One of the first things in dissecting this book of Job is God’s placement of Job. The highest of placements was to live exactly how this person lived, for Job is counted one of the righteous because he had such respect for the LORD (LORD all capitalized means LORD of the covenant; Job 1:1-5). You see, my mind works in chronological order; that was one of the quirks the LORD gave me as Job lived much earlier than Psalms were written down. How do I know this? Take a look at what I found in regards to where Job was actually in the Bible: (Where does Job actually fit in the chronological order of the Bible? click on it)
However, you chose this site to gain spiritual wisdom in gaining hope, inspiration, and encouragement in “Go(ing) Into All The World” – Acts 1:8 KJV. Yet, take a look how satan issues a challenge to the LORD (the second Person of the Trinity; Job 1:6-12; 2:4-6 KJV). *** just as an observation, you realize how desperate satan is when he uses the phrase “skin for skin,” it’s just like us when we get backed up into a corner but don’t want it to appear that way. So, the LORD gives satan another chance, so satan takes full advantage of it as satan was thinking maybe if I were to attack Job with boils from his head to his toes then Job will finally say he had enough.
Although his family and all that were closest to Job, even his servants and all his possesions were destroyed except his wife. His wife offers little comfort as she says in the beginning of chapter 2 (after seeing what he had been through and with the loss of his sons and daughters, all that he possesses and the excruciating painful boils that infest his body), his wife says ‘curse God and die.’ Just as a side note, there could be many reasons why she said this: one of them could be the most traditional view of the current church which says that she was bitter and angry over her sons, daughters, and her husband Job. That is a valid point. However, don’t you think that she had an insatiable love for Job? She said to curse God and die because she After all, they have seven more sons and three daughters at the end of the book? Again, married women, would you want to go through child birth 10 more times if you didn’t love him? My contention is that maybe the current church has this wrong in this instance because she wanted to see relief in her husband’s eyes. Women, those who are married with an insatiable love for your husband, wouldn’t you feel the same way? Oh, sure, you would never say it, but the LORD (Jesus) looks upon your heart (Matthew 5:28).
Back to the life of Job: Still, satan doesn’t give up, just like he is not going to give up on trying to make us sin for it is a constant threat to us. Yet according to Job 2:10c – “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
This is where three friends coming for him with the express purpose to share in his sufferings, and they were so moved by the sight of him they decided to fast and mourn for seven days along with Job (Job 2:11). Yet, the three friends formed 3 accusations after fasting and having time to form opinions of what could be causing this for Job: how many of you find yourselves (present or the past) in the situation where friends know, and are brave enough to confront you? Well, these 3 personal friends were enough to travel to do so. Even though the Bible doesn’t tell how close they were to Job, I have to believe they were rather close to him for they wouldn’t have travelled great distances for someone who was common but didn’t have a real relationship with them.
The Bible says that the person of Job was unrecognizeable for the Scripture says “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and they knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent (took off violently as in grief) every one his mantle (sweatshirt/jacket that you slip your head through), and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw his grief was great” – Job 2:12-13.
In chapter 3, in response to hearing all of this complaining from Job, Eliphaz was the first to raise his voice and questions Job with jest, expresses where is your fear of God. Where is confidence in God? Where is your integrity in the ways of hope? I have been in this situation before as Eliphaz thinks he does understand the situation but doesn’t. You have to understand God’s ways. Rather, he says that those who are guilty of something deserve punishment.
Job’s reply is that his complaint is just and worthy and that he has no hope.
In turn, Eliphaz complaint with Job is that he thinks to much of himself: his arrogance, his heighty stature. Now, there is a different tone, rather. It is an accusatory tone accusing him of making out God to less than their understanding of Him ought to be.
In chapter 15, after his other 2 friends of Jobs named Bildad and Zohar, Eliphaz begins his second attempt to get Job to see his pride, “Should a wise man utter vain knowledge? . . .Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good” (15:2-3)? Then just a few verses down, Eliphaz gets right down to the matter saying, “For thy mouth uttereth iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty” (15:5). Them’s fighting words with sarcasm at full effect, but these were his friends who sat with him 7 days and nights not saying a word to him trying to understand the plight of the situation in which Job found himself in. That’s some dedicated friends.
And Job answered and said, “Oh, that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity weighed in balances together” (Job 6:2). This was their 1st go at it.
Have you ever had a situation in your life where you knew the “situation” was from God but you didn’t like it, and to make it worse your closest friend’s try to offer up platitudes or worldly advice not Wordy advice?
Job’s 2nd reply to Eliphaz: “I have heard many such things, miserable comforters are ye all. Shall vain words (prideful words) have an end? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? I could also speak as you do: if your soul was in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you” (Job 16:2-4) — which is like saying “you are not in my place, if the situations were reversed and I heaped up words against you and shake my head against you, see how you would feel.”
