Study 1 – Job – Neville Clark, Easter Camp, Glenlock, Waikerie – The Affliction of Job, 2017

Study 1 – Job – Neville Clark, Easter Camp, Glenlock, Waikerie – The Affliction of Job, 2017

Job Ch 1

We are in 2017 and who would have believed that we could have been in a year as late as this and the Lord Jesus Christ having not returned. And now that we are here who would believe that his return isn’t very very soon, I mean think about the events that are happening in the world about us. The EU has just celebrated its 60th anniversary without Britain. Russia is now in the Middle East after having tried to get there for more than a century. America has just told Israel that they should pursue a one state solution, which is basically a ticket for Netinyahu to annex the West Bank. Last week, Trump sent 59 missiles into an Assyrian Air Force base because they used chemicals weapons. Last night, I was told, that he dropped the biggest conventional bomb America owns on Afghanistan. Why? Because he is trying to assert Americas influence in the world again after the rather lack lustre performance of Obama on the international stage. The problem is whilst he may want to make America great, as he says, Putin wants to make Russia great, and so you can see these two super powers going like this in a climax towards WW 3. I mean, it is everywhere, isn’t it and even news commentators are worried about Trump’s belligerency saying that he could spark a third word war. Well, he will won’t he? And that of course will bring the return, the visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world.

Well, then, in light of events like that, how long do you think we have got, and if you really believe, brothers and sisters, that Christ could come tomorrow, what would be the most urgent thing that you ought to do in your life, what would be your preeminent obligation? Well there is only one answer, Prepare to meet thy God, isn’t it, Prepare to meet thy God, and, you know, for the next few days, that’s exactly what we are going to do, through the eyes of one of the greatest men that ever walked the face of this earth, the man of whom it is said in Ch 1 and V 1 of the book of Job, that he was “A perfect man, an upright man and a man that feared God and eschewed evil.”This is the man we have come to consider this week end.

Well, what do you know about the book of Job, Brothers and Sisters and young people? Well, of course, Job forms part of the poetry section of the Bible, that is that section contained between the book of Job and the Song of Solomon. On the face of it it might appear to be a book all about suffering, with the story written in a dialogue fashion, where various people wrestle with the problem of Job’s suffering each looking for their own answer. There is a bit of controversy about who Yahweh is, about how much of what Job’s friends was actually true, about whether Elihu was inspired or not, whether he was in fact helpful or not, but you know unless you have looked at the book of Job closely, perhaps our knowledge doesn’t extend much beyond those superficial questions. Perhaps we have thought to ourselves, ‘Well, whatever the answer is to the riddle of the book of Job, it does have a happy ending, Job was more blessed at the end than he was at the beginning, everything was doubled.’ But you know to make an answer like that would really be to forget the fact that the person living through the trial, Job in this case, didn’t know how things were going to end. He didn’t know how the book would finally turn out, by Chapter 42. Not only that but between Vv 6 -12 of Ch 1, there is a discussion between Yahweh and Satan that results in the affliction of Job, that’s what caused the whole problem at the beginning of the book. Job was never part of that discussion. He never knew this discussion ever took place and in the story of Job he never ever finds out that this discussion has taken place. As readers of the book you find out in the first chapter, you find out the real reason for Job’s sufferings, right at the outset of the story. Job won’t find out this reason until the kingdom age. So here is a man who is going to endure unimaginable trials, he doesn’t know what he has done wrong, he doesn’t know what the purpose of the trial is, he doesn’t know how the trial is going to end up, and he has got to deal with that and he’s got to come to terms with that.

Well this afternoon, brothers and sisters, and young people, we are going to look at just Chs 1 and 2, and you will appreciate that by the end of Ch 2 the story doesn’t have a happy ending. There is no happy ending in sight by the end of the 2nd chapter. There won’t be for another 40 odd chapters. As a result of that an extremely Godly man is going to be placed in an unimaginable position losing everything that ever meant anything to him, down to his health, and his family, wishing chapter after chapter for death and being denied it and forced in the extremity of that situation to confront questions like, “What ‘s the point of the truth if the wicked prosper unhindered?” “Why does God make people suffer and not answer their prayers?” “Is there any value in itself in living a righteous life?” I mean, “Does righteousness have any intrinsic value that makes it worth living no matter what happens to you.”

This you will appreciate is an epic story, a monumental addition to the Old Testament Scripture and a marvellous insight into the relationship between God and the saints, that’s what the book of Job is to us. But you will appreciate at 42 chapters, this is one of the larger books of the Bible and there is too much to cover in any sort of detail in one week end, and so to try and facilitate our entrance and exit from this book I have put a lot of material into your program, so if you have got a program in front of you, I’m just going to make the allusion to it in this study, but not hereafter, turn to page 2 in the program which is the first slides that I have attached there for you. There are four slides on one page. And just as you thumb through those, you will see genealogies, maps, chapter break ups, summaries of the various portions of the book.

