Wait just a few while.
Turn to the book of Job, Job chapter 1. We will read from verses 1 through 12.
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and turned away from evil.
And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.
And his sons went and held a feast in the house of each one upon his day; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered My servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil.
Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Hast not Thou made a 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.
But put forth Thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce Thee to Thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
Then turn to the last chapter, Job chapter 42. We will read from verses 1 through 6.
Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
I know that Thou canst do all things,
And that no purpose of Thine can be restrained.
Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak;
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me.
I had 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.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, as we wait upon Thy presence, we do ask that the light of Thy countenance will shine upon us. We pray that Thy word will come forth and reach our hearts, that we may really bow down and worship Thee, because Thou art truly our God, our Lord. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.
It is commonly acknowledged that the book of Job is the most ancient book in the whole Bible. It was written before Moses wrote his Pentateuch. The story happened in the time of the patriarchs, probably after Abraham and certainly before Moses.
We do not know who wrote this book. It could be Job himself. Or, according to the Jewish Talmud, it was Moses who wrote this book. Probably Moses did not compose it, but he introduced it into the Hebrew sacred canon.
Probably when Moses sojourned in the land of Midian—you remember how he fled from Egypt and sojourned in the land of Midian—it was there that he heard about the story. So he introduced it to the children of Israel and passed it on to later generations.
Now, if this be the case, then I think it is very interesting and very instructive. Why? Because the first book of the Bible does not deal with the nation of Israel. The first book of the Bible deals with a man who actually lived before the nation of Israel was formed, and certainly he was outside the pale of Israel.
Now, that shows us that God’s interest is in mankind, not just in one nation. Even though Israel was blessed by the Lord, yet you find God’s interest is in mankind as a whole.
Furthermore, if it is Moses who introduced this book to the children of Israel, then Moses certainly was not that narrow-minded and biased, as later generations made the lawgiver appear to be.
This book of Job is classified among the wisdom books of the Bible. There are three books of wisdom: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. These three wisdom books deal with the practical life of man. They approach this from different angles, and yet they reach the same conclusion.
In Proverbs, it is said:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
— Proverbs 9:10
Now, in Job, he says:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
— Job 28:28
And then Ecclesiastes says:
Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
— Ecclesiastes 12:13
So you find that even though they approach practical living from different directions, yet they come to the same conclusion: the fear of the Lord.
Proverbs shows us daily life. Ecclesiastes shows us prosperity. And Job shows us adversity. But whether life is in prosperity or in adversity, it is equally true: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Now, this book of Job is also listed among the poetic books of the Bible. There are five poetic books in the Old Testament, and Job is listed as one of them. Why? Because aside from Job chapters 1 and 2, Job 42:7-17, and a few other fragments, all the rest—from Job 3 through Job 42:6—are poems. They are written in poetry, and that is the reason why Job is also classified among the poetic books.
All these poetic books deal with life’s problems, problems of life for all ages. Job deals with the problem of suffering; Psalms, the problem of worship; Proverbs, the problems of conduct and daily life; Ecclesiastes, the problem of the chief goal of life; and the Song of Songs, the problem of love.
But whatever problem there may be in life, the solution is only found in Christ.
Now, who is Job? The very name Job in Hebrew means “the afflicted, persecuted one.” But in Arabic, it means “he who turns around,” who repents and who returns to God.
He is a real person, not an imaginary person. The story is not fiction; it is a historical fact, because there was such a man called Job who lived in the land of Uz.
We know that he is a real person because we find his name mentioned in other places of Scripture. Ezekiel 14:14 and 20 mention Job among the three righteous men on earth: Noah, Daniel, and Job. Now, we know Noah is a real person, Daniel is a real person, so Job is a real person.
Again, in the New Testament, we find in James 5:11 the endurance—the patience—of Job. So Job must be a real person.
Actually, Job is quoted in the New Testament twice. I hope you will find it.
