Genesis

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.