Job 4.2: Judgment

The book of Job is rich in unspoken meaning. The book seems mostly emptiness otherwise. God picks a fight for a guy he’s proud of and takes everything he values from him. Then his three friends show up and spend most of the book arguing with him with the book itself providing little explicit commentary. Which makes little sense considering this is essentially the longest recorded discussion in scripture.

Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? 
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? 
8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. 

  What is our experience as believers when we suffer among other believers? In my experience there are two reactions that are prominent and a third somewhere in between. For the most part I’d say because of a misunderstanding of admonishment, judgment, and God’s forgiveness, many will see someone suffering from an obvious cause (sexual sin, addiction, foolishness,…) and tell them that God will “pull you through,” while leaving completely unsaid the truth that puts their situation in context. “You are sinning; this is because of that.” On a national scale this is easy to see. Right now our economy is going down the tubes; California is facing the worst fires in thirty years; the midwest’s cash crop of corn has taken serious losses; we’ve substantially put out one fire in Iraq only to have Afghanistan flare up; we reel from one food scare to another; and yet people claiming to believe in God and his justice see America’s arrogance and mockery of God and don’t see what’s happening as judgment. 

 

“Oh natural disasters have always happened, we shouldn’t take this as God’s judgment otherwise people will think of God as the angry vengeful God of the ‘old testament’.” But do you know what scripture says?

Deu 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. 
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 
6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 
7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. 
8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 
9 The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. 
10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. 
11 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 
12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. 

Now there are some, even of messianic understanding, that have said this only applies to Israel and that it was a special promise to them in that specific context. But that is a doctrine that denies what Paul said in Romans and Ephesians that we are grafted in and become part of Israel; it denies what Moses said that there will be one Torah for natural born and sojourner; and it again denies God’s word when he said that his commandments are for our good.

  God’s commands are for all who love him.

Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Yeshua is God, the same timeless God who said “I change not,” which means “my commandments” are every commandment God has given. It’s impossible to understand how we miss the most intuitive link that God shows us. Since Eden every command God has given has brought goodness into our lives, yet we think of his commands from the beginning as arbitrary and pointless. Well if you think of God’s older commands as pointless then of course Israel being blessed for keeping them is a special thing. It would be the equivalent of God saying “Go jump through some hoops and I will give you a treat.” Jumping is pointless and distasteful, even repugnant, to someone who recognizes that they are in the image of a God with dignity who bestows dignity on his creation.

  On the other hand, if we believe that God’s commandment are for our good (as he said). Then naturally if it was a blessing to Israel to obey the commands, then it will be a blessing for us to do the same. For people who say that the wall of partition has been broken down, we see m to be stuck on putting it back up. 

  Instead of God’s pets performing tricks for treats, we should see God as a good father (as we know he is) and teacher (torah means instruction) who tells his children to do things that bring them benefits. “Don’t touch the stove you’ll burn yourself! Work hard at your math so you’ll do well at your profession. Be kind to your sister!” 

  The blessings are to obedience as effect is to cause. This is all a long way to say that if we’re not receiving the blessings that God promised would happen in consequence to obedience, then we probably aren’t be obedient. Watch the news for half an hour and you should be asking yourself not why is our country facing ‘natural disasters,’ but why aren’t we facing more. Why is it even a question that we are facing judgment?

  Paradoxically though, this leads us to the other extreme and incorrect supposition. If there is suffering it must be as a result of sin, yet we are studying the book that is the exception to this rule. God himself said that there was no cause for the evil he brought down on Job’s life. Joseph did not earn how his brothers treated him. David didn’t earn Saul’s enmity. Daniel didn’t deserve the captivity and persecution that he received, nor did his friends Azariah, Mishael, and Hananiah. Yeshua certainly didn’t deserve the way he was treated. 