Now, this man lived in the land of Uz. Uz means a soft, sandy soil. In the old days, oftentimes the name of a place was named after the person who lived there. Now, if this is true, then we try to find out whether there is any man called Uz in the Old Testament, and surely there is.
We find in Genesis 10:23 that Uz is a grandson of Shem. You know the three sons of Noah, and one son was Shem; there you find Uz is the grandson of Shem.
Then again, we find in Genesis 22:21 that Uz is the firstborn of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. And again, you find in Genesis 36:28 that he is a descendant of Esau.
Now, which person it was, or who lived in Uz, I can only tell you how I feel, and you can draw your own conclusion. Personally, I feel probably Job, who lived in the land of Uz, lived in the land named after Uz, the firstborn of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
Now, why do I think so? Because later on you find a young man came upon the scene, and his name was Elihu. He was a Buzite, in other words, from Buz. And you find in Genesis 22:21 that Nahor had another son called Buz. So probably you find that Elihu was related to Job. That is the way I look at it, but that is only supposition. You may take it or leave it.
But anyway, you find that this man lived in the land of Uz. Now, where is Uz? Uz is probably in the northern part of the Arabian Desert. Certainly the story tells about a person who lived outside of Palestine, from Palestine outward toward the Euphrates—that part of the land. And that is where Job lived.
He lived in the days of the patriarchs. There are many proofs, and I will not go into them because it takes too much time. But anyway, you find he lived in the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
He was a man who was perfect and upright. Perfect—not sinless perfection—but perfect in the sense that his heart was perfect toward God. And he was upright; in other words, he was a righteous man, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
The fear of God is the secret of his being perfect. Turning away from evil is the result of his uprightness. He was a good man.
As a matter of fact, there was none at that time as perfect and upright as Job. He was the best of men.
He was a wealthy man. He had many sheep, camels, asses, and many servants. Most likely he was a sheikh, a prince, or even a king.
He was one of the wise men of the East, but he was greater than the men of the East. You know, “the men of the East” is a term which refers to the men who lived from Egypt to the Euphrates. These are called the East, and the men of the East are noted for their wisdom.
You remember when Christ was born? Wise men came from the East. And probably, most likely, Job was among the wise men of the East, but he was greater than the men of the East.
Furthermore, you find he was a person who served God, because God called him, “My servant Job.” In the patriarchal age, the head of the family was the priest of the family. So you find how he functioned as the priest of the family: he offered sacrifices for his children to make atonement for them.
He had a very happy family: seven sons, three daughters, and all were good. These brothers and sisters loved one another. Their family was really one family together, a happy family.
So everything you could expect of a person on earth, you find Job was the best specimen. Now, that was Job, and the story was told about that man.
Now, what is the aim or the value of this book of Job? This book of Job is most valuable. There are so many lessons that we could learn—practical lessons, important lessons—that we could learn from this book.
But to me, I feel probably the central teaching of this book of Job is the sovereignty, the government, of God.
Our God is the Creator. He is the Sovereign of the universe. Government belongs to Him.
You know, in the book of Esther, we find how God, in a hidden way, exercised His providential care for His rebellious people. Even though the people were rebellious, yet you find the providential care of God as part of God’s government.
Now, in this book of Job, you find the moral government of God, or the benevolent government of God, upon a beloved one of His.
The government of God is a tremendous thing in this universe. It is something that we need to see. He is God; therefore, government is in His hand. He rules and overrules all things.
His government is both legal and benevolent. Legal in the sense that He has the right. He has the right to govern. He has the right to rule. He has the right to do anything He likes, and nobody is to question Him. That is legal.
But at the same time, you find His government is benevolent. In other words, you find that His government is for our good.
In Jeremiah 29:11, it is God saying:
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
Thoughts of peace, and not of evil,
To give you hope in your latter end.
And again, Psalm 139:17 says:
How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
So we know that God’s thoughts toward us are benevolent; they are good. His government toward us is for peace, not for evil.
