THE DOORWAY TO THE BOOK OF JOB
I came to a fuller understanding of the Book of Job in a rather unusual way. My wife, Ruth, and I read the Bible twice every day—once in the morning, when we read from the Old Testament, and once in the evening, when we read from the New Testament. In the course of our morning readings, one day, we found ourselves in the Book of Job.
When we read it through, frankly, we did not get much from it. So, we decided to read it through again. We read it the second time and still I did not feel we got very much from it. Then something came to my mind, which was the Lord’s comment on Job’s words as they are found in Job 42:7-8. When I read these verses (which we will examine in coming sections), they opened a door for me to understand the book.
As I said in the introduction to this book, I would strongly recommend reading through the Book of Job at least once before beginning the second part of this book. Having the full context will be like pegging out a ground-sheet before erecting the tent. No matter who is teaching you, always remember that the ultimate commentator on Scripture is Scripture itself, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. It may be challenging to work through the poetic language in the Book of Job—but getting the full story by reading the Word is of ultimate importance.
JOB’S STORY AT A GLANCE
If, after reading the Book of Job, you still feel unfamiliar with the story, let me begin here by giving a brief overview.
There was a man of outstanding righteousness whose name was Job. He was also very wealthy, very generous, and a leader in his community. Early in his story, there is a dialogue in Heaven between God and Satan. God pointed Job out to Satan and said, “Have you considered My servant Job? A perfect and an upright man, there is no one like him in the earth.”
Satan was very cynical and replied, “No wonder—Job is thriving. You do everything for Job. You protect him, You provide for him, and he prospers. But if You will just take everything he has, he will curse You to Your face.”
Amazingly, God said to Satan, “Okay, you can take away everything he has. But don’t touch him personally.”
Following this interchange, a series of unnatural disasters hit Job and his family. All his children—seven sons and three daughters—were killed in a single accident. All but three of his servants were killed. All his wealth was stolen or destroyed. Behind this amazing series of disasters was Satan. Amazingly, Job did not blame God for the tragedies that had befallen him.
After afflicting Job, Satan turned up again in Heaven. Once again, God said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? You moved Me to smite him without cause, for no reason, and he hasn’t turned against Me. He has submitted himself to Me.”
Satan, the old cynic, challenged God: “Well, no wonder. If You’ll just touch his body, he’ll give anything for the sake of health. Afflict his body and see what happens.”
So the Lord said to Satan, “You can touch him. But don’t take his life.”
Then Satan went out and the Bible says, “He smote Job with boils from head to foot.” (That is another indication of the pain Satan can inflict. Some people do not like to acknowledge this truth, but there it is.)
After this assault, we find Job sitting on the ash heap, having lost everything, with a potsherd scraping the pus off his boils. At this point, his three friends turned up with the intention to “comfort” Job. As we will see, it didn’t turn out so well. As we commonly say, “With friends like these, we don’t need enemies.” When they saw Job in his affliction, at first they just sat on the ground with him for seven days—nobody saying a word. Then they started in trying to fix Job. In the course of this study, we will examine what they said and how Job responded.
THE DOOR
Before we go any further in this study, I want to reveal the door which God opened to help me understand the meaning of this story. There are many aspects of Job’s story that I still do not understand. But the passage I referenced earlier—Job 42:7-8—gave me a way to begin to unravel some of the mysteries.
Near the end of the book, Job has said his piece, his three friends have given their advice, a young man named Elihu has offered his opinion, and God has moved in and spoken directly to Job. Finally, God addressed Job’s three friends:
And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite [he was first of the three friends to “comfort” Job], “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends [Bildad and Zophar], for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has” (Job 42:7).
According to God, these three men had said the wrong things concerning Him—and Job had said the right things. Then, in the next verse, this criticism is repeated:
Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has (Job 42:8).
Here is the door—opening the question that came to me: “What did the friends say that God didn’t accept, and why did God accept what Job said?” Job said a lot of negative things about God. For instance, he actually said, “God has taken away my justice; He’s not treating me right.” But God did not object—He said Job had spoken correctly.
In contrast, God said of Job’s friends, who came with a long list of religious platitudes, “They have not spoken of Me what is right.”
As a result of this observation, I discovered the way to approach the Book of Job. The key was to find out why God took exception to the words of the friends and why God accepted the words of Job.
In most cases, the average religious person would have reacted just the opposite of the way God responded. They would have agreed that what the friends said was right and what Job said was awful! However, God did not react that way. He said Job was right. This, then, will be the pattern we will use to try to understand the meaning of the Book of Job.
Are you ready to make those discoveries together?