Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
Eliphaz (my God is fine gold) replies, firstly with a disclaimer. Commune doesn’t really give the full effect, he’s really saying “if we test words with you will you be weary?” Yet he feels compelled to speak.
Job 4:3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
Here we are reminded again that Job has lived uprightly. He has had a reputation for wise counsel to others. The word instruct is ‘yasar’ more closely related to our understanding of discipline or chastisement, even blows. Hands in scripture are pictures of actions, of deeds, of our labor, of authority and of blessing:
Gen 5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
Gen 16:9 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
Gen 48:14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
So how do we strengthen the hands of another?
Ezr 6:19 And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month.
20 For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves.
21 And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,
22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
The feast of unleavened bread begins with a remembrance (the Passover) of being delivered from bitter bondage into liberty, so it is naturally joyful, but here it is noted exceedingly so because God had turned the King to strengthen their hands. How? Without repeating three chapters of Ezra, we find that a new temple was to be built according to God’s will and with the decried blessing of Cyrus the former King of Babylon. However, when the people began to build they found that there were adversaries among them:
Ezr 4:1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel;
2 Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.
3 But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.
4 Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
5 And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
The purpose—the work—of God’s people here was the rebuilding of the Temple of God, and they were weakened in this purpose by all these legal actions which eventually caused the building to cease. Until the prophet Haggai told them to start again. The enemies again try to make trouble by writing to the new king Darius, but this turned against them when Darius strengthened their hands…
Ezr 6:6 Now therefore, Tatnai, governor beyond the river, Shetharboznai, and your companions the Apharsachites, which are beyond the river, be ye far from thence:
7 Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place.
8 Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered.
9 And that which they have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail:
10 That they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons.
11 Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.
12 And the God that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people, that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with speed.
The enemy had hoped, apparently, that there was no decree or that the King would be to lazy or indifferent to search, but instead Darius does far more instead of simply acknowledging what was given, he adds to it his own decree. This passage is filled with an ardent fire for this mission calling for prayer over the king and his sons, and for death to all who oppose or alter and bringing a curse on all kings and peoples that attempt to thwart the work.
On a side note, this should show how we never know the impact of our actions when we do them. Remember that this Darius is the same man who had Daniel thrown into the lion’s den (because of his deceived ego rather than malice), but fasted and prayed when it was done that Daniel would be delievered…
Dan 6:26 I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.
27 He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
28 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
The first act of Darius when he took over was to appoint men of whom Daniel became the chief, and the first trial for Daniel under his reign was the lion’s den and by then already Darius had a knowledge of Daniel’s faith in God. So it would seem that as this part in Ezra takes places more than two years after Darius began to reign that he may have been heavily influenced by Daniel’s presence already. Who knows what would have happened here if Daniel had not changed the King’s heart in that time?
So how do we strengthen hands? By upholding the purpose and authority to which a person commits themselves. If a man purposes to start a business then we encourage and enable him to do so? If someone wants to be a missionary then we encourage and enable them to so? That doesn’t mean giving them a free ride, but we literally lend our strength of resources to them. This was the way of Job.
What about weak knees. Well what do weak knees do? They wobble as when we’re afraid, our knees shake. They betray us. We have purposed to do something and our fears are stealing from us.
Isa 35:3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Our knees are weak with fear, and so strengthen them we must simply speak against it. Be strong! Fear not! It is so easy and common these days to be motivated by fear. Fear of death, of pain, conflict; losing a job, not having enough money. There are an endless parade of things that threaten us, but the truth is when we are ‘secure’ that list is not shorter. Doesn’t Job demonstrate that? He was the greatest and even he was afraid that he was not safe, and for his own purposes God took it all.
There is no security, but God himself. That is why when we see someone who is afraid, we shouldn’t say ‘oh it won’t be that bad, the worst case scenario will never happen.’ Instead we should be saying ‘whatever happens, don’t be afraid. God will save you.’ We strengthen someone against their fears by directing their attention beyond their situation.
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
‘After these things’ refers to Abraham having just returned from battle alongside the king of Sodom to rescue Lot and his family. God directs his attention from that to see that He is his shield. And he also speaks against Abram’s other fear which he is about to voice concerning being childless by announcing that He is his reward.
Gen 21:17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
Fear not, why? Because God has heard.
Gen 35:17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
It is not just any redirection of heart, but towards a hope. Abram away from his fear: I am your shield and reward. Hagar away from her fear of losing her son: God has heard. Rachael away from her fears in childbirth: You will have this son.
Deu 1:21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
Fear not: possess your inheritance.
The means to control fear is to look past it to the hope. Isn’t another word for something feared, a dread? Isn’t dread the opposite of hope? When you hope for something (in the true biblical sense), it is a sure expectation of not just of anything but of something good. We don’t hope to die alone, racked with pain, to sink into the dust and be forgotten! We would dread that if we believed it to be true, instead we hope for the day of redemption! Not in a wishful way, but in a certain way reliant upon the faithfulness of God.
Job was a man recognized by his friends as one who added his strength to their purposes, and as a man who directed their hearts to look past fear to hope. And yet, we find that Job himself feared that something like this would happen as he remarked already. And now his friend criticizes him for not bearing up under his weak-kneedness. Why would this be true?
Isn’t it in fact that this is further evidence of Job’s weakness in sometimes reflexive lifestyle. I wanted to temper earlier comments with ‘sometimes’ because we must also remember that Job is still the man in God’s eyes as being perfect (content and unjealous of others), upright (righteous in God’s eyes), fearful of God and revolting from evil. Job was all those things and God commended him for it, but at the same time we see a pattern where by choice of a righteous and perfect will he does what it good and pleasing to God, yet he has neglected his heart, the health of which God is concerned with.
He gets so much right, but then he makes offerings for sins he doesn’t know have happened; praising God for everything while secretly fearing disaster; and then praising God in the disaster while inwardly being torn apart. This is very interesting if you think about the basic premise that is developing in this book. Here was a man who was so righteous in God’s estimate (not man’s) that before Yeshua, the only men he could be compared with were Noah (who alone in his generation was righteous) and Daniel (a man so loved by God that his prayer triggered the sending of Gabriel to deliver a message to him laying out the timetable of Messiah’s coming). I don’t think there’s a man alive that could be compared to Job (then again, I’m no judge of such things), but God throws him into a fight for the very thing God esteems him for—his fear of God. Why? To prove a point to Satan for one, but also so we could learn the importance of our hearts’ health to God, and ultimately we know that it will work to Job’s good because he loves God.
So what is this neglected theme? God is concerned with far more than our righteousness. Obedience is of paramount concern in scripture, but we often get the misguided notion that God wants us to be obedient just for the purpose of obedience. This view of an unloving God is where people get notions like “the Law was only given to show us we couldn’t be righteous.” Rather than the biblical truth that God himself said:
Deu 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
13 To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good
All commandments were given expressly for our good, not for the amusement of a whimsical, arbitrary god. They are the standard of righteousness, and on our own we cannot be perfect by them, but they are still the standard of how we should conduct ourselves and in doing so we reap blessings (because they are for our good) and become more like our Father (because the basis is always expressly or implicitly because we are in His image).
This view of God being concerned with our righteousness and not our well-being stems from and/or is the root of our beliefs that his commands are arbitrary and not for our good. And if we allow ourselves to believe this lie, then how can we possibly believe that God is himself good? It is no wonder we don’t trust God if we don’t believe he is good. If you met a man who you believed was not good and he asked for a tenth of your pay check you would probably say “heck no, get out of my face!” But if you really believed in this man as being good (and all that that implies) I bet you would lend it because you would trust him to not abuse your generosity or to ask without a good purpose or to ask without the intent to bless you as well (assuming he had also the power to do it).
How we don’t trust God with our obedience (tithing, returning good for evil, worshipping on His appointed days instead of ours, speaking the truth against popular lies, making fools of ourselves for his namesake) is a direct reflection of the fact that we do not trust God. And that is a direct reflection of the fact that we do not believe God is good.
Job is commended for his contentedness, his righteousness, his fear of God, and his will to cause no evil—but there is no mention of his trust of God. Instead we see that while he is obedient, he has secretly been afraid of this very thing. That God would send him terrible disaster. Why would he have that fear? Fear is caused by lack of the focus on the hope; realization of the truth that God will ultimately deliver. How do we strengthen the feebles knees? By telling the fearful to be strong, because GOD WILL SAVE. To be unafraid we must stand in trust of God because he alone is the final arbiter of every event.
And our trust cannot survive if we do not believe that God is good. Sure we can be righteous in the same way that a child can obey only out of fear of a spanking, but if the child does not see the father and mother are good then they will not trust them and their obedience will only last as long as their fear. This is Satan’s whole hypothesis: He fears because he has much to lose, take away what he fears losing and you will take away his fear, then he will ‘bless’ you. So the antithesis of this, the alternative hypothesis is that there is a reason to fear God and keep integrity other than what you have to lose.
A paradox to our minds, we should fear God and bless him because he is God and because God is good. Why should we fear God because he is good? I don’t know, I can’t wrap my mind around it myself, but remember it was after Yeshua raised the centurion’s servant from the dead that great fear fell on everyone because a ‘great prophet’ was among them. Our fear of God is in someway tied to our belief in his goodness not to what he can take away or his capacity for evil. This is what Satan did not understand or wished to disprove, you can take away his fear by pouring evil upon him and taking good from him, but God knew Job. He knew Job would in the end be able to maintain his fear of God by seeing God’s inate goodness, but for now Job is struggling with this understanding as we often do.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Job 3.1: Why we hurt
[Note: My appologies if the title numbers don't make sense. I just thought it would be useful to key them off the chapters, though I then forgot in chapter two and this one actually spanned inconveniently over chapter lines. So don't worry the numbers shouldn't imply something is missing.]
Job 2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
Now enters three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We tend to remember these three with ill repute because of how the story ends, but I think in all fairness that again these men are better and are given much disservice.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Rom 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
It was one of the marks of the Messiah that he would comfort those who mourn. Notice the special attention to our pain, "...bind up the brokenhearted...to comfort all that mourn...to appoint them that mourn...joy for mourning...praise for the spirit of heaviness." The Messiah was foretold to be concerned without hurt and we as believers are likewise instructed to weep with those who weep. So in this regards these three friends are indeed friends.
Let us look at these men with an open mind and heart. The first man is Eliphaz which means “my God is (fine) gold.” And he is a Temanite, meaning of Teman meaning “southward.” Eliphaz who was a son of Esau was the father of Teman. The larger family of the Temanites would be the Edomites.
The next is Bildad meaning “confusing (by mingling) love.” He comes from the Shuhite people of Shuah meaning “wealth.” The one in scripture named Shuah was a son of Abraham by his wife Keturah, another was a Caananite man who was father of a woman that Judah married.
Lastly is Zophar meaning “sparrow,” coming from a tsaphar meaning to skip about, return or depart early, you might imagine how this applies to a bird that flits about from here to there. From Naamathites from Naamah “pleasantness.”
So here are three friends who when they hear of Job’s trouble immediately get together and go to see Job because they had made an appointment to do so.
Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
They come to his place, they see him afar off, but even though they know it’s him they can’t recognize him. From what we’ve seen before now, I’m sure that Job was a very joyful fellow. How could he not be when he’s content and upright, fearing God, and recoiling from evil? But now he is having evil rained down on him from God, and he’s been blessing God despite it all out of reflexive worship and now we see from others looking in that he no longer looks like the man he was. Since we’ve seen up until now that he has not been heeding his wife’s advice, it would seem that his not acknowledging the hurt in his life is causing his physical condition to deteriorate to the point that he is not recognizable—which again reinforces the truth of his wife’s warning.
Despite his best efforts to mask his hurt behind blessing, his friends see at first glance, that his suffering is very great. So they do what good friends should do, they sit and mourn with him for seven days waiting for him to speak. The conclusion of this is that bottling up our pain in what we think is praise, only keeps the pain from escaping. It doesn’t protect a person, it protects their suffering and as Job’s wife says: It will kill you.
Job 3:1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
Despite his resistance to his wife’s warning, we see that in fact he does start to listen. After his wife’s words and his friends show up to mourn with him, he finally begins to voice what he is actually feeling.
Job 3:2 And Job spake, and said,
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
This is the pain of a righteous man. Though he knows that God has sent this evil, he does not speak against him, rather instead he just voices his wish that he had never existed. Never been born, never conceived, and that neither of those days would be noticed by God. In essence he’s saying “I wish God would not have taken notice of me at all because look what happens?” It is better to die or be nothing, than to live in this God ordained suffering.
Job 3:7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
Let there be no joy in that day, and he calls those that curse the day to curse it. Who are those that curse the day? Not those who are ready to raise up their mourning, but according to the Hebrew “who are ready to awaken Leviathan.” Well who is ready to wake Leviathan?
Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
God speaking in later chapters accounts Leviathan’s fierceness so high that he says none will stir him. So who really curses the day? The suicidal; those who long for death.
Job 3:9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Just blot it out he’s saying, literally “let it see not an eyelash of the dawn”, because it didn’t hide suffering from him.
Thinking about this, it really makes me think of It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey has much in common with Job when he speaks to the angel Clarence and declares how it would be better if he’d never been born. I can’t say that I’ve ever known such suffering that I wanted to never be born, or even to die. I think it must be very important then to God that we understand that he is not ignorant of this grief.
2Ki 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
God is moved by our tears.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
God moves to treat our grief, our broken hearts.
Psa 56:1 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God.
8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
10 In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.
11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
David trusted God that his tears did not fall uncounted, that there is a record with God of each of them. How wonderful is that? What God is nearer than the one that records our every tear? What God is there among all the gods that cares so much for his creation and heres the cry of his servants?
Isa 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
The promise of the end of days. Along with ending death forever, “the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off ALL faces…for the LORD hath spoken.”
This long recording of Job’s anguished words could have been summed up in “his grief was very great.” Or it could have been abridged—Job suffered; he complained; God rebuked him; he repented; God gives him back his stuff. That’s not an accurate representation, but it’s close to the common view. But God, through the writer, does not abridge or lessen it’s impact. As we’ve seen, God is in control in all things good and evil. That means that everything happens for a reason, not to infringe or even discuss freewill, but the events that trigger our choices are controlled. Even if God doesn’t make it happen, he is responsible with the final go/no-go authority. So then we know for certain that God wanted us to see this record of Job’s words. He wanted us to see this struggle. He wanted us to see him hurt so bad that he hated his very conception.
