Job
7
Some have suggested that the book of Job is a great book from which to teach repentance. They argue that although Job was very conscious of God, he could find nothing wrong with himself. He was very egotistical about his own righteousness. He felt that before God he was all right. They claim that God allowed Job to be stripped of all his securities in order to bring him to Himself. God selected the best man who ever lived in the Old Testament and showed that even he needed to repent. It is true that, in the final chapter, after God has shown up, that His servant, Job says, "My ears have heard of You but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (chapter 42 verses 5-6).
When studying a book like Job, whilst acknowledging that the Bible is the inspired word of God, we need to understand that not all that every person says is automatically true. The old song runs "things that you're liable to read in the Bible - t'ain't necessarily so!" This is where Job's comforters need watching closely. Half-truths are very dangerous. Eliphaz is a good example. He says some fine things in chapter 22. They just don't apply to Job at all. Eliphaz says, "Submit to God and be at peace with Him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from His mouth and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored" (verses 21-23). None of this is relevant to Job.
Judgemental Eliphaz has assumed that Job must have sinned appallingly to warrant such disaster striking his family. He actually paints a picture of Job as a heartless, uncaring scoundrel who has kept 'to the old path that evil man have trod' (verse 15). The reality is that what has happened, happened when Job was submitted to God and at peace with Him, having laid up His words in his heart. He had not departed from the Almighty at all.
Job has really suffered from bad advice from his friends. He doesn't enjoy being lectured or preached at by clever men with no answers. Listen to his outcry in chapter 23: - "Even today my complaint is bitter; His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. If only I knew where to find Him; if only I could go to His dwelling!" (verses 2-3). He longs to have it out with God. Job sighs, "If I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." (verses 8-10). Remember Job's life was pleasing to God before he went into the furnace. These traumatic events are not occurring to teach Job a lesson. When he says, "My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more that my daily bread" (verses 11-12), he is telling the plain truth.
Out of the painful darkness of Job's situation, again a flash of faith shines forth, "He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" (verse 10). Job's declaring, 'I don't know where God is, but God knows where I am.' In times of severe testing it's not where you are, but who you're with that is most important.
Job asks two questions at the start of chapter 24. "Why does the Almighty not set times for judgement? Why must those who know Him look in vain for such days?" (verse 1). Job is desperately pleading for the day of judgement to occur tomorrow because there's so much wrong that seems to go unnoticed by God. Verse 12 reads, "The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing."
Job is convinced that God is against him. If Job had known that God was using him as a weapon to defeat Satan, he could have possibly sat back and waited trustfully for the battle to end. He would have seen a purpose in his suffering. As it is, his suffering seems pointless and meaningless which only serves to make it more intolerable. All Job could give the Lord was his senseless suffering by faith; but that is just what God wanted in order to silence the devil. In times of severe testing, perhaps our first question should not be, "How can I get out of this?" but "What can I get out of this?"
In chapter 26 there are two marvellous verses I want to draw to your attention. The first is verse 7. With a revelation of divine insight Job declares that God "spreads out the northern skies over empty space; He suspends the earth over nothing." What an incredible statement of scientific accuracy, from probably 4,000 years ago, when this concept was unknown to ancient astronomers. Then at the end of the chapter in verse 14, aware that God's ways and works are past finding out, Job says, "these are but the outer fringe of His works; how faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?"
Job is only too conscious of the limitations of our understanding of divine power and wisdom. It's alarming to realise his friends pretended to have complete understanding of God's ways. Their attempts at being God's defence counsel fail utterly. In fact God is as much searching out their integrity as they claim He is for Job.
Lord, give us humility, like Job, to admit when we haven't a clue what's going on in people's lives lest we invent an explanation that is religious guesswork and misrepresents You.