Well I mentioned that the book of Job is part of the poetry section of the Bible, and here’s the top left-hand slide on the first page. It is a book of design and it is a book of symmetry, you see. The book of Job divides into three sections, it has got an introduction, it has got a conclusion and it has a central section of speeches, that centre and section itself, divides into three sub-sections, a discussion between Yahweh and Satan, a discussion between Job and his friends, and then a discussion between Job and Yahweh. And that central section the discussion between Job and his friends, well that divides into two sub-sections, Job and his three friends and then Elihu, each of them having four rounds of speeches. When you put all of that together refer to the slide on the top right hand of the page. The structure of the book is very simple, 1 section, 2 sections, 4 section, 4 sections, 2 sections, 1 section. It is poetic, there is a symmetry, an enormous symmetry about the book of Job. The first section is the introduction, followed by 2 sections, because there are two speeches between Yahweh and Satan, followed by 4 speeches, 3 rounds between Job and the friends and then some monologues by Job himself, that’s the 4 speeches of Job and the friends, followed by 4 speeches of Elihu, 2 speeches between Yahweh and Job and 1 section of conclusion, you see? As I say, this afternoon, Chs 1 and 2 only.

As far as the dating is concerned, bottom left hand corner of that page, third slide, I’ve put a lot of evidence down there for you. But in summary, the dating of the book of Job is one of those subjects that seems to be shrouded in mystery until you look closely, and it is really not very complicated. We’ve got mentions throughout the book of Job, of the Fall, of Cain killing Abel, of the flood, of the destruction of Sodom, everything up to the Law of Moses. There’s no mention of the Law of Moses itself which would infer to me that Job was written prior to the Law of Moses being given. In fact Job acts as a Priest for his family in Ch 1:5 which was the custom in Israel prior to the priesthood being established, that is the Levitical priesthood being established under the Law of Moses. Finally, and you might like to make a note of this, because I haven’t included it on that slide because I lighted on this point later than producing that slide, in Ch 26:12, from a modern translation like the RSV, you will see a reference to God destroying the dragon called Rahab when he divided the sea. So there appears to be an allusion to the Red Sea crossing in Job 26:12.

If that reference is accepted, then that would place the book of Job, the events of the book of Job as happening during Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness, before they colonised the land of Israel under Joshua. You may like to take a note also, if you were to ask me who the author of the book of Job is, I would suggest the best evidence we have got is Elihu himself, and my evidence for that would be Ch 32:15-16 where we have a narration by Elihu. I mean Ch 32 is the beginning of Elihu’s speeches, and he makes a comment in Ch 15:16 as though he were the narrator of the book of Job. So it appears, as best we can suggest, that Elihu is the likely author of the book of Job.

But that’s not all, you come back with me to Gen 36. This I think would be the fourth slide on that page, the family tree. Gen 36, we’ve got additional information before us that also assists us to date the events of the book of Job and we can date them by the people that appear in the book of Job. Gen 36 you, you see, is the genealogy of the descendants of Esau, Esau, Jacob’s brother and in Gen 36:4 it says that “Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz. So Esau had a son called Eliphaz, and if you go to V 11 of Gen 36, it says that “Eliphaz had his children Teman, Omah, Zepho, Gattan and Kenez. Well that is interesting, because Eliphaz the Temanite from Job 2:11 appears to be Eliphaz the son of Teman, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau. Do you see that, from Gen 36:4 and 11. Eliphaz the Temanite is the son of the Teman of Gen 36:11. Well Eliphaz the Temanite is one of the characters in the book of Job, the great grandson of Esau, you see? The Septuagint version suggests that the Zepho in V 11, you’ve just read here, is none other than Zophar of the book of Job. It is a possibility. V 28 of Gen 36, the children of Zipan are these, Uz and Aran. Well Uz is the location where Job lived, the region of UZ, you see. Uz is one of the sons of Esau who gave his name to the land in which Job lived. Lam 4:21 says, “Rejoice and be glad O daughter of Edom that dwelleth in the land of Uz. So you see, Uz was in Edom associated with the wider territory of Edom, East of the Jordan River, and if fact if you turn the page on your hand books to the top left hand corner of the next page you will see a map and I have put on the map where we believe Uz was. One other very interesting point in Gen 36:33, here’s the Septuagint’s suggestion. Bela died and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozra reigned in his stead, the Septuagint suggests that that is none other than Job himself, the Jobab of Gen 36:33. Well the fact is, it is very possible, so given this evidence the predominant reference to the sons of Esau in the book of Job, and the possibility that the V 33 was in fact Job, that would mean that Job was a descendant of Esau, and contrary to everything we know subsequently about the Edomites and their spirituality, this Job, or Jobab as he is here, was an extremely faithful man. The other characters in Job’s life, we know some of them as well, Elihu the Buzite was a descendant of Nahor the brother of Abraham, and Bildad the Shuhite was a descendant of Shua one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah. Remarkable isn’t it? So, in fact, you can see, as you just look down the family tree, we are well into the time that Israel is in Egypt, perhaps having even crossed the Red Sea and are now in the wilderness under Moses.

