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Job

Interpreting the Book of Job

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The book of Job can be a challenging and intimidating study, not only for the content focusing on the suffering of Job, but the difficult language, poetic style, historic references, etc.  Add to this the archaic Hebrew language and commentaries will be divided on how to interpret some of the more challenging passages.

How then should we approach Job?

Our first answer might be, with humility, but after that there are several interpretive keys that will help us understand the main flow of the book, even if some of the obscurity remains a mystery.

First, the purpose for the book may be found in the interaction between God and Satan; Satan vs. God, not God vs. Satan.  God is not actively engaged in a struggle with Satan.  Satan is not a loose cannon or a rogue employee.  He’s a dog on a chain, but he’s God’s dog, completely unable to act apart from the permissive will of God, as we see here in Job.

Within this interaction, we have our first interpretive key for understanding Job.  Initially we must note that God has called Satan to His presence.  At first glance it may be easy to presume that this interrogation takes place in heaven, but in reality we cannot be dogmatic about the location.  In other words, we don’t know for sure that Satan was “in heaven”.  Additionally, we have no indication that this is a recurring event, nor that it lasts for an extended period of time.  What we do know is that it is God’s own initiative to offer up Job to Satan.

With this, Satan begins his antagonism toward God in which he questions God’s very character.

“Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” Job 1:9-11

“Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” Job 2:4-5

Satan is asserting that the reason Job is blameless and upright is directly related to God’s hand of blessing on him.  In a sense then, he becomes the father of the prosperity gospel.  He challenges God to remove His hand and to watch how Job will curse Him to his face.   Fittingly in is his role as the accuser of the brethren, Satan’s accusation of Job to God is that should his possessions and then his health all be taken away, he would then curse God.  By this, Satan is challenging the very character of God by challenging the character of Job which God has just boasted of.  In other words, Satan believes that the way to attack the integrity of God is to attack the integrity of Job.  If his faith turns out to be a fraud and his character hypocritical, then Satan will be proved truthful in declaring the Job only served God for blessing.  Inherently, this implies that God is not worthy of being served in and of Himself.  Keeping this in mind while reading through Job will help in navigating the purpose of Job’s affliction.

Second, the character of Job is critical to maintain the flow of argumentation between Job and his three counselors.  In the opening of the book we are given 2 couplets describing the character of Job: blameless and upright, fears God and turns away from evil.  This does not mean that Job has some kind of sinless perfectionism, nor does it mean that Job was a super-saint.  It means that Job was not living in any kind of open sin.  It means that Job was not hypocritical, claiming one thing yet living a lie behind closed doors.  God affirms this in His own declaration of Job’s character as He repeats it to Satan, twice.

Knowing that Job truly is a godly man and knowing that there is no indication of an unrepentant sin helps us understand the perspective of the friend’s accusations against Job, as well as his insistence on his innocence.  Additionally, it helps us understand the vigor with which Job defends his integrity and desires vindication.

Which brings us to the third interpretive key, namely the line of argumentation from the perspective of the counseling friend’s.  The central argument that they make against Job is the equivocation of sin and affliction.  They each see a 1:1 correspondence that points backward from the affliction that a person is experiencing, to a sin that they must have committed.

As noted previously, this is a strict application of the doctrine of retribution, though as seen in Job, is wrongly applied.  Essentially, the counseling friends of Job fall into the same kind of trap that our Lord’s disciples did in John 9,

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

It should be pointed out that the law of retribution is not a foreign concept to Scripture, indeed it is a central tenet.  However, the problem from the friend’s perspective is their incorrect application, subordinating God to His own principle and insisting that Job’s affliction must be the result of retribution.

Fourth, it is common to read Job and take all that he says as good while taking all that his friends say as bad.  This will inevitably lead to misinterpretation.  Personally, I’ve been hesitant in the past to quote from anything that the friends have to say even though it may look and sound like a truth simply because it came from their mouth and traditionally they have been viewed as poor counselors (which they are!!).  However, better advice might be to take the good and leave the bad.  This applies both to Job and the counselors.  Each side has some good points, though as John Calvin points out, Job maintains a good case but pleads it poorly; the others bring a poor case but plead it well, “when we have understood this, it will be to us as it were a key to open to us the whole book.”

Finally, there is a temporal layer in the argumentation from both Job and his friends that must be noted.  The friends consistently appeal to the blessings of God in this life directly flowing downstream from repentance of sin.  This over-realized eschatology frames their application of the prosperity gospel to Job’s situation.  As an aside, this is precisely the error of modern day proponents of the prosperity gospel.  They press the promises of Scripture, particularly those of the Old Testament, which mention material blessings into this age.  Indeed, God may bless His children materially in this life, but on the other hand, He may not.  Ultimately, the material blessings of scripture, i.e. health, wealth, and prosperity are fulfilled in the age to come.