By this time, Job had already gone through one set of accusations by his 3 close friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar) and this was the beginning of the 2nd round. And it turns out that Eliphaz and Bildad go for another round of accusations.
Then, Job replies to them both. Chapter 32:1 gives us the reason why they stopped accusing him, “So these three men ceased to answerJob, because he was righteous in his own eyes.” Now there was apparently 4 people along with Job, and Elihu was apparently listening in to much of the conversation, accusations, and Job’s statements to justify himself. The book of Job says that Elihu’s wrath was kindled against Job because he justified himself rather than God (Job 32:2) for he was young and Job was old and he thought that Job wouldn’t take his opinion seriously (Job 32:6).
However, he could not take any more of it and began to speak: “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” This is a kicker when he says, “Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement” (Job 32:8-9) — Isn’t that true?
Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar were so amazed at this young one’s understanding the verses say that they answered no more, and they left off speaking (Job 32:15-16). Elihu finally speaks saying, “I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer. Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give any flattering titles unto a man. For I know not to give any flattering titles unto a man; in so doing my maker would soon take me away” (Job 32:20-22).
It sure sounds like he has his heart in the right place. This is followed by Elihu’s pre-salvation message: 1) “He (the LORD) looketh upon all men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which is right, And it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from the pit, And his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-28), 2) Elihu’s big problem with Job is that he made himself righteous as he says, “Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgement” (Job 34:12). Then there is the famous words among Christians, and it comes from the Apostle Paul when he writes Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, no, not one.”
To finish, the LORD answers out of a whirlwind in the form of questions, and Job fearfully answers. It appears that the LORD is mad or frustrated with Job because of his claims to be righteous when He says, “Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me” (Job 38:3). The LORD’s first question is a doozie when He asks where was Job when He laid the foundation of the earth? (Job 38:4) – (you can hear the tone of frustration in His voice). The LORD goes on for 2 chapters asking Job these seemingly obvious questions. He says at the end, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it” (Job 40:2).
This is the first humble response Job gives, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer THEE?” (Job 40:4a).
You have to imagine talking to God out of a whirlwind, what kind of fear would you have? Job has the utmost respect now of what he feared that God wasn’t paying any attention to him and the pain of the boils on his skin, as he says, “I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will not proceed any further” (Job 40:4b-5)
But the LORD will have none of it as He says, “Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto Me. Wilt thou also disannul (negate) My judgement? wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be righteous?” (Job 40:7-8).
Remember, Romans 3:10 – “There is none righteous, no, not one.”
God asks Job a series of rhetorical questions, questions everyone should know the answer to of which I am going to name a couple –
1) “Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him?” (Job 40:9). “Canst thou draw out leviathan with hook (a sea monster defeated by the Lord in various scriptural accounts; a large sea animal)? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn” (Job 41:1-2)?
2) God finishes with “Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is the king over all the children of pride” (Job 41:33-34) because everyone, including Job, fears leviathan. The LORD does not since He is the Creator of the world and all life in it.
Once again, Job humbly responds saying “I know that THOU canst do every thing, and no thought can be withholden from THEE” (Job 42:2). The LORD finally sets Job into place, and He answered his three friends:
“And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath.” And then He gives them the sacrifices to bring as part of their saying wrong things about God.
And, the most amazing thing happens, Job prays for his friends! After all that accusing, Job prays and then the Lord decides to bless him with twice as much as before (42:10)
In Job 42:9 the Bible says, “So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.” * it is my contention that all 4 of them, including Job, were humble because they knew who they were standing before, the LORD – the Lord of the new covenant which He established with His death on the cross.
Some life lessons that we can take from this:
1. Be HUMBLE!
a) When praying to God
b). In treatment of others, no matter how much they hurt you (This applies especially to our lives right now because a real close
friend took part in caniving with our youngest daughter to have her go and live at their house instead of ours)
2. God has a purpose to our suffering. It may not show up for years later, but He has got a purpose..
3. Whatever you do, DON’T CLAIM THAT YOUR RIGHTEOUS! since there is only One, whom is a triune being, who is RIGHTEOUS.
4. We only have a limited view of things, primarily pertaining to ourselves, family, or close friends & that view is limited by the time we have here on earth. But the LORD, with His omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent power, we need to SUBMIT to the LORD or beware.
5. We have to realize that God often does not act in an instantaneous manner (even though sometimes we ask God for something and He delivers instantaneously), because of His mercy and grace ever wanting us to pray to Him asking for forgiveness.
“The Problem of Suffering: A Christian Response” ~ Inspiring Philosophy
~ Darren L Beattie, The Soul Blogger of TrueLifeChristianity.com ~
TrueLifeChristianity.com 