Over the
past few weeks I have felt drawn to study and read in the book of Job in the
Bible. It is not a part of the Bible I
am typically drawn to. As I browse thru
the fragile and worn pages of my Bible I notice that there are few if any
highlighted or underlined passages and no notes written in the page borders in this particular book unlike other parts of my Bible that are well marked, underlined and notated.
Even though I don't go there often, I am quite familiar with this story because Mr. Job is
very well known for all the troubles he suffered. People talk about someone having “the
patience of Job.” I guess maybe most days a lot of us have enough troubles of
our own that we aren’t really drawn to seek comfort or guidance from someone
worse off than we are. Maybe that is why I routinely skip over that very old story and go to the writings of Paul or David
or maybe the Gospels.
However,
after taking a closer look this week, I have come to realize there may be more
to glean than I realized from this unusual old book. The author of Job is not known and it is not
known when it was written. Since all
scripture is inspired I will simply conclude that God in His wisdom and love produced
and preserved it for our benefit.
It is
evident that the common thinking of Job’s time was: God is just and good people are blessed and
bad people are punished. So, if this
thinking is correct then Job must have sinned greatly to deserve so much
pain and misery. The flaw in this thinking is not
that God is just. Because God is
just. The flaw in this thinking is believing that
trials are always punishment and cannot be for the reason of bringing about
something good.
We have
the benefit of having the whole book.
Or, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story”. Now we know that God had a very important special plan in mind from
day one. Revelation talks about a Lamb
who was slain from the foundation of the world.
This Lamb would be a spotless (innocent) sacrificial Lamb. For those who may be unfamiliar with this
phraseology, it refers to Jesus Christ the sinless man who suffered greatly
when He became the Lamb of sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. It was this plan that God had in mind even
before Adam sinned and carried all his progeny into the enemy’s camp.
We know
that sin was not the cause of Job’s problems. Job had not sinned to bring this trouble to himself. He was innocent. We are told this in multiple ways.
First in chapter one, we are shown the dialogue between God and
Satan. Then in chapter 42 we hear God
tell Job’s “friends” they must bring a sacrifice of seven bulls and seven rams
to atone for their wrong representation of the Almighty. They are to bring them to Job and Job would
pray for them. This brings to mind the
role of a priest.
If, as I presume,
Job is meant to be a picture of, or give a glimpse of Jesus Christ, then this role as a priest also fits
because we know from scripture that Jesus is our High Priest and our
intercessor.
God is
just, but the innocent do suffer. God will
use pain and suffering to bring about eternal good. Trials are not always punishment. Mankind
needed to understand that there was coming, in the future, an innocent man who
would live a sinless life and then suffer greatly. The purpose of His suffering was to purchase
our redemption. Unfathomable eternal good
would come from the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
We know
from the rest of the story of Job that all he lost was restored double and he had
seven more sons and three more daughters.
It is interesting that we are told the names of the three daughters but
not the sons. And we are told that they
would receive an inheritance which was unheard of in that culture. We are also told that these girls were the
most beautiful women in the land. Those
are strange details to tack on to the end of this story. Strange,unless these girls represent something having
to do with the suffering Savior and I believe they do. I think maybe they represent the church, the
bride of Christ. Scripture tells us believers that we are co-heirs with Christ. If this is correct then God views us “the
church” as the most beautiful in the land.
Blessings to you.
If by chance you are in a
season of pain and trials my prayers are for you today. If Jesus is your Savior the pain will not be
in vain. If you do not know Jesus as
your personal Savior you can know Him.
He died for you because He loves you and wants to spend eternity with
you.
Romans 3:23
tells us that all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23
tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:8
says, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:9
says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
John 3:16
says, For God so loved the world (that means you) that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever (you again) believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life.
May you
find this wonderful unexplainable love.