Yet, because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways, oftentimes we do not understand. Oftentimes we question His government. We question His dealings. We like to ask why. We want God to give us an explanation.
In a sense, whatever we cannot explain, we will not accept. And oftentimes we even rebel. Now, that is human beings.
But we have to understand that God does not need to explain everything to us. He has a reason for it, but He does not need to explain it to us. And even if He should explain it to us, it may not solve our problem.
The solution to our problem concerning the government of God is not in why, but in Who. In other words, if we see Him, if we know Him—Who He is—then everything is solved. And unfortunately, this is a very difficult thing for us.
Now, in this book of Job, the government of God is especially related to the matter, to the problem, of suffering. Suffering is a problem of all ages.
Why is there suffering? Does God want us to suffer? Who is to suffer? What is the consequence of suffering?
God does not want us to suffer. His thoughts toward us are for peace, not for evil. But why are there sufferings upon this earth?
Of course, if we want to trace back to the origin, we have to see that suffering is the result of sin. When sin entered into this world, suffering began. Immediately you find the earth was cursed. You find that man has to sweat for a living, and woman has to suffer pain in childbirth.
So you find, generally speaking, suffering is a result of sin. Because of sin, suffering is the norm of life upon this earth.
But thank God, even so, He can turn suffering into good. In other words, suffering today, to God’s children, is educational.
God uses suffering to mature His children, that they may reach sonship. Only God can do that, and God is doing that with His beloved ones. But unfortunately, oftentimes we do not understand.
Oftentimes we think we do not deserve to suffer. Why is it God does not prosper us? Sometimes we even think He is not acting according to what He has promised.
We feel that if we fear Him, surely we shall be blessed by Him. If we follow Him and do His will, then there shall be no suffering coming upon us. And because of this, we are offended by the Lord.
You know, brothers and sisters, the offense of the Lord is a very essential lesson we have to learn. As a matter of fact, to be offended by the Lord is not an experience for a novice in saving Christ. Because as a babe in Christ, you will never be offended by the Lord.
Why? Because all that you suffer can be explained by your sin, by your flesh, and so forth. So it is not the Lord who is offending you. Oftentimes we think it is the Lord who is doing it, but no, it is your own thing; it is your flesh, it is the world, not the Lord.
But to those who really love the Lord and are one hundred percent for the Lord, then sometimes they find that the Lord does not act according to His promise. You have every right to expect God to do certain things, but He does not. And it is only at that point that the offense of the Lord becomes a great problem.
You remember John the Baptist? He was nearly offended by the Lord. John the Baptist was one who knew the Lord, who was a forerunner of the Lord, who gave good testimony of the Lord; but he fully expected the Lord to do something. He had every right to expect it.
The Lord was doing things for other people, but not for him, who was the closest to the Lord. And he was nearly offended. The Lord said, in effect, “Yes, I am doing all these things. I heal the sick. I open the eyes of the blind. I raise up the dead. But I do not do it for you. If you are not offended, then you are blessed.”
And here was a man, Job. He had every right to expect God to bless him and not to be afflicted. But he was afflicted, and he was offended by the Lord.
Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.
— Matthew 11:6
We find later on how this man Job was blessed, because he was not offended at the end.
Now, these are the general observations. Now we go into this book of Job. In the first two chapters of the book of Job, it is a narrative in prose. There was a man; his name was Job. He lived in the land of Uz.
We have already mentioned that he was a great man—probably a sheikh, a prince, or a king—one who knew God, one who feared God, one who lived uprightly. And God did bless him greatly.
But then you find the scene suddenly shifted from earth to somewhere above the earth. You find that one day—and strictly speaking, it is “the day”—there will be days when God will set out His court.
Now, that is the government of God. Most likely, this was not the third heaven, where the throne of God is permanently set, because Satan was cast out from the third heaven. So this was not something that happened there, but it must have been in the heavenly places, like in Ephesians, where you find “the heavenlies.”