Well, come back to Job 1, what do we know about the man himself, Job 1:1. No doubt he is one of the greatest men that ever lived, and this is how we find him. Job 1:1, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil. “Job,” the word ‘Job’ or the name ‘Job,’ means ‘hated’ or ‘persecuted’ Strongs tells us. You recognise immediately the type of the Lord Jesus Christ, Isa 53:3 “Despised and rejected of men.” He was ‘perfect’ the record tells us. The word means ‘complete,’ I mean he wasn’t perfect inasmuch as he was ‘sinless,’ but he was ‘complete’ in a moral sense. Not sinless, but ‘true’ or ‘sound’ or ‘blameless’ in that sense. He was upright the word means ‘straight’ ‘unwavering’ ‘consistent,’ he feared God, that is, he was a man of unqualified personal reverence. He “eschewed evil,” that means ‘to flee’ from evil. He hated iniquity, the record means. V 8 you know, you have a repeat of V 1. V 1 is written by the narrator of the book of God. V 8 is out of the mouth of God himself. Yahweh said to Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job there is none like him in he earth, perfect, upright, fears God, escheweth evil,” you see? And the only difference between V 8 and V 1 is the addition of a phrase. In addition you see to Job being “perfect” “upright” “fearing God” and “eschewing evil,” he is “my servant Job” in V 8. He is called “God’s servant.” In Ch 42 when the whole dram of Job has played out, God say to Eliphaz, ‘You shouldn’t have said that about my servant Job.’ ‘You haven’ spoken that which is right like my servant Job has,’ ‘You go and offer a sacrifice Eliphaz and my servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer.’ ‘My servant Job,’ ‘My servant Job,’ ‘My servant Job,’ you see? A remarkable relationship with God, this is no ordinary man.

In Ezek 14:14, when speaking of the iniquity of the city of Jerusalem, Ezekiel says, ‘That even if Daniel, Job or Noah were here, they could only deliver themselves by their own righteousness. So wicked was the city of Jerusalem that even if Job were to intercede on behalf of that city God would still destroy the city. The point is that this is the company Job keeps in Scripture. He’s on a par with Daniel, he’s on a par with Noah, men who led their generation, men who were preeminent examples in the world, I don’t say in the brotherhood, I say in the world at the time. Men who could deliver others by their righteousness, that is, who could intercede for nations and God would hear their prayer. As far as Job was concerned, as a consequence of his character, it seemed to follow naturally that he was very richly blessed in everything he did, look at V 2. There were born to Job seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, a very great household, so this man was the greatest of all the men in the east. And if you just cast your eye across those two verses, everything you’ve seen in front of you speaks of completeness, ten children, ten hundred oxes and asses, ten thousand sheep and camels.

You know, this is an idyllic prosperity that you read of in the case of Job. He is enormously wealthy, I mean, a multi-multi-millionaire. He comments, you know, on his own lifestyle when he looks back at everything he’s lost when you get to Ch 29:6, he says this, he say, “I washed my steps in butter and the rock poured out to me rivers of oil.” He was enormously wealthy, brothers and sisters and young people, enormously wealth, he could turn straw into gold. I mean, everything he touched succeeded, so that in reputation and in substance, he was one of the greatest of the men of the east. And it seems that Job’s family also enjoyed the benefits of his greatness, look at V 4. “And his sons went and they feasted in their houses, everyone his day and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with them so his sons all owned their own houses, they were all affluent men in their own right, and each one on his day entertained the rest of the family. Now the ‘day’ here probably refers to a day of the week, because there were seven sons, and each one of them provided, across the seven days of the natural week, a feast for the rest of the family. So they would start in the house of the oldest and move to the youngest across that week, and perhaps, two, three, four, half a dozen times a year, whatever it might have been, the cycle that these feastings took, they would go around the houses of the family, across the seven days. There’s nothing to suggest here, by the way, that there is anything untoward about what is happening, that is to say, these are not drunken feasts, these are not children living in the frivolity of their wealth, and in Ch 29 that I mentioned a moment ago when Job speaks about how things were in the past, he says, in Ch 29:5, that the almighty was with me and my children were about me, you see. There is nothing to suggest that these gatherings occurred with anything but the highest integrity. This was a model family in the Truth, following the example of a model father in the truth, a model brother in the ecclesia, an example to the ecclesial world, in his day, and for thousands of years beyond. And V 5 goes on “that it was so, when the days of their feastings were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus did Job continually.” So at the end of that festive week, Job ministers to his family as the priest. “He sanctifies them,” the record says, probably by washings and changes of garment.

