Job in the Crucible

“* Instead of his glory there shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire... and it shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.” — Isa. x. 16-18, m. But now... derision! ’’ — Chap. xxx. 1.

es the past with all its blessed memories, Job turns to the painful present, and the story he relates bears a strange likeness to the path of the Cross trodden by the Holy Son of God, when he became obedient unto death, and was despised and rejected of men.

Was the history of Job not only a pattern of the ways of the Lord with His children, but also a foreshadowing of the Christ Who was to come?

Isaiah lilt was a prophecy plainly depicting a suffering Messiah. Is it possible that the same portrait was dimly outlined in human story to the people of Job’s day?

In any case the inner harmony of the Scriptures is strikingly confirmed by Job’s history. Exteriorly the letter of the Word has been given ‘‘ at sundry times and in divers manners”’, but internally we perceive the same Spirit, and the same truth in unbroken unity. From Genesis to Revelation we find the reiterated message of death and resurrection, for the Christ of God as the Representative of fallen man, and for every child of Adam brought back in Him to be a child of God.

The way of the Cross was trodden by the Christ in His passage from earth to heaven on behalf of His redeemed. It was the way to life abundant for Job in the ages that preceded Christ’s first coming, and it is still the path of life for every soul, in these latter days, looking for the second appearing of the Glorified Lord.

The path of derision

“But now they that are younger than I have me in derision.’’ — Chap. xxx. 1.

Job had been depicting his authority and power when he sat as chief, and chose out the way of the people. In bitter contrast he pictures his present condition. Then every one had hung upon his words. Now even those who were younger than he had him in derision. Not only they who were below him in age, but also in position; people of a class so far beneath him, that in his princely days — speaking after the manner of men — he would not have considered them fit for companionship with the dogs of his flock.

Strangely does fallen nature rejoice in the downfall of others! When a man is used of God, and esteemed very highly by those who revere him for his work’s sake, there are always some who look on with jealousy and envy in their hearts — alas, even among brethren!

O child of God, canst thou rejoice to see another exalted, even though it means at the cost of thine own humiliation? Canst thou be genuinely glad to see thy fellow-worker win a soul, instead of thyself? See another honoured and thyself humbled? Another sent forth to the service once given to thee, and glory in the privilege of hidden service at the Throne of God?

“They that are younger than I,’ was Job’s complaint. Is this thy cry, O servant of God? Thou who hast borne the burden and heat of the day in the Master’s service. Some young uncultured worker, full of zeal, despiseth thee for the apparent lack of blessing in the vineyard entrusted to thy care. Art thou willing to be called ‘‘ old-fashioned”’, and to retire from the work which has been to thee as thy very life?

Not only do the young despise me, said Job, but gaunt and famished men (v. 3, 4); men who are hounded forth as thieves from the midst of others (v. 5); men who are thankful to hide in the most gloomy valleys, in holes of the earth, and the rocks (v. 6, m.); children of fools, base men, outcasts from the land (v. 8, m.); I am actually become the song of men like these, “‘ yea, I am a by-word unto them”’ (v. 9).

The foreshadowed Cross ““They abhor me, they... spare not to spit in my face... upon my right hand rise the rabble... as a wide breaking in of waters

they come; in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.” — Chap. xxx. 10-14, m.

From these words it appears that a crowd had gathered around the dung-hill upon which Job lay, “‘ crucified to the world’’, some hundreds of years ere Christ hung upon His Cross at Calvary. Such a mixed rabble gathered around the Lord. Base men were found to testify against Him; men who spoke of Him as ‘‘ This fellow”’. He was even the song of the drunkards. Thieves were crucified with Him, and assuredly had their fellows in the crowd to watch them die.

Job had spent his life in blessing the poor and needy, and now the outcasts gaze upon him, triumph in his downfall, abhor him for his repulsive condition, and spare not to spit at the sight of him.

Even so it was written of the Christ —

“* All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake

the head.’’ — Ps. xxii. 7.

They have cast off all restraint (v. 11), cries Job, as he looks upon the rabble gathered around him. ‘‘ They thrust aside my feet... they set forward my calamity” (v. 12, 13). ““In the midst of the ruin, they roll themselves upon me.”’

Even so it was written of the Christ —

“Dogs have encompassed Me: the assembly of evil-doers have enclosed

Me.” — Ps. xxii. 16.

““Thou chasest my nobility as the wind,” (v. 15, m.) cries Job! ae

“* Thou knowest my shame and my dishonour,’’ (Ps. lxix. 19) said the Son of God.

“My soul is poured out within me,” (v. 16) cries Job!

“* He poured out His soul unto death,’’ (Isa. liii. 12) was written of the Lord.

“‘ In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains ... take no rest... He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes,” (v. 17-19) groans out stricken Job.

“They pierced My hands and My side”? and ‘ Thou hast brought Me to the dust of death,” (Ps. xxil. 15, 16) was the language of the Son of God.

“I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not answer me,”? was Job’s bitter complaint! ““My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me... O my God I ery

... but Thou answerest not,” (Ps. xxii. 1, 2) the pitiful cry of Him, Who was smitten of God, and afflicted on our behalf.

