Job’s Captivity Turned
“We went through fire and through water; But Thou broughtest us out into abundance.’”’ — Psalm lxvi. 12, m. It was so, that after the Lord had spoken... unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz.”’ — Chap. xlit. 7.
1 Pee Lord has brought Job into his right place before Him, and now turns to Eliphaz and the two other friends.
Job had said that his Redeemer would vindicate him in the day of His coming to judge the earth, but Jehovah cannot allow His servant to remain under the misjudgment of his fellows, so He will vindicate him at once, and “‘ bring forth his righteousness as the light, and his judgment as the noonday!”
“My wrath is kindled against thee, and thy two friends”? (v. 7), said Jehovah to Eliphaz, singling him out by name for special reproof because he, of all the three, had assumed spiritual authority, and most emphatically asserted that his knowledge had been obtained directly from God.
Eliphaz had repeated to Job what he heard from the spirit-form, but Jehovah repudiates the teaching of the spirit-voice by saying to Eliphaz, ‘‘ Ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right...” (v. 8).
These words make it still more manifest that the vision Eliphaz had described to Job was not from God, but from the Adversary who had set his heart upon causing Job to renounce his faith in God.
In these last most perilous times, lying spirits are again sent forth from the pit to ‘‘ shew great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible even the elect”,* but God grant that His children may refuse to give heed to all the subtle voices of spirit-forms, remembering that ‘‘ God having of old time spoken unto the fathers... in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son”’,y and by the Holy
* Matt. xxiv. 24. Compare also 2 Thess. ii. 9g. f{ Heb. i. 1, 2. 141
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Spirit, Who will teach us how to abide in Him, and instruct us also how to “prove the spirits, whether they be of God”?.
‘“‘- Ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath,” said the Lord to Bildad and Zophar as well as to Eliphaz, thus rejecting — not only the words of the lying spirit to Eliphaz, but — all the ideas of suffering expressed by the three men.;
The Lord moreover emphatically declared that Job had said of Him “‘ the thing that was right’’ in saying that the hand of God had touched him, and that He was but dealing with him as assayers deal with true gold — in placing it in a crucible of fire — for the removal of the dross.
We therefore see clearly from the words of Jehovah that the children of God must refuse to dwell on the second causes in their lives. ‘The Adversary may attack them, as he attacked Job, but only by express permission of God. They need not be occupied with watching for the Adversary in all that comes to them, but in all and through all recognize the hand of God — even as the Lord Jesus did when He said ‘‘’The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” at the very time He calls “* the hour and the power of darkness”’.
The story of Job comes with fresh power in these days — when the enemy is coming in like a flood, having great wrath knowing that his time is short — to remind the redeemed that in the triumphant Lord they are given “‘ power over all the power of the enemy”’ as they look beyond all second causes, be they Satanic or human, to Him Who sitteth on the Throne, for “‘ The Lord sat as King at the flood, yea the Lord sitteth as King for ever”’.* The child of God must shelter under the power of the sprinkled blood of Christ, and abide in the keeping of the Father, leaving to Him the stilling of the enemy and the avenger.
“Ye have not spoken of Me the thing that ts right,’ declares Jehovah to the three men. They had said that God was angry with His servant Job and was punishing him for transgression, whilst it was afterwards proved that God was but leading him on to a fuller knowledge of Himself, and breaking him down on every side to make room for the reception of the Divine abundance.
“Ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right as My servant Job hath,” said Jehovah, thus confessing Job before
*sPsa.eXXix,, LO. t Psa. viii. 2.
his friends, as He had done before the council of heaven, to be His servant. He was not ashamed to be called his God!
“My servant Job!’” — so Jehovah graciously acknowledges the man who had become the open abhorring of outcasts and friends, and had drunk, in his measure, the cup of sorrow to the dregs.
The command to the friends
“Go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offffering,
and My servant Fob shall pray for you.” — Chap. xlii. 8.
“* Seven bullocks and seven rams’? were the rebuked men to take and offer to God, as a confession of sin, and an acknowledgment that their guilt could only be atoned for by the shedding of blood; the number seven indicating the need of a full and complete sacrifice ere they could be forgiven.
Moreover they had to humble themselves, and accord with Jehovah’s estimation of Job, by going to him that he might pray for them — thus admitting they had wronged him.
It was true that they had not known the Lord as Job had, and were well-intentioned in their desire to help him, but the Lord’s severe rebuke shows that He considered them verily guilty concerning their hardness to their brother in affliction. Jehovah plainly told them that only for Job’s sake, and by humbling themselves to him, could they escape severe dealing for their foolish short-sighted judgment of a man whose character should have commanded trust, even when they did not understand his path, and for their self-complacent assumption of knowledge of the ways of God.
Oh, child of God, art thou crying to thy Lord to avenge His own elect? Wait thou His time, ‘‘ Hear now this thou afflicted —”
‘“* Thus saith thy Lord the Lord... Behold I have taken out of thine hand
the cup of staggering... thou shalt no more drink it again; and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy back... as the street, to them.”
—Isa. li. 21-23.
Jehovah’s dealing with Job and his friends has been repeated again and again in the history of the children of God. We may point to Joseph and his brethren as an example in detail, and remember how the brethren who had despitefully used him had eventually to bow down themselves before him, and to receive bread from his hands, foreshadowing the Christ Himself who was rejected and yet to whom eventually every knee shall bow.
The principles of God’s dealings with man are as unchanging as the immutable God Himself. “* God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble.”* ‘‘ Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.’’t
“* My servant Fob shall pray for you, for him will I accept,” said Jehovah to the men who had told Job that God was exacting less of him than his iniquity deserved!
And Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar “‘ did according as the Lord commanded them”?, and ‘‘ He pardoned their sin for the sake of FOU. ot
Job’s deliverance And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his
friends.” — Chap. xlii. 10.
It is not written that the Lord turned the captivity of Job, and then he prayed for his friends; but that when he prayed for them, his own release came!
Jehovah had revealed Himself to Job, rebuked his would-be helpers and acknowledged him as His servant, but exteriorly he was still an afflicted man, bereft of all he had once possessed, homeless, friendless, a ‘‘ beggar upon the dung-hill’’.
Surely Job’s need was prayer for himself first, he must be delivered ere he can pray for others, but No! Jehovah has bidden the three men go to the outcast upon the ashmound, who should pray for them, and the Lord would accept his prayer.
The Lord said nothing to Job of deliverance for himself, but He did say He would accept him as he prayed for his accusers. Job must therefore put aside all thought of his present condition, and co-operate with the known will of God. He must not wait for outward and manifest deliverance from his sorrows, but must cease from himself, and his affairs, and attend to the needs of his friends.
As the three men come to him — still a broken man — did Job think in his heart ‘‘ Are my would-be comforters, who have condemned me and dealt so hardly with me, to be thought of first? Are they to be pardoned and blessed while -
* James iv. 6. Matt. xxiii. 12. Septuagint version.
I, whom God has acknowledged to be His servant, am not to be thought of at all? Is there no deliverance for me?”
The three men come to Job, and whilst outwardly a beggar he acts like a prince! The Lord had said that He would accept him, so he rests upon the word of the living God, and acts as a prince of the heavenly realm — a prince having power with God!
Job prays for his friends. What a test of his inner spirit! He must pray with desire, or his prayer would be in vain. Does he really, with his whole soul, desire that the men who had misjudged him so cruelly, and dealt with him so hardly, should be forgiven and blessed whilst he is left, apparently undelivered, upon the ash-mound outside the village?
Yes, Job was able to pray so that he could prevail with God, as he asked the blessing for others that he might not ask Sor himself! Job prayed, even as the Lord Jesus prayed in the midst of His own suffering for those who crucified Him.
The Spirit of the crucified Jesus is thus seen to be manifested in Job, even as he trod, in wondrous foreshadowing of the Master’s footsteps, the pathway of the Cross.
Job prays, and as he prays the word of power is spoken from the Throne. ‘‘ Deliver him ...I have found a Ransom”. The kingly soul in the bonds of affliction is set free, his captivity is turned, and the days of his mourning are ended.
Nothing is said of the way in which Job’s captivity was turned! The immediate results of the word of deliverance are not told us, possibly because they are of little importance in the eyes of the Lord Who looketh upon the heart; possibly also because the All-wise Lord knew how His children in the furnace of trial, would be tempted to set their minds upon the outward and visible signs of blessing rather than the inward and spiritual grace so much greater in value to Him.
It is sufficient for us to know that the turning point of Job’s pathway of trial came when he entirely ceased from himself, and prayed for his friends.
Oh child of God in the crucible of trial, dost thou heed the lesson? Thou hast been stripped of all thy past strength and power; thou hast writhed and agonized for deliverance from the bonds of affliction; thou hast had the light of God upon thee, and now thou art loathing thyself, and wondering when thy deliverance will come!
Dost thou not see in the object-lesson before thee that thy captivity shall be turned when thou dost turn from thyself; and leave thyself in the hand of God? When thou wilt cease to think of thine own needs, and in thy emptiness and poverty give thyself to the ministry for others, caring nought for thyself at all; yea, even when thou dost desire with thy whole heart, the blessing of others more than thine own, and rest content with the will of God — whether it be deliverance from the furnace, or no deliverance — so that thou mayest have a better resurrection, and shine a brighter jewel in the Master’s crown?
A double portion “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” — Chap. xlil. ro.
Thus briefly are we again given a glimpse into the heart of God, and shown His purpose in placing His loved ones in the crucible. Jehovah gives back to Job more than He had taken away, yea, He added “‘ unto the double”? (A.V., m.).
The ‘“‘ double”? given to Job at this point of his spiritual history is strikingly explained by other passages of Scripture.
In the statutes given to Israel we read that the “‘ double portion”? was peculiarly the right of the eldest son. The father was to acknowledge the first-born ‘“‘ by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the first-born is his”’.*
In later Scriptures we learn that when Elijah asked Elisha what he should do for him ere he was taken away, Elisha replied “TI pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me”’. The R.V. margin says that he asked for the portion of the first-born.
Elijah’s reply was a strange one! He said that Elisha had asked a hard thing, but if he saw him as he was caught away then his request should be fulfilled. Elisha did see Elijah as he was suddenly translated in a chariot of fire. Then “he took hold of hts own clothes and rent them in two pieces”? and took up the mantle that had fallen from Elijah as he passed out of sight into the unseen world. The mantle that typified in later years the poured-out Spirit upon the waiting disciples at Jerusalem; the gift of the ascended Lord.t
But why did Elijah say that Elisha had asked a “hard thing”, when the portion of the first-born was the right of the elder son?
*Deut. xxi, t 2 Kings ii.g, 10,m, y See Acts ii. 33.
The “double portion” of the fulness of the Spirit is a birthright for those who are born of God, but it is a “hard thing”’ to the flesh for the child of God to be truly broken enough for its reception.
Elisha took hold of his own clothes and rent them in twain! Even so must we be broken on every side, ere we can know in reality all the fulness that is typified by the portion of the first-born son.
Truly Job’s path to the double portion had been a “hard thing’. The breaking of the outward man had cost him many tears. The tenacity of faith in God (which is the spiritual meaning of Elisha’s fixity of vision upon Elijah) had also been a “hard thing”. It was hard “against hope, to believe in hope”’, and surely harder still when stripped of “his own clothes ’ — in the sense of being a broken man, stripped of all that had once given him authority and power — to take the place of intercession with God for others, whilst still an exteriorly stricken man.
The Son of God is expressly called the “First-born”’, for it is written “‘ When He bringeth in the First-born into the world He saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him”’.* But Christ was not only the First-born Son of God into this world, but the First-born from the dead into the other world.
The veil of His body was rent upon Calvary’s Cross, as out of His pierced side there poured forth blood and water — a fountain opened for sin for all the world. He was carried into the tomb, arose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as the “First-born of many brethren’’+ who should be conformed to Him, and like Him pass through death into life, through suffering into glory, for ‘‘ He is the Head of the body, the Church... the First-born from the dead’’,t and joined to Him, they are the ‘‘ Church of the First-born who are enrolled in heaven”’.§
The Father acknowledged the Son as the First-born by giving Him the anointing above His fellows, in Whom, and through Whom, they too share in the double portion of their race — the race of “First-born”’ sons of God, they who will be partakers of the “‘ first resurrection”’,|| ‘‘ heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that [they] suffer with Him, that [they] may be also glorified together”’.
* Heb. i.6,m. f Rom. viii. 29. Col. i. 18. § Heb. xii. 23.
Rev. xx. 6. §] Rom. viii. 17, A.V.
All this illuminates the dealings of God with Job. He had known the power of the Spirit in his life as we have seen in the description of his service, but through his fiery trial he has been led from faith to faith, and deepened and prepared to receive “‘ twice as much as he had before”’.
Again we see the wondrous harmony of the Scriptures, and the unvarying message brought out in many and diverse ways in this wonderful book we call the Bible. With the immutable God, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. To Him there is no time, nor change in His principles of dealing with His own. It is ever the same story, and one theme underlies the histories of all His people.
In Job the “‘ hard thing”’ of the fiery trial, and the double portion of his restoration, foreshadowing the resurrection life in union with the Risen Lord.
In Elisha, the ‘‘ hard thing ’’ of the fixity of vision upon the departing Elijah, and the rent clothes, followed by receiving the falling mantle of the prophet of God.
In Christ — to Whom all pointed, and in Whom all are again blessed — the “‘ hard thing’? of the death of Calvary, followed by the reception of the Anointing Spirit, and place upon the Father’s throne.
Even so must it be for every member of His body. They must choose the ‘‘ hard thing” of fellowship with Him in His Cross, if they are to be truly joined to Him as the First-born from the dead, share in the Anointing He received above His fellows, and finally sit with Him in His Father’s Throne.
The blessing of the Lord
“Then came there unto him... brethren... sisters... and
all they that had been of his acquaintance.” — Chap. xlii. 11.
Unmistakably do we see again and again how truly the Lord is the “‘ First Cause” to His people.
Job had said that the Lord had put his acquaintance far from him, and now the Lord brings them back!
Brethren, sisters, and acquaintances, all gathered around Job when they heard that the Lord had spoken to him, and had vindicated him to his friends.
Job’s “‘ house”? too was apparently restored, for he seems to have received his guests therein, and ‘“‘ they did eat bread with him in hs house’’, no longer afraid of partaking with an evil-doer.
Moreover Job was given the sympathy he had missed so sorely in his path of trial, and (wise after the sorrows were over) they “comforted him concerning all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him”, thus acknowledging that his sufferings had come to him from the hand of God, yet calling them “evil”? nevertheless. They were ‘evil’? in the sense that “all chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous”? although “afterward it yieldeth peaceful fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness”’. *
It may be said that no evil can come from God as its source, and this is true; nevertheless again and again we read that the Lord brought evil upon His people.t It is evident therefore that the Scripture means us to recognize the hand of God above all, and in all, that comes to His children, for ‘“‘ God worketh all things with them for good’’, and resting in His will they do not see suffering to be “evil’? any more.
Nevertheless the Scripture does not hesitate to describe the sufferings of Job as ‘“‘ evil’, because in itself, apart from the purpose of God, suffering is an “evil”; and the God of Truth does not ask His children to call it anything else but grievous, when they are “put to grief in manifold trials”, although they trust and praise Him in them, and wait patiently for the “afterward”’.
Job’s recent self-renunciation before God had also to be put to the test, in that the Lord chose the very ones who had forsaken him in his hour of need, to minister unto him of their substance, for “‘ every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one a ring of gold” (v. 11).
True, it was the custom in the East for presents to be offered in visiting a man of rank after a calamity, but none the less did it need self-effacement for Job to say, “‘ The Lord took away, and now He restoreth by the hands of those who failed me in my time of trial — and yet — Blessed be the Name of the Lord”’.
“So the Lord blessed the latter end of Fob more than his beginning” (v. 12). His wealth in flocks and herds was restored to him; sheep, camel, and oxen doubled in numbers,y and once again sons and daughters graced his home (v. 13).
* Heb. xii. 11. The word chastening here is instruction, or training.
+ Ezek. xiv. 22. Amos iii. 6. Isa. xlv. 7. t No doubt the round number is given for the exact number. This is often done in undoubtedly historical books. — Fausett.
Obviously this time of restoration extended over months and years (although Job’s breaking down seems to have covered only a few months),* yet the details of it are brief. The word-picture is painted with a few bold strokes, the names of his daughters being significant of his restored prosperity, and every sentence of the narrative conveying, in oriental form, the fact of the unclouded favour of God.
As Job looked back upon his fiery trial it must have been with chastened thankfulness to God, saying to himself — ‘ He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years... Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness”’. +
We may be sure, too, that Job walked before the Lord in after days with a deepened godly awe, and a keener sensitiveness to the sinfulness of sin. In the crucible he had learnt to know himself, and he would go softly ever after in a chastened attitude of soul, bearing upon him, in spirit, the marks that Jacob bore in his body of his interview with God at Peniel.
By common consent the people called him “‘ Job”*{ — repentance — for he was a “‘ sign’ to all, continually reminding them, by his very presence, that they must renounce themselves and turn to God.
One hundred and forty years did Job live after his fiery trial (v. 16), he died ‘“‘ being old and full of days ’’, having lived to see his sons’ sons — according to the ideas of his time, a special mark of Divine favour. He had passed through the fire, and in the fire had only lost that which would not abide the fire, whilst all worth keeping he kept unto life eternal.
We are told no more of the Adversary, but we know that he is still “‘ going to and fro in the earth”’, ‘‘ walking up and down in it”’, attacking with unceasing subtlety the servants of God, and yet again over-reaching himself, in that they are brought through the fiery trial into a deeper and richer knowledge of God.
* Job. vil. 3. y Isaiah xxxviil. 15, 17.
{t Job’s name comes from a Hebrew word signifying one who was “* greatly tried”, and is derived from an Arabic word meaning repentance. It was common in old times to give a name from ae which occured at an advanced period of life. — Fausset.
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