Simple Studies in the Scriptures

 

The Book of Job

A Biblical Drama Illuminating the Problem of the Ages

 

 

Rev. Francis N. Peloubet, D.D.

 

New York

Charles Scribner's Sons

1906

 

Revised And Edited

 

Dr. Stanford E. Murrell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Book of Job

A Biblical Drama Illuminating the Problem of the Ages

 

Foreword

Perhaps an appropriate introduction to the study of this suffering saint named Job is to provide some background information.  Consider then, the location of the book, the author of the narrative, and the time period in which the book was written.

First, the location of the book. Job is placed before Psalms and Proverbs.  There is a good reason for this. In Job the believer learns something about the majesty of Almighty God. Over thirty times the term Shaddai (the Mighty God) is used in speaking of the Lord.  The soul learns that our God is an awesome God.

 

·       He speaks and the universe springs into existence.

 

·       He looks in a certain direction and the mountains melt.

 

·       He raises His hand and the hearts of kings are changed.

 

·       He is answerable to no one and does all things according to the counsel of His own good pleasure.

 

With proper respect, with holy fear and flesh that trembles, the believer is invited by the Psalmist to worship the One known as El Shaddai. The saints are invited to sing the songs of Zion. And, with wonder in the heart and a song upon the lips, the believer is instructed by the Proverbs how to walk before the One who is exalted above all things and worshipped.

There is a logical progression reflecting life itself from Job to Psalms to the Proverbs.  The proper plan of life is to know God, to enjoy Him forever and to walk before Him in righteousness.

Consider the human author of this sublime poem. Tennyson said that Job was "the greatest poem of ancient or modern times." And yet its author remains anonymous.

Perhaps it was Moses who caught the words of faith from the lips of the suffering saint and wrote, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord” (1:21). Certainly the ancient rabbis, according to Talmudic tradition, attributed the authorship of Job to Moses.  It was said of Moses that, "God spoke mouth to mouth, even apparently" (Num. 12:8 cf. Deut. 34:10).

If Moses did not write this book of the Bible, perhaps David did.  According to 2 Samuel 23:2 (Acts 2:29.30) David was authorized to pick up the pen of a prophet and write down those things, which will live and abide forever. “The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue.” The tongue of David was at times touched by poetry of the highest order.  His imagination could soar to places beyond the sun and moon and stars even into the very throne room of God. His heart could beat with the hope of seeing the Messiah.

It is not hard to believe that a David with the skill of a scribe could remember a man saying, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25ff).

Carlyle was right.  The Book of Job is grand in its sincerity, majestic in its simplicity, melodic in its epic narrative and repose of reconcilement.  The book of Job expresses sublime sorrow and sublime reconciliation which is the oldest choral music as of the heart of mankind; so soft, and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars!

“David, are you the author of Job?” If not, “Elihu did you write it?” Matthew Henry believes that he sees in Job 32:15-16 the words of a historian being mixed with the rhetoric of a self- righteous hysterical assault upon the holy man who is at the mercy of God. Elihu may have come to comfort Job but perhaps he went away to record the contest of ideas he had with the suffering saint who would not concede a vital point.  Job would not admit to a wrong doing to the point that he deserved his dilemma. Elihu was convinced that Job had done something to merit misery or else he would not be going through such a terrible ordeal, and Elihu was a Wise Man. It is not being facetious to say that Elihu was a Wise Man for others called him that in society.

In the ancient world The Wise, as a special group, were highly honored in the community.  In Jeremiah 18:18 they stand beside the priest and the prophet. Then said they, “Come, and let us devise against Jeremiah; for the Law shall not perish from the Priest, nor counsel from the Wise, nor the word from the Prophet.”

The Wise in society were the schoolmasters and the court counselors of the ancient world (Revelation In Jewish Wisdom Literature). The Wise could lay down the general method of God's workings, if they were humble.

People would listen to them. The Wise were asked to write down the lessons of life they had learned much like Solomon wrote the Proverbs and the Ecclesiastics. When trouble came to individuals counsel would be sought from The Wise.  They would come and they would sit. Then they would speak and give their opinion.

Elihu was among The Wise. “Elihu, did you write down the conversations you and your friends had with Job?” The answer is silence. It is not known.  And it does not matter for the lesson is remembered once more in respect to holy things that the message is always more important than the man.

The great evangelist George Whitefield once said, “Let the name of Whitefield perish from the earth but let the name of Jesus be proclaimed.” It is the gospel which is most important and, as we shall see, the message of the gospel shall shine forth from the Divine narrative. In this manner a movement is made from the author to the message so that, by the grace of God, we read of a man named Job.

 

The Book of Job

 

Human Author: Job

Date of Writing: Before the days of Moses

Divine Author: God the Holy Spirit

Key Concept: The Problem of Pain

Key Verse: Job 19:25

 

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”

 

~*~

 

Introduction

 

The Book of Job

 

“This is the cry

That echoes through

 the wilderness of earth,

Through song and sorrow,

day of death and birth:

 ‘Why?’”

 

It is the high Wail of the child with all his life to face, Man's last dumb question as he reaches space: Why?”

 

What People Have Said

Men like Tennyson and Daniel Webster regarded Job as the greatest poem in all literature. Carlyle said that Job is "one of the grandest things ever written with pen”. “There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit."

 

The Objectives of a Study of Job

·       To provide new interest in the book itself.

·       To present its greatness and glory as literature.

·       To preserve comforting truths.

·       To bring consolation to the perplexed and suffering.

 

·       To promote its character-forming elements and power.

 

The Great Problem: There is a Mystery to the Suffering

There is a mystery to the suffering in this world in relation to God and in relation to man.  The first mystery lies in the difficulty, especially for one who is suffering, of believing that the God who rules this world of tragedies, of wars, of oppressions, of unspeakable cruelties,

and intolerable agonies, is good and wise, and is a loving Father in heaven.

Can it be that a good and loving God rules this seemingly misgoverned world,  where evil comes upon the evil and good alike;  where the fire burns equally the martyr and the villain;  and the storm overwhelms in the same ruin the pirate ship and the Morning Star freighted with  missionaries and the Gospel; where the life of the best men seems to be a tragedy, and its crown a crown of thorns,  while the wicked sometimes roll in wealth and sit on thrones?

Is God a mere Relentless Fate, imprisoned in His own laws? Is life a true picture, which is described by Zola, as that of a railway train dragged by an engine whose driver has been killed, dashing at headlong speed into the midnight? 

 

"The train is the world,

we are the freight,

fate is the track,

death is the darkness,

God is the engineer—who is dead."

