A spiritual reflection on the meaning of the book of Job

Dizerner

Well-known member
On the surface the book of Job seems to be a story in a kind of play format exploring our difficulties in harmonizing the lack of justice we observe in the world conflicting with the perfect justice of God that we know he must exercise to be truly righteous. Somewhere we feel the disconnect so strongly between what we observe and what we ourselves would calculate as proper justice, we feel the need to find the answer. But there is more to what’s going on than just this surface reading; do we really even know why we ourselves feel that disconnect? We make assumptions that we have the ability to even judge and understand goodness and rightness, but we are all fallen creatures with hidden idols, deceptions, and misplaced values that don’t honor and value what God does and is, and don’t make him the primary source of value.

At the end of the story after experiencing subjectively what Job feels to be a complete miscarriage of justice and an act of undeserved cruelty, Job is disciplined and chastised with no logical explanation for why. At this point he finally humbles himself and accepts correction without an answer, and is then fully restored to God and able to even help his friends be restored also, who had also received correction. The depths and layers of the lessons we can learn from Job are an illustration of our proper response to any situation we find ourselves, avoiding the pitfalls of sinful traps and tendencies, and an understanding of how we should apply grace in our relation to God, so that we can find joy in valuing and receiving who God is in the way God ordains, otherwise we are in rebellion setting ourselves up in opposition to God. So the whole lesson of Job can be considered a map to righteous living, and help us hone the proper attitudes.

The frustrating thing that jumps out to us is how Job never does receive an answer and it’s very hard for us to see the reasons why God is doing this. We are given an assumed behind-the-scenes reason for Job’s trials that Job was not privy to, and yet even with that many people feel the story treats Job as nothing more than a trivial bar-room bet who is treated unfairly simply because God is acting something like a bully. If we approach the story on the more solid ground of first accepting the purity of God’s character as a presupposed foundation, we can see that God did not allow this haphazardly just for a lark, but God was actually interacting with Job in the best possible way for Job to refine him and bring him closer, most likely in answer to Job’s attempts to come closer to God. Job fails in many ways to respond correctly at first, but he does pull through in the end.

So what we want to look at is, what were God’s intentions, what were the mistakes Job fell into, and how could Job have passed his test as well as he could. These tests and attitudes apply to our life in any situation and the same principles are repeated for all of us. Job’s end was merciful and his faith was approved as James tells us, but Job could have had an even more merciful end than he did, and Job ended up making things quite a bit harder than they needed to be because he resisted the Lord’s working on him. So let’s examine the following things: God’s ground rules, God’s objective, Job’s pitfalls and distractions, and the right responses Job could have pursued instead.
 
The ground rules would be the following: God is always wanting the best for all people and his values are his own perfect attributes. Whatever God does is not for a flippant or evil purpose, but working within the framework of opposing free will choices he allows for things he values. Because Job was in a grace covenant with God, God could bring some protection from Satan even though Job was not perfect. We see that when Satan was forced to ask to harm Job and could not act without permission. The New Testament teaches us the power of the atonement taking away taking away Satan’s grounds for accusation by God paying the penalty our sin deserves.

Now God’s objective: Job was in need of help, because Job had secret hidden sin that takes great pressure to surface. Job had a classic understanding of righteousness as being external acts of altruism, which the Old Testament commonly describes, but which hides the real deepest need we have of freedom from pride and self-righteousness, completely hidden sins that idolize and love our own glory over God’s glory. Only tremendous pressure would force us to bring out the hidden attitudes of disrespect we have, and then the only way we can be still righteous in the midst of sin, is by forsaking our own works as the basis of righteousness, and moving into faith for a miraculous gift of righteousness from God.

Another area of help Job needed was his family. They may have needed to be removed from him, because they seemed to be a bad influence on him. Also he had prayed for his children and yet they persisted in unwise behavior, and they may have needed to die early to maintain their salvation. Job’s wife also demonstrated a very poor attitude in being willing to curse and forsake God, so she needed sanctification as well, and must have in the end been impacted by Job’s repentant attitudes, for it seems she was restored.

