There are many theological, and deep verses not very hidden within Job, but my feeling is people typically only read the beginning of Job, and the end of Job to see what happens. Everyone knows he's a man that suffered greatly, but I'm beginning to see this man as someone who suffered a lot, and gained deep and profound revelation through his suffering. The reason I say this is because Job is regularly, scholastically, and traditionally recognized as one of the oldest characters in the Bible, namely he was one of the original Patriarchs (just after the flood of Noah.) His existence and life is further corroborated through mention by the prophet Ezekiel (14:14), that he was a living breathing human.
Yet there are many things we as westerners question about his life, like how, after his family died, did he get that back so suddenly? How did he not die after the sudden onslaught of illness, stress, depression, hopelessness, and downright hellish? How was he STILL considered an upright, righteous, and blameless man in the eyes of the LORD, even after nearly accusing God of being unjust? How was any part of his situation just? Well these are all questions that are important to ask. If I wanted to feed you revelation, I would tell you to stop reading here, but this is my blog, and I like to share what conclusions I've come to. To be clear, this mystery is magnificent to me, and I am not interested in preaching to you, or teaching you new theological truths, but I am more so interested in challenging your own beliefs about yourself, God, the world, and Justice. As I've been reading Job, I am thoroughly challenged and brought new commentary because of the sheer fact that it is a very well written book. The literary genius in nearly unparalleled, and upon reading the NET version, and looking at the comments of the translators, this fact has become quite the more clear. I would definitely recommend at least reading the comments in the first chapter before you continue, but however you read this is entirely up to you. I would at least admonish you to read Job, else you may risk receiving nothing out of this post, as I am assuming you have at least some context to pull what I am framing here into.
So Job was given profound and deep revelation, even through his suffering. Job had a deep relationship with the LORD, you can see how this played out in the beginnings of the story, which not only covered how Job was upright and blameless, but how he would attempt to cover for the potential sins of his questionable descendants. He would even make sacrifices for himself, and one of the first things he does upon the onset of his affliction is praise the LORD. That alone is enough to give him props, but later on he even expands and corrects his friends, who are accusing him of not caring for the orphans, and seeing him abuse the widows of his community, who Job claims to have helped from the womb, and to take the orphans into his own family, giving them jobs, pay, and stay. He even admits that if he hadn't given rights to his servants, and listened to their heed, he wouldn't be able to answer any accusations the LORD had against him. (Job 3113-15. There's your anti-slavery text, the servants came from the same God he did, treating them wrong is absolutely wrong, and they have rights just as we do.) Even after the friends of Job continuously attempted to accuse him of doing some sort of wrong, he would straightaway provide evidence, and surety that they hadn't actually witnessed him doing these things, but that he acted in quite the opposite spirit. The sins even Job is aware of that would make him unholy and irreverent toward God are basically the exact set of sins Jesus remarks upon in Matthew 5-7. That's right, the Sermon on the Mount was there before Moses even got the Law. Upon Job's own awareness, he is sure that he has followed this law perfectly, up to the point of saying if he's opened the door in his heart to sin, he would be found guilty before the lord.
Furthermore, the priesthood was active presumably before Abraham ever even met Melchizedek, not only is Job prophetic, but he is also authoritative. While of course he is not joyful, or even spirit-filled as us believers have the amazing blessing of being today, he was more righteous than most Christians, of course by his own rite, and God is his witness, but still the point remains. God says through Ezekiel "I will cause you to walk in my commands" (36:27), so we don't have a lot of excuse in regard to sin, and acting on fleshly desire. Yet this is a series of epiphanies that have been flowing as of late. In the first chapters of Job, the scene described as a room designed to allow a counsel to make decisions and sovereign judgments on the creation of the LORD, He actively invites Hist host i.e angels to suggest and make decisions. One of these angels pointed out is the satan, who is subsequently asked where he came from. The satan coyly replies "oh I was walking to and fro upon the surface" prowling, and seeking(1 Pet 5:8). The LORD replies with "have you considered my faithful servant Job? He is a righteous and blameless man, and serves me always", the satan then replies "have you not protected him with a hedge, and for this reason he serves you? Otherwise [I bet] he would curse you to your face."