So you find in the heavenly places, on the day, God set out His court. All the angels, who are ministering spirits, came and reported to God. Now, all these are used in a way that we human beings could understand.
Now Satan, in spite of the fact that he rebelled against God, was still God’s servant. He was still a ministering spirit. So you find that he also was among those angels who came to report to God.
And it was there that God challenged him with Job. God said, “Where do you come from?” Satan said, “I am going to and fro, up and down, through the whole earth.”
Now, that is what Satan is doing—not as a traveler, but as an accuser, a devourer. He is going through the whole land, just trying to devour, to kill. That was Satan’s thought. He did not miss anyone.
So God challenged him: “Have you noticed My servant Job? There was no one so perfect and upright, fearing God and turning away from evil, like My servant Job.”
Brothers and sisters, will God take pride in you before Satan? What a man Job must be. You know, I am not qualified. God cannot challenge Satan with me, because there are too many holes there. But here was a man whom God could use as His challenge.
Of all men in the world, Job was the target of Satan’s observation, no doubt about that. He was the one person Satan wanted to devour. So God gave him a chance: “See if you can devour him.”
And Satan was so subtle. He said, “Yes, Job was perfect. He was upright. He did fear God. But does he not fear You for a reason? Because You have put a hedge around him. You protect him. You bless him. He loves You not because of You; he fears You because of the benefits he receives.”
Oh, how subtle Satan is, and how observant too. “If You take away the hedge from him, let me attack him, and see if he will not renounce You to Your face.” God said, “All right. Go ahead and try.”
Now, brothers and sisters, here is a very important thing we should understand. Why is it that we cannot explain many things on earth today? It is because things that happen on earth today are not purely earthly. There is a heavenly realm involved in earthly matters.
All we see is the earth. And because that is all we see, we cannot see the invisible; therefore, we cannot explain. There is no way for us to explain everything on earth with an earthly vision. We have to explain things not only with an earthly vision, but also with a heavenly vision, because heaven is involved with matters on earth.
Another thing we need to remember: here is the government of God. Even though Satan is called the ruler of this world, yet we find he cannot do anything without God’s permission.
When God put a hedge around Job, Satan had no way to slip in. If God did not allow him, he was not able to touch even a sheep, even an ass, that Job had.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find the government of God is so benevolent. How we love the government of God. Sometimes when we hear the words “government of God,” we are afraid. But actually, you find that is the most blessed thing.
If it were not for the government of God, where would we be? Even the very hairs of our heads are numbered. Even a little bird that is worth almost nothing—when it falls to the ground, God falls with it; God is with it. Think of that.
And you remember the story about Peter. The Lord Jesus said, “Satan asked for permission to sift you.” And God gave the permission. But the Lord said, “I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail.”
So think of all these things, brothers and sisters. I do not know what to say. The government of God is a tremendous thing. We are daily living under His governmental care. Nothing can happen to us without His permission.
But sometimes He does permit it, for a reason: to perfect us, to mature us, to bring us into sonship. We will see it later.
So anyway, you find God gave Satan permission to do that. Then, one day—oh, how fearful, how cruel Satan is; he has no pity, no compassion—in one day everything that Job had disappeared.
Not only the cattle, the camels, the sheep, and the servants—everything was gone. Bad news came one after another.
And when Job heard about it, he shaved his head, bowed down, and worshipped God. He said:
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
He did not sin against God.
Then another day, God held His court, and again Satan appeared among the angels. God again challenged Satan: “Now I have given you permission, and you have done it. What did you see? Did he renounce Me to My face?”
Oh, Satan, how subtle he is. “Skin for skin. A man is willing to give up everything for his life. You touch his body, and then You will see.”
Do not expect any mercy from Satan. God said, “All right. You can do that. But do not touch his life. Let him live. You may do anything you want, but do not take away his life.”
So Satan immediately went forth and attacked Job with a very grievous sore. Some people think it was a kind of leprosy called elephantiasis, because the legs were swollen like elephant legs. Job was attacked by that.
