STEVE ON JOB |

“I thought the book of Job was a job”, raps Kanye West in his ditty ‘On God’, from the album ‘Jesus is King’. The truth is the book of Job is a magnificently meaty piece of work that with each study feels like one has just scraped off another enigmatic layer of powdery skin. It might indeed be a job as mister West so eruditely stumbled upon, that it could take a couple of lifetimes to filter and distill, with superlatives sentences such as “I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls” are what one might expect from Game of Thrones.

I’ve been a Christian seeker all my life and the book of Job has always been a ten-course meal in my peripherals should I one day be ravenous enough to sit down for this devastation degastation. Well, the day has arrived and herewith proceedeth my noteths.

The questions I shall seek to answer will follow this structure:

Who was Job?
What was his ordeal?
Who is Satan?
Who is God?
Who are we?
Why the book?

ONE – WHO WAS JOB?

Job was a wealthy man who lived in the land of Uz in the time before the law was given to Israel. His father was Issachar (Genesis 46:13 KJV) who was the son of Jacob, making Jacob Job’s grandfather. Job lived a long life and it is very likely he would have known Moses who may have co-authored Job’s magnificent ordeal.

The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible and because it is the breathed Word of God it lays down some very important foundations for not only understanding the rest of scripture, but crucially fundamental in understanding the meaning of our lives today.

The broad outline of the book are in four parts. The first part is God and Satan’s conversation about Job and Satan’s hypothesis. The second part is the discourse between Job and his wife, three of his friends and an onlooker. The third part is God’s intervention into the disquisition, and finally Job’s response.

TWO – WHAT WAS JOB’S ORDEAL?

Job’s ordeal was like no other because while we get a backstage pass to his suffering, Job does not. The gist is that God boasted to Satan that Job was the most upright man who lived, shunning all that was evil. Satan disagreed, purporting the hypothesis that Job, like all righteous men, only worshipped God when things were going well and their lives blessed. God then acquiesced to the devil’s temporary plan to afflict Job for our benefit, to see if the hypothesis was true.

Satan moved rapidly and in a matter of days destroyed Job’s entire family, except for his foolish wife. He then struck down Job with the worst possible disease – leprosy. Job’s ordeal lasted months. His skin was covered in festering boils and it turned black. Job was left a sack of sinew and bone, slowly starving to death.

What followed was a discourse between him and three of his so-called friends, which takes up the majority of the book. I will list some of the poignant remarks that resonated with me, even though there are so much more rough diamonds to mine.