Thus, in point after point, we may trace the story of the Cross in Job’s experience. Base men, who were outcasts, and thieves, gathered around him; he was their song and their by-word. They abhorred him, and spat upon him. They were permitted of God to cast off all restraint in mocking him. They cast up against him their ‘‘ ways of destruction”’ (v. 12), charging him with their ruin because of his judgments upon them when he ‘“‘ plucked the prey from their teeth’. The “brood” (v. 12, m.) of evil-doers now had their opportunity, and swept upon him as through a wide breach in the hedge that God had once placed around him. In the midst of all these awful forces of iniquity, let loose upon him from without, his soul was poured out within him; his bones were pierced, and gnawing pains gave him no rest; he was disfigured and cast into the mire; brought down to dust and ashes. Above all, and in all, the bitterest pang was that God was silent. The Lord could behold all the suffering of His servant, and yet not interpose on his behalf!

As Job thinks of this unaccountable silence of the God he had served so long, he cries out with anguish in his voice — “Thou art turned to be cruel to me”? (v. 21).

Job tells the Lord that He is using the might of His hand to persecute him! He had lifted him up upon a tempest of trouble only to dissolve him in the storm (v. 22), for he knew that He was bringing him to death, to the place appointed for all men.

Job’s collapse

‘Surely against a ruinous heap He will not put forth His hand

.. in His destruction [one may utter] a cry because of these things! Did J not weep for him that was in trouble... when J looked for good then evil came.” — Chap. xxx. 24-26.

4 ruinous heap’”’ Job calls himself in his extremity. Then his conscience, quickly sensitive to the fear of God, smites him. What words are these that he has uttered? He had told his friends that he would trust in God, even though it pleased Jehovah to slay him. He had boldly said that when his trial was finished he would come forth as gold, and now, in his soul agony, he charges the God he believed to be faithful, with turning against him, and persecuting him.

As the words passed his lips Job knew that they were wrong, but he silences the still small voice within his conscience, with the excuse ‘“‘ One may utter a cry because of these things!”

Job had reached the crucial moment of his trial, and did

not know it. He had maintained unshaken confidence in God up to this point. The battle of words with his friends had only served to deepen his faith in God, but when he gave himself up to the luxury of dwelling upon his past, his regret and despair at his present condition grew more and more acute, until he utters words of bitter reproach to his Almighty Friend.. Next came self-excuse, instead of quick contrition and confession of wrong accusation of his Lord; from this he sinks into self-pity, that he had not been given the ‘“‘ good” he should have had, as the reward of his life of unselfish pity for others (v. 25, 26); then self-pity turns to self-dejection over his blackened condition (v. 28, m.), and finally mourning and weeping over himself in helpless and hopeless sorrow Gicgot). 7 nsied Aili

We read of a similar experience in the life of Jeremiah the prophet. Smarting under suffering caused by others, he said to the Lord, ‘‘ Every one doth curse me... I sat alone because of Thy hand... wilt Thou be unto me as a deceitful brook?” One who has failed! And the Lord replied to the storm-tossed prophet, ‘‘ If thou takest this back. I will again let thee stand before My countenance ’’.*

If Job had heeded the inner warning, and quickly retracted his words to the Lord, it is probable that he would not have sunk into the wail of despair and unworthy self-vindication that followed, giving his friends the occasion for thinking that they had been right after all, and Job was righteous in his own eyes.

Job’s spirit has at last been touched — he has lost his inner anchor, and is fainting under the hand of God. ‘“‘ The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a broken spirit who can bear”’, (or “* raise up’, Prov. xviii. 14, m)?

Nevertheless the faithful Lord is watching the crucible. He will not permit the fiery trial to last one moment too long. Even now Job has not renounced God. The loyalty of his will has remained unshaken. In anguish of spirit he has reproached his Lord, but he does not withdraw himself from His hand, and refuse to trust Him any more.

* Jer. xv. 10-19. Swedish translation.
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This is the holding fast of his integrity — his will remains surrendered to God to the very end. His resistance — if it may be called resistance — has been involuntary, and mainly the outcry of nature shrinking from pain, but this does not hinder the Lord continuing His work in the same way as when the will refuses to endure any further chastening, and the child of God deliberately appeals to Him to withdraw him from the crucible.

A CONTRAST

We have already contrasted Job, the servant of God, with the Lord Christ, the Son of God, and noted the striking similarity of their paths of suffering, but at this point we may contrast them again, and see an equally striking dis-similarity in their endurance of suffering.

It has been said that ‘‘ By nature we fear suffering more than sinning”’, and it seems to be true that deeply inwrought in our very beings is the shrinking from pain and the false condemnation of our fellow-men.

In contrast with Job the whole life-pathway of the Lord Christ shows a calm and stedfast acceptance of all that was keenly painful to Him as Man. He humbled Himself, not only the once in taking upon Him the form of a man, but in every step of His path, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.

Christ was led to the judgment hall, where there gathered around Him men of the very same type as the three friends of Job. Religious men who professed to know God, and were confident that they were fit to be guides of the blind and correctors of the foolish.

In a far greater measure than Job, the Lord Christ had caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy; spoken gracious words such as man could never speak; and spent out His life in ministry to all who were in sorrow and trouble. Charged with blasphemy by those who should have been His friends, and condemned as a sinner and a deceiver; Christ — unlike Job — answered nothing, ‘‘ not so much as a word’. ‘* When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him Who judgeth righteously.”

Again — Christ upon the Cross, in His deep suffering, cries to His Father ‘‘ Thou answerest not”’,* immediately adding,

* Psalm xxii. 2, 3.
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But Thou art holy’, as He rests upon the immutability of His Father’s character of Love.

In contrast with the Lord, we hear Job say in his hour of anguish, ‘“‘ Thou dost not answer me... Thou art turned to be cruel to me ’’ — and he faints under the hand of God!

Job, Chapters xxxi, xxxii. 1.