 

La Bete Huamine

~*~

 

 

Or, can we find an explanation of this world of mingled good and evil in the Zoroastrian religion "dating more than twelve centuries before Christ, where in order to escape from making God responsible for evil, a dual principle was conceived, giving birth to the two brothers, Aurasmazda, the power for good, and Ahriman, the power of evil" (Raymond, The Book of Job). The soul cries out for a good God, not a mere "bright Essence Incarnate," not a mere "Power that makes for

Righteousness," but a Loving Father. The soul needs faith in God, and love to God.

Rubaiyat

 

"There was the Door

to which I found no Key,

There was the Veil

through which I might not see."

~*~

Omar Khayyam

 

 Job's friends try in a wrong way to find a solution. "For the theologian, next to the existence of a good God, the most fundamental question is the presence of pain and evil in a world he has ordered" (R. G. Moulton, Modern Reader's Bible). The man-ward aspect of this problem is full of perplexity, conflict, and despair. The fact of such seemingly indiscriminate suffering throws a pall of darkness over the soul. It is the Sphinx's riddle, which it is death not to solve. Who has not asked as the heathen did of the missionary, "Why God not kill Devil?"

 

 

When Sojourner Truth was seeking to free her children from slavery, and in direct extremity knew not where to turn for money or aid, she prayed, "O God, if I was rich as you be, and you as poor as I be, I'd help you, you know I would. Now help me."

If God is so rich, why am I, his child, so poor? If God is so strong, why does he permit my enemies—sin, temptation, disease, pain, death of my dearest, to overwhelm me, so that I must exclaim:

“All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me?”  If God is so wise and good, why does he let disaster, disappointment, losses, heartbreak, come

upon us till it would seem as if the tempest would never be over, or the sun shine again?

 

This Problem is Universal

It confronts every individual at some time in his life. It belongs to every age. It belongs to different periods of that history, to the Egyptian bondage, to the Exile, to the Maccabean period, and to the history of the Church.

 

The Book of Job

The Book of Job is the divine light shining on this problem giving all the lines of solution possible in the twilight of the early ages, to be seen at last in the full blaze following the dayspring Jesus brought from on high.  The Book of Revelation furnishes a most interesting parallel to the Book of Job, and aids in its understanding. In both cases the beginning is happy and peaceful; then follows a long period of conflict; and in both the ending is a great and glorious success both in character and in the outward expression.

 

 

The Literary Form

 The basis of the Book of Job was an historical fact. Job was a real man who underwent such severe trials and disasters that they made a lasting

impression upon his age, and the ages following. Ezekiel (14:14), and James (5:11) both mention Job. The Book of Job is a divinely inspired poem, drama, or epic, founded on fact, and true to fact,

and to God, the whole book is lifted to a higher sphere, and given more effective power.

 

The Epic of the Inner Life

John F. Genung in his work, "The Epic of the Inner Life," comments on the Book of Job.  "The poem centers in a hero, whose spiritual achievements it makes known to us...It is a record of a sublime epic action, whose scene is not the tumultuous battle-field, nor the arena of rash adventure, but the solitary soul of a righteous man...Under these discourses we are to trace not the building of a system, but the progress of a character, tried, developed, victorious” Goethe said, "I have never had an affliction which did not turn into a poem."

 

The Age and Date of the Book

The period when Job lived, to which his personal story belongs, the scene of the drama, is best understood to be the age of the Patriarchs some two thousand years before God.

 

The Structure of the Book of Job

It consists of five divisions.

 

·       Division One. Chapter 1 and 2, the prologue, in prose, the story on which the rest of the book is founded. It consists of five scenes, some on earth and some in heaven. The speakers are Jehovah, Job, Satan, four Messengers, and Job’s wife. 

 

·       Division Two. Chapters 3-31, in poetic form, the colloquy [conversation] between Job and his three friends, continued through three rounds. Besides these there was an audience of neighbors, citizens, children, visitors, rabble.

 

 

 

·       Division Three. Chapters 32-37. The oration of Elihu. Poetry. Job, his three friends and citizens form the audience. The oration was cut short by the storm.

 

·       Division Four. Chapters 38-41. God speaks from the whirlwind. Poetry. Job, his three fiends, Elihu, and citizens form the audience.

 

·       Division Five. Chapters 42:1-6. Poetry. Brief conversation between the Lord and Job. Prose, verses 7-17. The complete restoration of Job is told. His spiritual and material prosperity is recorded.

 

These five divisions provide five solutions to the problem of the mystery of suffering.

 

 

The Mystery of Suffering, God’s Word in its Twofold Aspect—Its Relation to God and its Relation to Man

 

·       Suffering is a test

·       Suffering is a punishment

·       Suffering is a discipline

·       Suffering is sometimes an insoluble mystery 

·       Suffering that comes to a good man always leads to true success at last The life of a righteous man is never a tragedy.

Persons and Scenes

Persons

·       Jehovah

·       Sons of God

·       Satan

·       Job, a wealthy sheik

·       Job's wife

·       A field hand

 

·       A shepherd

·       A drover

·       A house servant

·       Eliphaz, a venerable sheik from Teman

·       Bilhad, a scholar from Shuah

·       Zophar, a prince of Naamah

·       Elihu, a young chief from Buz

·       Job's brothers

·       Job's sisters

·       Neighbors

·       Citizens

·       Boys

·       Crowd

 

Scenes

·       Job's home at Uz, a walled town surrounded by broad fields

·       A council in the throne room of God in heaven

·       A hugh ash heap outside the walls

·       A great storm

·       A sacrifice and prayer

·       Job's home at Uz

 

PART I

 

THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF JOB

 

Chapters 1-2

 

Prose

 

A Series of Five Scenes

Changing from earth to heaven and back again

 

TIME: Several weeks or months

 

SCENES: Job's home at Uz. The council in heaven.

 

CHARACTERS: Jehovah. The Sons of God. Satan. Job. The Four Messengers. Job's wife.

FIRST SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING: SOMETIMES

AFFLICTIONS ARE ALLOWED AS A TEST OF CHARACTER

 

FIVE SCENES IN THE BOOK OF JOB

 

SCENE I. Earth: Job at home, prosperous, peaceful

 

SCENE II. Heaven:  The council of the Sons of God. Jehovah. Satan. Satan goes on his mission.

 

SCENE III. Earth: The herder reports on the Sabeans Job's Home The shepherd reports on lightning at Uz. Thee drover reports on the Chaldeans. The report on the cyclone from the house servant

 

SCENE IV. Heaven: The Sons of God hold a council. Jehovah Satan. Second meeting Report of Satan

 

SCENE V. Earth: An ash heap. Job a leper. Friends, relatives, citizens.

