MORE ABOUT JOB
1. Our theme is: God is good and good means good.
2. We base that on Jesus, the complete revelation of God. John 14:9; Heb 1:1-3
a. Jesus said God is good; good = what Jesus did. Matt 19:17; Acts 10:38
b. Jesus repeatedly said He did the works of His Father. John 14:10
3. In recent lessons, we have been sorting out “Yes, but…” questions.
4. In the last lesson, we began to look at a major issue: What about Job?
a. If God is good and good means good, then why did God do all those things to Job?
b. If God treated Job like that, what will He do to me?
5. Job appears to be a contradiction because people do not read the book in context with the rest of the Bible.
6. When Job is read in context, it not only does not contradict our theme, it fully supports the fact that God is good and good means good.
1. We must read Job in light of Jesus and what He reveals to us about God.
a. The common idea we have is that god set Job up and let the devil attack him.
b. But, Jesus never did anything like that, so God could not have done what we think He did.
2. We must read Job in light of the NT.
a. James 5:11 is the only NT comment we have.
1. Job is commended for his patience = he stayed faithful to God despite his hardships.
2. And, our attention is drawn to the end of Job’s story.
b. We look at Job and say: “Why did this happen?”, but the Holy Ghost, through James, says, “How did it end?”
1. Job 42:10 tells us the end of Job’s story — the Lord turned his captivity and gave him twice as much as before.
2. What happened to Job is called captivity; Jesus came to set captives free — just like His Father. Luke 4:18
3. We must recognize that satan brought the destruction into Job’s life, not God.
a. 1:8 — Have you considered my servant Job = Have you set your heart on Job = satan initiated it.
b. Yes, but God allowed it.
1. God allows people to sin and go to hell. II Pet 3:9
2. If He sent / let satan bring destruction into Job’s life only to turn around and undo it, that is a house divided. Matt 12:24-26
3. If the devil is God’s chastening agent, how can we resist satan and
refuse not chastening at the same time? We are told to do both. James 4:7; Heb 12:5-7
4. We cannot look at someone’s experience — even in the Bible — to determine God’s will.
5. Eeverything in the Bible is truly stated, but not everything is true.
a. The Pharisees said Jesus was a sinner. John 9:13-16; 24
b. They actually said those things, but those statements are not accurate.
c. Job made statements which are accurately stated, but not true. Job 1:21;2:10
6. We must realize Job walked in much less light than we have.
a. He was not even an old covenant man.
b. His picture of God was incomplete, and there is no hint that he had any knowledge of the workings of satan behind the scenes.
1. We are familiar with a few things Job said — The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Because they are so familiar to us, they sound normal, right.
a. Listen to a few other less familiar statements Job made: 6:4; 7:12; 7:16,17; 7:20; 9:17; 9:22,23; 10:13,14 (Living Bible)
b. Do you really want to base doctrine on his beliefs?
1. 23:10 — God has tried me and I shall come forth as gold.
2. 5:17,18 — God chastens by wounding and then binding (spoken by Eliphaz who also had a very limited picture of God.)
3. We need to get our minds renewed to the point that when someone says God made me sick to teach me something, it sounds wrong!
4. Keep in mind, we are not saying that Job is bad or stupid, but he walked in much less light than we have — the Bible is progressive revelation.
a. You cannot use his explanations of his situation to explain your own.
b. Nor can you base doctrine on his experiences or words
5. Job did have some important things right:
a. He stayed faithful to God. James 5:11
b. 1:1; 2:3 — He was perfect (sincere, pious) and upright (righteous); he feared God and avoided evil.
c. Eze 14:14 — He is ranked with Noah and Daniel in terms of righteousness before God.
d. In all this, he did not sin. 1:22; 2:10 — This does not mean Job was accurate in all he said and did.
1. This whole event was a temptation from satan to get Job to sin — to curse God = to stop serving God. 1:10,11
2. In everything he said, he did not sin — when the tragedies struck.
a. But, as Job talked with his friends, he sought to justify himself; he made all kinds of inaccurate statements about God.
b. He implied God had been arbitrary and unfair.
1. He never cried out for deliverance. Instead he prayed things such as: kill me, let me die; I wish I had never been born. 3:11; 6:8,9
a. God hears the prayers of the righteous, and Job is righteous, according to God. Job 1:1; I Pet 3:12; James 5:16,17
b. There are numerous OT examples where men of God cried out for deliverance and God delivered them. II Kings 20:1-6; Ps 34:6;19
c. What if Job had prayed for deliverance rather than have a pity party?