The breadth, width, and depth of Job is immense and it can inevitably be overwhelming.  Preparation in studying Job may be just as important, if not more so, than the actual study.  Outlining a plan with a few of the interpretive keys mentioned above can be a helpful step in rightly interpreting the book and properly applying its richness to the Christian life.

Bible Study, Job

An Introduction to the Book of Job

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Recently I had the opportunity to begin a 6-week series teaching through the book of Job.  No doubt, due to size and complexity, this will be one of the more difficult books I’ve taught through.  Job can be somewhat daunting and intimidating, so in order to help you navigate through its complexities, I’d like to include some introductory thoughts that I used in my opening lesson.

First, let’s briefly address some general introductory points common for most biblical studies, namely the author, date, and genre.  Simply put, there’s no certainty with the first two points.  The author is unknown and dating the book is fraught with difficulties.  The best estimations seem to put the time period for Job somewhere around the patriarchal period, but a later date is sometimes suggested as well.  However, because Job is mentioned in Ezekiel 14 (alongside Noah and Daniel), a limit on the date would seem to rest here.  A side note, there’s no reason to assume that the writing of Job has to occur within the time frame that events unfolded.  Meaning, it’s certainly possible that God in His divine superintendence of Scripture had the actual book of Job penned well after the events.  Nevertheless, it seems clear that Job lived in a pre-Mosaic time and himself was a non-Israelite.  It may be safe to conclude that Job had far more in common with Melchizedek than with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

Job falls within the wisdom section of Scripture and also contains some poetic elements.  Some have attempted to subdivide Job’s genre into either lawsuit, lament, or disputation.  While each of these elements are certainly present in Job, it’s probably pressing too hard to fit Job cleanly into one of these categories.

Job offers its readers a myriad of theological themes, not the least of which is the sovereignty of God.  From the opening chapters where the supremacy of God is observed in His questioning of (the) Satan and granting him permission to test Job to the concluding chapters where God makes Himself fully known to Job, the sovereignty of God is central to the book of Job.  Similarly, the justice and goodness of God are centrally brought into view by means of the affliction that Job endures and the “counsel” that his friends provide.  Bringing these themes into focus, Joseph Caryl summarizes the book of Job by posing two critical questions:

  1. Whether it doth conflict with the justice and goodness of God to afflict a righteous and sincere person, to strip him naked, to take away all his outward comforts.  Or, whether it doth conflict with the justice and goodness of God, that it should go ill with those that are good, and that it should go well with those that are evil.

  2. Whether we may judge of the righteousness or unrighteousness, or the sincerity or hypocrite or any person by the outward dealings and present dispensations of God towards him.

Additional themes to note when studying Job are faith under trial, as we are given insight into the horrific events that Job experienced and then witness how God preserves the faith of His servant when all others have turned against him.  Similarly, patience in perseverance becomes a central theme through the various responses of Job as well.  Given the manner in which Satan challenges God by bringing His integrity into question, through Job we are witnesses to the vindication of God’s grace in his life by means of the previous two themes, faith under trial and patience in perseverance.

Finally, the doctrine of retribution, lex taliones, or an “eye for an eye” dominates the book of Job, particularly as it is misunderstood and wrongly applied by the friends of Job.  We must resolve the tension that exists between the circumstances of Job and the misapplication of this doctrine by his friends with the Scriptural fact that God does punish the wicked and reward the faithful.  Proverbs 11:21 and Galatians 6:7 say just that.  Additionally, we know that sin has consequences, catastrophic at times, as with Adam and Eve, Moses, and David.  However, before we find ourselves championing the views of Job’s friends, we must be reminded that God does not submit Himself to this principal, rather it submits to God, meaning that it is within God’s divine prerogative to determine when or how to apply it.  Likewise, affliction, as in the case of the blind man in John 9 and as we will see with Job, is not a clear indication of the effects of divine retribution.  As with each, it is simply so that the glory of God might be made known.  Caryl again summarizes by way of a syllogism, the misapplication of retribution by Job’s friends.  He writes:

He that is afflicted, and greatly afflicted, is certainly a great open sinner, or a notorious hypocrite: But Job, thou art afflicted, and thou art greatly afflicted; therefore certainly thou art, if not a great open sinner, yet a notorious hypocrite.

God certainly punishes the wicked and blesses the righteous, as we have seen.  But this does not always fit within a nice and tidy box, as Job’s friends assert.  Instead, God’s justice is meted out in clear black and white lines at the final judgment.  Those who are without Christ, the wicked, are condemned to eternal destruction, while the righteous, those who have repented of sins and trusted in Christ will be eternally rewarded.  Pressing this reality into this age, an over-realized eschatology, is the great crime of prosperity gospel peddlers.  As we will see, there’s been little change from the time of Job’s friends to the prosperity gospel preachers of today.

