My Testimony

My Testimony - Part 8 The Book Of Job Explained

As I said in Part 2 of my testimony, I commented on how I understood the book of Job before I had read it because I was made to live it to a certain degree first.  I thought I should elaborate on this a little more and explain the book of Job at the same time.

The Book Of Job starts out with God conversing with Satan about His "faithful" servant Job:

And the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews (turns away from) evil?  Job 1:8

Satan then challenges God and suggests the only reason Job is faithful is because God has put a hedge around Job so he can't be harmed and blessed him more than any man.  So, God allows Satan to test Job, with the only condition being that he wasn't allowed to take Job's life:

Have not you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. And the LORD said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.  Job 1:10-12

So, Satan has his way with Job and begins to make his life a living nightmare.

Most of the book involves Job complaining about his plight to God and blaming God for everything that is happening to him.  At the same time, he has 3 friends who keep trying to convince Job that he has sinned and must have done something to deserve such painful trouble in his life.

The dialogue between Job and his 3 very unhelpful friends continues most of the book until a young man named Elihu steps in and tries to encourage Job to have more faith in God.  They are encouraging chapters that help set Job up for the grand finale when the Lord Himself answers Job out of a whirlwind.

At first the Lord's answers to Job are very dissatisfying as the Lord basically says to Job, who are you to question me and where were you when I made Creation.  This goes on for a few chapters until Job finally confesses the following:

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that you can do every thing, and that no thought can be withheld from you. Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered what I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech you, and I will speak: I will demand of you, and declare you to me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.  Job 42:1-6

The most notable and important part of the whole book of Job occurs in this last chapter of Job when the Lord turns around and says He's angry at Job's 3 friends for not speaking correctly about the Lord the way His servant Job did, and even tells them to ask Job to pray for them:

And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends: for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. Therefore take to you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.  Job 42:7-9

The reason this is most notable and important is because Job's 3 friends seemed to be trying to do everything to defend God while Job blamed God for all of his trouble, despite the first chapter telling us right from the beginning that it was Satan actually causing Job's suffering.  By saying that Job spoke right about the Lord, means that the Lord was saying Job was right to blame the Lord and not Satan for his suffering.

This might sound a bit weird, but it makes sense when you consider that as the Creator, the Lord takes responsibility for the actions of his entire Creation, including Satan's.  This was the same logic I had come to at 14 years old when I swore at the Lord to stop doing this to me.  I blamed the Lord for not using His power to heal me, despite my many pleas and prayers from childhood.  I was not at all expecting to be healed, but He healed me in that very moment.  To say I was confused was an understatement, but there was no denying the facts.  He healed me after one of the most thankless and demeaning prayers one could muster.  But when I think about it, it contained something that all my childhood prayers together didn't contain, and that is the prayer of faith.  At 14 I had no doubt the Lord had the power to heal me, my only question was, "Why haven't you done it?"  There are so many ways that my prayer could have been interpreted.  Thankfully the Lord is the Creator of Languages and is a great Interpreter, just like the Scriptures say:

Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities (weaknesses): for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  Romans 8:26-27

For most people the Book of Job might feel like a hard story to understand, why the Lord would allow such suffering to occur, in fact it's the very complaint people have about God today.  But if you could try to be open to the fact that the Lord has a good purpose that He's working out in our lives and in the world, because sometimes this is the only hope a suffering soul needs, to get through the hard times.  For me, to read such a story in my early 20s was greatly comforting to learn that just because bad things happened to me, it didn't necessarily mean that I was out of favour with the Lord.  And that in fact, it can actually mean that you're in favour with Him and He is working all things together for your good.

...we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Hebrews 12:8-10

Have you ever noticed that people who have suffered a lot in their lives, go on to be amazing comforters for others that face similar trouble in their lives.  This is one of the blessings that comes from going through any storm, and the Bible describes it in the following way:

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4