2. Job lived in fear.
a. He feared that trouble would come on him and he’d lose all. 3:25
b. He worried (a form of fear) that his children had cursed God. 1:5
c. Fear works like faith; it creates an expectancy = expecting bad.Prov 1:27
1. Be it unto you according to your faith — whether good or bad.
2. Fear = expecting bad; leads to passivity when bad comes.
3. What a person expects, he accepts — and we can see that in Job.
3. Job was self-righteous (which means he didn’t understand God’s mercy and grace), and he appealed to God on that basis.
a. He did what many of us do when trouble strikes — Lord, I don’t deserve this! Why is this happening? Job 6:29,30; 10:1-7; 13:18; 27:5,6; 29:14; the word I or ME is used at least 33 times in chapter 29. (Living Bible)
b. He asked why over 20 times.
1. The Book of Job teaches the futility of asking why.
2. All four men speculated about why the bad happened.
3. All were wrong; all were rebuked by God.
c. At the root of “why” is an accusation against God = He has been unfair.
d. We appeal to God on the basis of our goodness — what we deserve — just as Job did.
1. That is a big mistake; what we deserve from God is destruction and punishment. Rom 3:10; Matt 19:17; Isa 64:6
2. But, God, out of His goodness, offers us mercy in and through Jesus.
1. One reason there appears to be a difference is because we have more light than Job did.
a. We can look at Job and know the devil did it, and that Job should have cried out for deliverance.
b. We can look at Job and know that God is good and good means good.
2. Another reason there appears to be a difference is because we have a better covenant, relationship with God because we live after the Cross of Jesus.
a. In Job, we see the cry of a man who does not have access to God.23:1-9
1. He has a longing for God, but no approach.
2. He needs a mediator or an advocate.
3. 9:32,33 (daysman = umpire = mediator); 16:19-21 (witness = advocate); 25:4; 33:23,24
b. We have all those things in Jesus. Rom 4:26; 5:1,2; Eph 3:12; I Tim 5,6; I John 2:1
3. God dealt with Job through His Word, as in the NT. Chap 38 -41
a. Notice — God chastened Job, rebuked Job, corrected Job by speaking to him 38:1; 40:1
b. God spoke to Job of His power and wisdom demonstrated through creation.
1. Job’s attitude had been: God is God and He can do whatever He wants, but it isn’t fair.
2. But, Job realized the foolishness of accusing God of mishandling anything and repented. 40:4,5; 42:1-6
c. Notice it was not the suffering of Job that brought him to repentance, it was God’s Word.
4. We see God’s mercy in Job.
a. 42:10 — He turned the captivity of Job.
b. 42:7,8 — God was upset with Job’s three friends. Notice what God did with His wrath:
1. He did not blast the three with lightning bolts and sickness.
2. He had Job offer a blood sacrifice to cover their sin.
c. Why is God more upset with their words than Job’s? It doesn’t clearly say, but consider these points:
1. Job has recognized his foolishness and repented — they have not.
2. As far as what all of them said about God and suffering, there are some similarities between them, but there is one big difference.
3. Job’s argument: I’m experiencing evil, but don’t deserve it because I haven’t sinned. The wicked seem to get away with all kinds of things with no bad consequences. (chap 21)
4. The three friends’ argument: Wrong is punished and good is rewarded. Deed for deed, act for act, we get it in this life.
5. The main difference between the two: while the three say it gets taken care of in this life, Job says it will be evened out in the next life.
a. The godless will get it. 27:8-23
b. For the godly: my redeemer lives and I will see God. 19:25-27
5. We see God’s sovereignty demonstrated in Job. Rom 8:28
a. The fact that God is sovereign means He is all powerful, the highest authority, and in complete control.
1. He can cause everything to serve His purpose.
2. He can bring genuine good out of genuine bad.
b. What happened to Job was genuine evil — it came from the hand of satan, but God brought genuine good out of it.
1. He gave Job twice as much as he had before; the entire trial lasted nine months to a year.
2. The bad circumstances brought to light some attitudes in Job which needed correction — self-righteousness, blaming God, etc.
a. What satan meant for evil, God used for good.
b. The circumstances brought out some attitudes in Job.
c. Job didn’t see them in / through the circumstances, He saw them through God’s Word in the circumstances.
3. Job came to see God in a new light when God spoke.
1. It is vitally important that we know God’s true character. Ps 9:10
2. Lack of knowledge of God’s character made a bad situation worse for Job.
a. He blamed God; he did not go to God for help.
b. He tried to figure out what God was doing by looking at circumstances.
1. When He did so he reached faulty conclusions.
2. It was when God spoke to him that Job got his facts straight.
3. Once again, we find that if we will take the time, and follow some basic rules of
Bible interpretation, God is good and good means good.