The Book of Job: Remembering Who God is and Who We Are

 

Why do bad things happen to good people? The question is as old as humanity. Poets and philosophers aren’t the only ones who wonder. Anyone who is suffering wants to know. From earliest times people have tried to solve the riddle of suffering with religion. Though religions differ on many details, they all share the common attempt to understand the interactions between God (or the supernatural) and men—especially in adversity. This is a key to correctly understanding the Book of Job. If you have tried to read it in the past, you probably found the middle sections (4-37) and the long speeches of the three friends the biggest challenge to understanding. What we will learn is that the friends demonstrated various delusions of reality we can summarize as man-made religion. Meanwhile, through the course of the story, Job’s own delusions are shattered and in the end he learns the truth of wisdom in suffering. It isn’t a better religion but a personal relationship with the covenant king.

 

Covenant Structure in Job

 

To guide our overview of this first book of wisdom, I want to use the fivefold ancient covenant structure. That structure is evident both in the wisdom literature as a whole and also can be found in the five sections of the Book of Job. We can see a parallel between the Book of Job and the first section of covenant structure: the preamble. 

 

The Covenant Preamble (Read Job 1:1-5)

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In previous lessons I’ve explained that in ancient covenant documents, the opening section, the Preamble, often introduced the parties of the agreement to follow. In biblical documents, that would usually mean God the creator and his creatures. In its covenant context, the purpose of the Preamble was to set the stage for the agreement to follow, especially to establish the identity of the sovereign or transcendent God. This identity is presented through Job’s own experience, telling not only the story of God but Job and his friends.

 

At the outset, we learn that Job “feared God” and when God introduced Job to the heavenly assembly, he was pleased with him. However, Job’s knowledge of God reflected only a basic familiarity. Through the story, Job’s knowledge of God moves beyond a mere religious one to a deeply personal one. To truly “love the LORD God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength,” Job must learn to know him more profoundly than he had before.

 

The Covenant History: God Has an Eternal Plan (Read Job 1:6-2:13)

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The next section gives us a unique glimpse, not just Job’s own history but a look behind the curtain of history into the very throne of heaven. Like in the Book of Revelation, the complete story of history requires looking beyond our world to the world beyond. This glimpse of heaven reveals not just the sovereign king but also the array of supernatural beings around his throne, most notably here, Satan. The Hebrew word for Satan literally means, “accuser.” We learn here that much of the adversity and suffering has causes related to events in heaven. It is here we learn that God has an eternal covenant purpose in Job’s life. We learn also that God uses his “heavenly counsel” to accomplish it.

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The Covenant Requirements and Sanctions: Remain Faithful to the Covenant

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The third section of covenant structure details the requirements and obligations. In this book as in other treaty documents, the covenant sanctions are interconnected with the stipulations. In Job, the requirements and sanctions are set forth in the speeches of Job and his friends. These chapters (4-37) comprise the largest section of the story. Admittedly, it can be difficult to understand the details and to distinguish the arguments. However, one way to summarize all the speeches is in terms of the friends' delusions—false ideas about religion.

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The Delusion of Eliphaz – Bad things only happen to bad people (Read 4:1-6)

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When the first friend, Eliphaz, delivers his message to Job, he assumed that bad things, like suffering and adversity, only happen to bad people. Therefore, it seemed obvious to Eliphaz that Job’s suffering was because he was not good enough; he had some secret sin he was hiding. Note how in the beginning of Eliphaz’s speech he started by talking about Job’s reputation of being a good person, doing good deeds for others. We could summarize all this with the word "religion." Job’s religion was notable. However, Eliphaz concludes that Job must have failed in some way because he was suffering now.

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The Delusion of Bildad – Religion requires a transactional relationship with God (Read 8:1-7)

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Bildad continues to make Eliphaz’s religious assumption that Job is suffering because bad things only happen to bad people. He also reveals a second delusion about religion: a relationship with God is what we would call "transactional." If Job does things for God, God will do things for him. Another term often used of this kind of religion is “fate.” If fate drives events, there is very little that can be done about it. It presents quite a hopeless view for one suffering as Job was. Bildad said it like this,

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, 2 “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. 3 Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight? 4 You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place? (18:1-4)

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When Bildad said, “you who tear yourself in your anger” he was accusing Job of insanity. Specifically, “Job, you are crazy if you think that anything you ask of God will change your fate! Just because you complain about your suffering, do you think he is going to forsake the earth or remove the rocks from their place?”

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The poetry here can seem obscure but the simple understanding is that Bildad claims that fate rules the world. If there is any hope for Job, it is going to require making some bargain with God to rescue him from his fate.

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The Delusion of Zophar – Good deeds are sufficient to undo bad deeds (Read 11:10-18)

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Zophar continues the false accusations about the failures of Job’s religious relationship. And, like the others tend to suggest, Job’s only hope is that he could do enough good deeds to undo the bad.

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An essential component of all religions is what we would call “meritorious acts.” In this view, the most meritorious act Job could do would be to expose the secret sin they accused him of hiding.

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Job’s Faith ​

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Some students of Job have concluded that his refusal to expose personal sin indicates the secret sin of pride. However, a careful reading makes this unlikely. It is true Job denies some secret sin as the source of his suffering. However, that is not the same as claiming to be sinless. In the context of the story, it seems that Job’s faithfulness to God is evident in his refusal to curse God. His wife had admonished him to do so early on:

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Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips (Job 2:9,10).