Job did not sin at the beginning of book, but he did so near the end. It is evident that sin is not just in deed but also in our words, as our words eventually shape reality. Job has taught me to greatly consider what I say, to not be careless with my words. All of us will one day stand before the cosmic court and we will all be judged by the careless things we’ve said. (Matthew 12:36)
God built a bridge between heaven and earth with two planks of wood and three nails. It becomes clear throughout the subtext of the book that Job was craving a mediator between him and God, which was eventually fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ.
Job had six enemies. Satan, his three friends, an onlooker and his wife. Job’s wife was a foolish woman when she told Job to curse God and die. It is a reminder that tests not only expunge the truth in ourselves, but most especially in the observers.
Job’s three friends were rebuked in the end by God for not speaking was right. They do however make some insightful points which is left for us to discern. Do so carefully because God is forever watching how we do so.
It is worth noting that Job’s three friends were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamanthite. Temanites were known for wisdom so Eliphaz rebuked Job based on human experience he equated as wisdom. Bildad argued from human tradition while Zophar spoke from a baseline of human merit. Although all three defended God to various degrees they still did so from a human perspective.
The book of Job highlights all the false concepts and misconceptions about God. But most importantly it reveals that it takes an adversary to uncover in us the dormant hostility all of us have against God.
“What I feared has come upon me. What I dreaded has happened to me” (3:25) It seems Job was now experiencing a reality that has played out in his imagination many times before.
“Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? Or loweth the ox over his fodder?” (Job 6:5) We shall see later in the book that animals have special significance because they represent different archetypes in human kind. The Ox represents the Holy Spirit and therefore the righteous, while the ass signals the unrighteous and foolish, which makes this verse poignant because both the unspiritual and the spiritual complain under severe trial.
“How should man be just with God?” (9:2) “Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God” (13:3) Man craving a Saviour had become an enduring question until Jesus came into the world to die for our sins and subsequently made us right with God. For many this will remain an unanswered question until they face the reality of Jesus Christ.
“When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, He (God) blindfolds the judges. If it is not He, then who is it?” (9:24 NIV) This might be the first indication that Job did not know Satan, the author of wickedness, even existed.
“If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain?’ (9:29). Being wicked makes all of man’s work futile. The opposite is also true; if our work feels meaningless then we have not God as our anchor and we are wicked. Following God is intrinsically linked to the satisfaction of our work.
“He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him” (9:32). In Hosea God says the same thing about Himself, that he is not a man but God, the Holy one of Israel. (Hosea 1:9)
“Hast thou eyes of flesh? Or seest thou as a man seest?” (10:4) Job is enquiring whether God even knows suffering? An important and valid question answered in the suffering of His very own Son.
“Thou visitation hath preserved my spirit” (10:12) This verse in particular resonates for me personally because as a young man I experienced some things I’ve already written about, which has sustained me all these years as it did Job.
“The tabernacle of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure.” (12:6) If Job did not know about God’s coming justice he would have been ignorant. But if he did know, then his accusation against God would have been false.
“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee” (12:7) The interesting thing about Job is that even though we may not ever say it, we constantly think, almost by default, that another’s troubles are because of their own stupidity and sins. And even though it may be true, one gets a very strong sense in this book, that God wants us to not see other people in this way, but to love one another and relieve one another’s grief. Job dispelled Zophar’s argument that his sins caused his calamities by stating that the sinless creatures of the earth die under the larger predators. God builds on this idea of creatures mimicking human behavior later in the book.
“Dost thou open thine eyes to such a one?… who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” (14:3-4) Two crucial thoughts. Why does God concern himself with such fleeting worthless creatures? His unfailing love. Who can make the dirtiest person clean? Only Jesus Christ. Every brilliant question we ask, God will eventually answer.
“But man dies, and wastes away, yes man gives up the ghost, and where is he?” (14:10) ‘Where is he’ is an interesting question because when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden God went out looking for them and asked this question; “Where are you?” It is a loaded question because not only does God want to know where we’re at but He is seeking to draw us out, ultimately to bring out the best in us so that we may reach our potential. “Where were you?” is a question God repeatedly asks Job near the end of the book. It is as if God wants us to continually take stock of where we are. It means we become thinking individuals, so that we can reflect and develop the ability to self-correct, for that too is wisdom.
“For now thou numbers my steps, dost thou not watch over my sins?” (14:16) another valid question. If God watches over us so meticulously, should He not also take care of our sins? Again the question is answered in the life and times of Jesus Christ, without which we feel the constant need to achieve salvation through our works.
“In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon the wicked.” (15:21) There’s an Irish saying that goes something like this; “if you want to see what God thinks of money, just see who He gives it to.” People tend to forget about God when they are wealthy. Jesus warns against the “deceitfulness of wealth” (Mark 4:19). Our destroyer lurks in wealth.
“Let not him who is deceived trust in vanity, for vanity shall be his recompense. It shall be accomplished before his time and his branch shall not be green. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and cast off his flower as the olive. (15:31-33) Eliphaz makes an interesting point about vanity consistent with Jesus’s comment about the Pharisees, that the only reward for their vanity is being seen, even though he wrongly accuses Job for being vain. But far more onerous is that vanity turns the cladding into substance, resulting in a premature and meaningless fruition.
“Shall vain words have an end?” (16:3) Job rebuffs Eliphaz’s accusation of his vanity with the same word. Nice one mate.
“His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.” (18:14) Bildad gives a disquisition on the demise of the wicked, even though he wrongly applies it to Job. Death being the king of terrors is rightly personified as waiting for those who put their confidence in anything other than in God to be routed and rooted from that false place of worship, whatever that is.
It is at times disconcerting to be in the company of the overtly pious, represented here by Bildad, Zophar and Eliphaz, who continually insist that I am constantly wicked through and through, even though Christ has made me clean. It is what makes certain types of Church denominations at times disheartening.
In chapter 22 Eliphaz falsely accuses Job of his sins, just as Job falsely accuses God of His hand being upon him. Job at times seems to be a book about inaccurate finger pointing.
Job 22:15-17. Here we have a reference for the cause of the flood, that the antediluvians refused to retain God in their knowledge. At the time of writing this Israel Folau reasoned that Australia’s bushfire crisis was brought on by passing the pro-abortion and same sex marriage bills. While everybody severely criticizes him for saying so, no one asks the question whether he might be right.
“My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit” (27:4), and yet just two verses before Job accuses God falsely, out of either ignorance (he did not know Satan existed) or frustration (his trial was too severe). Although God at the beginning of chapter one says of Job that he shuns evil it appears God is curious as to what deep-rooted sins lurk out of view which can only be revealed through a trial brought on by an adversary. God’s wisdom should not go unnoticed how He constantly and expertly uses the devil’s evil for good. It is what makes the devil eternally foolish that he should persist, and God eternally Sovereign for His unfailing love.
In chapter twenty-eight Job draws a picture of mining, how precious stones and metals could be found by very skilled men, yet in contrast draws wisdom as being far more precious, which can only be found in and by God.
“The fear of the lord is the beginning of Wisdom”, found here in 28:28 but echoed by Solomon (Proverbs 9:10)
“The secret of God was upon my tabernacle” (29:4). The NIV translates it as “the intimate friendship rested on my house.” It is clear that God’s abandonment as He did his own Son for a period, was palpable enough to be the fondest of memories.
“…and mine heart (did not) walk after mine eyes…” (31:7). Job denies having relied on his senses to inform his heart, as the unbelieving are in the habit of doing.
“My mouth (did not) kiss my own hand” (31:27). A vivid description of Job’s definition of idolatry and certainly an awkwardly odd thing to do.
In chapter thirty-two the young man Elihu speaks. He discredits aged wisdom in favor of man’s spirit placed there by God, which is to be expected from someone who is young. He proceeds with his opinion mostly directed at Job, after which the Almighty intervenes. Elihu’s discourse begs a question – is the book of Job prophetic? That the voice of children will precede the Lord’s coming?
(33:23-28) The reasoning from Elihu is that if an interpreter rightly shows the uprightness of God to a sick man, it will inspire faith in God and that faith will pay the ransom for that man to be healed. Faith comes from upholding the righteousness of God and God will honour that transaction by making that person well. Therefore there is no reason any of us should be sick if we have faith, which is consistent with Christ’s teaching. Elihu equates health with being righteous and he was not corrected by God in this.
We do expect healing. What if it doesn’t come? Do we crumble and blame God like Job did? God documents it for us because He knows it is a pattern of how men speak when they are desperate, He understands and writes it down to tell us He understands. This is the Father’s love. What should we focus on in our trials? He will show us as we shall see.
(34:31) Elihu tells Job that he insults man when he says he’s done no wrong and his advice is that Job should confess his sins and tell God he will sin no more.
(34:36) Elihu desired that Job be punished more for speaking up for the wicked and accuse Job for adding rebellion to his sin. This was not true as Job was merely stating the facts that wicked prosper and are not judged in this life. Job was also showing that his suffering is NOT indicative of his sin. We constantly do this to each other, we do not listen properly and are quick to judge.
(35:9-13) Elihu makes an insightful indictment to all mankind- that man readily accuses God when things go wrong or for their oppression, and because of this their prayers are not heard. This is very valuable. To see God NOT as a punisher but a deliverer only then will we turn this planet around.

