The Significance of the Book of Job

One of the greatest significance of the book of Job is its answer to the question of suffering. Job tells us that
1. An individual's suffering is not necessarily the result of sin.
2. It is unjust and unrighteous to use someone's misery as a proof to condemn the sufferer of some probable sin.
3. To falsely condemn a fellow-human and use such opportunity as a false reason to glorify God will not please God at all.
4. Our first call towards the suffering is to help and assist them, not theologize or debate about their situation.
5. There is absolutely no reason to doubt the goodness of God, no matter how bad or unfair life appears to us. God's goodness is greater than all misfortune.
6. Suffering is not just a natural affair; the devil and his hosts are actively involved in suffering that results from the violence of wind, fire, murderous and rioting men, and physical diseases.
7. Nothing is out of the control of God.
8. The goodness of God cannot be limited to experiences just within the span of this short life; there is hope beyond the grave.

Job 1: The Man Who Put The Devil To Shame

Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing?" (Job 1:9)

In Job 1:9, the devil is for the first time seen accusing anyone in the history of humanity. The accused guy is a healthy, wealthy, holy man called Job.

3 Claims of the Devil:
1. Anyone can fear God if God becomes their protector
2. Anyone can fear God if God becomes their prosperor
3. Anyone will curse God if God withdraws His protection and prosperity

The Devil is happy as long as we fear God for something: for healing, for blessing, for good friends, for things going on well, even for salvation... However, the Devil is distraught the moment he sees that we fear God for "nothing" related to us, but everything related to God, even for intense suffering. This the Devil can't bear, for it contradicts his nature; he is thoroughly wicked and he can't believe anyone is capable of being good, of truly fearing God.

Job is the story of how God stripped Job of everything he had, ultimately even his health; and, yet he held on to his faith in God. It may not have been faith in the sense that comfort-zone Christians know about. Job's faith went through intense tensions and pressures that are not very normal to humans in general. So, we may expect his faith to do things that we usually may not approve. But, that was the kind of faith that God was looking for; the faith that could be bent, but not broken; that could be heated up, but not melted, that could be battered, but not crushed. When Job's faith came out pure as gold, the devil's face so pale, he disappeared from Job's book. Job was the man who bashed the devil.

"But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" (Job 1:11)

How often it is okay for us as long as God doesn't touch what "we have"? We distinguish between what belongs to (or is donated to) God and what belongs to us. We may not bother to give God our tithes (and feel happy about keeping the letter of the law); however, if God touches the 90% that we keep for ourselves, worship becomes difficult. It is like a child who receives gifts from his parents; but, he will not tolerate that they touch that gift after they had given it to him. Or it is like a dog, that moves about wagging its tail as long as the Master gives food, but turns aggressive the moment he touches the bone in its mouth. Job reminds us that what we got from God is still God's; He has power to turn these even into the hands of Satan: "all that he has is in your power" (Job 1:12). But, Satan could not break Job's faith. When in a moment's time, he lost all that he had, he fell to the ground and worshiped God saying "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." Jesus said that it is hard for the rich who trust in their riches to enter into heaven. Job was rich. He had 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and many servants. Yet, Job was not someone who trusted in his riches; his trust was on God.

8 Lessons from the Book of Job

1. Suffering has meaning (Job.23:10)
2. Mourning is not despair (Job 6:10; 7:6; 14:7; 19:10; 13:15)
3. Bad theology never glorifies God (Job 4:15; 8:8; 15:10)
(spiritual privilege, tradition, experience are not the bases)
4. Silence comforts more than words or speech (Job 16:2; 13:5)
5. It’s before God that a man stands or falls. (Job 13:1-4; Rom.14:4)
So stay focused on Him. Job didn’t give in to the counsel of his friends
6. We only know the outskirts (edges) of His ways (Job 26:14)
7. God knows and God cares (Job 38-41)
8. God doesn’t write tragedies
- He never made a piece of junk
- He never designed failure

Job: The Friends of Job Pursue the Will of the Devil to Find Fault with Job (3rd Round: Chs 21-31)

• Job wants his friends to bear with him till he has finished speaking; for his complaint is not against man. He asks that if their argument was right why do the wicked live and prosper though they care nothing about God. If someone says that God will punish the children for the father's sin; how reasonable would that be, because they won't mind what happens to others after them. (Ch21)


• Eliphaz is now very blunt and accusatory. He tells Job that his righteousness mean nothing because Job's wickedness is great. He accuses him of exploiting the poor, showing no compassion to the needy, and oppressing the widows and orphans.He interprets Job's questions as intending to say that God can't see the suffering of man. He calls Job to repentance. (Ch22)


• Job wishes to see God and talk with Him, because he believes He will hear him (Perhaps, expressing his discouragement as well that his friends couldn't understand him). He has faith in God and is sure that though he can't see Him, He holds him and after He has tested him, he shall come out like gold. Yet, that doesn't mean that Job is not terrified because of the present situation. He observes again that the wicked do prosper in this short life on earth. Somehow, the argument seems to indicate that a man's character cannot be judged by the conditions he falls into (or God allows) in this life. (Chs23-24)


• Bildad is very short this time. All he can say is that it is impossible for man to be righteous before God. Thus, in some way or the other, Job is not blameless. It is interesting that the friends of Job are doing the same thing that the devil wanted to do against Job - they try to find some fault with him. The irony is that the very suffering he is going to was not because he was blameworthy; but, because he was blameless and God wanted to prove that. (Ch25)


