affairs:
"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he flees like a shadow, and continues not" (vv. 1, 2).
And yet God judges this limited, helpless man, who is a victim of circumstances, for things he cannot help:
"Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with thee, and thou hast appointed his bounds. . ." (v. 5).
"What can man do? He is a victim of what happens to him." This is the expression of Job's heart, and many have felt this way. "I can't help it that I was born into this situation, subjected to these pressures, and these circumstances. What can I do?"
The latter part of the chapter expresses very eloquently man's sense of hopelessness; most of us have said, "Oh, I wish I could go back and live it through again--at least some of it. If I could go back, knowing what I know now, I could clear up so many of my mistakes. Give me another chance, God, now that I have learned what I need to know." That is a universal feeling, and Job feels it. Yet he expresses his consciousness that this is impossible:
"For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. . . . "But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more. . . ." (vv. 7, 10-12).
That is Job's pessimistic view of life. Here we are dealing with a great problem that everyone faces. We often have a distorted view of this life, which Job expresses in eloquent terms. He goes on in the next passage, verses 13 and 14, to cry out for a kind of purgatory after life:
"Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, that thou wouldest conceal me until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!"
And then he asks again:
"If a man die, shall he live again?"
And the hope that something could be worked out causes him to say,
"All the days of my service I would wait, till my release should come."
No Hope of Purgatory
Those words vividly describe the joy it would be to stand before God with God's wrath already past. Job is not describing this because he thinks it is possible for him. He is voicing the inarticulate longings of the human heart to be freed from guilt-guilt that we do not always feel we can help. This has given rise to a hope for a purgatory after death, where we can pay for some of our sins and the rest of them are set aside, so that at last we can stand accepted before God. Chapter 14 closes with a graphic description of the helplessness of man:
"But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passes; thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceived it not. He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself" (vv. 18-22).
This poetic expression describes what is wrong with our view
of life. Job is looking at life as a natural man. He sees it as
the world sees it, centered only
on our present existence. This life is the important thing, and
the reason we were brought into existence is to make something
out of this present experience--we never get another chance. How
frequently we are reminded of this on television: "You only
go around once. Live life with gusto." This is one of the
major reasons why couples break up, sometimes after 25 or 30 years
of marriage. People begin to feel the force of this argument and
they truly believe it. They think the only thing to do, if there
is to be any pleasure or enjoyment in life, is to seize the present
moment. "I have not been able to get it together in all this
time, so I'm going to leave and start over." Many a marriage
has broken on that rock.
But God is teaching Job that this is a faulty view of life. This present human existence is but school time, a time of preparation for the real life that lies ahead. Compare Job's view of life with the revelation of the New Testament as to what lies beyond death and a startling contrast is evident. There Christians look forward to something so beautiful and glorious breaking upon them that they can hardly wait to seize it! But in Job we see again the concept that everything must be done now.
The Friends Attack
With Job's response round one is complete; the three friends have all had a chance at Job. Now his friends gird up their loins, sharpen their spears, and come at him again. In the first six verses of chapter 15, Eliphaz the Temanite charges Job with presumptuous words:
"Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good? But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God. For your own iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; and your own lips testify against you!" (vv. 2-6).
Eliphaz started out very courteously, but now he has dropped his courtesy and is thrusting deeply. He next accuses Job of pretentious claims:
"Are you the first man that was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?" (vv. 7-9).
"We have the same sources of knowledge as you, Job. Why do you put us down and think yourself so smart?" Then he returns, as all the friends do, to their narrow and worn-out theology:
"What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight: how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water?" (vv. 14-16).
Of course, Eliphaz has Job in mind here, "one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water." Again, it is not that his theology is wrong. Eliphaz is pointing out the general nature of the depravity of man, the Fall and its effects upon human life. He rightly says that there is no one who is clean, no one who is righteous before God. But what he fails to do is to point out to Job, specifically, what it is that he has done. How can you deal with evil if you do not know what it is? The great revelation that God is seeking to help Job understand is the nature of his corrupt heart. But God never charges him with fault until Job begins to see what is wrong. These men come accusing him of every ugly thing in the book, though they had no proof whatsoever. Job's life gives the lie to all their charges. As a matter of fact, they too are guilty of the very things that they set before Job because they are part of the human race. Eliphaz is a man born of woman, so he is guilty along with Job, but we never hear a word of self-condemnation from him.
Eliphaz goes on, in a long passage, to argue again from experience. He goes back over all the past and says, "My thesis is true, everything proves it: God will not let a man get by with wickedness. The wicked are going to be punished. Therefore, if you are being punished you must be wicked!" He says in verses 34 and 35:
"The company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery, They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit."
It is the same old tired thrust at Job: he must be guilty of some terrible sin.
In chapters 16 and 17, Job answers. He does not know what to say, but he is trying to be honest. The great thing about Job is that he is no hypocrite; he never tries to cover over or set his case in a better light--he simply blurts out all the hurt and anguish of his heart as best he can. He also rebukes these men for their misunderstanding.
Then Job answered: "I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you. I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain" (16:1-5).
Sarcastic words, coming from a tortured man. We can see from this that Satan is still there in the background, using these friends as channels for what the apostle Paul calls "the fiery darts of the wicked one," the accusations of the accuser of the brethren. Let us beware lest we become a channel for Satan's accusations against someone who is suffering as Job is suffering here.
God Is to Blame
Job goes on to state the facts as he understands them. First he says, "All I can conclude from what I am suffering is that God must hate me." Verses 7 through 9 tell us:
"Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. And he has shriveled me up. . . . He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me. . . .