THREE – WHO IS SATAN?

I have been a Christian all my life and there are a few spiritual topics that are rarely discussed. One are the details regarding the coming kingdom, the other is the Holy Spirit and the last is Satan, our destroyer.

The book of Job addresses this fact right from the outset behind the scenes, away from Job. It is perhaps likely that Job himself never knew of Satan’s existence because nowhere does he refer to him nor is it in any of the subtext. It is as if the reality of this adversary never even entered into his conscious. It is likely that Job was either shown this after his ordeal, or told this by Moses who had been given many heavenly revelations during his time.

Either way the existence of the book of Job is very valuable for this fact that we have an enemy, adversary, nemesis, the author of our misery who is relentlessly and tirelessly trying to destroy human kind, most especially those whose spiritual eyes have been opened. And he will even self-deprecate to do so. But one of Satan’s chief objectives, as shown in this book, is that he causes men and women to falsely accuse God for their suffering. God did not rebuke Job specifically for this which is why it appears likely Job did not know about Satan. God does not judge us for the things we are ignorant about. It could be argued that because Job knew what wickedness was, he would have known the source. But even now secular society can recognize evil but does not (or will not) link it to the devil. In any event Satan knows that as long as we blame God, we stop praising Him and upholding His rightness, which destroys our faith, our hope and our subsequent healing.

FOUR – WHO IS GOD?

Who is God? What does He reveal about Himself in the book of Job? The last five chapters of the book of Job is by far the most exciting because God speaks and reveals so many interesting things about Himself and the world He created. He does so in five distinct sections.

i. God rebukes Job in a sentence.

ii. God describes his creation.

iii. God describes specific features of eleven animals.

iv. God expounds on His rebuke of Job

v. God describes the two largest creatures.