Because of that, he became an outcast. He could not live in the house. He had to live outside the place, on a heap where they burned their refuse, and he had to stay there—an outcast, in great suffering.
Of course, everybody rejected him. Even his wife said, “Renounce God, and die. There is no hope.” And Job said:
Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?
— Job 2:10
He did not sin with his lips. Thank God, here was a man with whom God challenged Satan, and Satan was silenced. This man did not renounce God. He feared God. He worshipped God. He received good and evil from God. He would not renounce God or sin against God.
Now, that was the first part, the beginning of the story, the prologue. But that was not the end of the story.
Three of his friends heard about it, so they came to comfort him. If you try to trace where these friends came from, you can trace them to that whole area—from Egypt to the Euphrates, outside of Palestine. They must have been wise men of the East.
They were all wise men of the East, and they were friends of Job. Now today, whenever we mention the friends of Job, we spit on them. But wait a minute. When you think of the situation, Job was an outcast, a leper. Nobody dared to draw near to him. He was completely isolated.
And here you find three friends whose friendship was so strong that they were willing to come to comfort Job. Good friends. Even though their comfort was not good, they were good friends.
So they came, and when they saw Job, they could not recognize him. He could not be recognized because his features had changed. They wept with him. They sat there without speaking a word for seven days and seven nights.
Now, that was the Eastern custom at that time of mourning the dead. They mourned Job as one already dead.
But it was their sympathy that broke down Job. The fierce attack of Satan could not break his integrity, but the tender sympathy of his friends broke him down. And brothers and sisters, that is always the case.
Job began, before his friends, to curse his birth. He did not curse God, but he cursed his birth.
If you read Job 3:25-26, which is the end of his cursing his birth, he said:
For the thing which I fear cometh upon me,
And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.
I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;
But trouble cometh.
In other words, you find through the tender sympathies of his friends, Job began to open up, and we began to see what was really inside him.
Yes, he feared God, but he feared God with the fear of a servant, not the fear of a son.
He feared God. He was afraid to sin against God, and he was able not to sin against God. He was able to do everything right before God. But inside him there was always a fear. And that fear was, “Suppose I slip—then what will happen to me?”
“I was not safe. I was not in quietness. I was not at rest.”
Now, brothers and sisters, there is a great difference between the fear of God as a servant and the fear of God as a son.
When you fear God as a servant, you fear Him with fear and trembling. You are never safe. You are never at rest. You are afraid lest you do something and then punishment will come upon you. There is the fear of a servant.
But the fear of a son is different. The fear of a son is that he fears the Father, but he trusts the Father. No matter what happens, he knows the Father loves him. Now, that is the difference.
If anything should happen to a servant, immediately he doubts the master. He wonders whether the master’s heart is toward him or against him. But if you fear as a son, no matter what happens, you know your Father loves you. You are safe. You are at peace. You have quietness.
So here you find, even though Job was perfect and upright, feared God, and turned away from evil, yet he had not arrived at sonship. He was still serving God as a servant.
That is the reason why, when things happened against his expectation of God, he was puzzled. He was dismayed. He was lost.
On the one hand, he knew he was righteous. He had not sinned. Even though he did acknowledge that no man was sinlessly perfect, yet on the other hand he was righteous before God. He did not understand why God did not come in for him, and it was as if God was against him. He could not understand. He was lost.
From Job chapter 3 to Job chapter 31, you find the discussion between Job and his friends. They are put in poetry, in beautiful poetic forms.
You find three cycles of discussion. Just like the wise men of the East, they would sit down and discuss philosophical problems. Now they were discussing this problem of suffering.
Eliphaz spoke first. He was evidently their spokesman. Some people think that when they came, they probably had already discussed the case and had come to a conclusion, so Eliphaz started first.
These three men were wise men, and they looked upon this problem of suffering from different angles.
Eliphaz approached this problem of suffering from a mystical point of view. He said, “I heard a whisper. A spirit passed before my face. I saw a form, a man speaking to me.”