The first pitfall Job faced would be to fall into misunderstanding God, leading to offense at his ways or a fear of abandonment. This comes from doubting God’s true intentions when things look so hard to explain. One of the biggest sources of offense towards God is him allowing harm to us or others we don’t think is necessary. One side of this ditch is abandoning all faith in God’s being good and sorrowing in his perceived cruelty, doubting his goodness and ability and willingness to atone for our sins. The other side is being angry at God for what in our pride we deem unjust and unkind, and blaming God for being cruel and evil, harboring offense against him. We fall into blasphemy when we presume that limited evidence means everything that seems bad is God being unreliable and unjust. The right conclusion would be to humbly admit our inability to properly judge, and acknowledge that we could always be missing something. We should refuse the pride of independent reasoning, not jumping to any conclusions no matter how convincing or horrible the evidence seems.

Complaining and self-pity were major pitfalls Job faced. This attitude does not acknowledge God’s faithfulness and magnifies the difficulties in bitterness, by claiming God does not do a good job, and we know better. It demands that every unjust feeling gives us the right to cherish and relish the difficulty of the situation and value the suffering over the purity, glory, character and purpose of God in us. It questions God’s motives and integrity, and accuses him of only caring about himself or not being true to his perfect and consistent standard of right and wrong. When the circumstances are especially unfair and painful, it takes great effort to not fall into this. The right way to handle this temptation, is that no matter how hard it seems, we focus on glorifying God and being thankful, and relying on him as faithful. When we put our own will and self-centered desires first, even to the point of wishing to die, we rebel and blaspheme against a perfectly loving, just and good God.

Pride and self-righteousness were the biggest pitfalls. We all have a degree of them, but we don’t have to cooperate or embrace it. We take credit for every good thing we do, and demand we be treated well as reward. We refuse to fully admit our faults or even consider places where we are self-deceived about our goodness. We refuse to ask or plead for mercy, or to humble ourselves by admitting the depth of our need before God. We make no effort to see something bad about ourselves unless it’s fake, and makes us feel proud of how humble we are. We will not listen for God’s voice in other people or circumstances and just look at the negative. We will stubbornly refuse to hope in God’s grace, and instead put all of our trust in our own ability and works. We hold an unwillingness to yield, and end up overrunning all warnings and sense of caution. We secretly cling to the thought “God, I deserve better and I won’t admit my unworthiness” instead of “God, I need mercy and I don’t want to act in pride, even when I don’t understand.” In the entire book of Job, he never once asks for mercy. In fact, the idolatry of the sinful self’s desires is the root of all other vices, and Job opened the door to all these sins.

Another extremely dangerous pitfall would be a lack of self-control. Just letting loose and going with whatever the sin nature feels like doing, can lead us with reckless abandon into some very, very serious sins. God expects us to pay attention and see where he has placed signs for the more serious and important sins, and Job ran over these warning signs. As we practice the sin of passivity, we unleash a cascade of mutually reinforced sinful patterns that pull on us because of a positive feedback loop that can only be broken with the Holy Spirit’s help. It is our responsibility to dig deeply when the pressure is on and cry out to God for the empowerment and deliverance we need, which we see beautifully exemplified in King David’s prayers for help under great temptation and pressure.

The last pitfall for Job would be the distraction of reacting badly to the mistreatment of others. When we are being treated unfairly, misjudged, insulted, condescended to, pridefully corrected and never given compassion, we can react in pride with offense and resentment. When we become bitter over the hypocrisy of others, we end up falling into the exact same sin ourselves without realizing it. We pridefully look down at something we know is wrong in others, and unmercifully hold the hurts of those offenses committed in bitterness. This harboring of offenses will end up in our spitefully reacting in the same way as we were treated, to demand our value from others, instead of making God's love the source.

Job not knowing the real objectives behind his dealing, would be going through an extremely difficult trial of faith, feeling confused by being abandoned after doing right. It took great trust in God’s character to hold on to hope, and desire to be made right with God and be willing to receive reproof with no explanation. He shows his willingness to hold on to a grace-based righteousness with expressions such as “though he slay me, yet I will trust him” and “I know my Redeemer lives.” When God corrects Job he does not say Job lied about Job’s outwardly righteous actions, nor does God specifically correct anything at all, other than Job’s questioning attitude. The last two monsters in God’s discourse, may well represent our pride and self-righteousness, and only the Creator himself can “draw near” to refine the depths of the self-deceiving depravity of our sinful heart. Job ends the refining with abhorring himself after seeing God, thus finally achieving God’s goal he could have come to much earlier by responding in humility, trust and dependency, a much better choice.