 

THE LAND OF JOB

 

SCENE I. JOB AT HOME

 

Job lived in the walled town of Uz, with broad pastures and cultivated lands extending in every direction. He was very wealthy, with great herds and flocks, and a vast retinue of officers and servants. He was a prince, "the greatest of all the children of the East."

 

His sons and daughters settled not far from him and enjoyed his posterity.

 

 

Job 1

 

1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

 

1:1 Uz, Huz (Heb. wooded), is traditionally located on the E or SE of Palestine (Lam. 4:21; Job 1:15,17) in the vicinity of the Sabaeans and the Chaldeans, and of Edom. The Sea of Galilee and the upper Jordan are west of Uz. The Syrian Desert extending toward the Euphrates forms its eastern boundary. The Syrian mountains are on the north. On the south are Moab, Arabia, and Edom. The description of the people is characteristic of the nomadic tribes of the Arabian Desert.

 

1:1 Job. The Character of Job

 

·       The Testimony of the Lord. Job was "a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and escheweth [tuned away from] evil” (Job 1:8; 2:3). Evil was repulsive to him. "There is none like him in all the earth." "He holdeth fast his integrity" in spite of his sufferings. "In all this did not Job sin with his lips" (Job 2:10 cf. James 3:2). It was not mere innocence that Job manifested but true character which was manifested in the presence of trial.

Wealth and power often provide the severest moments of temptation to pride, worldliness, selfishness, abuse of power, and fleshly lust. "Satan now is wiser than of yore And tempts by making rich,

 not making poor." (Pope, "Moral Essays," iii. 351)

 

·       The Testimony He Gives Under Oath (chapter 31). "His life was gentle; and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, This was a Man." (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, v. 5)

 

 

2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.

3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered 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. Thus did Job continually.

 

1:3-5 Job was a rich man. He could have been richer for money begets money. But what did Job do? Every day he sacrificed animals to the Lord. He slaughtered expensive and innocent animals in order to seek after

righteousness before God, make an atonement for sin and lay up treasures in heaven. When the gospel touches the heart it touches the pocketbook as well. There is a natural and joyful giving to advance the gospel.

 

SCENE II.

 

IN THE UNSEEN WORLD. THE SONS OF GOD ASSEMBLED IN THE HEAVENLY COUNCIL (Job 1:6-12)

 

Enter Satan, the Adversary

 

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

 

 JEHOVAH (to Satan).

 

7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said,

 

THE ADVERSARY.

 

From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

 

 

 

JEHOVAH. 

 

8And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

 

THE ADVERSARY.

 

9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

 

1:9 Though he may never have realized it clearly, Job became part of a great angelic conflict.  At one point it seemed that the Old Serpent would win the cosmic contest. The battle was fierce. The warfare was prolonged. The flesh of Job grew weak and his spirit sagged.

 

10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

 

SATAN, THE ADVERSARY

 

Satan is the Adversary of good both in God and man.

 

·       He went to and fro in the earth.

·       He did not believe in the existence of good, for he found none in his own heart and experience.

·       He loved to do evil, to tempt, to injure men, to bring ruin, and to destroy men's faith in goodness.

 

·       The nature of Satan is revealed.

 

Old Testament. Gen. 3:1; 1 Chron. 21:1; Zech. 3:1

 

New Testament. Matt. 4:1-11; 13:19,39; Luke 4:6; 13:16; 22:31; John 8:38-44; 12:31; 13:2; Eph. 6:11,12; 2 Tim. 2:26

 

 

SCENE III.

 

A SUDDEN CHANGE TO JOB'S HOUSE (Job 1:13-22).

 

JOB is found sitting quietly in the magnificence of a great Oriental chief. "The messengers in this scene enter in great excitement, and drenched with rain through which they came. The fire from heaven which consumed the sheep and the wind from the wilderness which smote the four corners of the house, were perhaps the lightning and the cyclone of one storm" (Walls, "The Oldest Drama In The World" p. 22).

 

13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

 

Enter FIRST MESSENGER, in great hast

 

14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:

15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. [Enter SECOND MESSENGER]

 

1:14-15 The horrible words were now spoken.  The deed was done and God's servant was silent.  He was stunned.  In this state came a second servant looking distraught.  No doubt, there was more bad news.

 

SECOND MESSENGER, a shepherd from the fields

 

16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. [Enter THIRD MESSENGER]

 

1:16 Job bowed his head once more and continued to be silent. What could he say?  What could anyone say?  It was apparent that his whole economic basis of support was being destroyed. In a moment of time Job had ceased to be the riches man in the land of Uz.  When Job lifted up his eyes again, there was a third messenger appearing and demanding to see him.  “Let him speak,” said Job sensing again that what was to be said would not be good.

THIRD MESSENGER, from the edge of the desert

 

17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. [Enter FOURTH MESSENGER]

 

1:17 With these words the worst had been realized.  Or so it seem.  The greatest financial fears of a rich man had been realized.  In an instant, it was all gone.  Job  was suddenly a very poor man in material resources.  But at least he had his family!  Or did he? 

 

FOURTH MESSENGER, a house servant from town

 

18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

 

1:18-19 What would you do if, one dark day, in four successive waves, news came of economic ruin, faithful friends being slaughtered, live stock perishing and all your children being killed in a sudden windstorm?

I know that some people would lose their minds in sorrow and grief. The sorrow and grief is compounded when there is a vivid imagination to relive the fate of loved one.  As Job reflected upon the situation, his sensitive soul probably saw the marauding Sabeans with their drawn swords glistening in the sun.

Terrible arms were raised in violence to strike down the innocent.

Then there was the fire falling from heaven starting fires that burned the flesh of frantic servants in the fiery flames. Cries for mercy, screams of terror echoed across the plains. And the children. “Dear God, Why did all the children have to die? Lord, they were not hurting anyone. Brothers and sisters loved each other and displayed their affection in a rare show of unity.” Again, I do not know how you would react to all of this; I do not know how I would react.  But the Bible records what Job did.

 

20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,

 

1:19-20 The effect on Job. Job stood the test. He tore his mantle and shaved his head which was appropriate forms of expressing his deep sense of his losses. He fell down in worship as he appealed to his one true source of comfort. Clouds and darkness surrounded the Providence of God but he knew there was a silver lining on the other side and that in spite of all God is good.

 

Job crushed at first, and lying prone in the dust

 

21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither:

 

1:20-21 Job arose.  He had been sitting, numbed with silence.  Now, something compelled him to express actions of grief.  In the ancient world, this took two forms: a tearing of the garments, and the shaving of the head.  It has been observed in western culture that people are far too emotionless in the face of death.  There is an emphasis in our culture on being stoic.  For whatever reasons, the person who does not weep loudly or express outward sorrow is commended.  That may or may not be right.  What is certain is that grief is normal and needful whatever form it takes, and Job mourned.