We, especially in the body of Messiah, have a tendency to shun grieved speech. Making those who mourn, those who hurt feel less spiritual because they hurt. As if they should be happy when they hurt, but this is our limitation not God’s. God stands waiting for our honesty, and welcomes it. How much real healing would take place in the body, if instead of out-casting the grief of our brothers and sisters, we just sat and cried with them? It’s a hard thing to do because we want to fix it, to make them better so we come up with things from scripture about hope and sunshine—that are all true—but we fail to realize those things come with process.
Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
He wishes that the day of his birth was utterly forgotten, and that he had died on that forgotten day because at least then he would have peace and he would have been the same as any king or prince. Again the message, death is better than anguish.
Job 3:17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
In death, no one can trouble anyone. There is rest for the persecuted (like Job which means persecuted). Everyone is the same in death, and every servant is freed. We might tend to think of him as being overwhelmed in his grief, but what has he said that is not true?
Psa 13:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Joh 11:11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
For those who die in trust towards God, death is all of those things. Yeshua himself characterizes it as rest.
Psa 73:24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
Death for those who trust in God is welcome relief out of trouble. On a bad day, when you’re feeling the weight of a sinful world don’t you long for death? You might sanitize it by saying you look forward to Heaven, but the meaning is the same. Unless our Lord returns in your lifetime the only way you will see a redeemed existence is through death. Stepping through the “doorway cut in sod.” And if you say this isn’t true then why not? If you could be free right now of all pain and weariness at the expense of your innocent death—one that God put his blessing on—wouldn’t you want it?
Now, just so we’re clear. I am not advocating suicide. One might ask “then why are you making death sound like an escape? You’re going to make people want to kill themselves!” This argument is like saying “don’t read Genesis because you’ll imagine naked people.” People who are suicidal are not suicidal because they have too strong a grasp on the situation. They’re suicidal because they’ve lost sight or never had sight of hope. And hope is not some fanciful feeling (or rather not just a fanciful feeling), it is strong belief in good and certain outcome. That belief is not based on ignorance, but on the promises of God. If a person is considering suicide, it’s not because they have too much truth it’s because they don’t have enough.
Continuing on…
Job 3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
Job spends 19 verses lamenting his situation and wishing for forgetfulness/darkness and now in verse 20 he gets to the real question on his heart. Why is light (by analogy remembrance and notice) given to those in misery? Why do we live if we are to hurt? If we know this rest and equality lies beyond the grave, why do we suffer instead of being allowed to die? Remember that this is poignantly true as God has commanded that his life be guarded.
Why does this happen to a man that is fenced in by God? This is interesting and telling, that though Job has now turned to venting his pain and cursing, he still recognizes that God had protected him. So he asks especially why is this happening to a man that God has protected until now?
As we’ll begin to see, this question is a major if not the most major point of contention and suffering for Job. Though suffering is by nature unpleasant, isn’t it a much easier thing to bear when we know the cause? If money just disappears from our bank account aren’t we more distressed than later when we find out it was some bill that we had previously agreed to? If someone hurts you for no apparent reason isn’t the distress lessened by knowing that that person had a really bad day? If you’re ill and you have no idea why you are ill isn’t it worse than knowing you were made ill by some bad food?
There is something intrinsically relieving about knowing the reason behind something that makes us seek it even if it will not change our circumstances. For myself, I find that I can become bitter towards a person when I correctly or incorrectly perceive that I have been disrespected. I wrestle with this anger inside, and no matter how I much I try to forgive the other person, I just can’t seem to master the anger. Yet, after awhile I often find that I was being unreasonable and in the same place I might have done the same thing, and when I realize that the problem is in fact with me…then I can let go of my anger. In fact I find that the anger I cling to the hardest is in fact what is actually aimed at me.
My point is that our emotions are rooted in our perception or lack of perception of the truth. Think of a person whom you had long disdained only to find that getting to know them, you didn’t dislike them all the much? Or think about someone that perhaps months ago you loved fervently, but for some hurt that passed between, you lost your love for them. It may stay dormant, but then something reminds you of some genuine blessing, some genuine happiness, that was shared with them because of them; and suddenly, at least for a moment, you remember your love?
The message of Job’s wife to him was that if he kept denying his pain, it would kill him. The emotions cannot be resolved if they’re roots are never pulled up to exposure. I have at times held many views on emotion that evolved over time. Firstly, was that they were really more of a nuisance that got in the way of clear decisions of right and wrong. Then, I realized that God gave us emotions, for enjoyment and for passion, in other words fuels to aid decisions we had already made.
But the roots were always the decisions and emotions were just the pretty flowers. A classic example in my life has been the idea of love. The world sees it as an emotion. The body of Messiah teaches that it is an act of will. I say that they are both only half right.
We live fragmented lives where our emotions wage war against our reasoning and without spirits. And our reasoning against the others and our spirits against them both. What God wants, and what I believe Job is teaching here, is that we were not meant to be so. Our emotions whether love, hate, anger, fear, compassion, joy…they are all meant to run in tandem, united with our other parts. A flower’s beauty if separated from it’s roots will not survive. A musical piece is more than striking notes; would it have any significance to strike the right keys if you could not hear (or in Beethoven’s latter state, imagine) the sounds? What good is the feeling of love without the truth of actually being self-less, kind, patient and all else that is the will of love? God doesn’t want us to deny our hearts, he wants them to beat in time with his.
Job’s problem is much the same, he keeps trying to separate his feelings from his actions, and he does this on the basis that he does not have the truth he needs to reconcile them. So he finally asks the question: Why am I hurting when I was under your protection? And if I am to hurt, why won’t you just let me die?
Job 3:24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
He can’t even eat without remembering his grief because what he feared has come. Interesting that even a man so protected and blessed, was afraid of losing it all. This speaks back to Job’s previous problem of reflexive worship. He chided his wife who in his mind could not receive both good and evil from the Lord, but the truth is he had greatly feared it.
Lastly, he questions God’s actions more specifically. Before it was why do people suffer when they have been under his protection, now why do I suffer when I was not at ease or rest? We can see he is slowly tearing back the cloud of what he has thought righteousness and worship was, to address the feelings inside. Why because he needs the truth to reconcile what he believes (that God is to always be blessed) and what he feels in his heart (pain for undeserved persecution).
The message is not that we should not praise God in everything, but that is not the whole of God’s concern with us. He doesn’t just want our praise, he wants to bind our broken hearts. In a universe of a billion billion stars and countless wonders of creation, he stoops to treat our pain. But he doesn’t do this by zapping our emotions, or telling us to ignore them as secondary, he works to heal them by reconciling them to his own because what really hurts our hearts is not circumstances but distance between us and himself.
The cross didn’t hurt Yeshua; sin did. How can we expect for our emotions to make sense when we don’t think and act in the image of the one who made us?
Job 2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
Now enters three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We tend to remember these three with ill repute because of how the story ends, but I think in all fairness that again these men are better and are given much disservice.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Rom 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
It was one of the marks of the Messiah that he would comfort those who mourn. Notice the special attention to our pain, "...bind up the brokenhearted...to comfort all that mourn...to appoint them that mourn...joy for mourning...praise for the spirit of heaviness." The Messiah was foretold to be concerned without hurt and we as believers are likewise instructed to weep with those who weep. So in this regards these three friends are indeed friends.
Let us look at these men with an open mind and heart. The first man is Eliphaz which means “my God is (fine) gold.” And he is a Temanite, meaning of Teman meaning “southward.” Eliphaz who was a son of Esau was the father of Teman. The larger family of the Temanites would be the Edomites.
The next is Bildad meaning “confusing (by mingling) love.” He comes from the Shuhite people of Shuah meaning “wealth.” The one in scripture named Shuah was a son of Abraham by his wife Keturah, another was a Caananite man who was father of a woman that Judah married.
Lastly is Zophar meaning “sparrow,” coming from a tsaphar meaning to skip about, return or depart early, you might imagine how this applies to a bird that flits about from here to there. From Naamathites from Naamah “pleasantness.”
So here are three friends who when they hear of Job’s trouble immediately get together and go to see Job because they had made an appointment to do so.
Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
They come to his place, they see him afar off, but even though they know it’s him they can’t recognize him. From what we’ve seen before now, I’m sure that Job was a very joyful fellow. How could he not be when he’s content and upright, fearing God, and recoiling from evil? But now he is having evil rained down on him from God, and he’s been blessing God despite it all out of reflexive worship and now we see from others looking in that he no longer looks like the man he was. Since we’ve seen up until now that he has not been heeding his wife’s advice, it would seem that his not acknowledging the hurt in his life is causing his physical condition to deteriorate to the point that he is not recognizable—which again reinforces the truth of his wife’s warning.
Despite his best efforts to mask his hurt behind blessing, his friends see at first glance, that his suffering is very great. So they do what good friends should do, they sit and mourn with him for seven days waiting for him to speak. The conclusion of this is that bottling up our pain in what we think is praise, only keeps the pain from escaping. It doesn’t protect a person, it protects their suffering and as Job’s wife says: It will kill you.
Job 3:1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
Despite his resistance to his wife’s warning, we see that in fact he does start to listen. After his wife’s words and his friends show up to mourn with him, he finally begins to voice what he is actually feeling.
Job 3:2 And Job spake, and said,
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
This is the pain of a righteous man. Though he knows that God has sent this evil, he does not speak against him, rather instead he just voices his wish that he had never existed. Never been born, never conceived, and that neither of those days would be noticed by God. In essence he’s saying “I wish God would not have taken notice of me at all because look what happens?” It is better to die or be nothing, than to live in this God ordained suffering.
Job 3:7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
Let there be no joy in that day, and he calls those that curse the day to curse it. Who are those that curse the day? Not those who are ready to raise up their mourning, but according to the Hebrew “who are ready to awaken Leviathan.” Well who is ready to wake Leviathan?
Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
God speaking in later chapters accounts Leviathan’s fierceness so high that he says none will stir him. So who really curses the day? The suicidal; those who long for death.
Job 3:9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Just blot it out he’s saying, literally “let it see not an eyelash of the dawn”, because it didn’t hide suffering from him.
Thinking about this, it really makes me think of It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey has much in common with Job when he speaks to the angel Clarence and declares how it would be better if he’d never been born. I can’t say that I’ve ever known such suffering that I wanted to never be born, or even to die. I think it must be very important then to God that we understand that he is not ignorant of this grief.
2Ki 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
God is moved by our tears.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
God moves to treat our grief, our broken hearts.
Psa 56:1
2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God.
8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
10 In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.
11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
David trusted God that his tears did not fall uncounted, that there is a record with God of each of them. How wonderful is that? What God is nearer than the one that records our every tear? What God is there among all the gods that cares so much for his creation and heres the cry of his servants?
Isa 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
The promise of the end of days. Along with ending death forever, “the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off ALL faces…for the LORD hath spoken.”
This long recording of Job’s anguished words could have been summed up in “his grief was very great.” Or it could have been abridged—Job suffered; he complained; God rebuked him; he repented; God gives him back his stuff. That’s not an accurate representation, but it’s close to the common view. But God, through the writer, does not abridge or lessen it’s impact. As we’ve seen, God is in control in all things good and evil. That means that everything happens for a reason, not to infringe or even discuss freewill, but the events that trigger our choices are controlled. Even if God doesn’t make it happen, he is responsible with the final go/no-go authority. So then we know for certain that God wanted us to see this record of Job’s words. He wanted us to see this struggle. He wanted us to see him hurt so bad that he hated his very conception.
We, especially in the body of Messiah, have a tendency to shun grieved speech. Making those who mourn, those who hurt feel less spiritual because they hurt. As if they should be happy when they hurt, but this is our limitation not God’s. God stands waiting for our honesty, and welcomes it. How much real healing would take place in the body, if instead of out-casting the grief of our brothers and sisters, we just sat and cried with them? It’s a hard thing to do because we want to fix it, to make them better so we come up with things from scripture about hope and sunshine—that are all true—but we fail to realize those things come with process.
Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
He wishes that the day of his birth was utterly forgotten, and that he had died on that forgotten day because at least then he would have peace and he would have been the same as any king or prince. Again the message, death is better than anguish.
Job 3:17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
In death, no one can trouble anyone. There is rest for the persecuted (like Job which means persecuted). Everyone is the same in death, and every servant is freed. We might tend to think of him as being overwhelmed in his grief, but what has he said that is not true?
Psa 13:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Joh 11:11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
For those who die in trust towards God, death is all of those things. Yeshua himself characterizes it as rest.
Psa 73:24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
Death for those who trust in God is welcome relief out of trouble. On a bad day, when you’re feeling the weight of a sinful world don’t you long for death? You might sanitize it by saying you look forward to Heaven, but the meaning is the same. Unless our Lord returns in your lifetime the only way you will see a redeemed existence is through death. Stepping through the “doorway cut in sod.” And if you say this isn’t true then why not? If you could be free right now of all pain and weariness at the expense of your innocent death—one that God put his blessing on—wouldn’t you want it?
Now, just so we’re clear. I am not advocating suicide. One might ask “then why are you making death sound like an escape? You’re going to make people want to kill themselves!” This argument is like saying “don’t read Genesis because you’ll imagine naked people.” People who are suicidal are not suicidal because they have too strong a grasp on the situation. They’re suicidal because they’ve lost sight or never had sight of hope. And hope is not some fanciful feeling (or rather not just a fanciful feeling), it is strong belief in good and certain outcome. That belief is not based on ignorance, but on the promises of God. If a person is considering suicide, it’s not because they have too much truth it’s because they don’t have enough.
Continuing on…
Job 3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
Job spends 19 verses lamenting his situation and wishing for forgetfulness/darkness and now in verse 20 he gets to the real question on his heart. Why is light (by analogy remembrance and notice) given to those in misery? Why do we live if we are to hurt? If we know this rest and equality lies beyond the grave, why do we suffer instead of being allowed to die? Remember that this is poignantly true as God has commanded that his life be guarded.