He offers sacrifices for them in case they’ve cursed God, he says. Now to curse God, is to abandon God, to take leave of God as a deliberate sin. There was always a risk in this sort of prosperity, Job’s children could succumb to the temptation of riches, and to lean on their own finances and depend upon themselves and cast God aside, and Job was very aware of that in his family and no doubt talked to his boys about being circumspect about the origin of their wealth. Of course, Job’s influence isn’t just restricted to his own family, you come with me now to Ch 29, now I have alluded to it a couple of times now turn to Ch 29. Look how far Job’s influence actually extends, you see, this is why he was the greatest of the men of the east. Look what he did, V 7 of Job 29, this is Job’s greatness from his own mouth. V 7 “When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up,” he says. The young men, that is those likely to be brash or impulsive, they stepped aside when Job appeared. The old men, those who people stand up for, they stood up for Job, you see? V9, “The Princes refrained talking, they laid their hand on their mouth, the nobles held their peace, their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.” Those me known for their patronising conversation, for their aloof behaviour are silent in the presence of Job, they say nothing at all. And why? Why do people act like this around Job? Because he was rich, because he was influential, because he was powerful? No. Because in V 12, he delivered the poor and fatherless, because in V 13, he cared for the widows and those dying, because in V 15 he cared for the blind and the lame, because in V 16 he looked after the poor and the stranger, anyone in trouble could appeal to Job. They’d get compassion, they’d get a fair hearing and they would get, if they needed it, they’d get material assistance. Look at V 24 of Job 29, “ If I laughed on them,” he says as he concludes, “If I laughed on them they believed it not and the light of my countenance they cast not down.” Here’s V 24 from the NIV, “When I smiled on them they scarcely believed it, the light of my face was precious to them. I chose the way for them and sat as their chief, I dwelt as the king amongst his troops, I was the one who comforts mourners.” They loved him, brothers and sisters, they loved him, every body loved Job, well everybody it seems, apart from one person.

Come back to Ch 1, and here is the next problem to solve in the book of Job. Ch 1:6 “There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh and Satan came also among them.” Who are the “sons of God,” in Job 1:6, who is “Yahweh” and who is “Satan.” Well I won’t refer to them but I have given you additional information about this subject in your handbooks, but as far as Satan is concerned there are only two serious possibilities. Either Satan was an angel, or Satan was a brother, an anonymous brother. The case for Satan being an angel rests on the fact that angels can be adversaries, that they present themselves before Yahweh as in the case of Micaiah’s prophecy, they go to and fro in the earth, V 7 says, that Satan goes to and fro in the earth, that’s the exact language for example of Zech 1:10, that the only other reference to the ‘sons of God’ in the book of Job is Job 38:7, where it clearly refers to the angel, and at the end of the book of Job despite what Satan has done to Job, God never interviews Satan. You might call that an argument from silence, but it is a point. So there is the case for Satan being an angel, an adversarial angel to Job. Against that, you’ve got the possibility of Satan being a brother, men obviously, can also be adversaries. They can also present themselves before Yahweh, to do so, in Scripture, is simply to present yourself before Yahweh’s representative. In Deut and 1 Chron, if you present yourself before the high priest, you are said to present yourself before Yahweh. Men can also go, evidently, “to and fro” in the earth, as V 7 says. Dan 12:4 says, “Many shall run to and fro in the last days,” it is talking about people.

Finally, “the sons of God,” well, the first time the phrase “the sons of God” is ever used in Scripture is in Gen Ch 6, is where “the sons of God married the daughters of men,” Gen 6:2, evidently speaking of the brethren of the ecclesia. And so the point is, you can mount up a case on both sides, and perhaps reach a stalemate, the sons of God and Satan could refer to men or they could refer to angels. You could perhaps make a case either way, and different expositors in the brotherhood have made the case one way or another, but here’s the problem, Ch 2:3. Satan disagrees with God’s assessment of Job. Look in the second round of discussion between Yahweh and Satan, Yahweh says to Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job there is none like him in all the earth, perfect, upright, fears God, eschews evil, and still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause,” without cause, now Satan didn’t agree that it was without cause as I will show you by and by. But there is a disagreement between Yahweh’s assessment of Job and Satan’s assessment of Job. Moreover angels are ministering spirits Heb 1 tells us in V 14 to minister to those who will be heirs of salvation. They are here to help the saints. Everything you read that Satan says in this record is cynical it is resentful, it is antagonistic, the last thing you would expect from an angel of God. As a consequence, I believe Satan is a brother, an anonymous brother, we can’t identify him by name, or who he might be. Some have suggested that Satan is one of the three friends, impossible, impossible, because the approach of the three friends is to try and make Job confess a sin which they believe he has committed which is the cause of his suffering. Satan already knows the cause of Job’s suffering, he’s brought it upon Job himself. He would not have used the argument of the friends to try to elicit a confession, so that would, on the face of it seem to be a very convincing position in relation to the identification of Satan.