Then second, Job began to worship the Lord.  He fell on the ground prostrate and he began to pray.  What caused Job to be able to worship at such a time was a theology that submitted all things to the sovereignty of God.  In summary form, Job expressed his own beliefs saying, “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The first part of Job's theology states a singular fact. He was born with nothing and he will die with nothing. Someone has observed that they never saw a U-Haul following a hearse to the graveside. Everyone will return to the Lord without anything which is why Billy Graham likes to tell people when the world is coming to an end.  "I can tell you," he says, "when the world is coming to an end.  The day you die.  In the hour of death this world, for you, has come to an end." 

It is a simple and profound point. If the heart learns to believe this, it will not hold too tightly to anything in time.

The heart will not hold onto money but use it to advance the cause of Christ.

The heart will not hold onto power.

The heart will not hold onto reputation.

The heart will not hold onto family.

There will be a Divine releasing of all things back to God. The alternative to this philosophy is to try and possess what is impossible to keep.

Many years ago, a young person named Jim Elliot realized this truth while training to become a missionary and he wrote these words, “A man is no fool to give up what he cannot keep, in order to gain what he cannot lose.” Job gave up what he could not keep in order to gain what he could not lose.  He gave up everything to his sovereign God so that he could continue to worship the Lord.

 

After a pause Job regains his faith, and rises up

 

the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

 

1:21 If the first part of Job's words express a fact, the second part expresses faith. “The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away.”  “Job, what do you mean that the Lord gives everything that a person has.  Job, Don't you believe in the self-made man?  Don't you believe that if you look out for number one, you can get ahead in this life by will, determination, and creating your own opportunities?”

 

 

Perhaps you have heard that every person can be healthy, wealthy, and wise.  But if that is true, who needs God to give anything?  If the world is there for the taking and all a person has to do

 is to work hard, then who needs God?  For Christians, the philosophy of the world runs counter to the theology of faith.  Christians need for God to give salvation (John 3:16), salvation, and sustenance for life.  For Job, the Lord was behind everything in life, both good and bad.  The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. So says a theology of faith.  And if we listen, we can hear the voice of faith praying as it cries, “Blessed by the name of the Lord.”  That was all Job said at this time, but it was enough.

 

It was enough to comfort his heart.

It was enough to help his endure this ordeal.

It was enough to give him victory over self and Satan.

It was enough to have him receive the hand-clap of heaven.

Those on earth who saw Job that one dark day, saw a broken man, down in the dust, with torn clothes and a shaven head, muttering an astonishing prayer.

But those in heaven who saw Job, saw a faithful servant who did not charge God with acting in an unworthy manner. Even when Job perceived that the Lord was behind his adversities, he did not believe that God was acting in an inappropriate way.

 

22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

 

Then, "The morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy." (Job 38:7)

SCENE IV. THE UNSEEN WORLD (Job 2:1-6)

 

 The SONS OF GOD again assembled in council.

 

 THE ADVERSARY returning from his experimental test of Job.

 

Job 2

 

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

 

JEHOVAH to THE ADVERSARY

 

2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou?

 

2:2 Satan. While some mock at the concept of a Devil, the Bible presents Satan as a viable presence (Note Zech.  3:1-2 and 1 Chron. 21:1).  Since the Scriptures speak of a real devil, there are two extremes that must be avoided. The first danger is to fly in the face of revelation and doubt, deny, or downplay his existence.  The comedian Flip Wilson once reflected the doubt the world has of the devil by using comedy.  "The devil made me do it," he would say.  And the world laughed.

While the world doubts the existence of Satan liberal ministers deny or downplay his existence.  Theologian Dr. Reinhold Niebur once wrote, "It is unwise for Christians to claim any knowledge of either the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell."  In the 1950's a national secular magazine revealed that 75% of 5,000 ministers

surveyed did not believe in a literal devil. It is possible that Satan does not mind the doubting and the denials of his presence.  In an article entitled "If I Were the Devil" the author makes an excellent point.

“If I were the Devil, the first thing I would do is to deny my own existence!”  This strange approach is, of course, the absolute opposite of that used by God Who desires, perhaps above all else, to be fully believed in!  (Heb. 4:6). But this is not so with Satan. This disciple of doubt seems to throne best when he is either underestimated, ignored, or denied.

Suppose there is a Bible-believing church which is going through a spiritual crisis.  For some months no soul has walked its aisles.  The attendance and offerings are down and the members are becoming restless.  Finally, in desperation, a special committee is appointed by the congregation to discover the source of this coldness and lifelessness.  After considerable prayer and probing, the committee submits its report.

What are its findings?  I believe it may be safely assumed that the average committee would lay the blame on one or more of the following: the pastor, certain officials, and a cold congregation not to mention a difficult neighborhood.

But what fact-finding group would return the following indictment?  'We believe the main source of our heartaches for the past few months is Satanic!  We believe the reason no souls have been saved recently is due to an all out attack on our church by the devil!  We close our report with a strong recommendation that the congregation call a special meeting, rebuke Satan, plead the blood of Christ and claim the

victory! If I were the devil I would deny my existence in the world and downplay it in the local church, thus freeing me to go about my business unheeded, unhindered and unchecked! (The Baptist Bulletin, Dec., 1971).

 

THE ADVERSARY

 

And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

 

JEHOVAH

 

3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

 

THE ADVERSARY

 

4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

 

2:4 Skin for skin. The sense of this phrase suggests that a person will give a portion of his skin to save the rest but he will give all to save his life. Satan recognizes no good motive in the heart of man. He believes that Job would make a bargain with God and by giving up his property would save his life, which includes health and whatever makes life worth living.

5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

 

JEHOVAH

 

6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

 

2:6 But save his life. If there is danger in doubting, denying, and downplaying the reality of the Devil, there is equal danger in attributing to Satan more power, and more authority than he really has.  There are some very popular books on the market today such as This Present Darkness that tends to magnify satanic power.

What is being overlooked in certain religious circles is the fact that from Genesis to Revelation, the consistent teaching of the Bible is that Satan remains under the authority of God.  In all things he is subject to the Sovereign. This means that the universe is not governed by two evil forces; one Good—called God, and the other Evil—called Satan.  That is Dualism.  That is the teaching of eastern mysticism. 

No, no!  Satan has no authority or permission to act against anyone unless God gives it.  Even his rebellion (Isa. 14:12-14) has not gotten Satan any more power than what God chooses to give him. The proof of Satan being under the Lord's authority is reflected by the Divine limitation imposed according to the narrative (Job 1:12) and by the fact that in the epilogue, Satan is not even mentioned.  He is no longer important.  He has served his purpose and is dismissed from the story.