Why does this happen to a man that is fenced in by God? This is interesting and telling, that though Job has now turned to venting his pain and cursing, he still recognizes that God had protected him. So he asks especially why is this happening to a man that God has protected until now?
As we’ll begin to see, this question is a major if not the most major point of contention and suffering for Job. Though suffering is by nature unpleasant, isn’t it a much easier thing to bear when we know the cause? If money just disappears from our bank account aren’t we more distressed than later when we find out it was some bill that we had previously agreed to? If someone hurts you for no apparent reason isn’t the distress lessened by knowing that that person had a really bad day? If you’re ill and you have no idea why you are ill isn’t it worse than knowing you were made ill by some bad food?
There is something intrinsically relieving about knowing the reason behind something that makes us seek it even if it will not change our circumstances. For myself, I find that I can become bitter towards a person when I correctly or incorrectly perceive that I have been disrespected. I wrestle with this anger inside, and no matter how I much I try to forgive the other person, I just can’t seem to master the anger. Yet, after awhile I often find that I was being unreasonable and in the same place I might have done the same thing, and when I realize that the problem is in fact with me…then I can let go of my anger. In fact I find that the anger I cling to the hardest is in fact what is actually aimed at me.
My point is that our emotions are rooted in our perception or lack of perception of the truth. Think of a person whom you had long disdained only to find that getting to know them, you didn’t dislike them all the much? Or think about someone that perhaps months ago you loved fervently, but for some hurt that passed between, you lost your love for them. It may stay dormant, but then something reminds you of some genuine blessing, some genuine happiness, that was shared with them because of them; and suddenly, at least for a moment, you remember your love?
The message of Job’s wife to him was that if he kept denying his pain, it would kill him. The emotions cannot be resolved if they’re roots are never pulled up to exposure. I have at times held many views on emotion that evolved over time. Firstly, was that they were really more of a nuisance that got in the way of clear decisions of right and wrong. Then, I realized that God gave us emotions, for enjoyment and for passion, in other words fuels to aid decisions we had already made.
But the roots were always the decisions and emotions were just the pretty flowers. A classic example in my life has been the idea of love. The world sees it as an emotion. The body of Messiah teaches that it is an act of will. I say that they are both only half right.
We live fragmented lives where our emotions wage war against our reasoning and without spirits. And our reasoning against the others and our spirits against them both. What God wants, and what I believe Job is teaching here, is that we were not meant to be so. Our emotions whether love, hate, anger, fear, compassion, joy…they are all meant to run in tandem, united with our other parts. A flower’s beauty if separated from it’s roots will not survive. A musical piece is more than striking notes; would it have any significance to strike the right keys if you could not hear (or in Beethoven’s latter state, imagine) the sounds? What good is the feeling of love without the truth of actually being self-less, kind, patient and all else that is the will of love? God doesn’t want us to deny our hearts, he wants them to beat in time with his.
Job’s problem is much the same, he keeps trying to separate his feelings from his actions, and he does this on the basis that he does not have the truth he needs to reconcile them. So he finally asks the question: Why am I hurting when I was under your protection? And if I am to hurt, why won’t you just let me die?
Job 3:24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
He can’t even eat without remembering his grief because what he feared has come. Interesting that even a man so protected and blessed, was afraid of losing it all. This speaks back to Job’s previous problem of reflexive worship. He chided his wife who in his mind could not receive both good and evil from the Lord, but the truth is he had greatly feared it.
Lastly, he questions God’s actions more specifically. Before it was why do people suffer when they have been under his protection, now why do I suffer when I was not at ease or rest? We can see he is slowly tearing back the cloud of what he has thought righteousness and worship was, to address the feelings inside. Why because he needs the truth to reconcile what he believes (that God is to always be blessed) and what he feels in his heart (pain for undeserved persecution).
The message is not that we should not praise God in everything, but that is not the whole of God’s concern with us. He doesn’t just want our praise, he wants to bind our broken hearts. In a universe of a billion billion stars and countless wonders of creation, he stoops to treat our pain. But he doesn’t do this by zapping our emotions, or telling us to ignore them as secondary, he works to heal them by reconciling them to his own because what really hurts our hearts is not circumstances but distance between us and himself.
The cross didn’t hurt Yeshua; sin did. How can we expect for our emotions to make sense when we don’t think and act in the image of the one who made us?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Job 2.3:Good from Evil
What was Job's response to his wife?
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Now for the moment, he is refusing this counsel. She is saying to stop blessing because it is disconnected, he is saying that she speaks as the foolish women, saying that we should bless regardless of whether God gives good or evil. And in this, the scripture says he has committed no sin. This phrase demonstrates that though he is committing no sin, he is still killing himself. How can this be?
Certainly, because as we saw earlier evil is not the same as sin, he can be doing something that is harmful, this misalignment of heart and head while he is blessing God leaving scripture to describe him as blameless. But let’s look at Job’s righteousness. In chapter one, we find this excerpt:
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Job here is making sin offerings for his children; the daughters are included in the offerings it seems (included in them), but his thoughts as earlier mentioned are directed towards his sons. He does this even though he does not know if they have sinned. This is the scripture’s first example of his righteousness and so we are inclined to commend this action, and rightly so as he is taking spiritual charge and guardianship over his family as a man should. However, there is nothing in the text about him asking them if they’ve sinned, nor anything about him debating about whether or not to, or seeking God as to whether he should. The point?
Sure, he’s being righteous, but it is reflex, ‘continually,’ automation almost. What happens after round one of Satan’s attacks?
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Again, without any deliberation or external questioning, he immediately falls down and worships. Again, no sin and completely commendable, but it is almost cold. Like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the pod people are known by the lack of emotion. If you really read it, doesn’t it almost hurt to know he’s not expressing his hurt? No crying to God for answers (yet), just reflexive worship. Think about in comparison, Yeshua when he faced trials. His heart was grieved by the hard hearted; he wept for Israel; he questioned and prayed for escape in the garden of Gethsemane; when he was on the cross he asked God “Why have you forsaken me?”
I think there are many Job’s today. You go into many synagogues/churches, and you ask someone how they’re doing and even if they’ve had a terrible week, they’ll paste on a good face and a shallow smile because they believe that is the mark of spirituality. They praise God for everything, good and evil, but inside they’re torn up.
None of this is meant to say that we should not bless God in all circumstances, but rather that we must speak also to our hurt places. Think of the ongoing theme of Job, God is not a man, he is not an idol. He doesn’t do things the way we expect. We must not try to fit God into a man-shaped mold. We think when we’re praising God out of empty responsiveness that we are glorifying him because “look we’re praising him all the times!” But what are we really doing? We’re praising a fragile and cold, idol because the real God is glorified in both our triumphs and our struggles and our questions about our struggles.
Think of the words of Jeremiah:
Jer 15:15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
God puts this word of coming vengeance in Jeremiah’s heart. He is a righteous man and obeys to speak, but he is alienated because of this burden he must carry. He is persecuted and alone, and God isn’t doing anything about it. So what does Jeremiah say “Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar…?”
“Wo, wo, wo, Jerry!” I can hear his fellow churchgoers saying. “You can’t talk to God like that?”
The point is God is neither fragile that he can’t handle a hard question, nor is he a cold distant God that doesn’t care about the fact that our hearts are breaking. When we say he is either, we make an idol. He is the God who asks questions he knows the answers too; who chooses people he knows will fail him; who lets his servants argue with him before his burning bush; who has patience with the defiance of his enemies and his beloved; who forgives the sins of his anointed kings even when they only repented after being caught; the God who fields hard questions from his prophets; and does not find fault with his Son praying for a different plan.
This is where Job is weak. He is a hair trigger worshipper, but he doesn’t seek God for the answers to his hurt. Fortunately, God gave him a wife that understood. So verse 10 teaches us that God is not too weak to field our questions born of hurt and frustration, and that you can still hurt yourself without doing anything wrong—not all problems fit into questions of right and wrong.
The second thing that verse 10 teaches us is the hidden teaching of Job’s words. “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” What is the implication? God sent the evil.
Job has no problem assigning responsibility for evil to God and the scriptures holds him faultless for doing so. And his attitude is that this is to be expected. We in the body of Messiah these days are bombarded with impressions of a god made in the image of Santa Clause or a Genie in a lamp. If we love God (and most of us don’t even hold up that end of the bargain most of the time), then we believe that God will reign down blessing on us. And in truth the confusing part is that he says he will, but how do we reconcile the pain in our lives? If God promises all this goodness and love, than why do bad things happen to his servants? We know none of us are actually good, so we’re not deserving of God’s riches. But I thought God was this all good being and sticking with him washes you clean of sin, so why am I suffering if in God’s eyes I’m spotless? It’s easy to understand why the world is suffering, if you study the world it’s almost impossible to see how any of them could have even a moment of happiness, but what is the good news of a merciful God, if God sends evil down on us?
This isn’t an easy question, and the answer isn’t easy. We have to begin by abolishing the mental image of a God whose love, mercy, and justice keeps him from causing evil and pain. Remembering that evil is not sin, but rather calamity, chaos, destruction, suffering; let’s revisit the garden of Eden. Remember, man was given a command not to partake of the knowledge that was of both Good and Evil, but after we sinned and had such knowledge we were commanded to do good only and not evil.
While the act of partaking of the knowledge was forbidden/was sin, the knowledge itself was good because God made everything very good. Sin is evil, the option to sin is good. Doing good is good, doing evil is evil, but is doing evil a sin? No.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
God cannot be unrighteous, but God can create evil and as we have now seen in Job he does send evil. Doing evil is not sin, but doing sin is evil. Think of a surgeon who must cut (evil) to heal (good). So what is the lesson from the garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge? Knowledge and the option to do good or evil is good, but man has a propensity for evil and he does it out of unrighteousness while not doing good. God makes all good things, but he also uses evil to work good:
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
The message? God alone, at least at the present is able to do evil to bring about good. Man cannot. And this is born out in the examples of life. Man is constantly trying to do evil “for the greater good” but it only works greater evil and it is done by sin. Think of a child and their father. The father can discipline, spank, set rules and so forth with the aim of raising a godly child, but the child it is not to discipline other children (unless from the father) or to set rules. God alone can wield both good and evil for righteousness sake, he alone can give and take.
Man’s sin in the garden is not the desire of the knowledge, it is in disobedience caused from a lust to remove God from the position of God and to make ourselves God. And the consequence; a world full of people who have the knowledge to act like God, but instead act only like Satan.
Something similar to this must be going through Job’s mind. He is a man who walks uprightly in God’s sight, so he knows about God’s justice and he fears him. Then God takes away everything from him through his agent the Devil, and yet Job blesses him. Why would he do that? Well we see that he does this out of reflex or at least at the expense of his truest heart, but the question remains for us, why should we? Remember Satan’s opener was ‘does he fear God for nought…?’ If Job has nothing left to lose, why should he still fear God? Why should he still bless him?
The hope must be that there is something intrinsic in God himself that is good. Sure we hope that his goodness will spill over into goodness in our lives, but the deepest root
is the belief that God himself is good. Like a relationship with a spouse, we will not truly love them until we can do so apart from the goodness we expect to get from them and instead love them for the goodness that is them.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Now for the moment, he is refusing this counsel. She is saying to stop blessing because it is disconnected, he is saying that she speaks as the foolish women, saying that we should bless regardless of whether God gives good or evil. And in this, the scripture says he has committed no sin. This phrase demonstrates that though he is committing no sin, he is still killing himself. How can this be?
Certainly, because as we saw earlier evil is not the same as sin, he can be doing something that is harmful, this misalignment of heart and head while he is blessing God leaving scripture to describe him as blameless. But let’s look at Job’s righteousness. In chapter one, we find this excerpt:
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Job here is making sin offerings for his children; the daughters are included in the offerings it seems (included in them), but his thoughts as earlier mentioned are directed towards his sons. He does this even though he does not know if they have sinned. This is the scripture’s first example of his righteousness and so we are inclined to commend this action, and rightly so as he is taking spiritual charge and guardianship over his family as a man should. However, there is nothing in the text about him asking them if they’ve sinned, nor anything about him debating about whether or not to, or seeking God as to whether he should. The point?
Sure, he’s being righteous, but it is reflex, ‘continually,’ automation almost. What happens after round one of Satan’s attacks?
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Again, without any deliberation or external questioning, he immediately falls down and worships. Again, no sin and completely commendable, but it is almost cold. Like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the pod people are known by the lack of emotion. If you really read it, doesn’t it almost hurt to know he’s not expressing his hurt? No crying to God for answers (yet), just reflexive worship. Think about in comparison, Yeshua when he faced trials. His heart was grieved by the hard hearted; he wept for Israel; he questioned and prayed for escape in the garden of Gethsemane; when he was on the cross he asked God “Why have you forsaken me?”
I think there are many Job’s today. You go into many synagogues/churches, and you ask someone how they’re doing and even if they’ve had a terrible week, they’ll paste on a good face and a shallow smile because they believe that is the mark of spirituality. They praise God for everything, good and evil, but inside they’re torn up.
None of this is meant to say that we should not bless God in all circumstances, but rather that we must speak also to our hurt places. Think of the ongoing theme of Job, God is not a man, he is not an idol. He doesn’t do things the way we expect. We must not try to fit God into a man-shaped mold. We think when we’re praising God out of empty responsiveness that we are glorifying him because “look we’re praising him all the times!” But what are we really doing? We’re praising a fragile and cold, idol because the real God is glorified in both our triumphs and our struggles and our questions about our struggles.
Think of the words of Jeremiah:
Jer 15:15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
God puts this word of coming vengeance in Jeremiah’s heart. He is a righteous man and obeys to speak, but he is alienated because of this burden he must carry. He is persecuted and alone, and God isn’t doing anything about it. So what does Jeremiah say “Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar…?”
“Wo, wo, wo, Jerry!” I can hear his fellow churchgoers saying. “You can’t talk to God like that?”
The point is God is neither fragile that he can’t handle a hard question, nor is he a cold distant God that doesn’t care about the fact that our hearts are breaking. When we say he is either, we make an idol. He is the God who asks questions he knows the answers too; who chooses people he knows will fail him; who lets his servants argue with him before his burning bush; who has patience with the defiance of his enemies and his beloved; who forgives the sins of his anointed kings even when they only repented after being caught; the God who fields hard questions from his prophets; and does not find fault with his Son praying for a different plan.
