Job
LeRoy Eims
The book of Job is one of
the most remarkable books of the Bible. Of course, they are all remarkable
because they are given by inspiration of God, but Job comes close to us all in
that common experience of affliction. It sends a light down the pathway of
suffering from the very throne of God.
The first two chapters are
the key to the book. Here we learn why Job was permitted to suffer. He was a
godly man, but Satan declared that there was no such thing as sincere personal
holiness. He said that it is only when righteousness is profitable in a natural
sense is it displayed. Then he said that it was not righteousness at all, but
merely hypocrisy.
The Lord says not so, and
cites the case of Job. Satan answers that if Job were to be subjected to the
test of suffering he would renounce God, because "doth Job fear God for
naught?" Remove the comforts and blessings with which God has hedged him
about and his piety will collapse.
God permits Satan to strip
Job of his possessions and his children, but he stands the test. Satan then
proposes a second test; touch his person with painful afflictions and see what
happens. The Lord accepts the challenge and Satan is allowed to do his worst.
Job experiences deep
personal afflictions. He had already passed through the deep sorrow of losing
his children, but now a different Job appears. He curses the day of his birth.
Does he deserve such pain? He has lived a God‑fearing life. Is this fair
treatment for him? If so, what justice is there in the world?
His friends sit with him in
silence and then answer Job's complaints. They tell him that God is omnipotent,
wise, just and righteous, but that does not solve the problem. Job knows all
that!
His friends have a solution.
Suffering is the result of sin, and since Job is a great sufferer, he must be a
great sinner. But we already know from the first two chapters of the Book that
this is not the case. However even Job labors under the illusion that
affliction is a penalty for sin. If this is so, why do many great sinners never
suffer and many godly people suffer so greatly?
Thus it is that in this book
is found the world's great problem. In an attempt to solve it, the goodness and
justice of God are called into question by the sufferer, who draws erroneous
conclusions from several false premises.
When Job said, "When he
hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold," he was stating a great and
important truth: a person has no idea of his real strength if he is not
required to use it. If a person is struck with a tremendous temptation to
dishonesty and comes through it, he knows something about himself that he
couldn't have known before.
Job, of course, was not
permitted to know the reason for these afflictions. One of the deepest lessons
in the book is that of trusting God under unknown conditions. Our situation may
be a mystery to us, but if we know God we know we can trust Him.
Satan was completely
discredited. It is the one fact that stands out in Job's deepest yearnings. He
remembers the time when he enjoyed fellowship with God and longs for it to be
renewed. It was not for the sake of being free from affliction, or having
possessions restored that he cried out, "Oh that I knew where I might find
him."
In the end Job was given a
revelation of God that was much deeper than before. Before it was hearsay, but
"now," he says, "mine eyes have seen thee." It was worth
all his sufferings to be brought to this deeper revelation of God.
© Copyright
2002, LeRoy Eims