  Scripture is full of the righteous suffering while doing the right thing. This generally does not hold true on the national level though. If Israel was being obedient then they couldn’t be touched. When they were in sin, no alliance could save them. However, even on the national level there were exceptions. In Judges 20 the scriptures tells of when Israel went to war against the tribe of Benjamin because one of its cities had raped and murdered a woman and attempted to rape a man. Benjamin had refused to give up the individuals who were guilty so Israel assembled an army of 400,000 men who drew swords against the 26,000 of Benjamin (7,000 of which were exceptionally skilled with the sling). This is a very disturbing account for graphicness, but also when you consider the difference between the nation at that time after the death of Joshua and before the death of Eleazor and our own mindset. The perpetrators were seemingly a small group, but apparently representative of a larger presence, but it was for one incident that the nation was willing to go to war for the sake of justice. Yet we have 15,000 murders and about as many reported rapes every year and we barely notice, but say the cops should do something. 

  Anyway, the nation goes up to get the men and they are refused. They ask counsel from God and he says attack. In the first day they lose 22,000 men, that’s just short of the number of Marines lost at Iwo Jima in the first three days. They ask counsel from God again and again he says attack. They lose another 18,000. Two times God sends Israel to attack a smaller force, and in obedience to him they lose 40,000 men because of a single woman who was raped to death. We clearly have no idea how sinful sin is. Finally they ask God again, and this time he says attack and tells them that he will deliver the Benjamites into their hands. They slay 25,100 of the infantry and in addition annihilate the inhabitants of every Benjamini city they come to and burn them to the ground. Only 600 men are recorded as surviving from the tribe, whether that includes women or not is unknown, but there aren’t enough women to preserve the tribe which leads Israel to a stranger predicament when they try to salvage the remnant of the tribe. 

  The point is firstly that we don’t take sin nearly seriously enough in our ‘justice.’ Secondly, a nation can suffer even if as a whole it is not wicked because of the wickedness of a part. This is all to say suffering in an individual’s life does not mean sin in an individual’s life. 

  
Job 4:9 By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. 
Job 4:10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. 
Job 4:11 The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad. 

Eliphaz never lays a charge upon Job, in fact he started by speaking of how good and righteous Job had been, but like many of us he saw suffering and inferred sin. Take this in contrast to many of the saints of scripture:

Jos 7:11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. 
12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. 

Eze 8:17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. 
18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. 

When evil comes because of a sin, there is a sin to be known. Eliphaz has not seen a sin, he only assumes there is one. This is in violation of the most fundamental elements of sound judgment:

Lev 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. 

A righteous judge doesn’t consider the stature of the person. Judging the poor and lowly is the same as judging the highest of society.

Deu 1:16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. 

You must hear each side; listen intelligently. This is the word hear from the shema “Hear O Israel…” It is not a casual, but an intent listening. 

  Here Eliphaz has begun to listen seemingly, but has he really? What has Job really said? “I’m hurting, why is this happening?” There has been no accusation from him, there has been no pleading of guilt or innocence against a charge; but already Eliphaz is condemning him. He has established no fault and not listened to the cause of Job; this is very poor judgment.

  However, this is not a warning against judging. The body of Yeshua becomes very nervous when they hear talking of judging. Didn’t Yeshua say not to judge? Certainly we shouldn’t judge…right? Didn’t James say also so? But first, we must remember to look at the scriptures always from an earlier-to-later method, rather than as the body of Messiah has become prone to do, interpreting the later by itself and then condemning the earlier writings.

  We have already seen from the passage in Leviticus and Deuteronomy that God had commanded judgment of people by people. The basis of these judges authority was God himself:

Deu 1:17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.
 
  So there is a biblical method of judgment, however not just anyone could judge, they had to be appointed…

Deu 16:18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 
19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 

  This for example is the most simple explanation of what transpired with the adulteress in John 8. Yeshua could not condemn her because he was not a judge, and even if such a judge had been present Yeshua was not a witness. 

  Nevertheless, this has to do with formal judging by such an appointed judge. Job and Eliphaz as far as we know are not judges. However, they are all treated as elders:

Job 32:6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. 
7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. 
8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. 
9 Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.

  Job and the others are clearly seen as elders. And while elders were not necessarily judges, in the sense that their judgments were not legally binding (for lack of a better phrase): 

Deu 19:11 But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities: 
12 Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

Deu 21:1 If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: 
2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain…
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: 
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 
8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. 

