In our Old Testament arrangement, the book of Job marks the beginning of the poetic books. Chronologically it would appear to fall during the latter portion of Genesis—after the flood and before the law. Job, an actual person as scripture testifies (Eze. 14:1414Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 14:14); Jas. 5:1111Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11)), lived in the land of Uz, generally understood to be in Arabia. He was one who, by God’s own testimony, was perfect and upright, “one that feareth God, and escheweth evil” (Job 1:88And 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? (Job 1:8)). The entire account is about Job’s extraordinary trial.
This book has been widely misunderstood, and many fall into the same error as Job’s friends—that Job brought his suffering upon himself because of his sins. God was not punishing Job for his self-righteousness; this was not the secret sin his companions so vehemently sought. (That he was self-righteous is without question, however, it was a symptom not the root.) Man by nature views his prosperity as God’s approval, and affliction as His disapproval. This view of God has terrible implications. Clearly there are instances where the wicked prosper (Job 21) and, as in this case, where the righteous suffer.
There was a needs-be in Job’s life. However, the question was not, “What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen. 3:1313And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. (Genesis 3:13)), but rather, “Where art thou?” (Gen. 3:99And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9)). The book considers man’s state in nature quite apart from any question of sins committed. Man would seek to justify himself before God—and surely such a man as Job had plenty to rest upon—but he does not know that he is entirely at enmity with God.
Aside from the first two chapters in which we learn the origin of Job’s trial, the remaining chapters are a dialogue between Job and his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar (Job 3-31), Elihu (Job 32-37), and finally the Lord Himself (Job 38-42).
God allows Satan to buffet Job, but a bound is set and his life is preserved. Satan reasoned that without a reward Job would curse God (Job 1:9-119Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 10Hast 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. 11But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. (Job 1:9‑11)). Satan, and the natural man like him, has no appreciation of faith. Satan seduced Eve with the promise of a reward, and assumes God works likewise (Job 1:1010Hast 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. (Job 1:10)). Satan exits the scene having failed, and Job’s sorest trial begins with his so-called friends.
Eliphaz speaks from experience (Job 4:8, 15:10). God cannot be found by experience, and this is reflected in his comments (Job 22:33Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect? (Job 22:3)). We only know God by the revelation that He makes of Himself.
Bildad speaks from the conscience (Job 8:66If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. (Job 8:6)), but conscience condemns man without remedy. Like his friends, Bildad views the government of God as the full measure and display of His righteousness, a doctrine that proves our utter ignorance of God.
We cannot dismiss all that the friends say, for there was truth there, though misdirected; it all pointed Job to himself and not to God.
“How should man be just with God?” (Job 9:22I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? (Job 9:2)). Job knew that if he justified himself, his mouth would condemn him (Job 9:2020If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. (Job 9:20)). He wished for a daysman (umpire) between himself and God (Job 9:3333Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)), one that might plead for him (Job 16:2121O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! (Job 16:21)). With his thoughts inward, knowing that his friends falsely accused him, Job justifies himself at the expense of God (Job 29:14, 40:8).
In Elihu, we have in type the mediator, of whom Christ is the fulfillment. Elihu points Job’s thoughts away from himself and towards God. God speaks to man in a vision (Job 33:1515In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; (Job 33:15)), in sickness (Job 33:1919He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: (Job 33:19)), and sometimes by a messenger (Job 33:2323If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: (Job 33:23)). In his trial Job failed to see that God was for Him. Elihu’s heart yearned for Job (Job 32:1919Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. (Job 32:19)). In our trials do we justify God? Do we recognize His loving hand in it? Do we know that we have an advocate that yearns for us? Or do our hands hang down and in our self-occupation see nothing but God as Judge? “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. 12:66For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)).
Job’s heart thus prepared, he hears the Lord answer him out of the whirlwind (Job 38:11Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, (Job 38:1)). With his eye now fixed on God and His glorious power as revealed in creation, Job can only say “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-65I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 6Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:5‑6)). Therein is Job’s deliverance in the measure that he could know it—God is the justifier, He has found a ransom (Job 33:2424Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24)).
We can now say what Job could not know at that time, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24-2624Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:24‑26)).