While I'm obviously not quoting them word for word, the tone is there. However, in much the same way where is Job in this room? Could they be looking at Job through some sort of crystal ball, or window into the earth? Well, some have suggested that this scene is actually taking place in a court room, and typically the accused is brought into the court room, so perhaps Job is spiritually brought into the court room of the council, and is not cognitively present. Maybe he got revelation later on at this vision happening, if he is the one who wrote the book. If he is not, he seems to be vaguely aware that the accuser has a book that he brings to the Almighty (31:35), with which he uses to accuse Job. That which is being brought to question are Job's motives, since he had begun, and ended totally blessed and covered by the LORD. Every aspect of Job's questioning, accusations, and experiential trials brought him to his knees, begging and pleading that the Lord would hear his argument, as he was rightfully tired of being listened to by people who constantly wanted to argue whether Job was wrong or right. I wouldn't blame him honestly, this if part of the state of the church that makes me sad. The church leaders today look more like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. While yes, 2 Tim 3:16-17 says all scripture is good for reproof, and 1 Tim 5:20 says all who sin must be convicted, it is double-minded thinking to say and judge those outside of your congregation, it is disingenuous, and furthermore only brings condemnation upon yourself. What I'm saying is this: chill out on convicting others, walk in your conviction, and if God convicts you to convict another about their personal sin, or the sin of a nation, do so. For anything done without conviction is sin, and it is your job to walk in the integrity of your conviction.
Job did this perfectly, despite suffering more loss, ache, pain, hurt, judgment, hunger, mistreatment, and abuse than you ever have or will. Furthermore, he was literally recommended by his own wife, the woman who would have supposedly followed Job in his righteousness, to curse his God. Yet Job knew who was both responsible, and didn't. There's this aspect in the story of Job that the version of the cuddly, playful, happy God we really like to see doesn't jive well. God didn't provide Job visions of comfort, in fact quite the opposite (7:14), nor did he find him favor. According to Job, God had caused this to happen to him, and he wasn't entirely wrong. This was confusing to him, honestly it's still confusing to me. There's not a lot I'd rather have than at least a straight answer to the questions I have, and this is Job's entire premise. Not that God made a mistake, not that His judgment was unrighteous, but that Job didn't exactly know why this was being allowed. He didn't have an answer to tell people why this was happening, and his friends decided for him what that answer was: his own sin. Job was fully aware it was definitely not un-repentant sin, he seemed to even acknowledge that
his issue wasn't the fact that God had anything on him, and Job is persistent to this, while still keeping his integrity intact. You can't keep your integrity intact unless you're honest. This is why when sin comes up in my personal life, I plead guilty. Only by pleading guilty can it be washed, by the One who took responsibility for -my- sin.
Beside Moses and Jesus, I would go so far to call Job the third most humble man. He was willing to accept whether he had caused this chaos to befall him. He was willing to be wrong. In our own suffering, we ought to be much more willing to be wrong, else we'll never be made right. So then, take into consideration this: The wise words of a man directed toward me, a young, giddy, bright-looking individual, ready to take on the world, without the slightest clue as to how to do it; "you're wrong." Straight up, point blank, 'you're wrong'. I won't give him credit here, for interest in keeping it anonymous, but I will tell you this, this thought has shaped the way I receive learning, stay open to new lessons, and even how I interact with God, and others who I am discussing God with. I would suggest internalizing this lesson deeply, to the very core of you, because when you stand before the Lord, who can really be right? Well the Lord, that's who.
So be okay with being wrong. Be like Job, suffer, and learn a lot. You'll be well on your way then.
Just as I present this to you, know that I am wrong. While I myself have a high affinity for correctness, and righteousness, I do expect my bias and individual convictions to get in the way of writing. Do be careful with such illnesses of the brain, get in the mind of Christ if you truly want to receive whatever words He may have written here, and more than anything, enjoy the rest of your day!
With Love,
Andrew.