Finally we will consider the sin of Job’s friends, to avoid their mistake. At first we might think it was their error in doctrine, but even Job espoused some wrong doctrine. No, their sin was condemning and judging Job’s heart, which was only God’s place to do. Declaring why Job should be condemned is taking the place of the Judge and thus not acknowledging God as the only Judge. Job never judged them in return, and attempted to defend himself instead. Perhaps because of his immaturity, Elihu evaded any correction. He most likely was God’s merciful provision to prepare Job to see and consider where he had gone wrong from a new angle, preparing the way of the Lord (the Rabbis considered his role to be like Elijah’s next coming). Even though Elihu was also self-righteous and his flesh would be a hurdle for Job to overcome, he did not accuse Job’s motives like the other three. Job was said to “speak rightly” of God, which couldn’t have been his accusations and self-pity. It had to mean either his honesty or eventual repentance.

The good thing that Job did was to just hang on to God and not let go, hoping that God would make things right. And it was mercifully all that God required, although it still necessitated some painful correction. The real virtue of faith is honoring the affirmation of God’s true character, thus allowing God an opportunity to reverse the effects of original sin. When Adam and Eve transgressed, they were fundamentally calling God a liar. Why God allows rebellion may very well be that he deems worth having a reflection of his own virtues of trust and love in allowing his creation to have the autonomous freedom of self-expression. Because of the effects of the curse of original sin, the only security we can have of salvation, is that God’s promise of unmerited grace will be the factor we can trust in every situation. We all make mistakes under pressure and feel afraid when things seem out of control. The undeserved goodness of God grants to people born in sin, the gift of redemption through Christ, if we trust in his vicarious sacrificial death and resurrection.
 
@dizerner I agree with much of what you've said above.

I noticed once where Job said.....

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

The "moral" of the story with Job is....

There is a huge difference between knowing God through the words of others and knowing God from experience. Which is the moral of our very lives. It is why God just doesn't plant the seed and walk away. A lesson that should learned by the Calvinist when he is dealing with the parable of the sower. We can consider the olive tree and the vineyard that God plants and continually cultivates.

What good is it if you live off the words of another and never experience God for yourself?

I'm not criticizing Job, I'm glad his witness helps me. I'm worse than Job

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

I'll say this and I hope most of you can agree. You don't really care for something, until you make it your own. You may claiming you do. You may act like it but when you take responsibility for yourself and seek to know Truth for yourself..... It will make an huge difference in your life.
 
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We make assumptions that we have the ability to even judge and understand goodness and rightness, but we are all fallen creatures....
None the less Jesus did appeal to our knowledge of human love in many things when he basically said, you'd give your cattle or livestock water or bring them out of a ditch and don't you think God would do the same? (Lk 14:6) And he did say if you then being evil know how to give good things to your children'..how much more shouldn't you think God would do the same? Matt 7:11 We do somethings because we know it is good and right and God is very similar.

At this point he finally humbles himself and accepts correction without an answer, and is then fully restored to God and able to even help his friends be restored also, who had also received correction.
If you look at the things Job's friends said many things I think are scriptural principals we see in the Bible why some things might happen or could happen but they were seeking to apply those principals with a certainty this IS your problem Job. We see in 1 Cor 11:30 where it states why many (not all) but many are weak and sickly among us and some have died and he tells them why....

That's called a basic principal but you don't take that to John Doe and say this is YOUR PROBLEM. No that's for John Doe to seek God about his personal life. So Job's friends were judging him without revelation of knowing for a certainty anything.
The frustrating thing that jumps out to us is how Job never does receive an answer and it’s very hard for us to see the reasons why God is doing this.
You're right it doesn't come right out and say why. Job lived many years after that and had a relationship with God....is it possible God did tell him later. Not impossible I would think but that would be going outside scripture to say that he did.