There is one more piece of information I would offer you that bears heavily upon this issue. You see we have a precedent in Scripture. The discussion in V 6 that happens between Yahweh and the sons of God has happened before, not between these particularly sons of God and Yahweh, but a discussion like this has happened before. Think of Gen 4, a little outside the garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, standing before the angel. “In the process of time” it says in Gen 4:2, “Cain and Abel came to offer sacrifices,” that’s very, very similar to, “there was a day” in Gen 4:3, when the sons of God came to present themselves.” Abel’s sacrifice is accepted and Abel is commended to Cain. You see the parallel, that God has accepted Job and commends him to Satan. V 8, “Hast thou considered my servant Job Satan?” Cain is very jealous of Abel. I am going to suggest here that Satan is extremely envious of Job. Cain Kills Abel, Satan is permitted to everything short of killing Job, and then Cain leaves the Truth, and I would suggest that most probably, so does Satan. How do we answer the point that Satan is never ever interrogated again at the end of the book. Well, think about your own knowledge perhaps and experience of ecclesial life. You’ve got a brother, this brother Satan here, who is disenfranchised with the ecclesia, he’s got a crochet, he’s not a regular attendee at ecclesial functions, but he knows his Bible enough to handle himself in ecclesial situations. He comes to your ecclesia, but he’s not a conformist he doesn’t play by the normal rules of Christadelphian society, because he’s got an issue, and he lives the way he does in life, because he justifies it based on this issue, perhaps someone’s done something to him, whatever it might be, but he’s got a reason for his rather lack-lustre performance before God. Well as an ecclesia, you might try and get to the bottom of this to help this brother out and lets imagine you make enough phone calls and you find out the history and you finally find out what is really at the bottom of it and you find out that he’s dressed it up and it is really not true as he presents it. And then you go to him and you confront him with the facts of the matter. What would he do? Well if he wants to maintain his lifestyle and if he wants to maintain the excuse for that lifestyle, he’ll leave you and go to another ecclesia and start the whole story all over again. That is to say he will walk out just like Cain did, I think that is most probably what happens here. When it is proved it to Satan that Job is not just living the truth for what he can get out of it this fellow bolts right out of the Truth, just like Cain does, and therefore he is not there, even to hear the end of the story of Job.

Putting all of that together I think we’ve got a remarkable parallel between this discussion and the discussion of Gen Ch 4. You put all that together and then the characters of the story fall out like this in V 6 of Job 1. The sons of God are simply members of the ecclesia, brethren. Satan is an anonymous pseudo Christadelphian, a brother who is jealous of Job. I have already made the point that Job is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t forget that the Lord Jesus Christ was killed for envy. The record tells us it was for envy. The record tells us it was for envy. Well that what I believe that is the situation right here, there is no question Satan knows his way around his Bible. There is no question he is familiar with ecclesial gatherings, because of the way he talks. Yahweh in Job 1 V 6 is not Yahweh himself, the father, and I don’t believe it was a priest, I think it is an angel, just as it was in Gen 4. We know him as the angel of the name, the angel of the wilderness wandering, that’s consistent, you see, with Job 38 where Yahweh responds to Job from the whirlwind which clearly couldn’t have been the high priest. Here you have the sons of God standing before an angel of God, discussing the character of one of them.

Well, the story continues, in V 7. Yahweh says to Satan, “Whence cometh thou, brother,” and Satan answered Yahweh and said, “Oh, from going to and fro in the earth, from walking up and down in it,” almost as if it wasn’t common for Satan to be in an ecclesial gathering like this. ‘Where have you been,’ ‘Oh, you know me, back and forth, up and down, business here, business there.’ This is the same question that Elisha asked Gehazi after he returned from Navman, because Gehazi had been up to no good. It was the same question the sailors asked Jonah in the storm in Jonah Ch 1. Because Joan had been up to no good, it is a question of some intensity you see, it is a question of interrogation. And the answer comes back, ‘going to and fro, walking up and down, you know me,’ it is a flippant answer. The question is ‘Why aren’t you attending ecclesial gatherings.’ ‘Oh, you know, a bit of this a bit of that, business here business there, got to go.’

This is his excuse for not being at the memorial meeting. But it is a biblical answer, you know, he uses biblical language because the language of ‘walking to and fro in the earth,’ is the very language used of the angels who on behalf of God “run to and fro in the earth,” Zech 1:10. So here is somebody who knows how to handle himself in ecclesial situations who knows his Bible, but even though he doesn’t really answer the question, what he does say tells us a lot, an awful lot, he is obviously a traveller, which means he is most likely a trader, well, Job was a trader. What do you think the 3,000 camels are for in V 3 of this chapter. That’s like a fleet of semi-trailers in modern terms, and this might be a clue to the problem, you see. Here was somebody who envied Job I believe because of Job’s success. He wanted to be rich like Job was, but he could never quite make it. He wasn’t. He had a problem with God, because God has blessed Job and he hadn’t blessed him.

