Beloved, I am glad to share with you the introduction to this book in order to help you better understand something full of interest and great practical benefit, but which, for the most part, is not very easy to grasp, either in its overall purpose and scope, or in the way in which its various parts contribute to achieving this goal. Indeed, thisbook is titled the name of its central character, namely Job. He asks almost all the essential and existential questions of the life of an irreproachable believer, filled with goods, but victim of the vicissitudes of life: Why are men and especially the righteous doomed to suffering? Why does a God of power and love allow misfortune? Who is this God really? This book presents a long and difficult quest for the true face of God, a quest born almost inevitably in the distress of inexplicable misfortune. What is this God who seems to remain silent and let it happen? Why go after the unfortunate Job who can’t take it anymore?
Nothing can replace for our souls the constant and habitual study of the Word of God. In fact, ministry would be a positively harmful thing, instead of a blessing, if it did not have the effect of making this Word more precious to us, of making us penetrate better into it, and thus causing our souls to enjoy God himself more. This is exactly the measure of the value of such a ministry, at least of the one whose purpose is the interpretation of the Scriptures, for all truth must, in the end, be based on this Word. It is certain that not only is it the source and reservoir of truth, but that only God can, by his means, present it perfectly and in living power.
That is why when a truth is separated from those that accompany it in the Scriptures, there is always danger. It is clear from this fact that it is of the utmost importance for our souls to apply ourselves to the followed reading of the Word of God. I do not mean as a matter of intelligence alone, but for the maintenance of a healthy spiritual condition, and so that we may be refreshed day by day by this reading of the Word. To this end, however, it is of great help to us to be made able, by the grace of God, to embrace the Word as a whole, instead of collecting only the blessing offered by some of its parts, whose value we all realize, as isolated communications from God. At this moment, however, my desire is to help the reader gain a general idea of the purpose that the Holy Spirit had in mind for God’s people by giving us the book of Job.
The first fact that is good to remember is that this book was written in the most remote times of divine revelation. It would be risky to say that no book of Scripture preceded it. That the writer of the book of Job (I say: writer with intent, for God is undoubtedly the real Author of all Scripture), that the one who was employed to give us this book was a contemporary of Moses, if not Moses himself, seems quite plausible. Of course, one can only speculate on such a point. Scripture does not let us know the author of the book, and in my opinion it would not be appropriate for anyone to make a formal assertion about it. It is good to stick to the moral appreciation of the character of the book at hand, as the Lord enables us to do so, without discussing for the moment other external marks. Nevertheless, it is very clear that, either that Moses was the inspired author, or that this author was his contemporary, the events that served as the framework for the book of Job took place in a time before that of Moses. Moreover, we must not doubt that he gives us an authentic account, a real story of Job and his friends.
Thus we learn from the book itself that Job’s life was extended after his trial, and he was far from young when he had to go through it. We can therefore conclude that, unless there was a special exception in the fact of his age, which Scripture never tells us about, Job must have lived before Moses. Moreover, the latter himself was an exception, and Scripture points to his long life as a remarkable fact in his time; for it is certainly apparent from his own words and from his prayer in Psalm 90 that, already at that time, the age of man, as a rule, had been reduced to about the limit he has today. Moses was in many ways outside the condition of the men of his time, even from an external point of view, not to mention here his faith: for it is clear that he and his brother were remarkable exceptions. However, judging by the way the facts are stated, Job must have lived a little before them.
There is another even more important thing to consider, before we enter into the study of this book: Job lived outside the chosen people. This is certainly a surprising fact within a revelation that has its roots in Israel. For this very reason, the Old Testament is called “The Law.” Not only the Pentateuch, or the Psalms, or the Prophets, but the entire Book, as we know, is repeatedly and formally referred to under this title. The reason for this lies in the fact that revelation, later given to the people who had received God’s Law, had this character. Each part of the Old Testament took its name from the characteristic central fact that the law had been given by Moses; and yet, there was, from the earliest days, at least one book whose main character was the object of The deepest interest on the part of God, and of which God speaks in terms that He never applied even to the “fathers.”
Abraham could be called “the friend of God” and this is the name given to him (Isaiah 41:8; Jacq. 2:23). Nevertheless, Abraham himself did not hold God’s attention to such an extent, nor was he signaled to Satan as worthy of being tested, as Job was. Nothing is more striking, it seems to me, than the care with which God warns his own against the effects of a legal order of things, capable of shrinking the heart. He was going to give the law through Moses, and make a people of little importance and inhabiting a small country the particular object of his ways. His dispensations to this people were to continue for centuries and were by no means temporary. He wanted Israel to be his people forever. Now, at this very moment, no later than the call to Moses, nor the promulgation of the law, God is giving us a book entirely devoted to one person, to one individual. The chosen people must not forget the great truth that God is deeply interested in one soul. But this is certainly the trap into which Israel has fallen, despite the book of Job. However, God took care that His people possessed this book, just as well as the Pentateuch.