In a sentence God rebukes Job for obscuring His ‘council’ without knowledge. We all do this. We talk about things we don’t understand or have a full clear picture of. The use of the word ‘council’ is significant because one of Jesus’s titles is ‘wonderul councillor’ (Isaiah 9:6) which means psychologist. God constantly councils the world and to speak wrongly of Him is to undo His psychology, His healing on the world.

ii.

He asks Job who laid the foundations of earth and fastened its corner stone? Where he was when the morning stars and angels sang together for joy because of it? Who controls the sea’s boundaries, its clouds and darkness? Who gives orders to the morning and the dawn, designed to shake the wicked from its place? Who has seen the springs at the bottom of the ocean and walked there? Who has seen the gates and the shadow of death? Who knows breadth of the earth or where light and darkness live? Who has seen the storehouses of snow and hail reserved for the days of judgement? Who can divide light, scatter the wind, separate the water and direct the lightning? Who causes it to rain where there are no inhabitants? Who is the father of rain and dew, and the mother of ice, frost and glaciers? Who has bound and loosened the starry constellations and made them interpretable on earth? Who knows the laws of heaven and set up its dominion on earth? Who has given a voice to the clouds, cover themselves with a flood and who else can direct lightning? Who has put wisdom inside the heart and placed understanding in the mind? Who has wisdom enough to count the clouds? Who can prevent rain causing the dust of the earth to grow hard and stick together?

What I am about to say is going to be hard to hear but if I am true to the Holy Spirit inside of me then I must write this. God first reveals certain things about nature and then certain things about the animals. One has to ask oneself why these features of nature, and not others? Why these particular animals and not others? Why these specific characteristics of the beasts and not others? There can only be one answer. There is a specific reason. I believe and am convinced that these qualities are mentioned because nature mimics end time events and the animals mimic human types during these end time events. Interpreters miss a great deal when they think God merely mentions these things because He was boasting. Far from it, He was revealing His plan of salvation during the latter days of suffering on the earth, which we come closer to with every hour.

The book of Job is therefore apocalyptic. Allow me to expound.

Jesus Christ is referred to as the cornerstone. God made the earth specifically for His Son. Earth is God’s gift for His boy and the morning stars, whom God was going to give to Jesus, sang for joy (Revelation 2:28). What follows are questions about certain parts of nature that feature in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. The dawn of God’s light will indict and judge the wicked. The sea and its springs have always been the metaphorical and literal source of evil and darkness, from where a beast will rise (Revelation 13) as well as the demon locusts (Revelation 9). The fact that the sun’s light will be diminished. That people will want to die during the tribulation but cannot. That severe and supernatural hail storms will obliterate the cities of the earth. That the wind will no longer blow and rivers will we separated by poison and pollutants. The fact that God has to ask who fathers the rain during a time when the two witnesses will withhold rain on the earth should turn peoples hearts towards God. Many stars will cease to exist during this time and no doubt constellations loosened as a result. What is intriguing is how God again mentions lightning but this time in the context of the antichrist who will be given this power as well as giving a ‘voice to clouds’ – that is things without substance in a revival of idolatry as we see the move towards AI. God then mentions wisdom and understanding as the attributes that will save mankind. They who are able to number the days of the tribulation. Finally God asks who can prevent rain and we know that it will be the two witnesses, one of whom will be Elijah who did so during the time of Ahab. In the book of Revelation Jesus “comes with the clouds” (1:7) and here in Job we have wisdom attributed to the one who can count the clouds. God ends with the interesting illustration of the dry clods of earth sticking together – unbelievers grown hard in their apostasy.

iii.

Below follows God’s laconic labour on just eleven animals He had made, highlighting their specific features. Again, I am convinced God made nature to mimic man for the purposes to help man, support and warn him. Today the last Sumatran Rhinoceros died, making it extinct. The man and woman who does not turn to God, will too become extinct.

