JOB

Hugo McCord

Why read Job’s 42 chapters? It might mean heaven! It did to Job! And there is another reason: the New Testament tells Christians that they will be better acquainted with God if they study the book of Job:

My brothers, take the prophets (who have spoken in the name of the Lord) as an example of suffering and of endurance. Behold! We consider happy those who endured. You have heard of Job’s patient endurance, and you have seen that in the outcome the Lord is deeply sympathetic and merciful (James 5:10-11).

Job, the richest man in all the eastern country, called Edom, lost all his wealth in one day, and in that same day a tornado crushed the house in which all ten of his children were gathered (Job 1:2-3, 13-19). Whoever, before Job or since, has had to undergo ten funerals in one day?

Job tore his clothes, shaved his head, fell down on the ground, and worshiped, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. Yahweh gave and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh” (1:21). “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (1:22).

In addition, God allowed Satan to afflict Job with sores (ulcers, boils) on the soles of his feet, on his body, on the top of his head, and on his face, leaving him unrecognizable. He sat on an ash heap, scraping himself with broken pottery (2:7-12).

Inflamed sores, skin lesions, were suggestive of the secondary stage of syphilis, transmitted sexually. Was he a secret philanderer? “Now,” some think his wife was saying to herself, “It has come out! He is a filthy no-good! I will not sympathize.” She thought he was a secret sinner as she challenged him, “Do you still claim you are a man of integrity? Curse God and die!” (2:9).

How patient can a clean-living man be, a man who had “made a covenant with” his “eyes” not to look lustfully at a “woman” (31:1)? He could honestly say that “my heart has” not “been enticed to a woman” (31:9). Job replied to his wife, “You speak like a wicked woman! Shall we receive good from the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

In poverty, bereaved of his children, falsely accused by his wife, and yet “in all this Job did not sin with his lips” (2:10). Still an example of patience!

Then three friends, “grayheaded” and “very aged men, much older than” Job’s “father” (15:10), came “to bemoan and to comfort him” (2:11). But even Job’s face was so disfigured that the friends did not know him, and they began to cry aloud and to weep, tearing their clothes, sprinkling dust on their heads! (2:12). Their shock was so great it was a whole week before they spoke a word, knowing that his pain and grief were “very great” (2:13).

Was the coming of these friends a godsend? As if a wife’s suspicion was not enough, all three, one by one, accused Job of living a double life, of being a hypocrite, and that if he were righteous God would not let him suffer (4:8, 17; 8:6, 20; 11:3, 6, 14, 17; 15:7, 10, 12, 20; 18:5, 11).

Salt put on running sores could not have hurt more! Their accusing words continued: “wickedness is sweet in his mouth” (20:12a) and “he hides it under his tongue” (20:12b). HIs patience was tested, asking why should I “be patient?” (6:11).

Eliphaz, one of his alleged friends, noticed that Job’s eyes were flashing (15:12). Job asked, “Why should I not be impatient?” (21:4). He wanted to bypass his counselors and to talk directly to God. “Even today is my complaint rebellious. ... Oh that I knew where I might find him! I would ... fill my mouth with arguments (23:3-4). “Till I die I will not deny my integrity!” (27:5). “My righteousness I will hold fast and will not let it go; my heart will not reproach me as long as I live” (27:6).

Then the three friends “ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes” (32:1). A younger man, Elihu, injected himself into the discussion, angry because Job “justified himself rather than God” (32:2). He too accused Job of a sinful life and of “rebellion” against God (34:8, 37).

Next, “Yahweh answered Job” (38-40:1-2), humbling him by asking, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (38:4), and asserting, “He who argues with God, let him answer” (40:2).

Job was overwhelmed, confessing that “I am of small worth--how can I reply to you?” (40:4). “I spoke once, but I have no answer--twice, but I will say no more”(40:5). God continued to teach Job by asking, “Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?” (40:8).

Finally, Job was completely humbled, admitting “I spoke things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. … I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (42:3-6). Then, after Job had been brought to penitence, God thrashed the three friends for slandering Job (42:7). Job’s problem never was a double life, but only pride and self-righteousness.

Yahweh then commanded the three slanderers to take seven bulls and seven rams to Job for burnt-offerings as sacrifices to the Lord for their sinning against Job, and that Job would pray for them (42:7-10).

Job again was on praying terms with Yahweh, “for him will I accept” (42:8). When Job had “prayed for his friends,” Yahweh restored all of Job’s possessions, giving him twice as much wealth as he had before (42:10). All his kinfolks visited him, and former acquaintances, and apparently his wife also repented, and was able again to give to him seven sons and three daughters (42:13). Job’s life was extended 140 years, allowing him to enjoy grandchildren (42:16). “So Job died, being old and full of days” (42:17).

Thus the book of Job puts man in his place, showing how impudent is a creature accusing his Creator, and challenging him for a debate (23:3-4). The book shows that God in his desire to save a man will allow Satan to tempt him. Job needed chastisement, discipline. “No discipline at the time seems pleasant, but painful. However, it later produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

Often good people who have not violated God’s laws have bad health, sometimes with terminal illnesses. Job had done nothing to deserve his boils, but, unknown to Job, Yahweh had a providential purpose in allowing his ulcers. As good as Job was, “blameless and upright” (1:1), loving his family (1:5), refusing to curse God (2:9-10), exercising a measure of patience (James 5:11), yet God could see in him a spirit of egotism and rebellion (13:2-3; 23:2), a lack of patience (21:4), flashing eyes (15:12), and a disposition to argue with his Maker (23:3).

After days of affliction, and after listening to God’s rebuke, he was a changed man, a new creature, repenting in dust and ashes (42:6). He was a better man as a result of his disciplinary misery than ever he could have been without it. God always knows what is best in the short or long run, making all things to work together for good “to them who love” him (Romans 8:28).

Bible scholars call the book of Job by a big word: a theodicy (Theos, God, plus dike, justice), which is defined as “a vindication of divine justice in allowing the existence of evil.”

The commentator Franz Delitzsch tells why the book of Job was written:

The important truth revealed is that there is a suffering of the righteous which is not a decree of wrath, but a dispensation of God’s love. This truth is the heart of the book of Job (THE BOOK OF JOB).