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Unlike the three friends, Job was learning that because God is sovereign there are mysteries in our suffering we cannot comprehend. Job was remaining faithful to God’s covenant not in the sense that he was sinless but because he clung to God’s covenant purpose.

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An important example in the middle of the story is Job’s desperate cry for a Redeemer. In addition to the physical pain and loss he endured, Job also experienced isolation and rejection from all his human relationships. Even his wife seemed to abandon him. Certainly his three friends. However, this isolation forced him to recognize a deeper longing: a personal relationship with God. For example, Job wished for a “witness in heaven” and an “advocate in the heights…I wish that someone might argue for a man with God just as anyone would for a friend” (16:19-21).

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What Job actually was wishing for is a mystery. Who would be his “witness in heaven?” We know what Job perhaps did not: he was asking for God himself to be his “advocate” or mediator. This cry was in reply to another hopeless admonition from Zophar insisting that Job needed to do more good deeds to undo the bad he had done. But this advice was worthless and Job knew he needed more than his own efforts could give him:

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21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me. 22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23 “Oh that my words were now written. Oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! 25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. 26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, 27 whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. (Job 19:25-27)

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Job’s faithfulness is evident in his assurance of a covenant redeemer. That word “redeemer” is the Hebrew word, “goel.” It is the theological context for the Book of Ruth in which the hero of the story, Boaz, rescues the young widow from her suffering because he fulfills the law as her kinsman-redeemer. Boaz fulfilled two covenant requirements for Ruth she could not do for herself (see Ruth 4):

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• Kinsman – Boaz was legally in the same family tree as Ruth and was therefore a “kinsman” or “close relative.” In the Book of Ruth, this turns into a personal and covenantal relationship as they become husband and wife.

• Redeemer – In ancient Jewish law, a widow in Ruth’s legal predicament could be rescued if a kinsman with the financial means stepped up to pay the price. Boaz did so.

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In a similar way, Job longed for such a relationship with God: both a kinsman but also a redeemer. I believe this passage indicates Job’s awareness of his own sin obligation and confidence God would somehow pay the price.

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Passages like this show once again the contrast between religion and covenant. Another example appears in his growing awareness that in the midst of suffering, our greatest confidence comes from heavenly wisdom not earthly knowledge. Job 28 is a central passage in which he describes wisdom.

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The Location of Wisdom (Read 28:12,13,20, 21)

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But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living…Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.

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Unlike the three friends, Job was not looking for answers in the false delusions of their human reason, nor in some secret location on the earth. Job knew the location was nowhere in the land of the living.

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Wisdom is from God alone (Read 28:23, 24, 27)

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God understands its way, and he knows its place, For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky… he (God) saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.

God alone is the source of wisdom. The mysteries of suffering in this world are in his mind. He may reveal the details but he is under no obligation to do so. This theme is repeated in the final chapters of Job.

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Wisdom Begins with the Fear of the LORD (28:28)

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What Job and his friends needed most was not a detailed explanation of his suffering but to remain faithful to the LORD.

To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

This phrase, “fear of the LORD,” appears particularly in the other books of wisdom where it is a prominent summary of our entire duty as creatures. The fear of the LORD is not separate from the law of the LORD or from love of the LORD. It is the foundational requirement for all covenant obedience.

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The Covenant Continuity

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The fifth section in ancient structure laid out the long term expectations for the covenant in the generations to come. In other portions of Scripture, such as the books of the Pentateuch, covenant continuity was particularly expressed in terms of entering the promised land. We don’t find those hopes in Job, but as noted above, we do find the distant hope of a redeemer. And, even more extraordinary perhaps, the hope of resurrection from the dead:

 

25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. 26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, 27 whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. (Job 19:21-27)

We don’t often think of looking to the Old Testament for truth about the resurrection of the dead! Yet, we find one of the earliest biblical texts in Job. Notice three specific assurances about the everlasting prospects of God’s covenant with Job:

• The Redeemer Would Stand Upon the Earth: Job believed the redeemer would “stand upon the earth.” Could Job have anticipated the truth of the Incarnation itself in which God would send his own son to be born in Bethlehem?

• Job Hoped for a Resurrection of His Mortal Body: Job had profound experiences of the destruction of his mortal flesh. He also knew that when he died his body would rot and be devoured by worms in the ground, but that God would somehow renew his flesh. This theme of the resurrection of the body finds its fullest descriptions in the New Testament.

• Job Would Enjoy a Personal Relationship with His Redeemer: Most hopeful of all, however, was to “see” God with his eyes and not as a “stranger.” Job was anticipating a personal, intimate relationship with the one who redeemed him.

 

Eternal Mysteries (Read 42:1-5)

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In the final verses of Job, God restores Job in several ways, including his wealth and family (42:10-15). However, we should not consider this the greatest truth of the story. Job would still face death and loss in this mortal life. The most enduring legacy was his new understanding of God himself as Job learned how to face the suffering of this life. He admitted he had “spoken of things I did not understand.” As we will see in Proverbs, wisdom requires that we recognize the limits of our own understanding. This was because previous to the suffering he only had a basic knowledge of God. Like the three friends, he had a religion but not a relationship. But now, Job says,

 

You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you (Job 42:3-5).