SCENE V. ACT I. THE CITY OF UZ. JOB'S HOUSE

Job 2:7-10

 

7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

 

2:7 Satan comes from the council of the SONS OF GOD and brings upon JOB, in some natural way, the most distressing disease possible, including not only pain, but depression of soul, separation from all that he loves, disfigurement and disgrace in the eyes of all around him.

 

2:7 Job’s Disease. The disease of Job may be the leprosy called Elephantiasis, so named because the swollen limbs and the black and corrugated skin of those afflicted by it resemble those of the elephant. It is said to attack the limbs first, breaking out below the knees and gradually spreading over the whole body. The ulcers that the disease produces were accompanied by an itching so intolerable that a piece of potsherd was taken to scrape the sores and remove the feculent discharge (Job 2:8). The form and countenance were so disfigured by the disease that the sufferer's friends could not recognize him (2:12). The ulcers seized the whole body both without and inwardly (19:20) making the breath fetid, and emitting a loathsome smell that drove every one from the sufferer's presence (19:17) and made him seek refuge outside the village upon the heap of ashes (2:8). The sores, which bred worms (7:5) alternately closed, having the appearance of clods of earth, and opened and ran, so that the body was alternately swollen and emaciated (16:8).

The patient was haunted with horrible dreams (7:14) and unearthly terrors (3:25) and harassed by a sensation of choking (7:15) which made his nights restless and frightful (7:4), as his incessant pains made his days weary (7:1-4). His bones were filled with gnawing pain, as if a fire burned in them (30:30), or as if his limbs were tortured in the stocks (13:27), or wrenched off (30:17). He was helpless, and his futile attempts to rise from the ground provoked the merriment of the children who played about the heap where he lay (19:8). The disease was held incurable, though the patient might linger many years, and his hopelessness of recovery made him long for death (3:20) and death (A.B. Davidson, Cambridge Bible).

 

SCENE V. ACT II. OUTSIDE THE CITY WALLS

 

8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

 

2:7 Among the ashes. Job departs from his house and goes outside the city walls, because persons with this loathsome and infectious disease were not allowed within. We next see JOB lying on the city ash-mound, called a MEZBELE. Dung is heaped upon the Mezbele. Time and weather reduce the Mezbele into a compact mass so that it becomes a solid hill of earth. If the village has been inhabited for centuries the Mezbele grows to a great height and can serve as a watchtower. Children would come to the Mezbele to play. There the outcast of the city who had been stricken with a

loathsome disease had to dwell for they were not longer allowed to enter the dwellings of men but was reduced to the life of a beggar. The village dogs along came to the Mezbele, perhaps to gnaw a fallen carcass which was often flung there (Modern Reader's Bible, p. 149).

 

JOB'S WIFE (to JOB)

 

9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die.

 

2:9 The voice of the wife of Job was only a hollow echo of the voice of Satan from hell. But Job did not curse God. Though all of life's circumstances sought to destroy his faith, Job delighted in El Shaddai.  Job stood steadfast. He was bowed, but not broken. He was beaten and he was bruised by a Fallen Angel named Lucifer. His body became bloody with running sores, But his heart remained strong in the Sovereign.

 

JOB

 

 

10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2:10 A historical parallel. The prophet Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah, prophesied in the last years of the kingdom of Judah. When the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar were about to come and overwhelm the land, and sweep away the city, the temple, and the nation itself, sang a hymn of prayer (Hab. 3:17,18):  "Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vine; The labor of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the field, And there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet will I rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation." Job stood the test of time in the hardest kind of trial.

 

2:10 Job’s wife added to his monumental suffering for now he must "tread the wine-press alone."  One by one the others had failed him; his children were dead, his friends kept away, and now, his wife, who had endured the other trials with him, yields when she sees her husband incurably diseased, and takes part against his conscience and his duty to God. In the midst of such suffering it is nice to have friends. Father Taylor, the famous minister of Boston who preached to sailor's, was greatly depressed in his last illness. When someone tried to comfort him by the assurance that he would soon

be with the angels, he replied, "I don't want angels, I want folks." 

Job responded to his wife's comments with great restraint. He did not call her foolish but told her she had uttered a foolish thing. It must not be forgotten that she too suffered the loss of all things as Job did without murmur. The Lord did not judge her as harshly as commentators have. She too was raised to share in Job's sevenfold splendors and

glory and to bear him sons and daughters.

 

11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

 

2:11 It is possible that the three friends were nomadic princes, the sheiks of wandering clans, with whom Job had become acquainted in his travels or in his dealings with the world.  From their meeting place at Teman or at Maan, they would have to make a journey of some 200 miles across one of the most barren and dangerous deserts of Arabia which is an indication of their great esteem for Job and their deep sympathy for him.

 

12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

 

 

THEIR MEETING WITH JOB

 

Job 2:11-13

 

 They did not recognize Job when they saw him, so disfigured and unnatural did he appear. They expressed their grief in the usual Oriental manner, by weeping aloud, tearing their clothes, and sprinkling ashes upon their heads.

Then, for seven days and seven nights they were silent, not a word was spoken, "for they saw that his grief was very great."

 

13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

 

2: 11-13 One more trial was to come to Job which was to intensify the bitter anguish of all his other calamities as his friends misinterpreted the basis for his misfortunes. "No moral," says Homer of his Ulysses, "ever suffered such pain and such affliction." "The fearful dangers through which Ulysses goes exalt his fame and glorify him." The same could be said of Job.

 

The Lessons of Life

 

1.     IT IS A FACT that in all ages trouble comes upon good men which cannot be explained by any connection with evil doing on their part.

 

2.     NOTE THE BEARING OF THIS ON THE JUSTICE OF GOD. In many cases men will willingly, even gladly endure suffering, because they can see great blessings to come to the

world through them. The experience

of Christ on the cross offers one example. The death of Steven and the other apostles offer another.

 

3.     DOES GOD SEND TROUBLE? It can be said that:

 

·       Trouble comes from Satan and from wicked persons as robbers, wars etc.

 

·       Trouble comes from the actions of the laws of God, as the lightning and the storm.

 

·       Trouble comes by the permission of God who limits and controls the actions of evil beings.

 

4. THE RELATION OF GOD TO TROUBLE

 

·       God works by laws. His laws are unchanged, inexorable. There are no new laws, no changed laws, and no unjust laws. A lawless universe would be the worst possible.