This is where Job is weak. He is a hair trigger worshipper, but he doesn’t seek God for the answers to his hurt. Fortunately, God gave him a wife that understood. So verse 10 teaches us that God is not too weak to field our questions born of hurt and frustration, and that you can still hurt yourself without doing anything wrong—not all problems fit into questions of right and wrong.
The second thing that verse 10 teaches us is the hidden teaching of Job’s words. “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” What is the implication? God sent the evil.
Job has no problem assigning responsibility for evil to God and the scriptures holds him faultless for doing so. And his attitude is that this is to be expected. We in the body of Messiah these days are bombarded with impressions of a god made in the image of Santa Clause or a Genie in a lamp. If we love God (and most of us don’t even hold up that end of the bargain most of the time), then we believe that God will reign down blessing on us. And in truth the confusing part is that he says he will, but how do we reconcile the pain in our lives? If God promises all this goodness and love, than why do bad things happen to his servants? We know none of us are actually good, so we’re not deserving of God’s riches. But I thought God was this all good being and sticking with him washes you clean of sin, so why am I suffering if in God’s eyes I’m spotless? It’s easy to understand why the world is suffering, if you study the world it’s almost impossible to see how any of them could have even a moment of happiness, but what is the good news of a merciful God, if God sends evil down on us?
This isn’t an easy question, and the answer isn’t easy. We have to begin by abolishing the mental image of a God whose love, mercy, and justice keeps him from causing evil and pain. Remembering that evil is not sin, but rather calamity, chaos, destruction, suffering; let’s revisit the garden of Eden. Remember, man was given a command not to partake of the knowledge that was of both Good and Evil, but after we sinned and had such knowledge we were commanded to do good only and not evil.
While the act of partaking of the knowledge was forbidden/was sin, the knowledge itself was good because God made everything very good. Sin is evil, the option to sin is good. Doing good is good, doing evil is evil, but is doing evil a sin? No.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
God cannot be unrighteous, but God can create evil and as we have now seen in Job he does send evil. Doing evil is not sin, but doing sin is evil. Think of a surgeon who must cut (evil) to heal (good). So what is the lesson from the garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge? Knowledge and the option to do good or evil is good, but man has a propensity for evil and he does it out of unrighteousness while not doing good. God makes all good things, but he also uses evil to work good:
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
The message? God alone, at least at the present is able to do evil to bring about good. Man cannot. And this is born out in the examples of life. Man is constantly trying to do evil “for the greater good” but it only works greater evil and it is done by sin. Think of a child and their father. The father can discipline, spank, set rules and so forth with the aim of raising a godly child, but the child it is not to discipline other children (unless from the father) or to set rules. God alone can wield both good and evil for righteousness sake, he alone can give and take.
Man’s sin in the garden is not the desire of the knowledge, it is in disobedience caused from a lust to remove God from the position of God and to make ourselves God. And the consequence; a world full of people who have the knowledge to act like God, but instead act only like Satan.
Something similar to this must be going through Job’s mind. He is a man who walks uprightly in God’s sight, so he knows about God’s justice and he fears him. Then God takes away everything from him through his agent the Devil, and yet Job blesses him. Why would he do that? Well we see that he does this out of reflex or at least at the expense of his truest heart, but the question remains for us, why should we? Remember Satan’s opener was ‘does he fear God for nought…?’ If Job has nothing left to lose, why should he still fear God? Why should he still bless him?
The hope must be that there is something intrinsic in God himself that is good. Sure we hope that his goodness will spill over into goodness in our lives, but the deepest root
is the belief that God himself is good. Like a relationship with a spouse, we will not truly love them until we can do so apart from the goodness we expect to get from them and instead love them for the goodness that is them.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Job 1.7: The wife we nevet met
Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Seems like we’ve been here before. There is one slight difference though in the first verse; before it merely said that Satan came among the Sons of God, almost as if he wandered in or as one commentator disagreeably concludes ‘pushed his way in’, but here it makes clear as we inferred earlier that Satan is himself presenting himself as he is one of the Sons of God.
Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
Again we see, God does not say “he holdeth fast…though you tried to destroy him…” God does not (and he has no need to) deny his sovereignty in the matter. We try to blame Satan in this, and certainly he deserves no kudos for wanting to set up the situation, but the fact is in smiting Job he did nothing wrong because God told him he could. Satan was acting in the bounds that God established when he attacked, and God himself attributes the damage to himself, “…me…to destroy without cause.”
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Remember, so far Satan has not been able to attack Job directly, but even now only his flesh can he attack. Again the terms for ‘put forth’ are more easily understood, “draw back your hand and strike.” Also understand, that God never rescinded the power over all Job possessed. Between chapter one and chapter two, there is no relenting of circumstance. We don’t even know how much time has passed between the two, but presumably it is not a long time or else we would think Job’s three (four) friends would show up sooner. God is adding to Satan’s permission, but he still cannot take Job’s life.
That last detail is kind of ironic to me now that I think about it. God is causing this suffering, but he won’t let Satan take Job’s life even though as we know it would in fact end his suffering. We often think of this as God’s protection over Job, but wouldn’t it be more protecting to let him take his life? In fact the word here rendered save is ‘shamar’ (H8104) which in fact is more often rendered keep, as in guard. God isn’t telling him to spare Job’s life, he’s commanding him to preserve it. Why? Why is God preventing escape from this nightmare? He can’t escape the circumstances in life, and now he can’t escape in death either.
God in the book of Job, is truly the God who is not a man.
Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
A new power is attributed to Satan. He can move pawns, call down supernatural fire, control weather and now we learn he can give illness. Before, pawns of the Devil attacked and stole from him, now though Job’s wife is provoking him to curse God. Or so it seems; as we are about to see there is something very interesting about what Mrs. Job actually has to say. But first let us consider how we approach her, whether or not she was part of Satan’s tactic, we don’t know, but it does illustrate how if we’re not careful we can become tools in his war. We know nothing of this woman’s character beyond this brief excerpt, and honestly I am inclined to think she is more noble character than we might assume.
It would be easy to think that this woman is a foolish unfaithful woman—I know because I’ve done this—but you have to remember besides the current bout of boils she’s endured everything Job has. She’s lost her financial security through him, most of her servants, and her family. We could speculate that there were other wives, but we don’t know so; I would assume based on Job’s life span that this is the wife that bore him ten children. I’d remind you again to ask yourself what if you knew God was taking away everything? Your one thing?
Also, we would think that Job would have been careful when he chose her, or that his parents would have. We can tell from her words that she saw Job’s integrity, so before all these tragedies she must have seen the blessing of protection that God had wrapped about them. I put to you that she’s probably as faithful a believer as many believers today.
Honestly, verse 9 has had me stumped for the last three weeks. I’ve read this probably a hundred times and never known what was actually being said. And since understanding that much, I have been struggling with what it means. The strange truth of this verse is that his wife is not telling him to curse the Name, and kill himself. That’s right, despite the English translation that is actually not what the Hebrew says.
Literally she says “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Bless God and die.” This may come as a shocker, but the word rendered curse is ‘barak’ (H1288) which out of 285 times is rendered in some form of the word bless 279 times. Twice it is rendered blaspheme in 1 Kings 21:11 & 13 in regards to a man falsely accused of ‘blaspheming’ the King and God. The other times that it is rendered curse are all located in Job in these first 2 chapters. Why is this the case, especially when there are an abundance of others words that can be rendered curse?
It seems that in the case of 1 Kings this is a euphemistic use of the word barak, based on purity of word. What do I mean by that? The idea is that the writer(s) of Kings and of Job were so upright themselves that even to write a phrase appearing to curse the Name was undoable. So instead of writing it, they wrote “bless God” with the context giving the understanding that it was actually the opposite that was meant. Is this born out in scripture?
If you search the scripture for combinations of curse, blaspheme, or other forms of either, you will find that there is no appearance in the Tanach (Hebrew ‘old’ testament) of such a phrase.
The closest you will find is:
Exo 22:28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
The word revile here ‘qalal’ which is rendered curse in:
Lev 24:14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
But even in this case if you look at the Hebrew, the phrase is exactly “curse NOT God.” The point is that all of the Hebrew scriptures are so adamantly careful about not cursing God that it would be unthinkable to even write a phrase that appeared to do so. When the idea must be discussed, the writers might say “cursed the Name,” “curse NOT…”, or in the case of Kings and Job “bless God.”
But now, this presents a problem; how do you know when the translation is euphemistic and how do you know when it is exactly as it is written? The first few cases in Job are fairly simple.
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Obviously there would be no sin if Job’s sons had in fact blessed God.
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Again, since the challenge against God is that Job only blesses God because God blesses him with good; it would make no sense for Satan to say take everything and Job will ‘bless’ God. The same applies to Job 2:5 when Satan issues his second challenge.
But now we get to the hard one, what about Job’s wife? Did she mean bless or curse? In the other two cases we have a clear disjoint of reasoning that demonstrated the meaning couldn’t make sense as truly blessing, ie there’s no sin in actually blessing God, and there would be no victory for Satan if Job continued to do what he had always done, ie bless God. One might the argument that the same is true here, afterall why would Job end himself after blessing God?
On the other hand, if we assume the euphemistic interpretation then we must make several assumptions about Mrs. Job. Firstly, that she is of weak character because obviously she’s been witness to how God blessed them because of Job blessing God. And secondly, that she is a very bitter and uncompassionate wife towards Job because she can see he’s obviously hurting and it is when he is physically assaulted, and sitting in ashes that she comes to allegedly tempt him, and to tempt him to do something that certainly cannot make him feel any better. I mean, when was the last time that you were hurt by someone and cursing them made you feel better? When has God given you a trial and cursing made you feel better?
So let’s examine the assumptions.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Note from Job’s own words that he has a generally high appraisal of her character. “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women…” He does not label her as foolish, merely that she is speaking as the foolish, implying it is out of her character. He believes she’s at the end of her rope and he rebukes her, not devalues her. What does this indicate, if not that she has generally been of good character?
Secondly, we assumed she is almost lashing out at Job. Saying in paraphrase, “____ God and kill yourself.” But it doesn’t say that, it just says “and die.” If it’s an imperative as it appears, than she is telling him to commit suicide. Why would she do that? It wouldn’t make her any better off. It’s not like it would avoid a complicated divorce so she could collect insurance or her half of the estate.
It might ease his pain though, putting him out of his misery. And while that would be misguided, it would not be uncompassionate. And what if we take it as prediction “and you will die,” that’s even more compassionate because it’s like she’s offering him a way out.
I do not believe scripture supports these assumptions. It’s perhaps a fine line, but let’s try looking at it another way. Mrs. Job sees her husband rich and great, prospered seemingly as a direct consequence of his continual righteousness. Suddenly, God takes it all away, and Job still blesses God. Then Job is attacked with boils, and though he still blesses God, she can see by his actions that he is dejected. On the edge of crumbling completely. Can you picture this old man robbed of everything, sitting in ashes scraping at his ulcers for some relief? Do you picture him as the radiant image of joy? I feel sorry for him even though I know the ending!
Job’s wife comes up to him at this point and asks a question. “Are you still retaining your integrity?” We tend to assume this is actually meant to mean “I can’t believe you’re still doing that?” But going based on the understanding that she has seen the time of blessing and that Job regards her as generally a wise woman, what if we take it as an actual question? Job was blessing God in his prosperity/blessedness/happiness, now Job has received evil from God so is he really having integrity by continuing to bless God as if nothing has happened? Doesn’t in fact having integrity demand that he do the opposite or at least not bless God?
Granted when talking to Satan, God showed that the integrity God valued is the kind that exists between our fear of him in our hearts and in our speech and actions, which Job still has. But from a human standpoint it is reasonable to question his integrity since his apparent demeanor shows the 18 inch distance between his heart and his head.
So if we take this to be actually as it is written, she first is questioning whether he is in fact acting with integrity then saying as a consequence “bless God, and you will die/you will end yourself.” She sees him suffering, torn up inside but continuing to utter blessing despite it all. She’s saying he’s not really acting out of integrity, instead he’s basically being a religious automaton going through the motions, and because of this disconnection, if he continues to bless God it will kill him.
Contrasting the two views; on the one hand we have the commonly held belief that she is a bitter, broken woman wishing blasphemy from her husband and death, not to mention that the scripture is actually saying the opposite of what is written (a sarcastic question and an inverse euphemism).
And on the other hand, we have a view of a woman who is generally wise, now suffering, who sees her husband in unexpressed, unanswered pain, bottling it up and putting a band-aid over it with words he doesn’t feel, and she says that this bottling up will kill him. And the scripture means exactly what is written.
I for one favor the second view. How does Job respond? As we’ve already seen, he accuses her of a moment of foolishness, a rebuke that makes more sense than if you hold the first view. If she was in fact tempting him to blaspheme and commit suicide, does it make sense that he responds with a comparatively gentile rebuttal? I would have simply told her to get away from me, I wouldn’t have bothered to even explain myself. I pretty much would have written her off on the spot, but then Job is a better man that me…But this would hardly be a subtle temptation, so it would seem to rate a blunt rebuke.
Not only that, but if we fast forward a few verses to chapter 3:
Job 3:1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
At the end of 2, Job’s friends show up but say nothing but sit and mourn with him. The last person to speak to him was his wife, and now the scripture reads “After this…” After his wife spoke to him, despite his rebuking her he now does curse. He doesn’t ‘bless’ God yet (though that’s very close as we’ll see). But the blessings do stop, and the cursing begins. If we take the view that his wife was directly tempting him, than we have to take the view that he is falling for that temptation. So far, he is still blameless. So is he starting to give in to his wife’s call for blaspheme, or is he simply starting to voice the hurt inside?
One more fast forward before we continue with the passage:
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
It was specifically recorded that the sons and daughters were feasting, but Job in his routine only makes offerings for his sons, not for his wife or daughters. Was Job a chauvinist, possibly, but I want to point out how his mind is bent towards his sons in the beginning.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
In the beginning, he thinks of his sons and rebukes his wife for her words. In the end, after he is headed towards (or actually committed) blasphemy because of his wife’s temptation or because he has listened to her words in voicing his hurt, then he has new children and only the names of his daughters are recorded or any quality of them!