As far as Satan was concerned Job wasn’t really faithful at all, he was smart, he was cunning, he was a businessman, he was only in the truth because it made money. You turn off the money and Job will leave the truth, that’s Satan’s conclusion, because of course, that is exactly what brother Satan would do. Well then Yahweh answers Satan V 8. “Yahweh said to Satan, well, brother, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, perfect, upright, fearing God and eschewing evil.” You notice the parallel or the link between Vv 7-8, Satan says he has been going ‘to and fro in the earth.’ Well, “there is none like Job in all the earth.” In your travels, brother have you ever met anyone like this, in the earth.” Well, V 9, the answer comes back. Satan answered Yahweh and said “Huh, doth Job fear God for nought. Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and all that he hath on every side. Thou has blest the work of his hands and his substance has increased in the land.” ‘You think Job serves you for free, you think his motive is pure, think again. You’ve got a hedge about him v 10, V 11, you put forth your hand touch all that he has and he will curse thee thy face. You turn off the money and then ask me whether he is perfect, upright, fears God and eschews evil. You just try that with this brother and then tell me if I am not wrong. Ever said that, brothers and sisters, about somebody. It is all right for them, they are rich. It is alright for them they don’t really have trials in life. It is all right for them, they don’t have kids like ours. If you have ever said that, or thought that, ask yourselves if your real motive isn’t envy. You know the real question to so here is that if Satan had all the blessing that Job had would he be the kind of Christadelphian that Job is. Would he care for the poor and fatherless, would he look after the blind and the lame. I don’t think so. You see there is a bigger problem here isn’t there. “Touch all that he hath,” says Satan in v 11, “Touch all that he hath,” that’s a euphemism isn’t it, that’s a deliberate understatement, what Satan really means is, ‘hit him hard,’ ‘punish him,’ ‘I mean, hammer him,’ ‘grind him into the dust and then see what he is really made of.” V 12.

So Yahweh says to Satan, ‘All right, lets do that, shall we?’ ‘Let’s do that, brother.’ “Behold all he has is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand.” So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh. You take whatever you want of Job’s but don’t hurt him physically. And now from V 13, the trials are going to begin. You might say to me ‘how does this exactly happen, how does Satan bring these troubles upon Job.’ Well I will offer you this Psalm 36:1-4 it says this, speaking of the wicked, “There is no fear of God before his eyes, he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit and he deviseth mischief on his bed,” and I think that is probably it. Satan went home he dreamed up the affliction he would like to bring upon Job. He made it a matter of prayer and God brought it to pass.

V 13 says, “There was a day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house,” so you might say that this was six months after the day of V 4, or 3 months, whatever the cycle was that Job’s family kept this seven day festival, they are back again in V 13 doing it. “But there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were ploughing, the asses feeding beside him and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. And yea they have slain thy servants by the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.” So it is back to the eldest brother’s house, the festivities have begun again, the Sabeans as your map will show you are from Sheba in the south of Arabia, and 1,000 animals have been lost in this attack, many servants, probably brethren in Christ, dead. You think of this situation, here’s Job, this great Sheik from the East behind his big oak desk, with his red velvet curtains in the background, piles of paper all over the desk, going through the books of his enormous business empire, where money is owed, where money is being paid, where he is going to trade next, what reports his staff are bringing back in from around the globe where he is operating, where the emerging markets might be, and in comes this servant, burst in the door. “Mr Job, Mr Job,” he says, and Job would have to settle him down, he says, “Tell me quietly what happened.” And the servant starts telling Job the whole story, and it says, “And whilst he was speaking” V 16, “there came in another and said “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell the.” “Lightning from heaven,” it says, a bolt so fierce that it runs along the ground and electrocutes everything. Seven thousand sheep, and many servants. So as the first servant is explaining the calamity that has just come upon Job, the next servant bursts in the door sits down beside the first servant. Job can’t quite believe what is happening, “Calm down,” he says, “tell me everything from the beginning, and as he was speaking V 17, there came another and said the Chaldeans made out three bands and they fell upon the camels, and they have carried them away, yea, and they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Three thousand camels, many servants, thats 3,000 semi trailers, price them at a half a million bucks each or more, he’s lost one or two million dollars in V 17, and every time there is only one survivor, and every time the next one runs in while the last one is still speaking, and if that’s not enough V 18, “While he was yet speaking their came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brothers house. And behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

You know it wasn’t until this last messenger came that Job really responded personally. He could bear the loss of everything, he could bear the collapse of his business empire, but when he lost his children, he stands up in V 20, “he rent his mantle,” an expression of grief and heartbroken astonishment, “he shaved his head,” a symbol of mourning. “He fell on the ground and surrendered to God.” You see there is no question in Job’s mind, this clearly had come from God. I mean there is just far too much coincidence in all these events. And even if the Chaldeans and the Sabeans could be blamed for what they did, those other two disasters, the lightning and the wind, were natural disasters, they were clearly from God. And in V 21, Job said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked shall I return thither, Yahweh gave, Yahweh hath taken away, blessed be the name of Yahweh. He has just lost everything in this world, and with the death of his sons, his name also will be lost to the world. 1 Tim 6:7 says, “We brought nothing into this world, it is certain we can carry nothing out.” V 22 “In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.” And Satan was wrong, you see, he had made a prediction in V11 and it didn’t come to pass. Job didn’t curse anyone. He didn’t curse God, he didn’t curse the Sabeans, he didn’t curse the Chaldeans, he didn’t curse the servants, instead, he blessed the name of Yahweh. What man is this, brothers and sisters and young people, he blessed the name of Yahweh. Well the question is, what’s Satan going to say to that?