God begins with the lion and how He hunts its prey on the lioness’s behalf. He provides for them while they lie in hiding. Just as the previous segment begins with the cornerstone representing Jesus, so too this segment begins with Jesus as one of his titles being the ‘Lion of Judah’. Just as God provides for him so he will provide for us as we as individual Christians lie in waiting.
God then describes the unusually intelligent Raven, who although they are devoted to their families do not answer their children’s big question of life. Subsequently they wander around for lack of food. The type of spiritual nourishment only God can provide. I know many ravens. I see the children of my friends wander like Nomads because their parents refuse to bring God into their homes.
God then asks Job if he know when the mountain goat gives birth. The habitat of the goat are mountains and rocks, which represents the place where Moses gave the law to the Israelites. It is from the law that Jesus was birthed. It is from the law that Judaism was formed and from there that Christianity was born. Mountain goats are sure-footed. Because Christ is also referred to as our rock means that as long as we stand on him, we remain safe, secure and confident. Mountain goats give birth in the spring. Does this perhaps elude to the time of the second coming?
God reveals that He watches, anticipates and counts the months of labour of the Doe, a symbol of grace and beauty. He makes a point of noting that when her labor pains have ended her fawn will thrive and grow strong in the wild, just as a Christian would thrive in a wild unchurched world. And when they leave never to return eludes to their conversion, when they leave behind the old sinful man, never to return. The mother and child relationship is a strong one again synonymous of Christianity born from Judaism, as reflected in the book of Revelation chapter 12.
The wild donkey represents the hardened and stubborn unbeliever, destined to roam barren wastelands, attracted to hills, high places signaling promotion and popularity. Searching for any new thing that is green is reminiscent of a secular consumerist mindset. God describes the wild donkey as a mocker, laughing at the commotion in town or where people gather in communities. He mocks and laughs at community because he is blinded by the gross self-centeredness that usually accompanies western secularity. Not hearing the driver’s shout a signal for its rejection of any kind of authority over him. The fact that God sets it free makes another strong case for predestination.
God describes the wild Ox as a beast content to serve man. Because Solomon refers to the Ox in his writings I am convinced that the Ox represents the Holy Spirit. It specifically watches over the place where man eats, receives his information, his nourishment, even during night time, when he’s not watching signalling times of tribulation when the Holy Spirit will not leave the earth. Man is able to tame and use the Ox for his purposes, ploughing the valleys behind, in other words true to God’s word He is able to produce and convert good out of hard times (valleys). A creature of great strength whom God admonishes us to trust for it to bring our grain to our threshing floor- the place associated with discernment where husk and grain, good and bad, right and wrong are separated.
God does not have flattering things to say about the Ostrich who seems to place an inordinate amount on its appearance. It’s own joy, happiness and vanity more important than the pursuit of wisdom or common sense. But what is disconcerting is the treatment of her own children, the next generation, leaving them susceptible to being trampled on before they are even birthed. She treats them harshly as if they were not hers. We may recognize the ostrich all around us, a type of self-absorbed, narcissistic, secular individual who, spreading their feathers shows that they readily capitulate to societal norms and by running, goes further than the generations before further into apostasy. What is telling is that like the donkey the ostrich too disregards horse and rider, any type of authority over them. We currently live in a world of protests, filled with Ostriches.
God briefly compares the Ostrich’s feathers, it’s cladding with that of the Stork who is a serial monogamist, a faithful and hospitable nester, renowned for its size and longevity, and above all its beauty.
In contrast to the cowardice of the Ostrich God seems to sing the praises of the horse. An equine braveheart renowned for its courage. From its mane to its movement, from leaping to laughing, snorting to strength, rippling from every part, frenzied and fearless the horse plunges itself into the fray. Particularly attuned to the cry of battle and war the horse responds immediately to the trumpet ciphered in revelatory scripture as the voice of Jesus Christ.
God comments on the wisdom of the hawk who interestingly spreading its wings towards the south which scripture repeatedly places as the destination of knowledge and truth, substantiating the claim that wisdom, as only coming from God, always precedes knowledge and truth.
God ends with the eagle before describing at great length the last two beasts in the next chapter (40). The eagle that soars high above the earth at God’s command. It resides in the Rocky Mountain crags, symbolic of the wounds of Christ whom God told both Moses and Elijah, leader of law and prophets respectfully, to stand, for this is our true fortress. It is from where we are able to perceive from a great distance nourishment, eternity and hope. The Eagle is one of the most skilled fishers of the cold-blooded here on earth. It teaches its children to feast on the blood of the slain, of which our communion with Jesus Christ is first, and by extension drives concern for the world’s murdered because their blood is precious. For another time I’ll expound how in the book of Ezekiel God shows how the trinity, represented by a Lion, Ox and an Eagle surrounds the man of God. (1:10)

iv.

Before the Lord describes the last two animals, who are the largest beasts in existence, He says two things. First He rebukes Job. Secondly He instructs Job to do a number of impossible things.

First; God reproaches Job for these six sins: 1. Job contended with the Almighty to instruct Him (40:2), 2. He reproved God (40:2), 3. He discredited God’s justice (40:8), 4. He condemned God to make himself appear righteous, a typical worldly response. Because the world doesn’t know what to do with its guilt it condemns God to make themselves feel better. (40:8), 5. He hid, darkened counsel without knowledge (38:2), 6. He uttered what he did not understand (42:3). When God was speaking to Job He was in effect speaking to the whole of mankind saying exactly these six things, even today Job is a pattern of complaint we need to take to heart.