Because the book of Job deals with complex issues by means of  difficult dialogue, there’s been no shortage of interpretive issues.  In the next post in this overview of Job, we’ll look at several of these interpretive challenges as well as suggest some interpretive keys and things to observe when studying through Job.

 

Bible Study, Job

Have you Considered Job

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It seems only fitting that a post on Job should follow up the post on Moses’ sin, particularly as it relates to the effects that sin may have on an individual.  In that post, though we saw that Moses’ actions had the direct consequences of prohibition into the Promised Land, there was also mention of the danger in wrongly applying our circumstances to an individual sin.

An example of this wrong application may be seen on the part of the disciples in John 9 where our Lord and His disciples encounter a man who was blind from birth and they asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus replied that neither this man nor his parents sinned but that he was blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  This isn’t to imply that this man, nor his parents, never sinned, only that his blindness was not a direct result of an individual act of sin.

Enter Job.

In the book of Job we are introduced to a righteous man.  This declaration by God defines all that comes afterwards and in fact aides in understanding Job’s response to his personal calamity.  What does it mean that Job was righteous?  It CANNOT mean that Job was sinless.

This is important.

Here’s what we read in the prologue of Job:

“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” Job 1:1

Three key descriptions are given to Job:

  1. Blameless and Upright
  2. Feared God
  3. Turned Away from Evil

In short, we may surmise that Job did not live in open sin and he feared God.  By all accounts we would describe him as a morally upright man.  If we were to strictly conclude that individual sins may always be directly correlated to “disciplining” events in our life at the hand of God, as we saw with Moses, it would appear that Job would be the least likely candidate for what was to happen in his life.

In other words, there is not a DIRECT correlation between a particular sin that Job committed and the suffering that he endured.  This was partly the error of his 3 counseling “friends” who felt that the justice of God demanded that He must bring physical retribution against any and all sin, so that must be the reason for Job’s troubles.  They represent the classic example of misapplying correct doctrine.  Essentially they were flattening out the justice of God to an across the board application.  More on that perhaps in another post.

So what may we glean from Job that would help us better maintain the tension between sin and discipline that was mentioned in the post on Moses’ sin?

First, through Job we see that physical suffering is not necessarily tied to individual misdeeds or sin.

Second, because we live in a fallen world, all suffering finds its roots in sin, generally.

Third, we often do see the wicked prospering, but it does not mean that God is unjust.   We need also to remember that in such a case, God is storing up wrath for the Day of Judgment (Romans 2:5-11).  Conversely, we often see the “righteous” suffering, though this is only temporary and is not to be compared with the eternal weight of glory which awaits them.

Fourth, when suffering does come, it is not punishment, though it may be discipline for our good and God’s glory.  This may require that we expand our understanding of God’s discipline to realize that it is always loving, it is always to purify, and though it may be generally painful, it is temporary and working to conform us more to the image of Christ (See Hebrews 12:4-13).  In other words, suffering is never meaningless.

Fifth, God is sovereign over every circumstance, including the trials and tribulations that come in our lives.

Six, when suffering/discipline comes we should

  • A) Recognize the hand of a Holy God
  • B) Recognize our own inherent sinfulness.

Seven, trust as Job did, in our Mediator – Jesus Christ; that He intercedes on our behalf to the Father;  and that through Christ we may come to the mercy seat and find grace in our time of need.

Eight, in the face of suffering at the disciplining hand of Almighty God, consider 1 of 2 responses

  • A) Keep our mouths shut before the all-holy God
  • B) Confess our inherent sinfulness and plead mercy on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In either or both responses, trust the sovereign hand of a just, holy God (more to come on this in the next post, Lord willing).

There is a danger in reading of a tragedy like Moses’ where his sin was specifically tied to an episode of discipline and then extract that principle across the board, either to our own lives or to the lives of others, wrongly concluding that a particular sin or lifestyle of sin has caused a difficult circumstance to arise.  Make no mistake, it can, as with Moses, and this should cause us holy, reverent fear of God, but it cannot be flattened across the board, as with Job.

God is far too complex for that simplistic view of how He governs the universe.  Again, this was one of the errors of Job’s friends.

In summary, as believers in Christ when we experience challenging and trying situations or are counseling others through them, we need to avoid the two ditches of applicational error.  The first, that of Job’s by thinking that we do not deserve to suffer.  The other,  that of his friends, by thinking that all trials are just retribution and precisely what we deserve.  Keeping this balance and maintaining this tension will go along way towards helping us navigate the waters of difficulty.