Shall mortal man be more just than God?
— Job 4:17
Therefore, he said, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
A mystic is a person who feels. According to his feeling, his emotional feeling, he feels that no man is more just than God. And that is true.
Then you find the second person, Bildad. He approached this matter of suffering from the traditions of the fathers. He said, “Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out.”
What conclusion did they draw concerning this matter of suffering? God will never allow the righteous to suffer, nor will He join hands with the wicked. That was the conclusion.
And Zophar came in from another angle. He came in with a dogmatic angle. He was a very dogmatic man. He said, “The eyes of the wicked shall fail.”
In other words, all these three concluded that Job suffered because he must be evil.
You know, the golden rule of those days—and many today are still holding that rule—was that God blesses and prospers the righteous, and He curses and punishes the wicked. That is a moral law in the universe.
Philosophically, whether you approach it mystically, traditionally, or dogmatically, they come to the same conclusion: this is the golden rule of life. God will punish the wicked, and He will bless the righteous.
“Now, Job, you must have sinned secretly. You may appear righteous, but there must be something wrong in you, and that is the reason why you suffer. Repent, and God will be merciful to you.” That was the conclusion.
Now, brothers and sisters, in a sense, sowing and reaping is a universal law. You sow, and you reap what you sow. God is not mocked. If you sow according to the flesh, you reap according to the flesh corruption. If you sow according to the Spirit, you reap according to the Spirit eternal life. Now, that is true.
Job also agreed to that. In his argument, you find Job also agrees with it. That is what he believed, and because of this he could not understand. He was puzzled.
Brothers and sisters, this golden rule, sowing and reaping, will be fully realized in the future, but not at present.
If you look at life today, you do find, as Job said, sometimes the wicked live prosperously and the righteous suffer greatly. That is true. Even though in other instances God does punish the wicked and He does bless the righteous.
But we do know that this golden rule may not be applied to everybody and everything today. But one day it will be absolutely true. When God shall judge, that will be absolutely true—whether it is at the judgment seat of Christ with His people or the great white throne with the world.
Another thing they did not see was that suffering is not necessarily punitive. It can be educational: child training.
If suffering is only punitive, then probably we have to say that God punishes the wicked and blesses the righteous even today. But suffering today is more than just punitive; it is educational.
So God is using suffering to educate His people, to bring forth that man-child, to bring us into sonship. That is something they did not quite understand at the time.
They had a little glimpse of it in their words; you can see they did. But to them it was just a ray, a very dim ray of light. What they saw was, “God punishes the wicked and blesses the righteous. So, Job, you must have sinned.”
And Job tried to defend himself. He said, “No, I have not. You do not understand, and I do not understand.”
In defending himself, unconsciously he crossed the border. In other words, he tried to justify himself and tried to condemn God.
But you do see flashes of light in his answers. For instance, in Job chapter 9, he said, “Oh, that there were a daysman, a mediator betwixt us.” He was looking for a mediator.
And in Job chapter 13, he said:
Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
— Job 13:15
Then in Job chapter 19, he said:
But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth,
And at last He will stand up upon the earth:
And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,
Then without my flesh shall I see God.
— Job 19:25-26
In Job chapter 23, he said:
But He knoweth the way that I take;
When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
— Job 23:10
So, in other words, you find there were glimpses of light, but he was just puzzled—puzzled.
When they were arguing back and forth, it drew out from Job one thing, and that was his self-righteousness.
Job was righteous in his own eyes. He was so righteous that he thought he was righteous. He thought he was right before God, and he could reason with God, and he knew he would come out right.
God could be wrong, but Job could not be wrong. Self-righteousness.
And what is self-righteousness? Self-righteousness is self. Good self, but it is self.
From self-righteousness, as you come to the conclusion of his arguments, you find self-pity. He pitied himself: “I was blessed of God. I was so great at one time, and now look at me. Everybody looks down on me.” He began to be self-pitying.