So what we want to look at is, what were God’s intentions, what were the mistakes Job fell into, and how could Job have passed his test as well as he could.
In considering mistakes Job made I'd still hold on to that it seems perhaps he could have fallen into this or that but I wouldn't say conclusively. Having read your other post I'd say my assessment is somewhat different then yours but there are a few things that stand out to me. (in another post later)
 
Now God’s objective: Job was in need of help, because Job had secret hidden sin that takes great pressure to surface. Job had a classic understanding of righteousness as being external acts of altruism......
There is a few scriptures where Job states he was a giver to the poor and helped widows (Job 29, Job 31) but can we connect to that as proof that would make him self righteous? I wouldn't say that's a given from the text.
...... and then the only way we can be still righteous in the midst of sin, is by forsaking our own works as the basis of righteousness, and moving into faith for a miraculous gift of righteousness from God.
But isn't that what Job's three friends accused Job of pride and that's what got them into trouble as God said they had spoken wrongly of Job?
Another area of help Job needed was his family. They may have needed to be removed from him, because they seemed to be a bad influence on him.
Not really sure where you see they were bad influence on them . I don't see anyway where it even suggests it even seemed like they were.
Also he had prayed for his children and yet they persisted in unwise behavior, and they may have needed to die early to maintain their salvation.
Thing is though we don't see anywhere in the Bible where it states God does such a thing. So you're suggesting they're living a holy life and God just takes them out? Not sure that fits anything we see in the Bible.
Complaining and self-pity were major pitfalls Job faced. This attitude does not acknowledge God’s faithfulness and magnifies the difficulties in bitterness, by claiming God does not do a good job, and we know better.
Seemed the other day though on another post when I told you (the Bible did actually) 1 John 4:8 that God is love and we shouldn't question it, you said something like,

"What we "should" do does not speak to how difficult it is to do it."

So when I said then that God has allowed a period of demonstration for sin not that he wanted it to have to be that way but seeing mankind insisted you seemed to suggest that couldn't be love and goodness to allow it. Aren't you maybe saying then that God isn't doing a good job to allow it? Hoping maybe you'll change your thought.

Job not knowing the real objectives behind his dealing, would be going through an extremely difficult trial of faith, feeling confused by being abandoned after doing right. It took great trust in God’s character to hold on to hope, and desire to be made right with God and be willing to receive reproof with no explanation.
Keep in mind though we do have progressive revelation that is from the OT to the New. We do see now as revealed by God why potentially things don't occur when we might think they should. See 1 Cor 11:30, James 1:7, James 4:2,3 plus others)

The good thing that Job did was to just hang on to God and not let go, hoping that God would make things right.
I agree with you there.
Why God allows rebellion may very well be that he deems worth having a reflection of his own virtues of trust and love in allowing his creation to have the autonomous freedom of self-expression.
You can see a contrast between good and evil but I don't consider God wanted to have to have a contrast made a reality or saw a necessity for it. He longed for all creatures to stay in LIFE. That's where there's goodness that's where there's joy and that's where there's PEACE.
 
None the less Jesus did appeal to our knowledge of human love in many things when he basically said, you'd give your cattle or livestock water or bring them out of a ditch and don't you think God would do the same? (Lk 14:6) And he did say if you then being evil know how to give good things to your children'..how much more shouldn't you think God would do the same? Matt 7:11 We do somethings because we know it is good and right and God is very similar.

Thoughtful posts, Rockson.

I don't think Jesus was using these illustrations to teach us we know good and evil intuitively.

Remember, the first temptation was to seek some knowledge outside of dependence on God.

Jesus said, "you being evil, give good gifts."

Yet most people do not consider themselves to be evil.

Not really sure where you see they were bad influence on them . I don't see anyway where it even suggests it even seemed like they were.

Remember the first thing Job's wife did?

She said "Curse God and die!"

And his sons were at a banquet all the time, why do you think he felt the need to sacrifice for them?
 
Thoughtful posts, Rockson.

I don't think Jesus was using these illustrations to teach us we know good and evil intuitively.
I would say we do for the most part or Jesus wouldn't have made an appeal to talking about what most of humanity does which is similar to God. Jesus was basically asking them, so how do you think that God isn't the same way or why should you think that way.
Remember, the first temptation was to seek some knowledge outside of dependence on God.