 

·       God has given man a will, the power of choice, with all its possibilities of good and evil. All the evils, the wars, the crimes, the cruelties, the horrors in the history of the world has been made possible by this gift. But all virtue, all character, nobleness, heroism, all that makes man in the image of God, heaven itself--were also made possible by the same gift. The story is told of a writer who has imagined the Creator, when before creation he was  alone in the spaces of the universe, considering whether he should create or not. He thought the question through to the end. He saw the sins and evils, devils and bad

men, which would come. He saw the good, the saints, and angels, the virtues as many and as bright as the stars, the new heavens and the new earth enduring through eternal ages. And He saw it was wise and good to create.

 

·       Whatever God does Himself is to help, to uplift, to make good, to restore, to save, and to help men to conform to the good laws He has made. "God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him" (John 3:17).

 

·       God permits evil for wise reasons or else evil could not exist. Evil comes upon us from two sources as they came to Job.

 

·       Some evils come to us through our breaking of the good laws of God, so that we suffer the natural consequences of sin.

 

·       Some evils come to us through the action of God's natural laws without any connection with the character or conduct of the sufferer as by lightening and earthquakes and storms which will smite the good and the bad, the missionary and the pirate.

 

·       Some evils come to us through the action of other beings, from inheritance, from carelessness bringing accidents and disease; from ungodly men who bring wars, oppressions, murders, crimes, and devastation.

 

·       Some evils are of Satan in origin. There are demons who seek to control the bodies of men and some of them are successful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

·       God controls and limits and uses the power of evil men to harm or else He would not be the Sovereign God. God is in history. God is guiding the modern nations of the world as surely as He guided the ancient nations. "Moab is my washpot," said the Lord, by means of which He cleansed Israel. Assyria is the "rod of His anger," by which He punished Israel's sins, to make the nation better. Cyrus was His instrument of returning Israel to their own land.

In all that God does in the affairs of men it is to make them better and to save them.

 

·       God uses the laws of nature. They do not imprison Him. He does not change the laws of nature in order to help men, but uses them. He makes the lightning to go where His laws would guide it. Without changing a single law, the Lord can fulfill His promise that "all things shall work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28).

 

Personal Application

First, when we as Christians are faced with inexplicable hardships, the hand of God must be discerned.  It is the Lord, not a man, not a woman and ultimately not even Satan who is behind it all. It is the Lord who gives and the Lord who takes away whatever we hold dear: money, family, power, position, reputation, joy, good health.

Second, to accept evil that is beyond human control is the will of God.      There are times when something can be done about disease and death.  There are times when bad behavior can be challenged and corrected. 

But there are other times      when events will overwhelm the heart and the situation is hopeless.  At that point, all that can be done is to say with Job, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Jesus acted in this manner as did His apostles.  For example.  Not once, but twice the Lord went into the Temple and cleansed it.  But the time came when evil was to know an hour of triumph and Jesus was led away to be crucified.  Since we are not greater than our Lord, let us learn to submit to the cross that God has ordained for our souls and His

pleasure as heaven watches and the elect angels wonder at those who are to be the heirs of salvation. I do not say this is easy to do.  I just say, it is far better in the end to say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE FIRST SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

 

TROUBLE IS SOMETIMES SENT AS A

TEST OF THE REALITY OF GOODNESS

 

THE TEST OF SELF

 

The individual must suffer to test if he is good. No person knows himself until he has been tested. Peter did not really know his own heart and character until the time of Christ's trial. He thought he would be good and remain loyal to Christ but he failed the first test. His heart was changed. He was humbled and in his humility was tested again and was found to be as good as gold.

 

"Tis a point I long to know,

Oft it causes anxious thought,

Do I love the Lord or no,

Am I His, or am I not?"

 

John Newton

 

~*~

 

 

The story is told of a certain Lydian shepherd (about 600 BC) who found a gold ring with unusual powers. Coming with this ring on his finger into the meeting of the shepherds making their monthly report of their flock to the king, he happened to turn the stone of the ring toward himself into the inner part of his hand; and when this was done he became invisible to those who sat beside him, and they talked of him as absent; and astonished at this he again handled his ring, turned the stone

outward, and on turning it, became visible (Plato, Republic).

He made trial of this several times, and found that it always had the same power. Using this power of invisibility, he entered the palace, killed the king, and took possession of the queen and of the kingdom. This shepherd thought he was a very good man, but the ring tested the reality of his goodness. A truly just man would be just even when no one would know his wrongs if he committed them. The man who was only seemingly and outwardly just, would commit crimes if he could do it without discovery. I can know whether I am good, or wise or honest, or loving, or truthful, only after I have been tempted and tried.

 

"My God, I love thee, not because

I hope for heaven thereby;

Nor yet because if I love not

I must forever die.

 

Not with the hope of gaining aught,

Nor seeking a reward,

But as thyself hast loved me,

O ever-loving Lord."

 

Xavier's hymn

~*~

 

THE TEST OF OTHERS

 

There is a tendency to join in Satan's sneers at the reality goodness. It forms an excuse for themselves not being good. One does not know if another has courage until that courage has been tested. One does not know if another person is good until that goodness has been tested. Christ's victory over temptation, and His going to the cross,

were proofs to the world of His courage and His goodness.

D. L. Moody was accused of doing his evangelizing work for money. The truth was that he and Mr. Sankey, his song leader, had refused to accept for themselves the copyright on their singing

book lest anyone should think they were 

working for money. This decision cost them several hundred thousand dollars.  

The way a man meets temptation, and endures trials, shows the world what sort of man he is, the quality of his piety, and the reality of his virtue. Abraham, Noah, Moses, and many others (Hebrews 11) demonstrate that there is goodness discovered through the pain of suffering. 

In John 9 we learn that the man blind man of Jerusalem was born blind not on account of any sin of his own or his parents, "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." The work of God in healing the blind man has been shining down the centuries for two thousand years. Hellen Keller is another instance of God's marvelous work of sustain grace. Job, by his sufferings, has demonstrated God's glory to the world.