Deu 21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 
19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 
20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 
21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 

Deu 22:13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 
14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: 
15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: 
16 And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; 
17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 
18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; 
19 And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 

Deu 25:7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. 
8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; 
9 Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. 

  The difference between a judge and elder appears to be that a judge is senior to the elders in terms of rank. Or rather in modern vernacular, elders were trial judges and judges were appellate judges. That is to say, if you read over the texts above elders are seen speaking for the people to declare innocence, establishing presented facts such as whether a woman was a virgin; or whether a man was refusing to marry his brother’s wife; or enforcing a sentence. A judge on the other hand, was one who decided in controversies. When it was not clear who was right in a matter then it went to the judge.

  An elder had to therefore be able to judge facts, ie is this the woman’s tokens of virginity? Is this son really rebelling even after correction? Is this man refusing to build up his brother’s house. And at this level they could dish out a beating or in the case of a murderer, deliver him to the avenger of blood. Those may seem a vast spectrum of issues to deal with for a ‘lower court’ but really they all hinge on establishing the facts. If this man is a cold blooded murder then a judge doesn’t need to get involved because for murderers there is a clear sentence, unless there was some rare extenuating circumstance in which case it could be delivered to the judge.

  The point here is that while not appointed judges, the elders still had to make judgments and unlike judges, elders were not appointed, they were simply elder. So we can see that there is a time and place for judgment. There are to be courts and ranks of authority that judge in matters between people. Now, understanding this we must seek to understand the words of Yeshua and Apostles because they have been at times said to be against judgment.

Mat 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Remembering always to look at the context, he is speaking to his disciples, none of whom we know to have been judges or elders. So it would seem that they don’t have a responsibility to judge so then they shouldn’t be, however, this doesn’t make sense because if you read the full passage he says “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye…then shalt though see clearly to cast out…” 

  7:5 is directed at the hypocrite, who cannot see clearly, which means 1-5 also do. 

Luk 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. 
39 And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? 
40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. 
41 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

The context is similar and this parallel is immediately preceded by the command to be merciful that we may receive mercy. We need to remember a few key phrases from earlier concerning what a judge was supposed to do:

Deu 1:16 …Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man… 
:17…for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

Deu 17:8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment…being matters of controversy… 

Deu 19:17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is…

Deu 25:1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment…

A judge was to judge between people, he was to judge controversies. When scripture speaks of the judge, judging the people, it isn’t referring to him going around “you’re a bad person! God can’t love you! God hates people like you!” The judge judged matters of Torah, deciding issues/matters. An example: if a judge says “You’re a murderer and can never be saved.” That’s judging a person. If he says, “I have diligently enquired in the matter and find that you have transgressed the torah and have committed murder, you shall be put to death.” He has judged the issue. 

  Let’s look at Luke again:

Luk 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 

  If you were never to judge issues/actions/matters then there could be no ‘forgiveness.’ Can you forgive someone who has done you no wrong? Why would God forgive us for forgiving things that weren’t sins? If you hurt your wife then you need to be forgiven. Is God going to forgive you if you forgive someone for giving you charity? No. Clearly there has to be a fault to be forgiven, there has to be the ‘sliver’ in your brother’s eye so that you can forgive it.   In fact this also explains that when he says ‘condemn not’ he is not talking about declaring someone as guilty, because again you have to be guilty of a crime to be forgiven for it. So he is clearly not talking about judging issues/actions; so what is he talking about? It’s as simple as reading the context.

Luk 6:32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 
33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 
34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

  We are supposed to be the light and the salt and to do God’s will so that men will see our good works and glorify God, but what glory is there for God if we do the same as everyone else. If you help someone else out, they’ll help you out. Now it isn’t always true, but in general people will ‘hook you up’ if you ‘hook them up.’ But the truth is that when they do these things there’s an expectation of return/of gain. During my time in the Marine Corps I saw this all the time where one person would cheat to help someone else get a higher score on the rifle range (the famed skill of the basic rifleman is much exaggerated), then when the relays switched and the second shooter didn’t do as well, you would often here “Man, I didn’t get any pit love even though I was giving out…” And this is logical, if you don’t believe in God then you will always try to secure your own advantage here. What else are you waiting for?
 
