The Story of Job: A Glimpse into the Mystery of Suffering

Bice te spirit of the present age unconsciously affects even

those who acknowledge that ‘‘ Every Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for discipline which is in righteousness”’.

“Was Job a real person?”’ is the question that springs to the lips of some as soon as his name is mentioned.

The Omniscient Lord foresaw these perilous times, and happily provided in later Scriptures the answer to this question.

The prophet Ezekiel expressly records that the word of the

Lord came to him saying, “‘ Son of man, when a land sinneth against Me... though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it they should but deliver their own souls ’’.* We may rest assured that the God of Truth would not have classed Job with Noah and Daniel as one of three righteous men had he been but a mythical personage, and the Book of Job naught else but a literary masterpiece.:

The Apostle James also speaks of Job, and appears to include him among ‘‘ the prophets who spake in the Name of the Lord ’’, who were examples of “suffering and of patience”’. He is among the ‘‘ Blessed” ones who endured. “‘ Ye have heard,” he writes, ‘‘ of the endurance of Job, and have seen [in his case] the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful”’. +

It is very evident that the early Christians knew the reality of Job’s history, and regarded him as an example of patience, and his life-story as an encouragement to trust in the compassion and love of God.

* Ezekiel xiv. 14, 20. t+ James v. 11, m.

The Jews have tenaciously kept the Book of Job in their Canon of Scripture. It is said to be the oldest book extant, and to have been written some two thousand years before Christ.

It is impossible to speak with absolute certainty upon these two last points, but on general internal evidence some scholars assign the book to the period of the time of Abraham. “That it is inspired appears from the fact that the Apostle Paul quotes it (in 1 Cor. iii. 19) with the formula It is written. Our Saviour also (Matt. xxiv. 28) plainly refers to Job xxxix. 30.”’*

The LXX in their translation say that Job lived some two hundred and forty years, one hundred and forty after his affliction. It is therefore quite possible, as some think, that he knew, and often talked with, Shem the son of Noah, and that Job himself may have been one of the line of sacred prophets spoken of by Zechariah under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as having been “since the world began”’.

In the sacred record Job is described as the “‘ greatest of all the children of the East’. Most scholars are agreed that he was of princely rank, some even maintaining that he was a real King. His possessions were very great, and consisted of thousands of sheep and camels, many hundred yoke of oxen and she-asses, and “a very great household”’.

Seven sons and three daughters, with his wife, formed his immediate family circle; and at the time of the opening of the Scripture story the sons appear to have had each their own households, doubtless maintained in conformity with their father’s wealth and dignity.

It is also evident that Job was cultured and learned to an advanced degree, for in his book we find, “a familiarity with writing, engraving in stone, mining, metallurgy, building, shipping, natural history, astronomy, and science in general”’.+

Above all we are left in no doubt as to Job’s personal character. ‘The very first words of the book are given to describing this, whilst it is silent as to much that is mere detail in his history.

Again and again we find this method in both Old and New Testaments. ‘The sacred writings are not intended to satisfy our curiosity. They describe lives and histories only so far

* Fausset. t Seiss.

as to fulfil the main purpose of God in winning men back to Himself.

It is thus in the case of Job. A very few words suffice to tell us of his position, wealth, and family circle, and then we are at once introduced to a passage in his life of momentous import and teaching for all the people of God long after Job himself has passed away.

Job’s portrait as a man of God is sketched for us in a few brief words —

“* That man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”’ — Chap. i. 1.

It is of the greatest importance that we should fully recognize Job’s spiritual character at the time when he was placed in the furnace of trial. He is described as ‘“‘ perfect and upright”’, and Jehovah uses the very same language when speaking of him in the council of heaven.

Job’s subsequent history interprets this description, and makes it clear that he was called a “‘ perfect”? man, simply in the sense of being whole-hearted, and sincere in his loyalty to God. He was not of double heart (“‘ a heart and a heart” as in the expressive marginal reading of 1 Chron. xii. 33), seeking to serve two masters, God and himself. ‘This whole-hearted loyalty to God made him upright in his life before men. He feared God and shunned evil.

The “fear of the Lord” is the Old Testament expression descriptive of the “understanding”? mentioned by the Apostle John, when he wrote to the “little children”, who *“knew the Father”, saying, He “hath given us an understanding, that we know Him that is true ’’.*

This ‘‘ fear of the Lord”’, or “‘ understanding”’, is a Divine sensitiveness to His will, an intuitive knowledge of it springing out of a close fellowship with God Himself. Job had this fear of God in a marked degree, and as a consequence he abstained from everything evil.

The extent of our knowledge of God, our ‘ quick understanding”? of His mind and will, carries with it a proportionate knowledge of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Just so far as we truly know God shall we have a godly awe of Him, and dread to grieve Him.

Job’s “fear of the Lord”’, and sensitiveness to sin, we see

* John v. 20. + Septuagint version, carried out in practice. Not only in the shunning of evil so far as he knew a thing to be evil, but in his instinctive consciousness of the need of sacrifice, or the shedding of blood, for the remission of even sins of ignorance. He anticipated the law given afterward to Israel, “‘if.a soul sin... though he wist it not, yet he is guilty”’.*

Yea, taught of God he anticipated the “better sacrifice” referred to in Heb. ix. 23, and the “blood of sprinkling” speaking evermore within the veil for the continual cleansing of all who walk in fellowship with God.

Job knew the Lord in His Holiness, and in his fear of sinning against Him, he rises early in the morning to offer sacrifice to God on behalf of his children, lest in their days of feasting they might have failed in the recollection of Jehovah’s presence, gone beyond the limit of restraint in any degree, had a thought of evil in their minds,{ or blasphemed God in their hearts (margin R.V.).

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