Well that commences Chapter 2 and with Chapter 2, round two. V 1. “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan came among them to present himself before Yahweh. Yahweh says to Satan, “Where have you been?” Satan says the same as before, ‘Back and forth, to and fro, up and down, you know me, business to do.” Yahweh says,”Hast thou considered my servant Job, none like him in the earth, perfect, upright, fearing God, eschewing evil, and still he holds fast his integrity despite what you said, although you movest me to destroy him without a cause. And look at the answer. “Satan answered Yahweh and said, Skin for skin. Yea, all that a man hath he will give for his life but you put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face.” After all he has done, Satan is not satisfied. Do you know what he says in Vv 4-5, ‘You haven’t proven anything, you haven’t proved anything to me. All I see from that from Ch 1, is that Job doesn’t care for anyone. He’s so hard, he doesn’t even care for his own family so long as he walks free. Skin for skin. It is a bit of a complicated verse to translate, but it appears to work like this. “Skin for Skin,” that is ‘all that a man has he will give for his own life.’ What does that mean? He will give anything to save his skin. “All that he has,” namely, his kids, he would give if he could save his own life. What is Job supposed to do. If he blesses God Satan says, ‘Well look how hard he is, he is a hypocrite.’ If he curses God, Satan says, ‘See, I told you, he’s a hypocrite.’ I mean, Job can’ win, there is nothing he can do to satisfy this brother.

What do you think God should have done to Satan at this point? What would you do if you were the judge of all the earth and you were confronted with that comment in Vv 4 and 5. Kill him on the spot, kill him? And I am very glad he didn’t because we do this ourselves every other day. Envy is an extremely wicked thing. The proverb says, “Who can stand before envy,” it is irrational. Yahweh is patient with him, this brother, like he is patient with us. V 6, Yahweh says to Satan, ‘All right then, let’s do it again, behold he is in thy hand, but save his life.’ So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown, and Job took himself a potsherd to scrape himself withall and he sat down among the ashes. Look what has happened now. If losing his possessions, brothers and sisters and young people, if losing his possessions and his family was tough, losing his health as well would be devastating. Job would have spent many fretful hours in prayer after the calamities of Ch 1. He would have wondered what had happened to his relationship with God for the afflictions of Ch 1 to have come upon him.

Time has gone by, Satan has gone back, to and fro in the earth, Job’s begun to try and rebuild his life, and now as if his prayer has not been answered by God. It is as if his prayer has been rejected being blighted by disease so severe, it seems obvious he is going to die. He’s out of business, he’s out of the market. If Satan is in the same business as him, Satan is now in clover isn’t he. Things are going well for him, but still he is mean-spirited against his brother. You know, Job’s three friends are now going to come and see him, the news doesn’t take long to get around, where are the camel trains from Job, where is the bank transfer, what has happened to Job’s business, he was the market leader, it has all stopped overnight, well it wouldn’t take long before that news got around the whole of Arabia and Edom. The three friends come in v 12 of Ch 2 to see him, and it says that they “lifted up their eyes afar off and they knew him not,” he is so disfigured by the disease that has now come upon him, that they can’t recognise him. They lift up their voices, they weep, I mean, they can’t believe what they are seeing, when they light upon Job, they stand at a distance and they can’t recognise him, he is so disfigured.

They sit down in V 13 of Ch 2 for seven days and seven nights, the customary time for the mourning for the dead. Well let me tell you, they are not mourning for Job’s children, they are mourning in prospect for Job himself, because it seems imminent that they will be attending his funeral. And honestly, you’d have to see it to believe it. We don’t know exactly what this disease was, but it is called “boils” in v 7 of Ch 2. It is the Hebrew word ‘shakeen,’ it is the same word used for the leprosy of Egypt, or the boil that Hezekiah was afflicted with. So it is a very general word. Now I’ve got the details in your notes, but suffice it to say this, Job has a skin disease that covers his whole body. His skin has gone black and it is breaking apart, it is splitting. He’s covered in ulcers and he has an intolerable itching. He has got deep internal pain, so the inflammation has moved beyond the surface of the skin, he’s got deep internal pain and the sores on his body moreover are breeding worms, he is infested. The word “worms” is ‘maggots.’ The disfigurement he’s got has made him unrecognisable as Chs 2:12 tells us. His breath is pungent, he can’t do any thing about it, he drives people away even to breathe on them. He is emaciated because he can’t keep food down. His eyesight is failing so he appears to have done permanent damage to his eyes. He has fits of depression, he weeps uncontrollably, and he is mocked by children, I mean, once upon a time old men stood up for him, now children laugh at him. He can’t sleep and when he does sleep he is plagued with nightmares. And so now he is outside the city taking refuge in the ashes, and he wants to die, he wants God to kill him. An unbelievable situation. Well in V 9 of Ch 2, even Job’s wife has had enough.