Luk 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 

  The standard God gives as always, is himself. We of course have nothing to give God. What is the meaning of my tithe? God made all the resources that I used to make the resources that I am now giving only a tenth back for. The only thing that I can actually make for God is my choices and it is the only thing he truly desires from us. 

  So the only thing that we can then deny God is also our choices. This is why it means everything that God is kind to the unthankful (who don’t acknowledge him) and to the evil. And the standard is the God who certainly knows that they will not return his favor, still is kind. The word kind here can also mean employed or useful towards. In other words he makes their lives better. We are to be well-doers and make people’s lives better by our resources because of the example set by God just as he makes people’s live better even when they do not acknowledge him. 

  On a side note, this is interesting in it’s correlation to Job’s situation. God is kind to those who are not kind to him; Job is in a situation where he is trying to find out why he should be kind to God when he is not being kind to Job. 

Luk 6:36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 
37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

  He’s talking about doing good to all people regardless of their actions to you, in short returning good for evil. Then he says because God is kind to the unthankful and evil, therefore be merciful, or compassionate; have pity…pity on who? Those who are guilty; those who are not thankful; those who are evil. In other words, yes recognize that people do wrong and obviously judge the action/issue as right or wrong, but have pity on the person. So does this mean we say that a person is guilty, but do not hold them accountable for their actions?

  Well, we always fall short of God’s standard of himself, which seems like a terrible situation to be in because no one can fill God’s shoes except God. However, believe it or not there is an upside to this. God says be merciful, as he is merciful, so to know what that means we need to look at how God is merciful.

Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 

Here the LORD is pronouncing his own name and proclaiming his attributes. There is so much richness in these two verses alone about who God is. But here we are looking at his mercy so that we can learn to be merciful. Firstly, understand the greek word oiktirmōn when it appears in the septuigent is the Hebrew word found here in verse 6 is “rachum” (H7349) meaning compassionate. This is word compassionate with one possible exception is only applied to God and it comes from a word meaning that can be translated fondle but is never done so. Even if it were, despite the stigma that is not a bad thing. If a man fondles his wife, or vice-versa it is a good thing. It is most often rendered either compassionate, merciful, or pity. 

  However, I’m going to disagree with that simplicity though I am not a scholar of foreign languages, but I don’t think alone it captures the correct sense. I say this because of the following Psalm:

Psa 18:1 I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.

This is one of my favorite Psalms because it came at the point that I was considering the holiness of God’s name and whether it should be spoken and I realized this Psalm loses so much if you don’t use his name as it is written. But the point from this verse, is the last line. “I will love thee…” If you render this as compassion or mercy, what does that mean? David can’t have mercy on God; no one can have mercy in God. Can anyone have compassion on God? Can we ‘feel sorry’ or commiserate with the one who has all strength and more compassion than anyone is capable of? 

  It is meaningless if not rendered love. If on the other hand you go to everyplace where it is rendered mercy or compassion and you put love in there, it makes perfect sense. It enhances what is already there. If you have love for someone then of course you commiserate with them, and of course you want to be merciful to them. 

  So the subject word Rachum (H7349) comes from Racham and means to be merciful/loving. So how does God show this ‘lovingkindness’ (which is how this word is elsewhere rendered). By keeping mercy (different word meaning kindness, favour, or goodness) for thousands. In otherwords, he saves up goodness to give people by the thousands. Forgiving three different kinds of infractions; contrary to popular belief all sin is not the same. There is iniquity, literally perversity or crookedness, wrong doing; this would be known fault, conscious sin. Transgression means to revolt, to apostasize, or break away; an active defiance towards God. Sin means an offence, a miss; you were probably aiming in the right direction, but you just fell short. Our God is willing to forgive all of those.  

  However, then he says the next line “…and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children…” This phrase could be literally translated “clean, but not exhaustively clean.” Elsewhere the individual word form “nâqâh” (H5352) is rendered ‘unpunished.’ So it could be rendered “unpunished, but not exhaustively unpunished.” So even though he will forgive the trespass, making atonement for it, he will not entirely remove the consequences of it. An example could be Moses when he struck the rock the second time in disobedience to God, he was forgiven but as a consequence he could not enter the promised land. David was forgiven his sin with Bethsheba, but the baby still died.