If that’s not a nod to his wife, what is it? And if it is a nod, it certainly cannot be because she tempted him to blaspheme. I think if we take the scripture as it is written, and consider the details, we find that his wife’s advice is actually warning that disconnecting his words (blessings) from the alignment of his heart (grief), will kill him. So it is a call basically to vent, to voice the pain. Which is what he does, and looking back afterwards, he appears to salute her for a warning, not a temptation.
So then what about Job’s response?
2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Seems like we’ve been here before. There is one slight difference though in the first verse; before it merely said that Satan came among the Sons of God, almost as if he wandered in or as one commentator disagreeably concludes ‘pushed his way in’, but here it makes clear as we inferred earlier that Satan is himself presenting himself as he is one of the Sons of God.
Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
Again we see, God does not say “he holdeth fast…though you tried to destroy him…” God does not (and he has no need to) deny his sovereignty in the matter. We try to blame Satan in this, and certainly he deserves no kudos for wanting to set up the situation, but the fact is in smiting Job he did nothing wrong because God told him he could. Satan was acting in the bounds that God established when he attacked, and God himself attributes the damage to himself, “…me…to destroy without cause.”
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Remember, so far Satan has not been able to attack Job directly, but even now only his flesh can he attack. Again the terms for ‘put forth’ are more easily understood, “draw back your hand and strike.” Also understand, that God never rescinded the power over all Job possessed. Between chapter one and chapter two, there is no relenting of circumstance. We don’t even know how much time has passed between the two, but presumably it is not a long time or else we would think Job’s three (four) friends would show up sooner. God is adding to Satan’s permission, but he still cannot take Job’s life.
That last detail is kind of ironic to me now that I think about it. God is causing this suffering, but he won’t let Satan take Job’s life even though as we know it would in fact end his suffering. We often think of this as God’s protection over Job, but wouldn’t it be more protecting to let him take his life? In fact the word here rendered save is ‘shamar’ (H8104) which in fact is more often rendered keep, as in guard. God isn’t telling him to spare Job’s life, he’s commanding him to preserve it. Why? Why is God preventing escape from this nightmare? He can’t escape the circumstances in life, and now he can’t escape in death either.
God in the book of Job, is truly the God who is not a man.
Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
A new power is attributed to Satan. He can move pawns, call down supernatural fire, control weather and now we learn he can give illness. Before, pawns of the Devil attacked and stole from him, now though Job’s wife is provoking him to curse God. Or so it seems; as we are about to see there is something very interesting about what Mrs. Job actually has to say. But first let us consider how we approach her, whether or not she was part of Satan’s tactic, we don’t know, but it does illustrate how if we’re not careful we can become tools in his war. We know nothing of this woman’s character beyond this brief excerpt, and honestly I am inclined to think she is more noble character than we might assume.
It would be easy to think that this woman is a foolish unfaithful woman—I know because I’ve done this—but you have to remember besides the current bout of boils she’s endured everything Job has. She’s lost her financial security through him, most of her servants, and her family. We could speculate that there were other wives, but we don’t know so; I would assume based on Job’s life span that this is the wife that bore him ten children. I’d remind you again to ask yourself what if you knew God was taking away everything? Your one thing?
Also, we would think that Job would have been careful when he chose her, or that his parents would have. We can tell from her words that she saw Job’s integrity, so before all these tragedies she must have seen the blessing of protection that God had wrapped about them. I put to you that she’s probably as faithful a believer as many believers today.
Honestly, verse 9 has had me stumped for the last three weeks. I’ve read this probably a hundred times and never known what was actually being said. And since understanding that much, I have been struggling with what it means. The strange truth of this verse is that his wife is not telling him to curse the Name, and kill himself. That’s right, despite the English translation that is actually not what the Hebrew says.
Literally she says “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Bless God and die.” This may come as a shocker, but the word rendered curse is ‘barak’ (H1288) which out of 285 times is rendered in some form of the word bless 279 times. Twice it is rendered blaspheme in 1 Kings 21:11 & 13 in regards to a man falsely accused of ‘blaspheming’ the King and God. The other times that it is rendered curse are all located in Job in these first 2 chapters. Why is this the case, especially when there are an abundance of others words that can be rendered curse?
It seems that in the case of 1 Kings this is a euphemistic use of the word barak, based on purity of word. What do I mean by that? The idea is that the writer(s) of Kings and of Job were so upright themselves that even to write a phrase appearing to curse the Name was undoable. So instead of writing it, they wrote “bless God” with the context giving the understanding that it was actually the opposite that was meant. Is this born out in scripture?
If you search the scripture for combinations of curse, blaspheme, or other forms of either, you will find that there is no appearance in the Tanach (Hebrew ‘old’ testament) of such a phrase.
The closest you will find is:
Exo 22:28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
The word revile here ‘qalal’ which is rendered curse in:
Lev 24:14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
But even in this case if you look at the Hebrew, the phrase is exactly “curse NOT God.” The point is that all of the Hebrew scriptures are so adamantly careful about not cursing God that it would be unthinkable to even write a phrase that appeared to do so. When the idea must be discussed, the writers might say “cursed the Name,” “curse NOT…”, or in the case of Kings and Job “bless God.”
But now, this presents a problem; how do you know when the translation is euphemistic and how do you know when it is exactly as it is written? The first few cases in Job are fairly simple.
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Obviously there would be no sin if Job’s sons had in fact blessed God.
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Again, since the challenge against God is that Job only blesses God because God blesses him with good; it would make no sense for Satan to say take everything and Job will ‘bless’ God. The same applies to Job 2:5 when Satan issues his second challenge.
But now we get to the hard one, what about Job’s wife? Did she mean bless or curse? In the other two cases we have a clear disjoint of reasoning that demonstrated the meaning couldn’t make sense as truly blessing, ie there’s no sin in actually blessing God, and there would be no victory for Satan if Job continued to do what he had always done, ie bless God. One might the argument that the same is true here, afterall why would Job end himself after blessing God?
On the other hand, if we assume the euphemistic interpretation then we must make several assumptions about Mrs. Job. Firstly, that she is of weak character because obviously she’s been witness to how God blessed them because of Job blessing God. And secondly, that she is a very bitter and uncompassionate wife towards Job because she can see he’s obviously hurting and it is when he is physically assaulted, and sitting in ashes that she comes to allegedly tempt him, and to tempt him to do something that certainly cannot make him feel any better. I mean, when was the last time that you were hurt by someone and cursing them made you feel better? When has God given you a trial and cursing made you feel better?
So let’s examine the assumptions.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Note from Job’s own words that he has a generally high appraisal of her character. “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women…” He does not label her as foolish, merely that she is speaking as the foolish, implying it is out of her character. He believes she’s at the end of her rope and he rebukes her, not devalues her. What does this indicate, if not that she has generally been of good character?
Secondly, we assumed she is almost lashing out at Job. Saying in paraphrase, “____ God and kill yourself.” But it doesn’t say that, it just says “and die.” If it’s an imperative as it appears, than she is telling him to commit suicide. Why would she do that? It wouldn’t make her any better off. It’s not like it would avoid a complicated divorce so she could collect insurance or her half of the estate.
It might ease his pain though, putting him out of his misery. And while that would be misguided, it would not be uncompassionate. And what if we take it as prediction “and you will die,” that’s even more compassionate because it’s like she’s offering him a way out.
I do not believe scripture supports these assumptions. It’s perhaps a fine line, but let’s try looking at it another way. Mrs. Job sees her husband rich and great, prospered seemingly as a direct consequence of his continual righteousness. Suddenly, God takes it all away, and Job still blesses God. Then Job is attacked with boils, and though he still blesses God, she can see by his actions that he is dejected. On the edge of crumbling completely. Can you picture this old man robbed of everything, sitting in ashes scraping at his ulcers for some relief? Do you picture him as the radiant image of joy? I feel sorry for him even though I know the ending!
Job’s wife comes up to him at this point and asks a question. “Are you still retaining your integrity?” We tend to assume this is actually meant to mean “I can’t believe you’re still doing that?” But going based on the understanding that she has seen the time of blessing and that Job regards her as generally a wise woman, what if we take it as an actual question? Job was blessing God in his prosperity/blessedness/happiness, now Job has received evil from God so is he really having integrity by continuing to bless God as if nothing has happened? Doesn’t in fact having integrity demand that he do the opposite or at least not bless God?
Granted when talking to Satan, God showed that the integrity God valued is the kind that exists between our fear of him in our hearts and in our speech and actions, which Job still has. But from a human standpoint it is reasonable to question his integrity since his apparent demeanor shows the 18 inch distance between his heart and his head.
So if we take this to be actually as it is written, she first is questioning whether he is in fact acting with integrity then saying as a consequence “bless God, and you will die/you will end yourself.” She sees him suffering, torn up inside but continuing to utter blessing despite it all. She’s saying he’s not really acting out of integrity, instead he’s basically being a religious automaton going through the motions, and because of this disconnection, if he continues to bless God it will kill him.
Contrasting the two views; on the one hand we have the commonly held belief that she is a bitter, broken woman wishing blasphemy from her husband and death, not to mention that the scripture is actually saying the opposite of what is written (a sarcastic question and an inverse euphemism).
And on the other hand, we have a view of a woman who is generally wise, now suffering, who sees her husband in unexpressed, unanswered pain, bottling it up and putting a band-aid over it with words he doesn’t feel, and she says that this bottling up will kill him. And the scripture means exactly what is written.
I for one favor the second view. How does Job respond? As we’ve already seen, he accuses her of a moment of foolishness, a rebuke that makes more sense than if you hold the first view. If she was in fact tempting him to blaspheme and commit suicide, does it make sense that he responds with a comparatively gentile rebuttal? I would have simply told her to get away from me, I wouldn’t have bothered to even explain myself. I pretty much would have written her off on the spot, but then Job is a better man that me…But this would hardly be a subtle temptation, so it would seem to rate a blunt rebuke.
Not only that, but if we fast forward a few verses to chapter 3:
Job 3:1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
At the end of 2, Job’s friends show up but say nothing but sit and mourn with him. The last person to speak to him was his wife, and now the scripture reads “After this…” After his wife spoke to him, despite his rebuking her he now does curse. He doesn’t ‘bless’ God yet (though that’s very close as we’ll see). But the blessings do stop, and the cursing begins. If we take the view that his wife was directly tempting him, than we have to take the view that he is falling for that temptation. So far, he is still blameless. So is he starting to give in to his wife’s call for blaspheme, or is he simply starting to voice the hurt inside?
One more fast forward before we continue with the passage:
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
It was specifically recorded that the sons and daughters were feasting, but Job in his routine only makes offerings for his sons, not for his wife or daughters. Was Job a chauvinist, possibly, but I want to point out how his mind is bent towards his sons in the beginning.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
In the beginning, he thinks of his sons and rebukes his wife for her words. In the end, after he is headed towards (or actually committed) blasphemy because of his wife’s temptation or because he has listened to her words in voicing his hurt, then he has new children and only the names of his daughters are recorded or any quality of them!
If that’s not a nod to his wife, what is it? And if it is a nod, it certainly cannot be because she tempted him to blaspheme. I think if we take the scripture as it is written, and consider the details, we find that his wife’s advice is actually warning that disconnecting his words (blessings) from the alignment of his heart (grief), will kill him. So it is a call basically to vent, to voice the pain. Which is what he does, and looking back afterwards, he appears to salute her for a warning, not a temptation.
So then what about Job’s response?
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Job 1.6: Picking a fight
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Notice what Satan is saying, he is challenging God to pull away his hand and to strike Job. People look at this and point out how our enemy cannot move without our Father’s say so, and this is an important truth. It again demonstrates that Satan and his are not God’s enemies, they’re ours. God is in complete control at all times, even as in verse 12, when God gives Satan the permission to do as he wills, he is giving permission, Satan cannot go beyond his permission. He is on a leash that God never loses.
This is a matter of great consolation to those who have experienced the Devil’s fury, but it leads to one troubling conclusion that many believers are not prepared to face. God is in control. Satan didn’t break out of the pen, sneak past some dozing angels and pounce on Job; or you; or anyone who experiences evil. God opened the gate and let him loose.
Good intentioned believers attempt to hide this fact by saying “God doesn’t want this for you,” or “He’s only allowing this to happen,” or “This isn’t of God, it’s of the enemy.” But the fact is that you can’t proclaim the sovereignty of God and simultaneously try to make him irresponsible for the evil that comes into your life. This would be obvious if the orderer of events was anyone other than God. If a bully went after a kid, and beat the snot out of him while his Dad stood there watching, you would be outraged at the Dad. If a Cop watched a mugging of some old lady and did nothing to intervene, you would want his badge. But because it’s God, we give him a pass. We say “Oh, well its different here. It would be unrighteous to question him, or hold him to the same standard. He’s not responsible though he has the power to intervene and does nothing.”
It seems like a spiritual position when you’re in it, but objectively it’s absurd. And worse, it misses the entire point of what the book of Job is trying to teach us. The Devil is saying, no one will love you (God) unless you bribe them (give them good). God responds to the Devil’s challenge by giving him the power, allowing evil into Job’s life. Though God doesn’t say it, the implication is clear, I can give him evil and he will still praise me. Why then, when we read this do we try to say that God isn’t responsible for the evil? He has to be responsible for the evil, or the entire ‘experiment’ is invalid. The whole point is that God is responsible for the evil! The Cop isn’t letting the mugger mug, he’s giving the mugger a target and letting him out of the car.
Armed with God’s blessing to do evil upon Job, sparing only the man himself, Satan proceeds to do his worst.
Job 1:13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
These three verses and the ones that follow, speak volumes about the Devil and Us. Remember the order of wealth before? Relationship with God; Family; Possessions (in this case, both cattle and servants). While that is God’s evaluation of wealth, Satan chooses to attack the bottom first. Possessions before Family. Why?
Well, he can’t attack Job’s character directly because one, God won’t allow him to touch him, two as we’ll see later even when allowed with the prohibition over death, Satan cannot directly touch his character. Satan cannot take our free will. Our ability to choose in reaction to the events taking place around us, cannot be stolen. This is very encouraging; our enemy cannot supersede the sovereignty of God over creation, and he cannot supersede over our choices. Our souls are fortresses that cannot be breached from the without.