Job goes on to show how even the people around him have rejected him, and how God is behind that:
"Men have gaped at me with their mouth, they have struck me insolently upon the cheek, they mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me asunder; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target, his archers surround me . . ." (vv. 10-13).
Though Job charges God with all that is wrong in his life, God is wonderfully patient. He does not reply against Job, nor does he strike him down in anger. Job is certainly not the highest example of faith in the Scriptures. Men like Paul suffered extremely, as did Job. We think, too, of that silent sufferer in the Garden of Gethsemane, who, "when he was reviled, reviled not again, but committed himself unto him who judges righteously." How much higher is that level of response than what we see in the Book of Job! But Job is the example for us of how difficult it is for our natural view of life to be shattered. God sometimes has to translate theology into painful experience before we really begin to grasp what he is trying to say. Job ends by protesting his innocence again:
"My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness; although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure" (vv. 16, 17).
Then once again, as we have seen already, breaking through into Job's consciousness is a dim reflection of what God is trying to show him:
"O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high" (vv. 18, 19).
Despite the charges Job makes against God (that this is all coming from his hand), faith emerges at this point to say that God must also supply the answer--God alone can explain what is happening to him. Job's faith lays hold of that great fact to give him some brief comfort in his agony. Almost everyone who is going through a time of struggle and trial asks the same basic question Job asks. The answer given most often in Scripture is that God has sent trial to wean us from dependence on people and to find our resource in God himself. God must separate us from the supports that frequently sustain us in hours of crisis in order that we may learn how fully able he is to keep us. So the truth gradually dawns upon Job that only God himself can answer the searching questions of his heart.
Chapter 17 presents Job's prayer that God will set him free. He prays for relief, but largely from his friends! He has had enough of them. He also expresses his need for defense: in verses 3 to 6 he describes the effects of his suffering upon others, especially these men; and then he challenges them in verse 10:
"But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you."
He has heard all their arguments and he knows they do not help, so in the final part of the chapter he sinks back again into the darkness of despair:
"My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart."
In chapter 18 we have Bildad's defensive retort. It reflects the same line of argument as before. Bildad is the logician, the coldly analytical intellectual. He is angry that Job does not answer him in kindly fashion, and that Job has accused him of being unkind in his approach:
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: "How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak. Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?" (vv. 1-3).
Bildad goes on, from verse 5 to the end of the chapter, to set forth again the narrow, rigid dogma of his theology: If you are suffering, you must have sinned. I once heard a man described as "an evangelical crab." That is the only fitting term for Bildad the Shuhite.
Chapter 19 gives us a piteous plea of Job. First, he describes his feelings about his friends:
"How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?" (vv. 1-3).
Then in verses 7 through 12 he describes again his bafflement at what is happening to him:
"Behold, I cry out 'Violence!' but I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice. He has walled up my ways, so that I cannot pass. . . . He has stripped from me my glory. . . (v. 9). He breaks me down on every side" (v. 10).
In verses 13 through 19 we have a vivid description of the isolation he feels, coming from the hand of God:
"He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. My kinsfolk and my close friends have failed me; the guests in my house have forgotten me; my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must beseech him with my mouth. I am repulsive to my wife, loathsome to the sons of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, . . ."
Surely nothing is harder to bear than the rejection of those who should understand. Job is feeling the terrible pain of this, as well as his physical pain. But in the midst of the darkness, when it is blackest and gloomiest, one of those amazing rays of light breaks through again. Elisabeth Elliot has written a book called A Slow and Certain Light. That is descriptive of what Job is experiencing here, for he cries, in verses 23 and 24:
"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock for ever!"
How little he understood that these words would be literally fulfilled.
Then suddenly he sees a ray of hope,
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side [i.e., for myself], and my eyes shall behold, and not another" (vv. 25-27).
In response to that vision of faith, he cries.
"My heart faints within me!"
This is one of the great cries of faith in the Old Testament, one of the earliest intimations of the resurrection of the body found in the Word of God. Slowly, through the anguish and gloom of this man's heart, born out of the passion and the pathos he feels, comes the dawning realization that God is working out a great and mighty purpose, and that someday God himself (whom Job has never failed to see as a God of great majesty and power) will be visibly present before men. God will come himself, and vindicate all that he has done. This passage is a marvelous glance ahead, by faith, to the incarnation of Jesus. Job calls him "My Redeemer [i.e., my vindicator], the one related to me, who nevertheless will defend me and vindicate all that has happened to me."
Surrounded by Mystery
The study of the Book of Job helps us to understand that life is basically a mystery. We are surrounded with enigma. We cannot comprehend it all; it is painted on too large a canvas; it is too great and involved for us to grasp. Job is gradually learning, in the midst of his pain, to trust the God who is there; to believe that he will supply the answers he seeks, and that he is working out his purpose in line with his love.
I once heard Elisabeth Elliot describe her first widowhood. Her husband was slain, along with four companions, in the jungles of Ecuador at the hands of savages. She spent thirteen years as a widow, and then married a gracious and wonderful man with whom she was very happy. Then he died of cancer. She said, "I have spent six-sevenths of my life single, though I have been married twice. I did not choose the gift of widowhood, but I accepted it as the sphere in which I am to live to the glory of God."
That is what Job is gradually learning. God is working out a purpose. It is not related to specific sin although, as we will see before the book is over, Job learns much more about the depravity of his own nature. But now he ends his discourse by warning his friends to be careful about judging him:
"If you say, 'How we will pursue him!' and, 'The root of the matter is found in him'; be afraid of the sword, for wrath