In Genesis, all divine ways prepare the call of the chosen people. When the law was given, God treated the nations as being entirely outside; that was their position. Alas! then we see Israel becoming ever narrower in its affections, and refusing to recognize that a Gentile was anything other than a dog in god’s eyes. This is how this people closed their bowels to all others, and manifested in any case what God had taken care to correct and condemn even in the law. Indeed, we can see that in this very remarkable book given before the law, God warns His people against the trap into which they later fell. Is this not a blessed and anticipated justification of God’s character? Job was a Gentile and, judging by his place of residence, he seemed to belong to a less fortunate people. The land of Uts is bound by the prophet Jeremiah to the land of Edom (Lam. 4:21). Nothing could be more suspicious for an Israelite. If there was a people filled with hatred against the Jews, it was the Edomites, and this was not a new feature in their moral character. This is not to say that Job was an Edomite.
Nevertheless, for a Jew willing to inflame himself against anything that did not recognize the special place of the chosen people, his place of origin was suspect; he was, in fact, on the borders of the land of Edom. But the reader of the Bible knows that the hatred of the latter had manifested itself against Israel from the first days, even among his ancestors. This hostility had been perpetuated among his descendants, and manifested itself until the end of his history, from Genesis to Malachi. Edom’s enmity against Israel, not to mention Israel’s enmity against Edom, had never disappeared. This enmity is commonly found among those who have neither God nor His blessing, towards those who are blessed with Him. So it was with Edom, and his condition remained such. Thus the Jew was all the more apt to feel the value of a testimony of which a man who lived near his borders was the object.
But God’s grace had been pleased to operate in this man. We thus have the great fact that a lonely soul was the object of the deepest interest on the part of God Himself, and this is revealed to us in His Word and does not remain hidden in His heart. There was much more. God had a wise plan worthy of His glory, allowing this story to be given to us in the Scriptures. He wanted it to be the revelation of his solicitude for Job, a solicitude that He immediately communicated to heaven, and that his Word reveals to us for all times. So when the day came when Israel lost its privileged place and God’s mighty grace could no longer be held in the narrow channels that his government had been pleased to use until then, this book was there to prove that this grace was not a new thought in God.
When the time came when his grace began to operate for the glory of his Name, in the Person of the One who himself descended here on earth to make it known and overflow with his work, according to God’s great thoughts and purposes, this book could be immediately cited as a testimony of his condescending mercy to those outside Israel. Could the Jew find this strange? Would he dare, with the book of Job in front of him, to affirm that God had no thought of grace for a Gentile? Where has there been in the past a man whom God has spoken of as much and in such high terms as Job? We can look in all the books of the Old Testament: will we find a man to whom God dedicates an entire book to tell us about his experiences?
This fact is so extraordinary that one of the spokesmen of modern Judaism, always at the head of unbelief, says that Job cannot have been a real character, since it is impossible for God to have spoken in similar terms of a Gentile. It is in this, on the contrary, that the strength and beauty of this book lies. He speaks to us of a real man, as confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel (14:14, 20) and the apostle James (5:11), of a man who lived outside the chosen people, but in whom nevertheless God operated in his grace for the admiration of heaven. This grace caused Satan’s malice, and gave rise to an unprecedented trial, so that the most real divine work that could be seen in a man before the coming of Christ was manifested. It was not an isolated act of faith, as we see in Abraham’s trial, abandoning to His word what was most precious to his heart and had been given by God for glorious and blessed purposes.
In the case of Job, Satan was allowed to unleash his malignant and destructive power over the property, family, and person of this man of God. This trial was followed by Job’s greatest anguish and deepest soul exercises before God. What more terrible distress could there be before the coming of the perfect man who suffered more than all for righteousness, and suffered alone for sin, according to what he deserved from God. In Job we see what man can be called through. His book is the revelation of God’s ways to souls; he shows us how God makes all things work together for the good of His own, while manifesting victory over Satan and the failings of men and saints. The picture of all these principles passes before our eyes in this book. But, in the end, God shows what He is, namely a God full of mercy and tender compassion.
The book of Job is a narrative whose beginning (Job 1 and 2) and end (Job 42:7-17) are written in prose; for the speeches that constitute the central part, the writer used, in Hebrew, the poetic form. But such poetry is very different from what we know in the West. It is characterized, not by the number of syllables and rhymes of verses, but by pictorial language, parallelisms and, in part, by rhythm and alliteration or repetition of sounds. The theme of the book of Job is God’s ways in government toward men, in a world where Satan, God’s adversary, introduced sin, suffering, and death. These ways of God, however, always pursue a good purpose (comp. Rom. 8:28). Job was a rich man, but just and pious. God allowed Satan to take away his wealth, his family, and his health from the job. With his three friends, Job raises the following problem: why does a just God allow the suffering of a just and innocent being? The three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Tsophar, did not understand these ways of God. According to them, God punished Job because of some sin; these men did not see that God also uses suffering to purify and instruct believers.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Righteousness, reward of the
Ps 7:11 My shield is in God, Who saves those whose hearts are straight. Ps 32:11 Righteous, rejoice in the Lord and be in joy! Shout with joy, all of you who are right of heart! Pr 2:7, 21 He holds in reserve salvation for righteous men, A shield for those who walk in integrity, 21 For upright men will dwell in the country, Men of integrity will remain there; Pr 28:6 Better the poor who walks in his integrity, than the one who has tortuous ways and who is rich.