 

PART II A DISCUSSION BETWEEN JOB AND HIS THREE FRIENDS ON THE PROBLEM OF HIS SUFFERING Poetry Chapters 3-31

 

THREE CYCLES OF SPEECHES

 

 

SOLUTION: SOMETIMES SUFFERING IS A CONSEQUENCE

AND PUNISHMENT OF SIN

THE GREAT DEBATE

 

Silence, 7 days

 

First Cycle of Speeches

 

Eliphaz            Chapters 4, 5

            Job                  Chapters 6, 7

Bildad             Chapter 8

Job                  Chapters 9,10

            Zophar             Chapter 11

Job                  Chapters 12,13,14

Eliphaz            Chapter 15

Job                  Chapter 16,17

 

 

Second Cycle of Speeches

 

Bildad             Chapter 18

Job                  Chapter 19

Zophar             Chapter 20

Job                  Chapter 21

Eliphaz            Chapter 22

 

Third Cycle of Speeches

 

Job                  Chapter 23,24

Bildad             Chapter 25

Job                  Chapter 26-28

 

Job's Review of his life

                                     Chapter 29, 30

 

Job's Oath of Clearance

                                     Chapter 31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SCENE

 

On the city ash heap outside the walls of Uz, Job is sitting apart, groaning and sighing with pain, covered with boils, scraping himself with a piece of broken pottery to alleviate the intolerable itching, disfigured so that his friends could not recognize him. He loathed his own life. His disease clung to him like a garment, so that his very clothes loathed him. His bones are burned with fever. They clung to his skin. He had become a skeleton, a brother of jackals. His roarings poured out like water. The terrors of God set in array against him like a hostile army haunted his weary nights, as he tossed to and fro through the long restless hours.  His brothers, his familiar friends, his neighbors, kept far away and forgot him. The boys despised him. His enemies gaped at him. His servants refused to obey him. He was mocked by the children of those so base that in his prosperity he would have scourged them out of the land. Ragamuffins whose fathers he would have deemed unworthy to keep company with his dogs made him their song and byword.  He was a poor, prematurely old man, a failure, seemingly under the curse of God, stripped of his glory, and seeing nothing before him but the land of darkness and the shadow of death.

 

THE ARRIVAL OF THE THREE FRIENDLY SHEIKS

 

 The news of Job's misfortune came to the ears of three sheiks who were friends. They had come to comfort him. They probably came on camels with a retinue and met at Uz by an appointment together.

 

SEVEN DAYS OF SILENCE

 

 The long silence indicates the great courtesy and true feeling of the friends.

 

The Comforter

 

"And my comforter knows a lesson Wiser, truer than the rest:

That to help and heal a sorrow

Love and silence are always best."

 

Miss Proctor

~*~

 

 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAIN SPEAKERS

 

·       The character of Job. Job was "a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and escheweth [tuned away from] evil” (Job 1:8; 2:3).

 

·       The character of Eliphaz. He was the oldest and wisest of the three friends of Job. He was more brilliant than learned. His opinions were firmly rooted in common sense.

 

·       The character of Bildad. He was a wise man, full of literary culture, of the priceless wisdom of the ancients. He quotes the proverbs of the sages and bases his opinions on the traditions of the fathers whom he frequently cites.

 

·       The character of Zophar. He was an ordinary man of his day with all the bigotry and common thoughts of his era. He calls Job "a windbag," "a babbler," "an empty plate,"

"a wild ass's colt." He speaks with the air of authority.

 

JOB'S LAMENTATION

 

Job 3

 

1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

 

THE GREAT DEBATE BEGINS

 

2 And Job spake, and said,

3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man-child conceived.

4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

3:9 “the dawning of the day" (Heb. the eyelids of the morning). The morning rays streaming through the opening clouds seem like the light of the eyes of  day pouring through its opening lids and lashes.

 

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.

25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

 

The Purpose of Pain and Suffering

 

The sufferings of this saint are designed by God to teach many things only a few of which can now be mentioned.

First, there are exceptional experiences in life.  While man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, not all of life is suffering.  Hopefully, there are good days.  But there are exceptional experiences that the soul must endure and the book of Job tells us how. The Psalms teach us to think in a worshipful manner. The Proverbs teach us to consider the general principles of life. Ecclesiastes teaches us to think soberly.

Only Job has the clearest word for the exceptional, traumatic experiences of life when our world falls apart. At such times, a second lesson the saint learns is that no-one can dictate to God whether or not these Exceptional Experiences shall be endured.  The heart may try.  The natural mind of man may start to seek every way to avoid the deprivation of good health, the agitation of losing a

job, the termination of income, the slander of a solid reputation or the destruction of a secure future.

However, when God decides that an exceptional experience is to take place, He may allow a sudden blast from the abyss to destroy everything of human value and leave the soul astonished in the ashes of agony. When these exceptional experiences arise a third lesson is learned, wisdom is worthless unless it is linked to true godliness. In simple language, it is one thing to pray like a true Christian and to profess faith, but it is something else to live out the ethics of the Christian faith.  El

Shaddai wants to know if there is a vital godliness to accompany the understanding of wisdom.

Solomon was a wise man.  The king possessed so much wisdom that he was able to impress the Queen of Sheba but there came a time when his wisdom was no longer linked to godliness.  The Bible is very clear in stating that the many foreign wives of Solomon turned his heart away from the Lord.

In the end Solomon lost his vital godliness.  How many people do you know that, in the end will have no vital godliness?  They will have a lot of Bible knowledge but it will avail nothing.

Having said this, caution should be taken with this point because it is possible to consider that some excessive sin is the cause of an Exceptional Experience--when just the opposite is true.  It was because Job was righteous that he had to endure a great spiritual ordeal-and the thought is established.

In the mist of untold misery, the true value of the soul shall be made manifest.

Those who are cast into the furnace will come forth as gold in the nobility of the

soul. And wisdom will be justified of her children.

In the days to come, you are encouraged to read as often as possible in the book of Job.  There may be things hard to understand, but other thoughts will be a source of spiritual strength.  Remember that Job has been written to help those who are struggling with the mystery of affliction.  It has been written especially for the righteous.

If the heart remains open, the Christian will discover afresh two great themes throughout the Divine narrative: The manifestation of God's care.  El Shaddai still cares even when it seems He has turned away His ear from the cries of His people. The majesty of the Messiah.  Christ will be seen for there are many parallels between Job and Jesus.

 

·       Job suffered greatly and Christ went to Calvary.

 

·       Job was humbled and Christ made Himself of no reputation.

 

·       Job was pressed down by circumstances and His enemies pursued Jesus unto death.

 

·       Job's friends falsely accused him and Jesus was called the child of Beelzebub.

 

·       Job's wife railed against him and the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Him until after His resurrection.

 

·       Job had to learn patience and Jesus endured the Cross for the joy that was on the other side

 

 

Look for the love of El Shaddai behind the world, the flesh, and the Devil as you read the book of Job.  And most of all look for Christ.

John and Betty Stam had finished years of preparation in college and Bible school.  God had brought them together to complement each other in a work which seemed to lie before them for years in China, where they had learned the language and were prepared for an unusual service for the Lord.  Their first baby was in their arms as they were captured by a band of teenage Communists in the mid-thirties.  How could it happen to such a lady as Betty Stam who wrote the poem with the title,

 

““Afraid? Of What?

Afraid?  Of  What?

To feel the spirit's glad release?

To pass from pain to perfect peace,

The strife and strain of life to cease?

Afraid--of that?