The second part is also a pattern. God was instructing five groups of people. 1. Job. 2. The future antichrist. 3. Unbelievers before the rapture. 4. The unbelievers who will become the new saints come to conversion during the seven-year tribulation. 5. The stubborn wicked left on earth during the seven-year tribulation. The only group omitted here are the believers before the rapture. God calls them ‘His children’. They will not be approached by God as an adult, a “man whose loins are girded from whom God demands an answer”.

1. “Gird your loins like a man for I will demand from you an answer” (38:3). God was telling Job, the future antichrist, believers now and in the future, and the wicked to brace themselves for battle so that God can see their where and in whom their loyalties lie. 2. He demands an answer from those who reproved Him (40:2). The response will either be submission or blasphemies. 3. God demands that all declare that He is God and that He exists which means that the antichrist will have to blatantly worship Satan. 4. God asks that all deck themselves with majesty and excellency. For the good it will be a new spiritual mindset while for the antichrist it will be unimaginable yet temporary success. 5. God tells all to array themselves with glory and beauty (40:10). The contrast will be between that which is spiritual and that which is physical. 6. God asks both to broaden the scope of their wrath which the two witnesses will accomplish as they exact their plagues on the earth, while the antichrist will beguile and affect the entire unbelieving world’s mindset. Both will abase the proud. The antichrist in conquering and the two witnesses in plaguing. (40:11) 7. Bring low the proud (40:12) 8. “Tread down the wicked in their place.” During the tribulation God’s purposes for the antichrist and the righteous is to destroy the wicked. (40:12) 9. “Hide them in the dust together” (40:13), both the wicked and the proud. 10. Bind their faces in secret (40:13). God ends by saying that if Job, the future antichrist and unbelieving world can do all these things successfully, He will confess that man can save himself. God is saying in comparison to what He will do, these attempts of the antichrist will be but feeble. It is a passage meant to encourage future generations.

In the first half of His discourse God asks Job a barrage of questions to which Job recognizes his vileness and desire to keep his mouth shut. The second half proceeds with more questions to which Job is brought to full repentance. It is prophetic because the end of this age will be divided into two halves. People will seek God after He raptures His Saints at the start of the tribulation. Many will regard their vileness and still their mouths until after the seven years when they will be brought to full repentance like Job, and finally see God as He is. The whirlwind out of which God addresses Job is indicative of a time of turmoil described as the tribulation.

The Behemoth

God then introduces the Behemoth and describes him in detail (40:15-24). If we regard the book of Job as prophetic and linear in parallel to end time events, then we could see Job’s suffering as the suffering of many during the seven-year tribulation. And when it comes to the description of the Behemoth then that would be God’s encouragement to the new suffering tribulation Saints to look to His church, of which a remnant will remain on earth after the firstfruits are raptured into heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb at the start of the tribulation, who will then return with Christ as his bridal-army at the end of the tribulation.

The church is represented by the behemoth. Here are the reasons why:

1. He was made with Adam. Man was made to worship, to be churched. 2. Eats grass like an Ox. An Ox is regarded as one of the strongest creatures and from Solomon’s and Ezekiel’s description of the Ox we can deduce it represents the Holy Spirit, the One who built the Church according to the book of Acts. 3. He can be approached with the sword of God. We know the sword of God is His Word the Bible. 4. The mountains bring him food. Mountains are synonymous with prominent places, therefore the Church eats and disseminates the best of information and sustenance. 5. His bones and core are indestructible, just like the Church is indestructible. 6. His true self is hidden and covered by shade and shadows. The unbelieving world is largely unaware of the importance and influence of the church in the world. In addition Christs true church is hidden inside the church structures of the world. Only he knows hearts and who belongs to him. 7. The Behemoth drinks great amounts of water. The Holy Spirit itself is likened to water and therefore the Church drinks vast amounts of spiritual information. 8. He draws up the Jordan river. This is a reference to the end times when the remnant of Israel will flee the persecution by the Antichrist by crossing the Jordan, only to be pursued by a river of water which will be swallowed by the earth. 9. His eyes perceives all and he is attuned to snares and traps, and there is nothing that can take him off guard or deceive him.

The Leviathan

The Leviathan is the last creature God spends the longest time describing and He does so in two parts. In the first part He asks 20 questions of Job whether he can control, subjugate and play with it, inferring that He God alone can do so. We know from other parts of scripture that God converts and thwarts the devil’s evil for good. The idea is that God alone can control and beat this beast. We might be intimidated by things in this world but God certainly is not.