- Perfection, some essential elements of the
-Benevolence Mt 19:21 Jesus said to him: If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me.
-Love Col 3:14 But above all these things clothe yourself in charity, which is the bond of perfection.
-The good works Jas 2:22 You see that faith acted with his works, and that by works faith was made perfect.
-The mastery of the language Jc 3.2 We all flinch in several ways. If someone does not flinch in words, he is a perfect man, capable of holding his whole body in bridle.
Obedience 1 Jn 2:5 But he who keeps his word, God’s love is truly perfect in him: by this we know that we are in him.
- True religion, examples of piety
-Enoch Gen 5:24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.
-Noah Gen 6:9 This is Noah’s posterity. Noah was a just and upright man in his time; Noah walked with God.
-Jaebets 1 Ch 4:10 Jaebets invoked the God of Israel, saying: If you bless me and extend my limits, if your hand is with me, and if you preserve me from misfortune, so that I am not in suffering!… And God granted what he had asked.
Hezekiah 2 Ch 31:20 This is what Hezekiah did in all of Judah; he did what is right, what is right, what is true, before Jehovah, his God.
-Job Jb 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uts whose name was Job. And this man was upright and upright; he feared God, and turned away from evil.
-Daniel Dn 6:11 Then these men entered tumultuously, and they found Daniel praying and invoking his God.
Simeon Lk 2:25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon. This man was righteous and pious, he awaited the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
-Anne Lk 2:37 Remained a widow, and aged eighty-four, she did not leave the temple, and she served God night and day in fasting and prayer.
Nathaniel Jn 1:47 Jesus, seeing Nathanael coming to him, said of him: Be truly an Israelite, in whom there is no fraud.
Christ John 8:29 The One who sent me is with me; He did not leave me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to Him.
-Cornelius Acts 10:2 This man was pious and feared God, with his whole house; he gave many alms to the people, and prayed to God continuously.
Barnabas Acts 11:24 For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a fairly large crowd joined the Lord.
-Ananias Acts 22:12 Now, a man named Ananias, a pious man according to the law, and of whom all the Jews dwelt in Damascus bore a good witness, came to present himself to me,
Timothy 2 Tim 1:5 keeping the memory of the sincere faith that is in you, that first dwelt in your ancestor Loïs and in your mother Eunice, and that, I am convinced, also dwells in you.
- Fear of God, examples of righteous men dominated by the
Neh 5:15 Before me, the first governors overwhelmed the people, and received from them bread and wine, in addition to forty sicles of money; their servants themselves oppressed the people. I did not do so, out of fear of God. Jb 1:8 Jehovah said to Satan, Have you noticed my servant Job? There is no one like him on earth; he is a man of integrity and righteousness, fearing God, and turning away from evil. Acts 5:11 A great fear took hold of the whole assembly and all those who learned these things. Acts 9:31 The Church was at peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, rising and walking in fear of the Lord, and she grew by the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
From all the above, we note that inhis hope, Job opposes his own righteousness and righteousness to his three friends. He feels that he is being treated unfairly, but hopes that God, eventually, will receive him. Elihu then intervenes. He is the lord’s messenger and type (Job 32:8; 33:4). He explains that God uses discipline towards man in order to purify him and bring him closer to him. With his words, Elihu shines the light in the darkness and leads Job into the presence of God. All of Job’s conclusions were wrong, because he did not understand that God wanted to get him to probe himself to the depths of himself. When God then speaks directly to Job, He finally recognizes, “My ear had heard of you, now my eye has seen you: That is why I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5, 6). God can then bless Job again.
At that time the book of Job will not require a long examination; not that it lacks interest, but the general idea once grasped, it is the details that are interesting, and here, the details should not stop us. We find, in the book of Job, a part of these exercises of the heart that this division of the Holy Book presents to us. The pious man goes through affliction. The reason had to be given: friends claim that this world is the proper expression of God’s righteous government, therefore, Job who made a great profession of piety is a hypocrite. He formally denies it, but his unbroken will rises against God. God liked to do it, and Job can do nothing about it. Only he is sure that if he found God, he would put words in his mouth. He said of God’s good even though he was in rebellion and thought his goodness came from himself. He still claims that although there was a government, this world did not make him see, as his friends said; but it is not broken before God. Elihu enters the scene, as a performer, one of a thousand (33:23) (and how rare they are practically!), and he shows God’s discipline towards man and towards the righteous, and takes up both sides with intelligence. Then God appears and puts Job in his place by revealing Himself, but He recognizes Job’s righteous feelings toward him. (42:7) He puts the friends in their true place [42:8] and Job must intercede for them. Humiliated Job can be abundantly blessed. This knowledge of oneself before God is of utmost importance; until then we are never humble or defiant of ourselves. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Job and his family; First test for Job: he loses his possessions and his children – His reaction honors God. (Job 1)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.