 

Afraid?  Of What?

Afraid to see the Savior’s face,

To hear His welcome, and to trace

The glory gleam from wounds of grace

Afraid—of that?

 

Afraid? Of What?

A flash, a crash, a pierced heart;

Darkness, light, O Heaven's art!

A wound of His a counterpart!

Afraid—of that?

 

Afraid?  Of What?

To do by death what life could not—

Baptize with blood a stony plot,

Till souls shall blossom from the spot?

Afraid—of that?”

 

 

 

Only with such deep understanding could Betty Stam endure being led through the streets almost unclothed, along with her young husband, hands tied behind their backs.  Their baby was left in her "snuggle bunny" on the bed in the room where they had been imprisoned for the night.

How could it be that this well prepared missionary couple, with so many praying for them, have their heads placed on a chopping block with a sharp knife at the back of their necks?  Suddenly they were absent from the body and present with the Lord as their heads were severed and rolled in the dust!  How could it be that an old Chinese Christian willingly offered to take the baby's place and placed his own head where the baby's head would otherwise have been?  A life for a life—and two others snapped off.  Martyrdom.  How could it be possible? Why? That is part of the mystery of suffering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST CYCLE OF SPEECHES

Chapters 4-14

 

ELIPHAZ

 

Chapters 4-5

 

Job 4

 

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

 

4:1 Eliphaz came from Teman, in Edom, the home of the descendants of Esau, near the southern part of the Dead Sea, perhaps 150 to 200 miles SW of Uz.

 

 2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off?

8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

9 By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

11 The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps

are scattered abroad.

12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?

 

Job 4:17 contains the essence of the argument which is that a good man would not inflict punishment on one who had done right. Much more is such injustice impossible with God. Therefore, Job must have done some great wrong. The flaw in this argument is that he takes for granted that all suffering is a punishment, which is a false assumption. This false argument Eliphaz states in several ways in this speech--either God is unjust, and therefore not God, or Job is a sinner.

18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

20 They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.

21 Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? They die, even without wisdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job 5

 

1 Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?

2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.

3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

4 His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.

5 Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.

6 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

9 Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:

10 Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:

11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.

12 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.

14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.

15 But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.

16 So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

20 In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.

21 Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

22 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

23 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.

24 And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.

25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job 6

 

1 But Job answered and said,

2 Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!

3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.

4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

5 Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? Or loweth the ox over his fodder?

6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

7 The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.

8 Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

9 Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

10 Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

11 What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

12 Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

13 Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?

14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend;

but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:

17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.

19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.

20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

21 For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?

23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? Or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

26 Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

27 Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.

 

The FRIENDS, vexed at the reproof,

rise and consult together

 

28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.

 

The FRIENDS are turning to go away

 

29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.

 

The FRIENDS sit down again

 

30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot my taste discern perverse things?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job 7

 

1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

2 As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:

3 So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

 

To GOD

 

7 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.

8 The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

9 As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

10 He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 

12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

 

7:12 The sea itself is sometimes likened to one of its monsters twisting about the land and at times invading and destroying and requiring transcendent power to tame and restrain it with God's "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed”  (Job 38:11).

 

13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;

14 Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:

15 So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

16 I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

17 What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

18 And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

 

7:18 The Oriental brooks running through the rocky ravines become suddenly torrents after a rain, because there are no forests to hold the water back. In the hot, dry season, the bed of the brook is dry, when water is most desired by travelers. So swiftly, so disappointingly the human sympathy and

 

love Job longed for. "O the pity of it, the pity of it!"

 

 

19 How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?

21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job 8

 

1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

 

BILDAD came from Shuah, East of Uz, toward the Euphrates.

 

2 How long wilt thou speak these things? And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?

3 Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?  4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;

5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

8 For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?

11 Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water?

12 Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.

13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:

14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.

15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

16 He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.

17 His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.

18 If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.

20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:

 

8:20 In Bildad's speech the doctrine of Eliphaz is reasserted with more force based upon appeals to nature and tradition. Bildad appeals to three proverbs:

·       the "Reed and the Rush     8:11-13

·       "the Spider’s Web"           8:14-15

·       "the Gourd,"                     8:16-18.

 

21 Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.

22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.

 

 

Job 9

 

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? 

3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.

6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.

8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

 

9:9 The reference is to the vast starry groups of the southern hemisphere.

 

10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.

11 Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not.

12 Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?

13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.

14 How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?

15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.

16 If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.

17 For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.

18 He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.

19 If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?

20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.

21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.

22 This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.

23 If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?

25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.

26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:

28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

29 If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?

30 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;

 

9:30 Wash myself with snow water (Psalms 51:7)

 

Beautiful Snow

 

Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell,

Fell like the snowflake, from heaven to hell;

Fell to be trampled as filth in the street;

Fell to be scoffed at, derided, and bead.

Pleading,

Cursing,

Dreading to die,

Selling my soul to whoever would buy.

 

Merciful God! Have I fallen so low?

And yet I was once like the beautiful snow

Father, mother, sister, all—

God and myself I have lost by my fall.

Helpless and foul as the trampled snow,

 

Sinner, despair not! Christ stoopeth low

To rescue the soul that is lost in its sin,

And raise it to life and enjoyment again.

Groaning,

Bleeding,

Dying for thee,

The crucified hung on the accursed tree.

His accents of pity fall soft on thine ear.

 

‘'Is there mercy for me?

 

Will He heed my weak prayer”?

 

O God, in the stream that for sinners did flow,

 

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow!

~*~

 

31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.

33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us,  that might lay his hand upon us both.

 

9:33 A daysman is a mediator, an umpire, so named as having the appointment of a day for hearing the case. Here is expressed the human need of a Saviour who should be both God and man.

 

34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

35 Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job 10

 

1 My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? Or seest thou as man seeth?

5 Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as man's days,

6 That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

12 Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

13 And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.

 

To GOD

 

14 If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

16 For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

 

To the FRIENDS

 

19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

21 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

 

 

 

Job 11

 

1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

 

11:1 Zophar came from Naamah, perhaps Maan near Petra, 60 miles south of the Dead Sea, half way between the Dead Sea and the eastern brand of the Red Sea. He would pass through Teman on his way.

 

2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be justified?

3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?

4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.

5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

7 Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

10 If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?

 

 

11 For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?

12 For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt.

13 If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;

14 If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.

15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:

16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:

17 And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.

18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.

19 Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.

20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job 12

 

1 And Job answered and said,

2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. 

3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?

4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.

5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.

6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.

7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:

8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

9 Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?

 

12:9 The only time that the name JEHOVAH occurs in the poetical part of the book of Job is 9:12.

 

10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

11 Doth not the ear try words? And the mouth taste his meat?

12 With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.