Then said his wife to him, ‘Job, dear, dost thou still retain thine integrity, curse God and die, she says. What’s the point Job, continuing to bless God might prolong your life, but look at yourself, why not curse him and bring down the final stroke and end it all. It would be a mercy.’ Now listen, it might sound alarming that she should say such a thing, but don’t forget, she’s also lost all her possessions, she has also lost all her children, she is about to lose her husband and she can’t bear to see Job in this agony that he is evidently in. This is a desperate plea of a faithful sister in a time of enormous extremity. Yahweh never ever holds her accountable for what she says here in Ch 2:9. In fact she suggests exactly what Satan wants, that Job should curse God. She recommends it, I believe, so that his suffering will end, and that the judgment that they believe is coming upon Job will finally have its end and Job will be at peace. The problem is that Job has spent his whole life offering sacrifices, Ch 1:5, his whole life offering sacrifices lest his children cursed God, he won’t do it, he will never do it. Not that Job is immune to suffering, not that Job doesn’t want the suffering to stop, in Ch 3:1 he curses his day, he curses himself, but he won’t curse God. And he answers his wife in v 10 of this chapter and he says, ‘Darling,’ he says ‘thou speakest as one of the foolish women speakest.’ Look carefully, he doesn’t say ‘You are a fool,’ he says, ‘You are speaking like the fool.’ ‘Shall we receive good at the hand of God,’ he says, ‘and shall we not receive evil?’ And even in that, Job did not sin with his lips.

He doesn’t call her a fool because it is out of character what she is suggesting to him, but even in that, look at the unbelievable self-control, that last phrase, “in all this Job did not sin with his lips,” that is unbelievable self control. And the major point is, Satan is wrong again, Satan is wrong again. And there’s the type brothers and sisters ‘shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil,’ “Not my will but thine be done.” And if Job a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, then his wife is evidently a type of the ecclesia, who fails him, who can’g match him in his trials, who couldn’t drink the cup that he drank of, who couldn’t watch with home for one more hour, who when he was taken, wanted to forsake him and flee. And Satan? Well, clearly he is the type of human nature, cynical, self-seeking, materialistic, envious, ungoverned by the principles of truth. But the trial his wife presents before him, nevertheless, raises one of the age-old questions of the truth. What is the value of righteousness? Is there any value in righteousness as a commodity of itself apart from the benefits it might give us now. If living the truth meant a life of permanent privation would you still do it? Job says “yes,” Satan says “No.” Satan says that Job’s righteousness is simply a refined form of selfishness, it was a business proposition. Job says ‘My righteousness is a manifestation of God’s character which I do because I love and revere God. But if Satan is a brother as we say, how does God convince him of that, and how does God convince people like him of that.

Well there is only one way, only way in the word. Take a righteous man, subject him of trials that will strip him of everything but his righteousness. That is, remove everything from him apart from his character, that’s what it is going to take to prove the point. In short, the just will have to suffer for the unjust, and that’s the purpose of Job, you see, he is unwilling personal Messiah, but he is going to save others, and God’s going to chasten him, God’s going to try him, he’s going to prove him to the very limit, but when God’s finished with Job, he would be an greater man than he was before. What I am saying is that even Job, even Job, could learn obedience by the things that he suffered. And the reality is, you see, that unless something like this happens to us, a calamity in life such as this, some life-changing situation we might never ever do the thinking that God requires us to do, and the same was true of Job. You know in Ch 3 of Job, all he wants to do is die. He wishes he was never conceived, and if he had to be conceived, he wishes he had never been born, and if he was born, he wishes he was stillborn, and if he wasn’t stillborn, he wishes he had died as an infant, and failing that, he wants to die now, that’s the story of Job Ch 3. In the midst of that we’ve got one single comment from Job, one single verse, and it is in Ch 3:25, and look what he says, an ominous verse. “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” What’s he talking about? Well you might like to make a note in your margin, Ch 31:23. It was a fear of falling out of God’s favour. Job 31;23, Job says, “Destruction from God was a terror to me. What Job is telling us in V 23 is this. ‘I always knew something like his could happen. I always knew something like this could happen.’ Well, brothers and sisters and young people, the thinking has begun, and now as we are going to see the thoughts of many hearts are going to be revealed.

Transcription by Fay Berry 2017 Job Easter Camp, Glenlock, Waikerie, 2017.