Being unable to attack the top of the wealth pyramid, why then doesn’t he attack family? Because the importance of family is next in God’s measuring, but not necessarily ours. Possessions are very powerful with people. Think about how many times; a car breaks down; a job is lost; or some other material thing is taken away and in a moment of weakness or even in a pattern of behavior we lash out at our friends and family. Whether we like to admit it or not, possessions are often a very easy way to unravel our resolve. It’s not that we consciously try to make possessions more important, but they represent our time and our energy that we will never get back. To be robbed of something earned, is to steal the purpose of our efforts.
Again, the Devil shows his tactical understanding in how he attacks us.
Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
The devil’s first blow came at the hands of men, so we can know that men are at times his agents, but now we see that he can also summon supernatural attacks. Such that his fire is mistaken for the fire of God. One thing we must consider though is that it might actually have been the fire of God. If you read scripture thoroughly you might be surprised how often God speaks of his creations as extensions of his power. Ie when a foreign nation attacks Israel while they’re in sin, he often says “I have struck you.” Or when God allowed a lying spirit into prophets of the kings it is recorded that he “sent an evil spirit.” The point is not whether or not the fire was God’s or the Devil’s own power masquerading, the point is it could have been either.
Also, notice how there is always one survivor. Do we treat this as coincidence? Certainly not. And Job would do no less; I’m sure he must have seen the pointedness of this assault. He knew this was not happenstance that all of this is happening on the same day, reported at the same time, each by a sole survivor.
Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Finally, Satan attacks the family. Wiping them all out with elemental fury. When given permission, Satan has a full arsenal of natural and supernational attacks to include human pawns and the environment.
It’s easy to rush over these verses and think of it just as history, but stop and consider what this would mean to one of us. Your sixty years old and your car is totaled says the reporting officer, you have no way to get to work. In fact the car was your work so you’re now unemployed. That’s not too bad, you can afford another car and you were close to retiring anyways. The bank calls, all of your accounts are zeroed out and there is no net to catch your freefall. You are old, jobless, and penniless. But one of your employees calls, he was driving by the apartment complex where all your children live…when it collapsed and killed everyone. Your entire legacy has just been destroyed. And worst of all, the God you have served all your life has orchestrated your downfall.
How would you feel?
How would you feel towards God?
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
Job does not deny the hurt. He admits his loss and grieves as his actions show. But this man is truly the things that God said, remember it was God who laid those four qualities on him. It wasn’t another man that exaggerates or Job himself being conceited, God himself esteemed these qualities in him. So what does he do? He shows his quality. In mourning, he falls down and worships…the word for worship means also to revere, and revere to fear. He still fears God even though everything has been taken from him.
And he does not say “I am under spiritual attack,” though that was true. He does not say “How could this happen, Lord, I thought you were in control?” He names God as the originator of the events. “The YHVH gave…the YHVH hath taken…” He knows that God is sovereign, so he knows God sent this, but what does he do with that? “Blessed be the name of the YHVH.”
Then the scripture says in conclusion, that Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Do you see that? He did charge God with responsibility, but he did not charge him with guilt or villainy. What should this teach us about our own sufferings? It’s hard to say. I’d like to make some conclusion like “If we trust in God everything will be alright,” but that would be the very type of cliché this book is against. The truth is that Job at the end of this chapter is still decimated, and God has not answered his suffering.
What we can say, is that God is in control. In good or evil, he is in control. That’s little comfort to those mired in evil, but it’s a start. The other thing we can see is that God picked the fight, the champion, and the terms; the Devil only issued a challenge. What does this mean? God didn’t say “Hey Devil have you seen Jesse Clark? He’s not so great, his faith is pretty weak, and a lot of times he fears men instead of me, but I’m going to give you the power to take everything from him…” God provoked the Devil’s challenge because he did know Job’s qualities, and he set the terms knowing Job’s qualities.
Going back to our analogy of the kid with the Dad (because it’s better than the cop, given our Father’s qualities), the Dad steps aside and tells the bully ‘Go ahead, my son’s the one in green with the black ballcap. Just don’t kill him.’ The bully runs off with a gleam in his eye, he’s gonna make the kid hate his Dad. He lands the opening blow; the kid is stunned. Another, and he falls. The bully kicks him in his side. Spectators gather round and their wanting to rush in, saying ‘how could this happen? Why is his Dad allowing this?’ The Dad has a quite grin, and holds out his arm to stop them. Then he says ‘Wait, he’s got this.’
We don’t know what the Dad’s point is, or what our Father’s is with us or with Job, all we know for sure is that he’s in control and he picked a fight that he knew we could win. And really, he picked the fight because he knew we could win.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Notice what Satan is saying, he is challenging God to pull away his hand and to strike Job. People look at this and point out how our enemy cannot move without our Father’s say so, and this is an important truth. It again demonstrates that Satan and his are not God’s enemies, they’re ours. God is in complete control at all times, even as in verse 12, when God gives Satan the permission to do as he wills, he is giving permission, Satan cannot go beyond his permission. He is on a leash that God never loses.
This is a matter of great consolation to those who have experienced the Devil’s fury, but it leads to one troubling conclusion that many believers are not prepared to face. God is in control. Satan didn’t break out of the pen, sneak past some dozing angels and pounce on Job; or you; or anyone who experiences evil. God opened the gate and let him loose.
Good intentioned believers attempt to hide this fact by saying “God doesn’t want this for you,” or “He’s only allowing this to happen,” or “This isn’t of God, it’s of the enemy.” But the fact is that you can’t proclaim the sovereignty of God and simultaneously try to make him irresponsible for the evil that comes into your life. This would be obvious if the orderer of events was anyone other than God. If a bully went after a kid, and beat the snot out of him while his Dad stood there watching, you would be outraged at the Dad. If a Cop watched a mugging of some old lady and did nothing to intervene, you would want his badge. But because it’s God, we give him a pass. We say “Oh, well its different here. It would be unrighteous to question him, or hold him to the same standard. He’s not responsible though he has the power to intervene and does nothing.”
It seems like a spiritual position when you’re in it, but objectively it’s absurd. And worse, it misses the entire point of what the book of Job is trying to teach us. The Devil is saying, no one will love you (God) unless you bribe them (give them good). God responds to the Devil’s challenge by giving him the power, allowing evil into Job’s life. Though God doesn’t say it, the implication is clear, I can give him evil and he will still praise me. Why then, when we read this do we try to say that God isn’t responsible for the evil? He has to be responsible for the evil, or the entire ‘experiment’ is invalid. The whole point is that God is responsible for the evil! The Cop isn’t letting the mugger mug, he’s giving the mugger a target and letting him out of the car.
Armed with God’s blessing to do evil upon Job, sparing only the man himself, Satan proceeds to do his worst.
Job 1:13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
These three verses and the ones that follow, speak volumes about the Devil and Us. Remember the order of wealth before? Relationship with God; Family; Possessions (in this case, both cattle and servants). While that is God’s evaluation of wealth, Satan chooses to attack the bottom first. Possessions before Family. Why?
Well, he can’t attack Job’s character directly because one, God won’t allow him to touch him, two as we’ll see later even when allowed with the prohibition over death, Satan cannot directly touch his character. Satan cannot take our free will. Our ability to choose in reaction to the events taking place around us, cannot be stolen. This is very encouraging; our enemy cannot supersede the sovereignty of God over creation, and he cannot supersede over our choices. Our souls are fortresses that cannot be breached from the without.
Being unable to attack the top of the wealth pyramid, why then doesn’t he attack family? Because the importance of family is next in God’s measuring, but not necessarily ours. Possessions are very powerful with people. Think about how many times; a car breaks down; a job is lost; or some other material thing is taken away and in a moment of weakness or even in a pattern of behavior we lash out at our friends and family. Whether we like to admit it or not, possessions are often a very easy way to unravel our resolve. It’s not that we consciously try to make possessions more important, but they represent our time and our energy that we will never get back. To be robbed of something earned, is to steal the purpose of our efforts.
Again, the Devil shows his tactical understanding in how he attacks us.
Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
The devil’s first blow came at the hands of men, so we can know that men are at times his agents, but now we see that he can also summon supernatural attacks. Such that his fire is mistaken for the fire of God. One thing we must consider though is that it might actually have been the fire of God. If you read scripture thoroughly you might be surprised how often God speaks of his creations as extensions of his power. Ie when a foreign nation attacks Israel while they’re in sin, he often says “I have struck you.” Or when God allowed a lying spirit into prophets of the kings it is recorded that he “sent an evil spirit.” The point is not whether or not the fire was God’s or the Devil’s own power masquerading, the point is it could have been either.
Also, notice how there is always one survivor. Do we treat this as coincidence? Certainly not. And Job would do no less; I’m sure he must have seen the pointedness of this assault. He knew this was not happenstance that all of this is happening on the same day, reported at the same time, each by a sole survivor.
Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Finally, Satan attacks the family. Wiping them all out with elemental fury. When given permission, Satan has a full arsenal of natural and supernational attacks to include human pawns and the environment.
It’s easy to rush over these verses and think of it just as history, but stop and consider what this would mean to one of us. Your sixty years old and your car is totaled says the reporting officer, you have no way to get to work. In fact the car was your work so you’re now unemployed. That’s not too bad, you can afford another car and you were close to retiring anyways. The bank calls, all of your accounts are zeroed out and there is no net to catch your freefall. You are old, jobless, and penniless. But one of your employees calls, he was driving by the apartment complex where all your children live…when it collapsed and killed everyone. Your entire legacy has just been destroyed. And worst of all, the God you have served all your life has orchestrated your downfall.
How would you feel?
How would you feel towards God?
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
Job does not deny the hurt. He admits his loss and grieves as his actions show. But this man is truly the things that God said, remember it was God who laid those four qualities on him. It wasn’t another man that exaggerates or Job himself being conceited, God himself esteemed these qualities in him. So what does he do? He shows his quality. In mourning, he falls down and worships…the word for worship means also to revere, and revere to fear. He still fears God even though everything has been taken from him.
And he does not say “I am under spiritual attack,” though that was true. He does not say “How could this happen, Lord, I thought you were in control?” He names God as the originator of the events. “The YHVH gave…the YHVH hath taken…” He knows that God is sovereign, so he knows God sent this, but what does he do with that? “Blessed be the name of the YHVH.”
Then the scripture says in conclusion, that Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Do you see that? He did charge God with responsibility, but he did not charge him with guilt or villainy. What should this teach us about our own sufferings? It’s hard to say. I’d like to make some conclusion like “If we trust in God everything will be alright,” but that would be the very type of cliché this book is against. The truth is that Job at the end of this chapter is still decimated, and God has not answered his suffering.
What we can say, is that God is in control. In good or evil, he is in control. That’s little comfort to those mired in evil, but it’s a start. The other thing we can see is that God picked the fight, the champion, and the terms; the Devil only issued a challenge. What does this mean? God didn’t say “Hey Devil have you seen Jesse Clark? He’s not so great, his faith is pretty weak, and a lot of times he fears men instead of me, but I’m going to give you the power to take everything from him…” God provoked the Devil’s challenge because he did know Job’s qualities, and he set the terms knowing Job’s qualities.
Going back to our analogy of the kid with the Dad (because it’s better than the cop, given our Father’s qualities), the Dad steps aside and tells the bully ‘Go ahead, my son’s the one in green with the black ballcap. Just don’t kill him.’ The bully runs off with a gleam in his eye, he’s gonna make the kid hate his Dad. He lands the opening blow; the kid is stunned. Another, and he falls. The bully kicks him in his side. Spectators gather round and their wanting to rush in, saying ‘how could this happen? Why is his Dad allowing this?’ The Dad has a quite grin, and holds out his arm to stop them. Then he says ‘Wait, he’s got this.’
We don’t know what the Dad’s point is, or what our Father’s is with us or with Job, all we know for sure is that he’s in control and he picked a fight that he knew we could win. And really, he picked the fight because he knew we could win.
Job 1.5: Introduction to the Enemy
Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
One interesting thought to consider as we continue, that of why Satan is allowed among the sons of God at this muster is that by the definition as we’ve seen it, Satan is a son of God. This may seem just a provocative statement at first, but if you think of this ’presentation’ of the sons and that obviously no one can barge into God’s throne room, the odd truth is that Satan was supposed to be there because he was one of them.
This strikes me as very expressive of the total authority of God. We often give Satan too much credit. While I would not deny his power or pretend that he was of any insiginificance, God clearly does not treat him as we would treat enemies.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Do you hear the tone of this conversation? This setting? If I had the power to destroy an enemy without hinderance or cost to me, I would do so. But God does not, and it should make us consider this.
Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
We are commanded to love, bless, and pray for our enemies. Why? So that we may be the children of our Father. Why? Because He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on them both. Why should we treat our enemies this way? Because our Father does.
This is the example of God to Satan. Here we have the most vile, seditious being in all time, and our Father shows him love. Invites him into his presence, into his home. Think about that, there are people we avoid in life because in our eyes they aren’t worth saving; aren’t worth the time and effort to show them love; aren’t worth our time. But whose time is worth more than God’s? And who is less deserving of love than Satan? And yet HaElyon does not in anyway attack or neglect this creature. Though scripture does not ever mention it, from these few passages I would be surprised if God has not made a way of salvation offered even to the fallen angels that we are not privy to.
Continuing in the throne room, having been summoned to be among his brethren, Satan is asked where he’s been. This is perhaps the first of the oddities of Job.
Like with Adam and Eve, God asks a question to which he must know the answer. Well if he’s not asking to get information, what is the purpose of the question? To offer his creation a choice and by making them consider the truth of their standing. Think about another implication, a question is a desire for dialogue. God asks because he wants to have a conversation, he wants to have a relationship with his creation.
Satan considers and apparently chooses to be honest and relays that he’s been walking to and fro. Whether or not Satan was literally striding on legs is unclear, but what this does demonstrate is that Satan is finite. He is bound by both space and time, he cannot be in two places at the same time.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
If Job could hear this conversation you could imagine him saying "Don’t bring my name into this!" God knows what’s about to transpire so in essence he’s picking a fight for his servant Job. But firstly, think how highly God puts Job "there is none like him in the Earth…" Not only this, but this further reveals something about the relationship between God and Satan.