In the second part God describes the Leviathan as having all the characteristics of a hardened, fiercesome, dangerous, dragon, the king over all who are prideful. It is as if the dragon represents the final outcome of the unrepentant. C.S. Lewis once wrote that “if a believer lives a billion years he will become an angel. If an unbeliever lives a billion years he will become a devil.” Being on the right trajectory is crucial.

Even though the Leviathan is Satan, it metaphorically also represents unbelieving human kind, wicked humanity as a whole, and in light of the end times the Leviathan more specifically represents the large portion of man dedicated to the will of Satan. The end times will be marked and remembered for man’s blatant worship of the devil. The Leviathan is the prideful spirit of Satan in man. Satan cannot be, and man at his full blown worst cannot be captured, ensnared, pierced, beg for his life, be made a servant for man, tamed, eaten, divided and sold, fought, bridled, his jaws opened, let in light nor air because of its solid tightly knitted prideful scales except by God. Satan and mankind at their worst have no fear, in fact they will laugh at being threatened and will instill fear even in the mighty and the righteous. They will stir up the sea where all evil resides to have it appear ‘hoary’ as if to say wise. These are inevitable visible end time events ushered in by the antichrist. Jesus told us to pray that we will escape all these things. (Luke 21:36)

Who is God?

God is Creator. This title is a lot broader than we think. First, implicitly God answers the evolution for man. From the horses mouth so to speak. The universe has a designer. Period. Second, One of the greatest lessons we learn about Job is how he accused God falsely. He did not state the facts about what he knew about God, that He is never at fault. For indeed here is the wisdom, how can man know the invisible things about God without first expounding on the visible? God drove this point home when he, God Himself took the position of expositor, something Job should have done. Third, God loves to reveal Himself. He does so through His creation to believer and unbeliever alike. But to the believer who loves Him he shows himself, just like Job was able to see God after near the end of his trial. (James 4:8)
God is Just. God asks 184 questions of Job. Implicit is if he could answer even one of the Almightys questions, then he had the right to criticize God’s government.
God is deliverer. The climax of the story is when Job is led to full repentance. God places a great importance on repenting and that is precisely what Job does. It is the only way we can come before an Almighty God. Repentance is the only way to overcome pride. It is the opposite of pride. Job goes from hearing about God to seeing God with his own eyes. It is impossible to repent without seeing God first, whether that’s for real or spiritual eyes. Seeing God and repentance goes together and are inseparable. This is more evidence that Job is an apocalyptic book, representing end time events when after the tribulation mankind will see God with their very eyes. But it also means that we draw near to God daily so that we can eventually see Him with our own eyes. That is our goal. Satan is the author of our misery but God is deliverer, wanting nothing more than to bless his children.
God is healer. Jesus speaking for God once remarked that only if people’s callous hearts were softened and turned, he could heal them. The point of deliverance is for us to be healed, bodily, mentally and spiritually. (Matthew 13:15). As we’ve seen from Elihu’s insight that a way to begin our healing is to praise God, uphold His righteousness and so build our faith so that when we pray, Jesus’s words will ring true, that “whatever we ask, he will do for us, if we have faith” (Matthew 18:19). Our healing is built on faith, and our faith is built upon our praise of God. It’s a very simple transaction that‘s hard to understand.
God hates pride. He ignores Elihu for reasons not explained but rebukes Jobs three friends for not speaking rightly about Him as well as his servant Job. God did reprove Job for his wrongful accusations but in comparison with his friends called Job His servant. Two reasons why. 1. The three friends spoke from a baseline of pride, which culminated in the leviathan exposition, and 2. they spoke against Job where Job kept his words and confidence directed at God.
God is love. There’s a quote which goes “when one word is spoken a wise man hears two”. But when we speak a word before God, He hears essays. He hears in our words our prejudices and our yearnings. Our judgements and our longings. He knows and understands that Job said things which he would not have said if he weren’t under satanic pressure. So too God understood that the three friends also spoke under satanic pressure fallacies about Him and not understanding the cause of Job’s troubles. It is a dichotomy that Job spoke wrongly by accusing God falsely and that God rebuked Job, but that the Lord said that Job, perhaps overall, spoke rightly inasmuch as bringing all his complaints before him, just as David did many years later.
God is a listener. God listened closely to Job. So close He made sure it was documented as scripture. He wants us to know He knows our suffering. He knows how we speak when we are desperate. He knows we accuse Him wrongly but his hand won’t be forced to accomplish his purposes.
God holds mercy in higher regard than the law. Job was written before the law was given as there is no hint to it whatsoever in the entire book, which means the lessons in Job are far more important than the law.
God holds man in high regard. He is the author of human dignity. At the start of Job it should be remembered that God boasted to Satan that Job was righteous, on his own, without the Saviour having come into the world. It means that man can come to God on their own. It is not enough but it is something God acknowledges, cares enough about to boast to our adversary.
God is wise. He does not test us. Satan no longer comes before God to slander us and offer his hypothesis because Jesus dying on the cross put an end to that. Thank God. However, God temporarily acquiesced to Satan. Why? 1) To prove Satan wrong, that Job would not curse God and indeed he did not. 3) To reveal the dormant hostilities in men and women that surround the afflicted have towards Him like Job’s wife. 3) To reveal that God alone can deliver man from anything. 4) Ultimately to reveal to the world and all its future generations that they have an arch enemy, bent on their destruction.