• Job makes the longest reply this time. He remarks about how powerless their counsel has been and responds in strong poetic words that the intricacies of divine design in nature exhibit merely the outskirts of God's ways. He says, "How small a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" Job makes some remarkable scientific statements in this discourse. Job affirms that he will not give in to their false condemnation of him- to their lies. His conscience is clear. Job knows about the final doom of the wicked. He also observes that true wisdom is found only in God; the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. Job knows that and remembers that the fear of the Lord ruled his life and blessed his life in the former days. He recounts his days of kindness and mercy and how he was honored and esteemed by people. But, now his physical humiliation has led to rejection. He is shocked because he had not expected this to happen to him. He confesses his life of integrity, justice, and mercy. His practice was governed by the fear of the Lord. He would willingly submitted to a rightful indictment; but, he cannot submit to the false accusations of his friends. Chapter 31 ends with the words "The words of Job are ended." (Chs26-31)


• Zophar doesn't answer anymore.

Job: You...make my humiliation an argument against me (Round 2: Chs12-20)

"If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me...." (Job 19:5)

It is sad to see that the friends who had come to comfort Job start ending up trying to convict and condemn him. The pain is aggravated by their aggressiveness to reproach Job.

• Job remarks that what they are saying isn't something very new. His friends still can't relate with his pain. He doesn't accept their accusations and says that they all whitewash with lies and are worthless physicians; it would have been better if they would keep silent; why should they be speaking falsely for God. He asks God why He is hiding His face and counting him as His enemy. He feels he is left alone to mourn for himself. (Chs12-14)
• Eliphaz accuses Job of speaking out of his own sinfulness. He seems to be irritated that Job didn't agree to look inferior than them in knowledge, and retorts "Are you the firstborn of the human race?....What do you know that we do not know?" It seems that Eliphaz was quite older than Job because he remarks, "The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, those older than your father." The softer Eliphaz has turned a bit aggressive here. He quotes the ancients as affirming that the wicked are the ones who perish. (Ch15)
• Job again replies that he has heard many such things and laments of how miserable comforters they all are. They still are not relating to his pain. He feels that God has become his enemy and has abandoned him to misery. Job is extremely broken because of his suffering. (Chs16-17)
• Bildad seems to feel irritated that Job is not acknowledging their wisdom. "Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?" he asks. His statement is that it is the wicked who lose everything and are completely destroyed. (Ch18)
• Job feels greatly tormented by his friends who find an opportunity to magnify themselves against him in his humiliation. Job continues to describe his agony. His cry to them is summed up in these words, "Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?" (Ch19)
• Zophar starts out by stating that the prosperity of the wicked is short-lived. Many of the things which Job's friends are saying are true; but, they are applying it to a wrong person and to a wrong situation. It seems here, in Zophar's case, that Job's friends have progressed from simple speculation to some kind of belief of what sins Job might have done. For instance, Zophar says that the wicked will be destroyed because "they have crushed and abandoned the poor, they have seized a house that they did not build." Perhaps, it's similar to the elder brother in the Prodigal Son's story who accuses his brother of wasting all the money on harlots. Zophar's final words seem to try to threaten Job. All attempts to comfort are forsaken because of the aggression provoked by Job's refusal to admit that their theological evaluation of his condition is right. (Ch20)

Job: Attempts to Justify God Can End up in Bad Theology - I

The case of Job and his three friends reveals that even attempts to justify God can end up in bad theology and actions that are gravely displeasing to Him. God is just, of course; but, suffering doesn't always mean "punishment for sin". Jesus made that clear to His disciples when He said that the man who was born blind was born so, not because of his sin or anybody's sin, but in order that God's works may be revealed in him (John 9:3). It would have been better for Job's friends to shut their mouths about what they didn't know instead of imagining stuff and trying to find explanation for something that was difficult in such situations. We are called to mourn with those who mourn (Rom.12:15); that is much better in most cases. Only someone who has gone through the pain that Job went through could grasp the agony that is present in each word he utters. But, it is written for us so that we can understand the patience of Job.

Chs 1-11 (First Round)

• Job is introduced by the author as blameless and righteous before God; but, Satan wants a trial of faith. (Chs1-2). Satan believes that Job will curse God if God will hurt him. God allows Satan to hurt Job.
• Job's agony is so great that he wishes he was not born. He finds no purpose in suffering. (Ch3)
• Eliphaz tries to interpret Job's suffering as divine chastisement and finds in it a hope for the future. He cites his experience with some spirit who rhetorically reveals that man cannot be righteous before God - the argument seems to veer in support of sin as originating from human weakness or finitude. (Chs4-5)
• Job is discouraged that his friends can't relate to his experience of pain; instead of comforting him; they try to theorize things. He cries out to God for relief. (Chs6-7)
• Bildad tries to argue that God cannot be unjust - history teaches that; tradition attests to that.(Ch8)
• Job asks, "But how can a mortal be just before God?" He still can't understand why he's going through all this. He asks God to leave him alone before he dies. (Chs9-10)
• Zophar is vexed because Job can't see it and keeps babbling his pain. There is some sense in all this, he thinks. However, God is so great and man so small that it's difficult to know the reason behind everything that is happening. But, Job can be sure that God is exacting of him less than his guilt deserves. He encourages Job to repent.