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
God says look at this guy he’s hot stuff in my book, and Satan says yeah he’s hot stuff because of what he gets from you. It’s as if there’s an unspoken or previously voiced sentiment that no one will love God for who he is. Man will not worship and serve without tangible exchange. In other words, it’s not love. It’s commerce, exchange. Two questions are being suggested, will anyone love God without getting something in return? Or is Man so unflawed that he won’t worship God without exchange?
If you think about it, this is the same premise that Satan used in the Garden of Eden. In Eden, he called doubt upon the truthfulness of God’s word. Which in reality, is calling doubt upon the character of God. Is God good? Or is he just someone whose really rich and buys our admiration, our friendship, love, and fear? Would or should God get our worship if not for the position he put us in? In fact it’s a valid question to ask ourselves, do we only love God because he gives us prosperity in our life and the promise of a New Heaven and New Earth, or do we love God just for who he is?
Switching gears a bit, we’ve been pretty loose with our wording. But the Devil is not. Consider that he is ’the’ Adversary as his very name means. He is our best enemy. Not God’s because there is no comparison. So we must approach him as such. A strong Adversary knows his opponent; his strengths and weaknesses. This means that the area he devotes his attack to, reveals his understanding of our weaknesses.
Remember God identified Job as being perfect, upright, fearing God, refusing evil. How do we evaluate those qualities? Among the four, which is most important? Well, being content sounds good. Certainly being upright. Isn’t doing the right thing the most important? Or not committing evil, not breaking, being edifying in everything isn’t that very important? Those are all very good, but the Adversary’s chief concern is with fearing God.
This is very provocative considering what we’ve seen of the nature of godly fear. Modern understanding has taken the trembling out of it and reduced it to contemplative awe, and yet it is the beginning of wisdom to have it. And it is this quality that the Adversary considers as the lynch pin. He could have said is he content, it’s obvious since you’ve given him everything. That would have been the way I’d have approached it. But he shows that the hedge God put up, explains his fear more importantly than his contendedness or conduct. Why is this true?
He should be content because God has given him everything and he is the greatest in substance—material, familial, and spiritual—of all the men of the east. But if he has that because God protects him, than he should fear God all the more because He can take it away. The higher God builds us the farther we can fall, and the more we should realize that we are dependent on him.
So the Devil makes his proposition, his wager. Job won’t praise God if his substance, the bribe, is removed. Instead, he will curse God. If this is hard to understand, think of some blessing in your life, or some blessing that you are earnestly praying for. What would happen if it was taken from you or the door was forever shut? We depend on God, and to an unconscious degree we do fear him because often when we pray, we’re really praying that God will see it our way because we know he’s in control and are afraid that he’ll do something evil.
A personal example, there have been times that I have looked around and seen all my friends getting married and starting families, having children, and it reminded me that there was nothing on this Earth that I wanted more than to have that same blessing. But God has not granted it to me. And there was a time that I began to lower my standards to try and make something happen. I knew for example that it was unwise to pursue someone whose understanding of scripture excluded torah or to change physical boundaries to try and seal the deal. But I did, and it didn’t work out. Afterwards, I realized how far I’d slipped. I was ashamed of my weakness, though God had been gracious and his Spirit intervened to salvage me. Afterwards, he lead me to understand the source of my weakness.
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe God would provide me with wife and family that I would like or in my time. It was that I hadn’t accepted that God might never give me one. What if God denied me the one thing that I had always wanted? What if I went the rest of a long life not having the one thing that I wanted? If I wouldn’t accept that answer from God, then I really wasn’t accepting God. I was saying "No, you’re not good enough alone. You have to give me this thing or I won’t love you."
What if God took your one thing?
The Devil says we’d curse him.
One interesting thought to consider as we continue, that of why Satan is allowed among the sons of God at this muster is that by the definition as we’ve seen it, Satan is a son of God. This may seem just a provocative statement at first, but if you think of this ’presentation’ of the sons and that obviously no one can barge into God’s throne room, the odd truth is that Satan was supposed to be there because he was one of them.
This strikes me as very expressive of the total authority of God. We often give Satan too much credit. While I would not deny his power or pretend that he was of any insiginificance, God clearly does not treat him as we would treat enemies.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Do you hear the tone of this conversation? This setting? If I had the power to destroy an enemy without hinderance or cost to me, I would do so. But God does not, and it should make us consider this.
Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
We are commanded to love, bless, and pray for our enemies. Why? So that we may be the children of our Father. Why? Because He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on them both. Why should we treat our enemies this way? Because our Father does.
This is the example of God to Satan. Here we have the most vile, seditious being in all time, and our Father shows him love. Invites him into his presence, into his home. Think about that, there are people we avoid in life because in our eyes they aren’t worth saving; aren’t worth the time and effort to show them love; aren’t worth our time. But whose time is worth more than God’s? And who is less deserving of love than Satan? And yet HaElyon does not in anyway attack or neglect this creature. Though scripture does not ever mention it, from these few passages I would be surprised if God has not made a way of salvation offered even to the fallen angels that we are not privy to.
Continuing in the throne room, having been summoned to be among his brethren, Satan is asked where he’s been. This is perhaps the first of the oddities of Job.
Like with Adam and Eve, God asks a question to which he must know the answer. Well if he’s not asking to get information, what is the purpose of the question? To offer his creation a choice and by making them consider the truth of their standing. Think about another implication, a question is a desire for dialogue. God asks because he wants to have a conversation, he wants to have a relationship with his creation.
Satan considers and apparently chooses to be honest and relays that he’s been walking to and fro. Whether or not Satan was literally striding on legs is unclear, but what this does demonstrate is that Satan is finite. He is bound by both space and time, he cannot be in two places at the same time.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
If Job could hear this conversation you could imagine him saying "Don’t bring my name into this!" God knows what’s about to transpire so in essence he’s picking a fight for his servant Job. But firstly, think how highly God puts Job "there is none like him in the Earth…" Not only this, but this further reveals something about the relationship between God and Satan.
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
God says look at this guy he’s hot stuff in my book, and Satan says yeah he’s hot stuff because of what he gets from you. It’s as if there’s an unspoken or previously voiced sentiment that no one will love God for who he is. Man will not worship and serve without tangible exchange. In other words, it’s not love. It’s commerce, exchange. Two questions are being suggested, will anyone love God without getting something in return? Or is Man so unflawed that he won’t worship God without exchange?
If you think about it, this is the same premise that Satan used in the Garden of Eden. In Eden, he called doubt upon the truthfulness of God’s word. Which in reality, is calling doubt upon the character of God. Is God good? Or is he just someone whose really rich and buys our admiration, our friendship, love, and fear? Would or should God get our worship if not for the position he put us in? In fact it’s a valid question to ask ourselves, do we only love God because he gives us prosperity in our life and the promise of a New Heaven and New Earth, or do we love God just for who he is?
Switching gears a bit, we’ve been pretty loose with our wording. But the Devil is not. Consider that he is ’the’ Adversary as his very name means. He is our best enemy. Not God’s because there is no comparison. So we must approach him as such. A strong Adversary knows his opponent; his strengths and weaknesses. This means that the area he devotes his attack to, reveals his understanding of our weaknesses.
Remember God identified Job as being perfect, upright, fearing God, refusing evil. How do we evaluate those qualities? Among the four, which is most important? Well, being content sounds good. Certainly being upright. Isn’t doing the right thing the most important? Or not committing evil, not breaking, being edifying in everything isn’t that very important? Those are all very good, but the Adversary’s chief concern is with fearing God.
This is very provocative considering what we’ve seen of the nature of godly fear. Modern understanding has taken the trembling out of it and reduced it to contemplative awe, and yet it is the beginning of wisdom to have it. And it is this quality that the Adversary considers as the lynch pin. He could have said is he content, it’s obvious since you’ve given him everything. That would have been the way I’d have approached it. But he shows that the hedge God put up, explains his fear more importantly than his contendedness or conduct. Why is this true?
He should be content because God has given him everything and he is the greatest in substance—material, familial, and spiritual—of all the men of the east. But if he has that because God protects him, than he should fear God all the more because He can take it away. The higher God builds us the farther we can fall, and the more we should realize that we are dependent on him.
So the Devil makes his proposition, his wager. Job won’t praise God if his substance, the bribe, is removed. Instead, he will curse God. If this is hard to understand, think of some blessing in your life, or some blessing that you are earnestly praying for. What would happen if it was taken from you or the door was forever shut? We depend on God, and to an unconscious degree we do fear him because often when we pray, we’re really praying that God will see it our way because we know he’s in control and are afraid that he’ll do something evil.
A personal example, there have been times that I have looked around and seen all my friends getting married and starting families, having children, and it reminded me that there was nothing on this Earth that I wanted more than to have that same blessing. But God has not granted it to me. And there was a time that I began to lower my standards to try and make something happen. I knew for example that it was unwise to pursue someone whose understanding of scripture excluded torah or to change physical boundaries to try and seal the deal. But I did, and it didn’t work out. Afterwards, I realized how far I’d slipped. I was ashamed of my weakness, though God had been gracious and his Spirit intervened to salvage me. Afterwards, he lead me to understand the source of my weakness.
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe God would provide me with wife and family that I would like or in my time. It was that I hadn’t accepted that God might never give me one. What if God denied me the one thing that I had always wanted? What if I went the rest of a long life not having the one thing that I wanted? If I wouldn’t accept that answer from God, then I really wasn’t accepting God. I was saying "No, you’re not good enough alone. You have to give me this thing or I won’t love you."
What if God took your one thing?
The Devil says we’d curse him.
Job 1.4: Sons of God
Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Here we get a glimpse of just how prosperous Job was. I think it’s telling of God’s priorities that the number of his family is listed before the inventory of his things. This is a considerable number of children when you realize that only one wife is mentioned in the story, though he could have had more, either way he is blessed by God in this.
In terms of wealth, I haven’t been able to find number regarding what a sheep, camel, oxen, she-ass, or menservants were worth at the time, but we can understand his wealth in terms of the phrase "so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east." Scale of wealth is often relative. If you think about it, Americans are the richest people in history. Even our poor are rich compared with the poor of other countries…or even compared with the rich of some countries. So then think of the richest person in America, that was what Job was like.
This again identifies Job as worshipper of God in the east, Israel is considered the west. This again indicates that Job was probably a contemporary of Abraham or before him and as we are about to see Job makes offerings, but after the children of Israel enter the land there are no more burnt offerings permitted outside of the Aaronic priesthood (Lev 17:8-9).
Job 1:4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Notice, Job is not only blessed, but his children also. Yet though they have their own houses and perhaps their own families, he still intercedes for them even for actions he does not know if they have committed.
Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
This is where things start to get very interesting, and strange. First we’re introduced to the protagonist of the story, a man who is content, blameless, fearing God and turning from doing evil. And chiefly because of his character, then because of his family, and finally because of his possessions he is the greatest of his whole region, his blessings are so great that they spill over onto his children along with his continued spiritual protection.
Now enters the villain. We all boo and hiss, but there should be an obvious question here. Why is Satan allowed to come up at all? The setting is a presentation of the Sons of God—in this usage is consistent with the rest of the tanach/original testament, they are an unclearly defined group of the heavenly host—the description is one of having audience with or perhaps a military commander overlooking his troops to give orders. This is very interesting timing if you think about it. Did Satan happen to stroll on into Heaven at the same time the Sons of God were there? Or is Satan there because he’s a Son of God?
Now this could seem very near blasphemy or at least heresy, I mean if Yeshua is the Son of God, then to say Satan is a Son of God is kind of like saying they’re brothers, which if you’re familiar may sound like a mormon doctrine. However, this is not a heretical question since the present scriptures have referred to some plurality of beings that are called Sons of God. The question we should address, is who are these Sons of God?
The phrase is beney ha’elohim. Literally Sons of The Creators. I say Creators because Elohim is plural. The Creators refers to himself as one as in the Shema, "Hear O’Israel, the Lord our God (Elohim), the Lord, is one (echad, plural unity) Lord. But cannot have an actual son as in the produce of procreation. Why not? For one thing God has no other god with which he could ’mate.’
Deu 4:35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.
Deu 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
1Ki 8:60 That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
The message of scripture is that God is peerless. Well maybe God doesn’t need a mate, he’s God so maybe he can just have a son without anyone else. Well that problem is that a son is of the same kind and likeness as the father.
Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
God creates Man (both male and female man) in his own image, but the sons of Men are in the image of Men. Sure Man as a species is in the image of God, and therefore each individual is also in the image of God (read Genesis 9 about why we should not kill each other), but we are also in the image of our fathers and mothers. This is obvious from a genetic standpoint. And it follows the pattern that God established.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind…
Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind…every winged fowl after his kind…
Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind…cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind…
Everything that God created that lives or grows, reproduces after its own kind. If we then, who reproduce our kind, are made in the image of God, then wouldn’t it suggest that a Son of God must also be of his kind? So this is why God cannot reproduce or create a son in the truest sense, why because the fact that there was before a son and that that son was not self-existant would immediately make a reproduced son not of the same kind as a self-existant, eternal, God without beginning. Doesn’t this deny the sonship of Yeshua then?
Not at all. This why I said God cannot have a son as in the products of procreation. For him to have a son, his son must be self-existant and eternal since that is the very identity of God himself. Well what do we know about Yeshua?
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Yeshua and the Father are one. If you’ve seen Yeshua, you’ve seen the Father. In other words? I am in the likeness of my Father, I am after his kind. And not in the reproductive sense, because "I am in the Father and the Father in me…" If God cannot change then Yeshua was always in the Father, therefore as the Father is self-existent and eternal, so is the Son.
Heb 7:1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
The priest Melchisedec was without beginning or end, father or mother, made like the Son of God. In other words The Son of God has no beginning or end.
Heb 7:21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
Yeshua was The Son of God, the only Son of God that was after the kind and likeness of God because he was God himself. Logically, this is the only possibility. The only way for God to have a Son, is to be his own Son. Not like putting on a hat, as though he were playing a part, the Son was always there as a person of the Tri-une God.
