HOW
TO READ "THE BOOK OF JOB"?
About his
Earthly Life and Possessions:
1. Who was
Job? (Job 1:1)
2. About his
family (Job 1:2, 4, 5)
3. About his
riches (Job 1:3)
4. More
about his riches and life style (Job 29:2 - 11)
5. God’s
Protection on Job (Job 1:10)
1.
God’s Testimony (Job 1:8; 2:3)
2.
His righteous life (Job 29:13 - 25; 31:1 - 40)
Satan’s first test of Job
1. Satan takes permission from God (Job 1:6 - 12)
2.
Job’s Trials (Job 1: 13 – 19)
3.
Job’s Response (Job 1:20 – 22)
Satan’s second test of Job
1.
Satan takes permission from God (Job 2:1 - 6)
2.
Job’s Trials (Job 2: 7)
3.
Job’s immediate Response (Job 2:9,10)
4.
Job’s friends mourn (Job 2:11 – 13)
5.
Job’s family and neighbours’ response after
his prolonged trials (Job 19:13 – 20; 30th chapter)
Till the
2nd chapter, it is relatively easier to understand the Book of Job. From
the 3rd chapter it seems a bit confusing, especially to find
continuity and correlation between chapters and verses.
To certain extent we can
understand the situation around which these chapters were written.
Ø Job the
richest man in town was going through severe trials in life
Ø Three of
his friends visit him to offer him comfort (later they were joined by another
fourth friend)
Ø For seven
days everything was fine, no one spoke a word (Job 2:13)
Ø On the eighth
day after his friends arrived, out of unbearable pain Job uttered curses on
himself (Job 3) which triggered his friends.
Ø One by
one his friends started to speak, trying to convince Job “using words which
they thought were right”
Ø But Job was
not ready to accept their views about him
Ø Finally,
God intervenes and his situation is reversed and Job is honoured with double
blessings.
To understand
all these, first I studied “God’s response to Job’s Friends & Job, Chapters
38 – 42”
The reason why I studied this first is because
1.
God’s reproved Job’s friends’ speech, so we
can assume that they had a wrong understanding about God, so it would be
difficult to understand this book, if we study their speech first
2.
God can never be wrong in his words or his response,
so with the help of the light provided by God’s lectures to Job, it would be
easier to understand the wrongs in Job and his friend’s speech
God’s Response
The
response which God gave to Job and his friends were different.
Job’s Friends – God did not try to explain himself in any way to Job’s friends. God said he was angry with them. Job’s friends’ speech even amounted to sin, for which they had to offer a sacrifice to obtain mercy from God. On the surface, no fault can be found with their speech which would make us wonder what made God to be so angry with them. But if you study their speech, you would find that it was a skewed speech. (Is explained in the next topic)
Job – God tried to make Job understand many things through series of lectures. When we read Job’s speech, for our human mind some of it may seem like Job was questioning God. But God did not get angry with that nor did he consider it as a sin warranting a sacrifice.
IV. GOD’S LECTURES TO JOB
God’s lectures to Job can be mainly split into two major topics (2 subtopics), so 4 lectures in total.
Ø Chapter 38:39 – 39:30 – God questioned Job about animals and birds (Second Lecture)
Ø Chapter 40:
7 – 14 – God exhorts
Job that his own right hand can save him (40:14), Explanation later (Third
Lecture)
Ø Chapter 40:
15 – 41: 34 – God talks
about the strength of two of his creatures which were made along with Job or
just like Job (40:15) Fourth Lecture
(I have reordered the lectures,
to make the study easier)
1. GOD’S QUESTIONING OF JOB
CHAPTER 38:39 – 39:30
God questioned
Job about animals and birds
Between these 33 verses,
God takes the example of 9 animals / birds and their young ones ( Lion (38:39, 40),
Raven (38:41), Wild mountain goats (39:1 - 4), Wild donkey (39:5 – 8), Wild ox
(39:9 - 12), Ostrich (39:13 – 18), Horse (39:19 – 25), Hawk (39:26) & Eagle (39:27 – 30).
God asked Job whether he knew anything from their conception, birth, the way they take care of their young, how they live and die. Most of these questions seem to be a response to Job’s anguish in Chapter 3 about the circumstances of his birth.
Job failed to mention God as his creator or spoke as though God did not have anything to do with his conception, birth and his life. (It could have been simply because of his anguish and pain, that’s why God did not consider it as a sin). God had to remind Job that from the simplest of animals to the greatest even those that are roaming in the wild are taken care of by him. From birth till death, nothing happens without His knowledge. That seems to be the summary of the message given here.
CHAPTER 38: 1- 38
God questioned
Job about many of nature’s elements.
Throughout Job’s speech, he
had mentioned many of nature’s elements. So God was asking Job whether he was
there when all of these were created or formed. Few examples would be
1.
Stars of the morning – Job (3:9; God (38:33)
2.
Dawning of the day – Job (3:9); God (38:12)
3.
Man and his work on earth – Job (28:1-11); God
(38:4-30)
Here God
seemed to tell Job that he spoke about things that were little bit beyond his
understanding. But God did not consider it as a fault or sin.