FIVE – WHO ARE WE?

The book of Job feels very much like a play Shakespeare could have written. One can imagine that these few rich characters might fill the stage with melodrama. Every character in some way representing ourselves in our various predicaments with a central theme that binds us all. “All the world is a stage”, indeed.

We have God the King, ever listening, ever watching before He might instigate an applause, a rebuke or likely an intervention. Then the actors; the afflicted complaining Job, his arrogant wife, his three proud friends, the young confident onlooker and the accusatory villain. Then we have a host of ‘natural ‘characters surrounding the King that are not only our audience to the play, but also our mimics.

The central theme that connects all the stage actors is clearly evident. It is pride.

Job was suffering like no man had before and brought his complaints to God. That was what saved him, even though he came disastrously close to pride. “If I have walked in vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit, let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity” (31:5,6). He may have thwarted vanity but even integrity is a subtle form of pride.

Job’s wife encouraging her husband to curse God and die reeks of arrogance, a form of pride. Job’s three friends, even though they upheld the name of the Lord they demonstrated pride in the status of their religion like so many of us still do today. Elihu was not rebuked, perhaps because he was still young but one gets a sense he was being watched by God. He was confident in the Lord, though his words were a little misguided at times. The difference between confidence and pride is at times blurred. God wants us to be confident only in and through Him. And then Satan, the epitome of pride and his ultimate downfall as Lucifer, once the most beautiful angel in all of creation turned red dragon.

Who are we? We have the proclivity for pride. We are the prideful. It is the source of all our sin.

SIX – WHY THE BOOK?

In summary, what is the book about?

Job is about Satan. One of the haunting questions about Job is whether he knew about the devil’s existence because he made no mention of it in his diatribe. The message is clear. We cannot know God without know about our adversary.
Job is about suffering and end time events. Job’s suffering signals the suffering of many throughout the ages culminating in the tribulation which will be a time of unequaled suffering before the eternal kingdom is ushered in. If we consider Job’s enemies; from his wife, to each of his friends to Elihu the younger, we can trace the broad strokes of our world’s history; from human wisdom, human tradition and human merit to Elihu the representative of the young voices of protest evident in our world today, right before our Lord’s intervention.
Job is about intercession. How God intervenes to save those who love him. The book begins and ends with the same activity which God honours – Job offering a sacrifice, an intercession first for his children, then at the end, for his friends. God first saves His children, then His friends.
Job is about hope. “For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” (19:25) The world’s first prophecy. What is prophecy? Is it what lies our core? Indeed Job entreats his accusing friends to consider that the root of the matter is found in him (v28). That he was born for eternity. Is hope the distillation of our suffering? Are the reasons we suffer so that we can hope? Is the opposite true? That those who don’t suffer don’t hope?
Job is about maintaining God’s honour and perfection like soul mates, lovers and spouses would. (35:9-13) Elihu makes an insightful indictment to all mankind- that man readily accuses God when things go wrong or for their oppression, and because of this their prayers are not heard. This is very valuable. To see God not as a punisher but as a deliverer only then will we turn this planet around.
Job is about pride. In the first few chapters of the book the word ‘integrity’ is uttered by God, Job’s wife and by Job himself. It is hard to know whether the Lord admires it or warns us against its progression to vanity and then finally to pride.
Job is about pride and repentance. The book is consistent with Jesus’s parable of the Pharisee and tax collector when he pits the two as opposites, one was justified while the other condemned. Pride is a theme throughout the Bible, it is why the Israelites turned to idolatry. God is not so much interested in sacrifices than He is in the process of keeping people humbly confident in Him so that they don’t fall prey to the only other way to live that causes hatred and wars which lead to death.

Dear Father, from here on out, we recommit ourselves to always, always, always only think the very best of You. We have heard You, and now we wait patiently, until the day we see you.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Share this: