Another Scene in Heaven: Job’s Integrity and Job’s Friends

“* Satan obtained you by asking that he might sift you as wheat, but I have made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not. — Luke xxii. 31-32, m ‘* Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves i fore the Lord, and Satan came also.”” — Chap. ii. 1.

ONCE more it is an audience day in the court of heaven, and chief princes, and sons of the mighty, are gathered in the presence of the King.

The Adversary re-appears in their midst, not in any way abashed over his failure to prove his accusation of Job.

Jehovah opens the subject by the formal question to him again, ‘‘ Whence comest thou?’’ and Satan returns the same answer as before. The Lord then repeats His description of Job, adding, ‘‘ he still holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst Me against him, to destroy him without cause”? (v. 3).

Jehovah here declares before His assembled council that all these trials were sent upon Job “‘ without cause”. His confidence in Job’s integrity, and faithfulness to Him, had been justified. His servant had stood the test. It was fully proved to the accuser that his sneering insinuation as to Job’s motives in serving God was without foundation. He was not seeking the ‘‘ loaves and fishes’ after all!

But the Adversary was not silenced. He had a new suggestion ready. All the things that had been taken away did not really touch Job himself. The “substance” after all was an exterior thing. True, the children were of his bone and of his flesh, but he had recognized that they belonged to God with all the wealth that He had given him, and so he had surrendered them to Him without hesitation, albeit with sorrowing heart.

The Lord had prevented Satan touching Job himself, therefore the case was not proved, the test had not been sufficient, for so long as a man himself is spared he can let

other things go. Satan proposes a deeper test. He answered the Lord —

“Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce Thee to Thy face.” — Chap. ii. 5.

“Just touch Job himself and see if he will cling to Thee then! See if in the furnace of suffering he will not renounce his allegiance to Thee. If he has not served Thee for what Thou hast given him exteriorly, at least he serves Thee for what he has in himself; the peace of a conscience void of offence; the inward comfort of Thy presence; the reward of integrity in the respect of others,”’ cries the Adversary.

Jehovah again accepts the challenge, and hands over Job to the power of the enemy with but one restriction, “‘ only spare his life’’.

Let us note here for our comfort that Satan is absolutely under the control of God; he is unable to touch Job, his possessions, or his family without the direct permission of Jehovah.

This is confirmed by the words of the Son of God to His disciple Peter. ‘‘ Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you (obtained you by asking, m.), that he might sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not.”’*

St. Paul also wrote to the Corinthians, “‘ God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it”’

It is therefore clear that the Adversary must obtain permission ere he can touch a servant of God; and that the attack is carefully limited by the all-wise Lord to sifting away the chaff around the true grain of wheat, just as Job was sifted by the direct permission of God.

The adversary’s Attack

“So Satan went forth... and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.’’ — Chap. ii. 7.

When Satan does get permission to attack a servant of God, he uses his license to the utmost extent. The limit in * Luke xxii. 31. R.V. m. ft 1 Cor. x. 13.

Job’s case now is the life, and a man can live through more than in time of prosperity he thinks he is capable of doing.

The Adversary attacks poor Job’s body with a most repulsive loathsome disease — sore boils from head to foot. He was covered with one universal inflammation. It was a form of leprosy called black or Elephantiasis, because the feet swell like those of the elephant. *

Whereupon the stricken Job ‘‘ took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat among the ashes’ (v. 8).

*“In the warm dry land of the East, the dung is not mixed with straw, but carried in baskets to a place outside the village where it is usually burnt once a month. The rains reduce the ashes to a solid hill of earth, and the place is used for a watch-tower, or a place of concourse by the inhabitants of the village.

“There the outcast who has been stricken by some loathsome malady, making him unfit to enter the dwellings of men, lays himself down at night sheltering himself among the ashes which the sun has warmed.’’+

To this ash-mound outside the village the afflicted man repairs, feeling himself an outcast, and an object of terror to others by reason of his loathsome condition.

Job, the ‘‘ greatest of the children of the East’ is compelled to take his place with the beggar and the outcast. His possessions are gone, and of his children he is bereft. He who once had attendants to minister to his every wish, must now “‘ take a potsherd to scrape himself ’ — not a piece of broken earthen vessel, but an instrument made for the purpose, for the sore was too repulsive to touch.

Who would recognize the princely Job in that loathsome object, sitting among the ashes outside the village where he had once “‘ sat as chief’’, looked up to as the “‘ most noble of the men of the East”’ ?§

The integrity of Fob “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die! ’”» — Chap. it. 9.

Job’s wife seems to have been the only one left to him, and she appears to have followed him to the ash-mound outside the village. In her anguish over her husband’s sufferings, she unknowingly lends her mouth to the Adversary and speaks

* Fausset. t Wetzstein. t Fausset. § Septuagint version.

QI words that actually passed between Jehovah and the Adversary in the council in heaven.

How did the wife of Job know that Job’s integrity was in question?

Satan was keenly watching the effect of his attack upon Job, and hopes in this critical hour to force him to the point he desires by the lips of his wife.

Again in the New Testament we see the confirmation of this story, and we may learn through the words of Christ to Peter that the devil can use the lips of our most faithful friends to tempt us in the hour of trial. Peter said to Christ when he spoke of His coming Cross, ‘‘ Pity Thyself, Lord,” but the Son of God at once discerned the source of the words, and said unhesitatingly, “‘ Get thee behind Me, Satan”’.

‘* Renounce God and die,” said Job’s loving and faithful wife to her afflicted husband. We do not read of any word she said when she saw the earthly goods swept away, nor of rebellion over the loss of her children, but now it seems too much to see her husband suffer. It were better for him to be dead than in such a state. The God he had served so loyally must have forsaken him! Is Job still going to persist in *““blessing the Name of the Lord”? Let him rather “renounce”’?’ Him — ‘‘ Say some word against the Lord”* — and die.

““God cannot be a God of Love, or He would not let such suffering come to those who serve Him,” is oft-times the thought of those who look on with aching hearts at the servants of God in severe trial to-day.

But Job again stood the test —

“He said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the impious women speaketh.

What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?””

—Chap. ii. 10, m.

‘““Only those who do not know God speak like this,”’ said Job to his wife. ‘‘ Such words should not come out of the lips of one who worships Jehovah. It is lawful for Him to do what He will with His own. Have we served Him only from selfish interest? Are we going to cling to Him only in the time of prosperity? Shall we not accept from His hand sorrow and suffering as well as joy?”

Job was in truth a thoroughly surrendered soul. ‘‘ Jn ail this did not Fob sin with his lips”? (v. 10), because his will was

* Septuagint version.

wholly yielded to God, and he was true, upright, and sincere in his loyalty to Him.

It is, alas, true that many of the children of God, in one way or another, unconciously perhaps, serve Him for the “good ’’ they get in this present world, and in the world to come, rather than for Himself alone.

The worldlings, too, expect what they call “‘ good” from a God Who is called Love, and misjudge and renounce Him because of the suffering in the world, which they cannot reconcile with His Love. Both Christian and worldling stumble at the mystery of pain, and fail to understand, what a writer has so truly said, that ‘‘ Pain has other and higher functions than penalty’, for ‘“‘the outer man must be sacrificed in the interests of the man within, and the world of man without, and unseen worlds beyond”’.*

Job was a true man of God. Blow upon blow had come upon him, but his integrity had stood the test.

He proved in his surrender and faith in the faithfulness of God, that he had not served Him for all that He had given him. Whether the Lord gave, or the Lord took away, he still blessed the Name of the Lord.

The Friends of Fob ““‘Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came... Eliphaz ... Bildad... and Zophar.... They made an appointment together to come... to comfort

him.” — Chap. ii. 11.

Ill news flies apace! The report of Job’s troubles reaches the ears of three of his intimate friends. In the kindness of their hearts they agree together to visit him to sympathize with him, and comfort him.

The three men make an appointment to journey to the scene of Job’s sorrows.

As they went, according to the privilege of intimate friends, they discussed the whole affair from every point of view, and before they saw the stricken man they came to their conclusions as to the cause of all the “‘ evil’’, and settled how best to deal with him.

The story of Job bears the impress of reality because it coincides in many respects with the experience of to-day, for just in the same way as the “‘ friends” talked over Job before they saw him, and settled in their own minds the cause of hts

* W. W. Peyton.

troubles, do the friends of afflicted ones act in modern times!

There are few among us who know how to minister the comfort of God. Few who know how to leave their fellows in the hand of God, and encourage them to ‘“‘ believe their way through” their paths of trial, and still fewer who are able to interpret to stricken hearts the purposes of God in their afflictions.

Knowing little of the inwardness of things, more often do we judge by the sight of the eyes and the hearing of the ears, and come to conclusions from our own standpoint, and according to the measure of our own experience.

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar draw nigh the village. Afar off they see the ash-mound, but is that Job lying there?

Job, the greatest of the children of the East! Can this pitiable object be the Job that they had known? Alas, alas, they ‘‘ knew him not”’, and ‘“‘ lifted up their voice, and wept”. How are the mighty fallen!

They rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads in token of their sorrow for him.

At last they reach the ash-mound and “sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights’’. This expression aptly describes the fulness of their grief, and the long period of silence which came upon them. They were dumb in the presence of such unparalleled suffering.

What could they say? How could they speak? For they saw that his pain was very great’’ (v. 13 m.).

Job’s complaint “* After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.” — Chap. iii. 1.

Job was the first to break the silence, and when he speaks he pours out the depths of his soul. ‘There was no renouncing of God, no word of rebellion against His hand upon him, but he “curses” the day of his birth, The word is quite a different one in the original to the word ‘‘ renounce”’ in the previous passages. It means simply that he ‘“‘ execrated”’ his day.

He has spoken no word of welcome to his friends, explained nothing to them, for formalities and ordinary language have no place at such a time.

The words that Job pours out in the anguish of his soul, tell us something of the thoughts which have been filling his mind in these hours of silence.

a “* Let the day perish wherein I was born,” he cries. ‘ That anniversary of my birth which is wont to be kept as joyous festival, let it henceforth be regarded as a day of mourning”

(v. 3-10). Oh that it could be blotted out from the calendar, that it might be forgotten — oh miserable day —

“Why died I not?... For now should I have lien down and been quiet: [ and at rest.” — Chap. iii. 11-13.

“* I should have slept,’ Job says — even as the kings who have had to leave their “solitary piles’? which they built for themselves on earth; and the princes who had to part with their gold.

In the grave the weary have rest; the wicked cease from raging; the prisoners are at ease from the task-master, and the servant is free; for the small and the great are there (v. 14-19, m.).

Strangely the soul turns to the thought of death in the hour of deep trial. ‘‘ It 2s enough,” ‘‘ take away my life,’ said Elijah to the Lord in his time of exhaustion under the juniper tree. “It 1s too heavy for me,” ‘‘ kill me, I pray Thee,’ said Moses under the pressure of the burden of the people. “‘ It is better for me to die,’ said Jonah, when the Lord did not fulfil the

threatened judgment upon Nineveh. ‘I wish that I were dead,”” many have said again and again in their time of anguish.

Job had not rebelled against the Lord, but he was going perilously near the doing so in using this language. He had told his wife that we should be willing to ‘“‘ endure evil things ’’* as well as receive ‘‘ good things ’’* from the hand of God, but to “long for death’ as the way of escape from the “evil” is not the way to bow to the will of God. Yet it is the cry of nature for escape from suffering, pressed out from the soul in its anguish and pain.

The Adversary is at the back of much of this language from the lips of Job, even as he was the instigator of the temptation to speak against God that came to him from the lips of his wife.

It is the enemy that is throwing this cloud upon his soul, and pouring into his mind these thoughts of escape through death. There are some who have yielded to such thoughts in the time of deep anguish, and at last have been driven by the Tempter to take their lives so as to reach this place of rest.

* Septuagint version.

Let the children of God take heed and stay themselves upon their God, thanking Him for the privilege of life. Let them turn from the temptation of dwelling upon the peace of the grave, and choose life, even though it be life in the very crucible of fire, for ‘‘ the sky, not the grave, is our goal”’.

“Wherefore is... given... life unto the bitter in soul: which long for death, but it cometh not... which rejoice unto exultation... when they can find the grave,’’ — Chap. iii. 20-22, m.,

cries Job, and he does not realize the cowardice of his language, nor how he is opening the door to the enemy of his soul. He goes on to call himself a man ‘‘ whom God hath hedged in”’, including among his miseries what the devil had called his peculiar blessing!

Job concludes this outpouring of his grief by saying, “‘ the thing which I feared is come upon me’’ (v. 24-26, m.).

Taught of God, as Job was, he knew that the testing time must come. He had shrunk from it and been afraid of it. He confesses that he had not been at ease (v. 26, m.) in spite of the outward peace of his life. He had known that the furnace was inevitable, and now all that he had shrunk from had come upon him.

Job, Chapters iv, v, vi, vii