So what of these other sons of God? After their first appearance in Genesis as ones who came to the daughters of men and had children, they appear in Job as beings who have the ability to go into Heaven to assemble before him apparently as a regular event. They appear later in Job also:
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
The inferrance from this mention is that Job was not there when these things happened, and if we recall from Genesis, the stars appeared on day four, but the first ’breathing life’ creatures that appear are the following day, and the only recorded beings that bear God’s likeness appear on day six. This shows three things, firstly there are at least these Beney HaElohim that are unrecorded in creation. They are older than the stars. And lastly if you read the Genesis account carefully you see that there are several brackets of creation such as "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth… every winged fowl… and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind…and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth…"
What I mean to point out here is that the Earth and everything brought from it and living upon it are created together in a circle of life if you will. By that I mean everything made from the Earth is put under the dominion of the Man made from Earth, and every creature of the Earth is given food of the trees and plants that grow of the Earth. There is a very noticeable interconnection between all the things of Earth.
Firstly there is this link between the Heavens and the Earth whose creation sometime before the command to bring forth light, but these Heavens and Earth if they include the Spiritual Heavens or ’third Heaven’ as Paul counts it. However, the account here seems to be exclusively of the first and second Heavens. Genesis 1:1 mentions the creation of Heavens (plural) and Earth. The Earth is then clarified as something physical that is unshapen and covered with water. Then along comes verse 7-8:
Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
This first definition of what a Heaven is, is a firmament/expanse/space between water below and water above. This could be the either the space between Earth with its waters and the clouds above with its waters, or the water vapor canopy that some scientists speculate may have once existed. Either way, this first Heaven lies just above the Earth, but at that time below an expanse of water. This is why the first Heaven is considered to be the atmosphere.
Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
This division of space where the sun, stars, and moon abide is known as the second Heaven. A simple reading really treats these two Heavens as one, but this can also have a plural sense. For example, the Heaven of atmosphere and Heaven of stars are really just different degrees of one whole (everything that is above the Earth), just as the Earth has many lands even though all land is connected to all other land and thusly is really one land.
But how do we know that these distinctions are valid?
2Co 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
In the New Testament or Brit Chadesha, the Apostle Paul confirms the understanding of what was already termed the ’third Heaven’ which was understood to be the spiritual realm, specifically the place where God dwelled as in the book of Job. The Tanach’s way of expressing this concept is found in Deuteronomy:
Deu 10:14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
Neh 9:6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
Notice that this ’Heaven of Heavens’ is enumerated separately from both Heaven and Earth.
So what is my point in all this, and what does it have to do with the Sons of God. My point is that if you have an understanding of these three Heavens; atmospheric, celestrial, and spiritual/paradisiacal—then when you read the creation account you find that mention of the Spiritual realm is completely absent. We have no idea when the Heaven of Heavens was created, and likewise we have no idea when the host of that Heaven was created. In contrast, the Earth and all things made of Earth and connected to the Earth have a set time frame of creation, some 6,000 years ago over the course of six days.
So if the things of Earth we’re being created then, who would have been around to fulfill the passage in Job that says the Sons of God sang for joy at the appearance of the stars? The Heavenly host. Angelic beings of undetermined species.
So far we have determined one being, and one group whom God called sons.
Yeshua, God himself; and the Heavenly host. But there are two more.
Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Whether or not "the son" was inserted by translators, the implication is the same since it follows the pattern of the genealogy. And the final group is in fact the followers of Yeshua:
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
So the question should be, what do all these four have in common? Their origin.
Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The sons of God are ’of God.’ They don’t come about by any cause but God himself. The creation of God’s will. Adam is a Son of God because he was the originally created man. Angels are the Sons of God because they had no one before them, they were directly created by God. Followers of Yeshua are Sons of God because our re-creation at believing on the name of Yeshua, is a re-creation out of God’s will not of blood or of the will of flesh (created things).
Now someone might say, but that doesn’t hold up because Yeshua was not created. But in fact this is not true. God is Spirit, not flesh, but Yeshua is by definition a Man and Man is a creation. If God alone is self-existent than by contrast, man cannot be self-existent. Now, this does not mean that the Son of God is not self-existent and fully God. As we have already seen, to be The true Son of God he has to be God himself, but these verses speak to this meaning:
1Jo 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Yeshua came in the flesh, and as we saw he made a point of establishing that his flesh rose from the grave with him and that he continues to exist in flesh as the God-Man our Messiah and King forever. However, the implication is that if he came in flesh, he was not always flesh.
Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Yeshua the God-Man was a union of self-existent eternal God and the creation Man. That should be something all the more awe inspiring to think that God didn’t just lower himself to put on the flesh of thing, but he lowered himself to put on flesh of his own creation. The difference is not like a King becoming a peasant, it is of a Writer stepping into his own story to save it. That it was what love looks like.
So in conclusion of this thought, we have established that the Sons of God, is not a title that we can appropriate to whom we will, only God can grant it. And He grants it to those being that are the direct creation of his will, only four groups and the one covered in Job are the group of the Heavenly host.
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Here we get a glimpse of just how prosperous Job was. I think it’s telling of God’s priorities that the number of his family is listed before the inventory of his things. This is a considerable number of children when you realize that only one wife is mentioned in the story, though he could have had more, either way he is blessed by God in this.
In terms of wealth, I haven’t been able to find number regarding what a sheep, camel, oxen, she-ass, or menservants were worth at the time, but we can understand his wealth in terms of the phrase "so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east." Scale of wealth is often relative. If you think about it, Americans are the richest people in history. Even our poor are rich compared with the poor of other countries…or even compared with the rich of some countries. So then think of the richest person in America, that was what Job was like.
This again identifies Job as worshipper of God in the east, Israel is considered the west. This again indicates that Job was probably a contemporary of Abraham or before him and as we are about to see Job makes offerings, but after the children of Israel enter the land there are no more burnt offerings permitted outside of the Aaronic priesthood (Lev 17:8-9).
Job 1:4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Notice, Job is not only blessed, but his children also. Yet though they have their own houses and perhaps their own families, he still intercedes for them even for actions he does not know if they have committed.
Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
This is where things start to get very interesting, and strange. First we’re introduced to the protagonist of the story, a man who is content, blameless, fearing God and turning from doing evil. And chiefly because of his character, then because of his family, and finally because of his possessions he is the greatest of his whole region, his blessings are so great that they spill over onto his children along with his continued spiritual protection.
Now enters the villain. We all boo and hiss, but there should be an obvious question here. Why is Satan allowed to come up at all? The setting is a presentation of the Sons of God—in this usage is consistent with the rest of the tanach/original testament, they are an unclearly defined group of the heavenly host—the description is one of having audience with or perhaps a military commander overlooking his troops to give orders. This is very interesting timing if you think about it. Did Satan happen to stroll on into Heaven at the same time the Sons of God were there? Or is Satan there because he’s a Son of God?
Now this could seem very near blasphemy or at least heresy, I mean if Yeshua is the Son of God, then to say Satan is a Son of God is kind of like saying they’re brothers, which if you’re familiar may sound like a mormon doctrine. However, this is not a heretical question since the present scriptures have referred to some plurality of beings that are called Sons of God. The question we should address, is who are these Sons of God?
The phrase is beney ha’elohim. Literally Sons of The Creators. I say Creators because Elohim is plural. The Creators refers to himself as one as in the Shema, "Hear O’Israel, the Lord our God (Elohim), the Lord, is one (echad, plural unity) Lord. But cannot have an actual son as in the produce of procreation. Why not? For one thing God has no other god with which he could ’mate.’
Deu 4:35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.
Deu 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
1Ki 8:60 That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
The message of scripture is that God is peerless. Well maybe God doesn’t need a mate, he’s God so maybe he can just have a son without anyone else. Well that problem is that a son is of the same kind and likeness as the father.
Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
God creates Man (both male and female man) in his own image, but the sons of Men are in the image of Men. Sure Man as a species is in the image of God, and therefore each individual is also in the image of God (read Genesis 9 about why we should not kill each other), but we are also in the image of our fathers and mothers. This is obvious from a genetic standpoint. And it follows the pattern that God established.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind…
Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind…every winged fowl after his kind…
Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind…cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind…
Everything that God created that lives or grows, reproduces after its own kind. If we then, who reproduce our kind, are made in the image of God, then wouldn’t it suggest that a Son of God must also be of his kind? So this is why God cannot reproduce or create a son in the truest sense, why because the fact that there was before a son and that that son was not self-existant would immediately make a reproduced son not of the same kind as a self-existant, eternal, God without beginning. Doesn’t this deny the sonship of Yeshua then?
Not at all. This why I said God cannot have a son as in the products of procreation. For him to have a son, his son must be self-existant and eternal since that is the very identity of God himself. Well what do we know about Yeshua?
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Yeshua and the Father are one. If you’ve seen Yeshua, you’ve seen the Father. In other words? I am in the likeness of my Father, I am after his kind. And not in the reproductive sense, because "I am in the Father and the Father in me…" If God cannot change then Yeshua was always in the Father, therefore as the Father is self-existent and eternal, so is the Son.
Heb 7:1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
The priest Melchisedec was without beginning or end, father or mother, made like the Son of God. In other words The Son of God has no beginning or end.
Heb 7:21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
Yeshua was The Son of God, the only Son of God that was after the kind and likeness of God because he was God himself. Logically, this is the only possibility. The only way for God to have a Son, is to be his own Son. Not like putting on a hat, as though he were playing a part, the Son was always there as a person of the Tri-une God.
So what of these other sons of God? After their first appearance in Genesis as ones who came to the daughters of men and had children, they appear in Job as beings who have the ability to go into Heaven to assemble before him apparently as a regular event. They appear later in Job also:
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
The inferrance from this mention is that Job was not there when these things happened, and if we recall from Genesis, the stars appeared on day four, but the first ’breathing life’ creatures that appear are the following day, and the only recorded beings that bear God’s likeness appear on day six. This shows three things, firstly there are at least these Beney HaElohim that are unrecorded in creation. They are older than the stars. And lastly if you read the Genesis account carefully you see that there are several brackets of creation such as "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth… every winged fowl… and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind…and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth…"
What I mean to point out here is that the Earth and everything brought from it and living upon it are created together in a circle of life if you will. By that I mean everything made from the Earth is put under the dominion of the Man made from Earth, and every creature of the Earth is given food of the trees and plants that grow of the Earth. There is a very noticeable interconnection between all the things of Earth.
Firstly there is this link between the Heavens and the Earth whose creation sometime before the command to bring forth light, but these Heavens and Earth if they include the Spiritual Heavens or ’third Heaven’ as Paul counts it. However, the account here seems to be exclusively of the first and second Heavens. Genesis 1:1 mentions the creation of Heavens (plural) and Earth. The Earth is then clarified as something physical that is unshapen and covered with water. Then along comes verse 7-8:
Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
This first definition of what a Heaven is, is a firmament/expanse/space between water below and water above. This could be the either the space between Earth with its waters and the clouds above with its waters, or the water vapor canopy that some scientists speculate may have once existed. Either way, this first Heaven lies just above the Earth, but at that time below an expanse of water. This is why the first Heaven is considered to be the atmosphere.
Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
This division of space where the sun, stars, and moon abide is known as the second Heaven. A simple reading really treats these two Heavens as one, but this can also have a plural sense. For example, the Heaven of atmosphere and Heaven of stars are really just different degrees of one whole (everything that is above the Earth), just as the Earth has many lands even though all land is connected to all other land and thusly is really one land.
But how do we know that these distinctions are valid?
2Co 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
In the New Testament or Brit Chadesha, the Apostle Paul confirms the understanding of what was already termed the ’third Heaven’ which was understood to be the spiritual realm, specifically the place where God dwelled as in the book of Job. The Tanach’s way of expressing this concept is found in Deuteronomy:
Deu 10:14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
Neh 9:6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
Notice that this ’Heaven of Heavens’ is enumerated separately from both Heaven and Earth.
So what is my point in all this, and what does it have to do with the Sons of God. My point is that if you have an understanding of these three Heavens; atmospheric, celestrial, and spiritual/paradisiacal—then when you read the creation account you find that mention of the Spiritual realm is completely absent. We have no idea when the Heaven of Heavens was created, and likewise we have no idea when the host of that Heaven was created. In contrast, the Earth and all things made of Earth and connected to the Earth have a set time frame of creation, some 6,000 years ago over the course of six days.
So if the things of Earth we’re being created then, who would have been around to fulfill the passage in Job that says the Sons of God sang for joy at the appearance of the stars? The Heavenly host. Angelic beings of undetermined species.
So far we have determined one being, and one group whom God called sons.
Yeshua, God himself; and the Heavenly host. But there are two more.
Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Whether or not "the son" was inserted by translators, the implication is the same since it follows the pattern of the genealogy. And the final group is in fact the followers of Yeshua:
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
So the question should be, what do all these four have in common? Their origin.
Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The sons of God are ’of God.’ They don’t come about by any cause but God himself. The creation of God’s will. Adam is a Son of God because he was the originally created man. Angels are the Sons of God because they had no one before them, they were directly created by God. Followers of Yeshua are Sons of God because our re-creation at believing on the name of Yeshua, is a re-creation out of God’s will not of blood or of the will of flesh (created things).
Now someone might say, but that doesn’t hold up because Yeshua was not created. But in fact this is not true. God is Spirit, not flesh, but Yeshua is by definition a Man and Man is a creation. If God alone is self-existent than by contrast, man cannot be self-existent. Now, this does not mean that the Son of God is not self-existent and fully God. As we have already seen, to be The true Son of God he has to be God himself, but these verses speak to this meaning:
1Jo 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Yeshua came in the flesh, and as we saw he made a point of establishing that his flesh rose from the grave with him and that he continues to exist in flesh as the God-Man our Messiah and King forever. However, the implication is that if he came in flesh, he was not always flesh.
Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Yeshua the God-Man was a union of self-existent eternal God and the creation Man. That should be something all the more awe inspiring to think that God didn’t just lower himself to put on the flesh of thing, but he lowered himself to put on flesh of his own creation. The difference is not like a King becoming a peasant, it is of a Writer stepping into his own story to save it. That it was what love looks like.
So in conclusion of this thought, we have established that the Sons of God, is not a title that we can appropriate to whom we will, only God can grant it. And He grants it to those being that are the direct creation of his will, only four groups and the one covered in Job are the group of the Heavenly host.
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