Jesus said, "you being evil, give good gifts."

Yet most people do not consider themselves to be evil.
In contrast to one who walks in perfect holiness yes but man still possesses the intuition of basic good and evil or their conscious wouldn't bother them.
 
I would say we do for the most part or Jesus wouldn't have made an appeal to talking about what most of humanity does which is similar to God. Jesus was basically asking them, so how do you think that God isn't the same way or why should you think that way.

I agree people still have a conscience and a basic latent goodness of the soul.

But this does not mean they really understand what good and evil is, nor that they are all essentially good people.

Christ constantly talked about his ways being an offense—yet if we intuitively think his ways are good, there's nothing to be offended at.

God said his ways are higher than the heavens above us, why should we trust our own feelings of justice?

That is a self-righteous thought based in pride that will find anything we don't naturally like offensive.
 
I'm just starting a study on the book of Job. I've read it several times before and it's always been rather depressing to me. This time I have a different attitude and I have a reason for wanting to do a study on this book. I intend to keep posting on this thread as I continue my study and I'll comment more on my interest in studying job at this time in my life in a future post. It looks like it's almost been a year since anybody has posted here so I don't think anyone will mind if I hijack the thread.

One of the most unique things about the book of Job is it contains the longest place in the Bible where God himself speaks. Found in Job chapters 38 to 41. Job is also the longest place in the Bible where Satan speaks. Found in Job chapters 1 and 2.

I didn't know that so I learned something already. I think Job was the actual author of the book. I can't prove it it's just my opinion.
The Book of Job reminds us that there is a "cosmic conflict" going on behind the scenes that we usually know nothing about or give much thought to. Sometimes when we are going through some tough times we tend to feel sorry for ourselves, self-pity. With tend to forget that God has our back and that He will see us through.
 
But I like most about the book of job is the message of the sovereignty of God. More than being a book about Job, it is, actually, a book about God.

In the opening chapters, we are allowed to see into heaven’s throne room where divine decisions affecting both heaven and earth are made. I'm always interested in knowing more about heaven.

The fact that God controls Satan’s power and man’s circumstances is always a comfort to me. Sometimes I tend to forget that fact. I like how I had the book ends with God querying Job about the nature of his own right to rule his creation. This is the primary lesson learned by Job as taught in this book. God is God. He will do as he pleases, when he pleases, with whom he pleases, without consulting his creatures, and he will do so for his own glory and the ultimate good of his people.

We also learn about our enemy, Satan. In a most revealing way, Satan, the invisible foe of God and his people, is unmasked in the opening chapters of the book. Here the great adversary of God is shown to be who he truly is—the evil perpetrator behind the devastating disasters that strike Job’s life. In the book of Job the accuser of the brethren is put in his rightful place—a powerful enemy—but operating under God’s sovereignty, having to request divine permission to strike Job. A real adversary armed with great power, Satan’s deep hatred and animosity toward God are seen in his challenging God with accusations about Job and the devastation he unleashes upon Job’s life.

Suffering Is really where it hits home for a lot of us. The pain and hardship endured by Job aid in answering the age-old question, Why do the righteous suffer? Or why would a loving God allow evil and pain? The righteous may ask why, yet God is not obligated to explain his ways to his creatures.

The truth is, God’s ways are above our ways. Yet he always has a purpose behind all suffering, often unrevealed to man. Job never knew why he suffered. God’s answer to Job’s forceful inquiry was to submit to his sovereign, all-wise counsel which is past human understanding. The oversimplified counsel of Job’s friends provides no answers for the tragedies that strike the lives of the righteous.

Although we do have a clue from the bible as to why mankind will have a hard time on this present earth.

Found in Genesis 3:17
And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it, ’cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

I know a lot of this don't like this one as we tend to want to be masters of our own destiny. But Job serves as a good example to all believers as he humbly submits to the sovereign rule of God over his life. Job’s reaction to the rapid-fire tragedies is one of reverent submission as he acknowledges God’s divine discretion over all the possessions and persons in his life.

This submission is understood by Job in the context of his own life when he says, “Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him” Job 13:15
 
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