Brothers and sisters, the self—it is self that God wants to deal with, even self-righteousness. The reason why God allowed Satan to attack Job was to bring this out.
Satan could not bring this out, so God let Job’s friends do the job.
Is it not true? Especially for someone who really loves the Lord, who really is all out for the Lord, absolute, as it were, for the Lord—is it not true that the greatest problem with that kind of person is self-righteousness?
That self stands in the way of sonship, because it is still I, not Christ yet.
So God allows all this to happen in order to deal with the very core of Job’s life: self-righteousness. He has to be humiliated and humbled.
But how strong Job was. His friends could not defeat him. They were silent.
Then a young man waited until the older men had stopped talking. You know, in the East that was the custom: the young man was not supposed to say anything while the old men were speaking.
After they stopped, then Elihu started, in Job chapters 32 through 37. There you find Elihu, whose name means, “He is my God.” He serves more or less as an interpreter; he tries to interpret what happened.
His interpretation came down to this: that this was the chastening of the Lord. The Lord was child-training Job. The Lord was disciplining Job in order to bring forth something better. Now, that was his interpretation.
We will not go into it, but you find that when his interpretation was not accepted, he got angry, and then his self came out. Later on, he realized that he had crossed the border, so he drew back.
Then there was thunder and a thunderstorm. After the thunderstorm, you find the golden ray in the north, and he described the majesty of God. It is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Now, after all these people had spoken, God began to speak. That is Job chapters 38 through 42:6. Strangely, you find that what God said was not anything new. Almost all that God said you can find in their discussions.
God did not explain to Job why he suffered. He never did.
All that God did was ask him a lot of questions. You try to find out how many questions God asked. God asked him many questions, and all these questions came to two points: “What do you know? What can you do? Who are you?”
God said, “When I set the foundations of the earth, where were you? Do you know where is the way to the dwelling of light? Can you control Behemoth, or Leviathan?”
If you do not know, you are imperfect. If you cannot control the proud, why do you argue? Why do you try to defend yourself? Why do you condemn Me? Who are you?
In other words, all that God did was to show him who God is.
When Job heard it and saw it, he said, “I have nothing to say. I am nothing. I am nothing.”
More than nothing: “I abhor myself. I hate myself. I repent in dust and ashes.” In other words, he gave up his self. He gave up his self-righteousness.
Oh, brothers and sisters, life’s problem is not solved by why; it is resolved by Who. Not by what we hear, but by what we see—Whom we see.
You may hear all these arguments, but that does not solve your problem. But when you see God, everything is solved.
He is God. Does He not have the right to do whatever He likes with you? And can you not trust Him, that He knows what He is doing, and He is doing it for your best?
And then, of course, after Job learned his lesson, God turned the captivity of Job. So in James 5:11, we find the endurance of Job. Job endured all these sufferings, and we see the end of the Lord: that He is full of tender mercy and compassionate.
In other words, if God is for us, who can be against us? God loves us so much that we can trust Him as a son.
No matter what He does, His government is benevolent.
Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, do open our eyes to see Thy benevolent government. Do open our eyes to see Thy pierced hand. When Thy hand is put upon us, it is for our eternal good.
Give us faith. Give us love. Give us trust. Oh, how we praise Thee that we are in Thy hands, and nothing can touch us but only Thy hand can complete us. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Before we leave this morning, the word that the Lord has given us this morning in the book of Job is so precious. We wanted to announce that there is a book which is a compilation of some messages that our brother gave years ago in New York.
It is The Splendor of His Ways. If you have not read it, I would really encourage you to get it and read it. If you have read it, I encourage you to read it again.
I would just share that for years, the book of Job was such a puzzle to me. I had really read a number of books and things on Job and was still puzzled. When I read this book, it really was revelation.
So we just want to encourage everyone to get this. We have a few on the shelf right now, and we are going to ask Jim if he will bring some more this week.
Also, we just want to announce again: three o’clock this afternoon, our children have a…