June 1996
The Book of Job
The "patience of Job" is a well-known phrase of speech. Of lesser general knowledge is the phrase "Job's comforters."
Both phrases come to us from the Bible book of Job. Another well known phrase from Job is that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away -- "blessed be the name of the Lord".
The Book of Job is located in the Bible out of its chronological order in comparison to the other events of the Bible. The exact date of the events detailed in the book of Job is not known, but it is generally believed to have taken place about the same time as other events in the middle of the book of Genesis, contemporary to the time of Abraham.
The Bible location of the book of Job confuses many as to its time sequence. Even though the timing of events in Job is contemporaneous with events of the first Bible book of Genesis, the book of Job is physically located in the middle of the Bible as the first "book" following all Old Testament history books, in the "poetical" section.
The Bible's story of Job is one of general knowledge with the public, but it is doubtful that a great many have taken time to study the entirety of the writings in Job.
Job teaches us many lessons. While the lesson of "patience" is an obvious teaching of the book, "general" patience (in and of itself) is not the primary lesson. Job teaches us to have patience and faith in the Lord. We should follow Job's example of love and faith in the Lord, especially in times of personal trouble.
The story of Job is itself written in an organized and chronological manner to detail the story and lesson being told. We learn early, in the first two chapters, the basic background of the primary events for which Job is well known. Then the majority of the book of Job details the discussions between Job and his friends who are his "comforters" and as Job lays sick in bed. The book of Job closes with a wrap up of the Lord's reward to Job for his love and patience.
We are told early in the book of Job that he was a wealthy man, and probably a very well-known man. He was highly respected for his strong conviction in the Lord. The first few verses of Job detail his strong moral convictions, that he had a good family involving seven sons and three daughters. Job's personal wealth included seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and an apparent great home or homestead. From a material perspective he was the greatest of the "men of the east."
Next in Job, beginning with the 6th verse of Chapter one, we are able to witness a meeting of God with His angels, at which Satan was allowed to attend. At this meeting Satan challenged the Lord over Job's faith in God. Satan challenged Job's faith, implying that Job was obedient unto God only because the Lord had bestowed great wealth upon Job. Satan's challenge was for the Lord to remove the Lord's protective "hedge" around Job for Satan to go at him. If so, Satan indicates he could have Job cursing the Lord to His face.
The Lord allowed Satan to go after Job's possessions, but prohibited Satan from affecting Job's physical health.
With Satan turned loose on Job, beginning at Job 1:13 we learn of the four great disasters, apparently the same day, that Satan unleashed on Job:
1. Sabean invaders steal Job's oxen and donkeys and kill the attending servants.
2. A great fire destroys Job's sheep and kills the attending servants.
3. Invading Chaldean tribes steal the camels and kill Job's attending servants.
4. While his sons and daughters are feasting in a son's home, a "great wind from the wilderness" destroys the home and kills all Job's children.
Job's response in traditional mourning was to tear his robe, shave his head and pray to the Lord:
"Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job 1:21. Job refused to curse the Lord, but worshipped God in his sorrow.
Based on Job's response to Satan's disasters on him, Satan returned to the Lord and again challenged Job's faith, indicating that because God had forbid Satan from touching Job's health that Job, like anyone, would sacrifice their possessions for their life.
The Lord then permitted Satan to challenge Job's health, but God ordered Satan to spare Job's life.
Satan then inflicted Job with a sickness as painful and miserable as possible, covering Job from head to toe with sore boils. It is then we see the comparison in human reaction between Job and of those who do not have the strong faith or patience in the Lord. Job's wife first encourages Job to "curse God and die."
Job responds that his wife speaks foolishly: "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Job 2:10 Job continued to refuse to curse the Lord, but continued in his faith.
It is then we learn of Job's comforters, a group of three of Job's friends to come to visit him. The discussion between Job and his friends takes up the overwhelming majority of the book of Job and details the challenges his friends make to Job.
Job's comforters are perhaps the most unsympathetic friends in recorded history. The friends must be credited for at least visiting Job and spending seven days with him in silent support. Other than that, hopefully, one lesson we learn from this book is how not to act when we visit our sick friends.
Job's friends blame Job for his own problems, assuming Job has sinned to bring about the disasters which haven hit him. We learn the lessons of the inability and inadequacy of man to understand or account for the suffering of innocent people. All three assume Job has committed great sins to account for all the trouble they think he has apparently brought on himself.
Throughout these lengthy discussions with his friends Job acknowledges God's justice and omnipotence and defends his own integrity.
Toward the end of the book of Job, God appears before Job "out of a whirlwind" (38:1) and poses numerous questions of Job to establishes God's wisdom and power and omnipotence.
The book of Job closes in the 42nd chapter with God's blessings of Job and God's rebuking of Job's friends. Job submits totally to God:
"I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be witholden from thee." 42:1.
In rebuking Job's friends the Lord demanded an offering from them; immediately releasing Job from his physical afflictions by fully restoring his health. The Lord restored Job's wealth "twice as much as he had before" 42:10. The Lord provided Job with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. Job then had seven sons and three daughters and the Lord blessed Job with a long life which extended another 140 years.
While the "patience" of Job to continue his trust in the Lord during the bad times as well as the good is a major lesson of the book, we also are taught about the wisdom, power and omnipotence of God: In chapters 38-40, God asks Job a total of almost 60 questions that Job cannot answer, showing the sovereignty of the Lord.
The book of Job is about the justness of the Lord, the complete sovereignty of the Lord over Satan, and the inadequacy of man to reason with the wisdom of the Lord.