  So what do we know about God’s mercy? Firstly, not everyone gets it. 

Exo 33:17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. 
18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. 
19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 

Remembering that Racham here rendered mercy can also be love, which then makes sense of Moses has found grace/favor in God’s sight and asks to be shown the glory. God says he will and ends it with a phrase that could be rendered “…and will shew love on whom I will shew love.” 

  God does not have to extend his lovingkindness on everyone. We know that God loves the whole world, but we also know that not everyone receives his mercy, so not everyone receives his loving kindness. 

Isa 9:17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isa 27:11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

Jer 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. 

God has mercy/lovingkindness to bestow on everyone, but he will have it on whom he will have it and the disobedient will not have it in many cases (though as we’ve seen he still sends gifts to the unthankful). Secondly, we saw back in Exodus 34, that even though he is full of mercy and does forgive rebellion, conscious sin, and missing the mark, he does not hold back all the consequences and punishment for their actions. 

  That may seem like a contradiction because how can God punish us for something we have been forgiven for? Well this is the flipside of obedience. Remember earlier we saw that if you believe God’s commands are arbitrary than any blessing that results from obedience is simply God throwing us a treat. On the other hand, if you believe that as God said, his commands are for our good then obedience will result in blessing. The inverse is that if God’s commands are for out good then disobedience will result in punishment as a natural consequence if left unchecked by God’s supernatural power. This is further proof of the premise of cause and effect because if punishment is not the natural consequence of our disobedient action than despite our forgiveness, God is still punishing arbitrarily since there is no actual correlation between our disobedience and our punishment.

  So then, in response to Yeshua’s teachings that we be merciful as our Father is merciful. This means again that we do not pretend that no wrong has been committed, mercy (or rather as we saw compassion or lovingkindness) is dependent on there being a fault to have mercy or compassion over. We must be ready to extend compassion to everyone…I would feel like I was on dangerous ground to say there is anyone you should not have compassion for. However, our compassion does not negate the consequences of their actions. 

  Therefore, when we move in this context into the subject in Luke and Matthew of not judging, it is perfectly consistent with the view that Yeshua is not talking about a prohibition on evaluating good from evil and right from wrong. But rather using the proper, non-hypocritical method of righteous judgment of issues, not people; being ready to forgive offenses that you determine have taken place; and being compassionate in consequences. 

  If this were not the conclusion than no one could be expected to follow Yeshua because he constantly judged; remember the seven woes? And he told his Apostles to judge; Matthew 18:15-22? Nor could you listen to Paul, who was certain not blameless, in fact he submitted his doctrine to the Apostles at Jerusalem and yet still had the guts to rebuke Peter. 
  Remember this passage?

1Co 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 
2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 
3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 
4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. 
5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? 
6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. 

  Not only are there to be judgments made, we are to submit to the judgment of the saints rather than go to the courts of the world…though of course that was in Corinth where they did not have a system of courts that submitted to God (you will recall that the Apostles on occasions did submit to the Sanhedrin except when they were prohibited for speaking in Yeshua’s name). 

  The point is that we are to judge, but we are to judge righteously and compassionately. And again, yes, most of these passages spoke of judging in the formal binding sense. However, since we have determined that the seeming prohibitions against judging are in fact targeted at the uncompassionate and the hypocritical, there remains nothing that even slightly indicates that we are not individually supposed to judge the issues in our lives. We cannot forgive anyone if we don’t determine they have trespassed against us. We cannot know good doctrine from bad doctrine if we do not judge it. We cannot choose leaders if we cannot determine what men and women are sober, humble, grave and the many other qualities. 

  The people who are against judgment in any form have no idea what they’re saying, especially since it is their judgment that says we cannot judge. While it is possible that some are simply ignorant, I think it really goes to a misunderstanding of unity where it is pursued above truth. Rather we should have unity in love and truth. Judgment protects the community from false doctrine, and from evil. We must put away evil from our midst or we will all be unifed in our own destruction. 

Job 4.1: Fear God because he is good

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.

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 2.3: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 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?