2. GOD’S EXHORTATION (Let me confess this is the best portion in this book)
CHAPTER 40: 7 – 14
God exhorts
Job that his own right hand can save him (40:14)
What did God mean by that?
1. God told
Job to adorn himself with majesty and splendor, and array himself with glory
and beauty (Verse 10). Until this time, Job was sitting on the ashes and
scraping himself with a potsherd. God told him to getup from his ashes,
to go back to his home and adorn himself as he had done, before his illness.
2. God told
Job to take revenge on two groups of people (Remember he was not healed yet,
with the strength he had, God asked him to do that).
·
Everyone who is proud (Verse 11)
·
Wicked (Verse 12)
These two group of people had distressed
Job greatly. Job described about the proud people (Job 19: 5 onwards) and about
the wicked people (Job 21) in these chapters.
Until that time, Job thought nothing could be done about these people (Job 21:30,31) but God told him to rise up from the ashes, strengthen himself and take revenge on the wicked and the proud. God promised that he would appreciate and commend Job when he does that (Verse 40:14). Doesn’t it mirror the exhortation given in Hebrews 12:1 to Christian believers?
CHAPTER 40: 15 – 41: 34
God talks about the strength of
two of his creatures which were made along with Job or just like Job (40:15)
Job had earlier said that
he didn’t have any strength left in him. Job said, “Would you terrify a leaf
blown by the wind? Would you chase dry straw?” (Job 13:25). Job had also
wondered, “But I don’t have the strength to endure. I have nothing to live for.
Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze?” (Job 6:11,12). God
brought to Job’s attention two creatures which he had created just like Job
(40:15). God told Job that he had endowed their body with every kind of
protection and strength that is needed for them to be strong, fearless and
successful eventhough constantly there are hunters and others trying to subdue
them. What can stop Job from being strong, fearless and successful?
Finally Job understood his mistake and he said, You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know (42:3, 4). He realized that God can do everything, And that no purpose of His can be withheld from Him (42:2). With the help of God, Job can do anything. This too mirrors the verse in the New Testament “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
God did not test Job. He
did not want satan to test or harm Job either. But satan had challenged God
saying that, Job was faithful to God only because of God’s blessings. But God
knew Job would be faithful even without any of these blessings. But Job’s
physical pain, family and friend’s insult, mental agony, cruel accusations were
causing lot of anguish for Job. God would have wanted to strengthen and support
Job so that he could come out of the trial victoriously.
The Strength of Behemoth and Leviathan
Difficulties in
understanding Biblical passages arise, because sometimes when some incident or
messages are given in a direct manner and elaborately, we understand them
easily. But if they are not explained adequately, we don’t take the time to
understand. In the Book of Job, the time frame of the talk between Job and his
friends and God’s response seems lengthier. But we have to understand that the
last few verses of the Book of Job involves a much lengthier time frame. It speaks
about the years during which Job earned double the amount of his wealth and
brought forth 10 children into the world.
Did God do a creative miracle to give Job his children and animals back? No. Job got his blessings back through working for them. We have to remember that in the beginning also, it was God’s blessings that gave him the riches. But now God’s blessings helped him to earn double the amount of wealth. (Go back and read Job’s family and neighbours’ response after his prolonged trials in Job 19:13 – 20; 30th chapter once again) Now imagine the strength needed for Job to overcome this. Job thought restoration is impossible in his situation (Job 7:6 – 11; 10:21, 22; 14:1-13) but after God revealed the strength of few of his creatures, Job would have got the strength to overcome his situation.
I had mentioned earlier that God was
angry with Job’s friends. Job’s friends’ speech even amounted to
sin, for which they had to offer a sacrifice to obtain mercy from God. On
the surface, no fault can be found with their speech which would make us wonder
what made God to be so angry with them. But if you study their speech, you
would find that it was a skewed speech. Job’s friends spoke correctly
about the righteousness and justice of God. But they did not have a clue about
the long suffering, patience, kindness, goodness and the grace of God.
They saw God only as a righteous judge. They did not see him as a creator with
a loving and caring relationship with his creation. I give few samples of this
1. Job 4:18,
19
2. Job 11:6
3. Job 15:15,16
4. Job
22:2,3
5. Job
35:6,7
Job’s
friends had a wrong understanding about God which led to them having a wrong
understanding of Job. Because they did not understand the
patience, kindness and goodness of God, they thought Job’s suffering was the
result of some sin. They started to accuse Job of things he did not do which
added to his sufferings. God counted that as sin and they had to offer
sacrifice and Job had to pray for them to be delivered.
Although the Holy Bible
does not describe Job’s response to God’s exhortation, it is evident that Job
changed his sackcloth and he wore his rich robes as God instructed him, took
revenge on the wicked, offered sacrifice for his friends (for offering sacrifice
he would not have gone on his sackcloth) and God restored his fortune
double-fold. (Job 42: 7-17). Job could once again say what he had said earlier,
“My glory is fresh within me, And my bow is renewed in my hand” (Job 29:20).
The
lesson from the book of Job can be summarized using two verses from the New
Testament
“For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us (Romans 8:18)”.
“And also
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us
(Romans 8:37)”.
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