The Mystery of Job

The Book of Job is considered to be the oldest book of the Bible, written even before Moses wrote Genesis. The odd thing about Job is that it is a very disconcerting book, a book which seems to contradict the rest of the Bible and even the time-honored principle “you shall reap what you sow,” for the book begins with God honoring Satan’s request to utterly destroy the most righteous man in the earth. Why would anyone want to serve and obey a God who, simply at the request of his adversary, allows one’s enemy to kill all of his children, steal and destroy all of his property, and utterly consume his body with ebola-like illness.

The mere fact that God did allow Satan to do all these things and hurt Job in these ways explains why Job’s three friends said what they said to him. Don’t we do the same thing? When we see a Christian family suffer severe setbacks don’t we wonder what they did that so offended God? The Bible teaches us over and over again that God blesses the person who walks righteously before Him and punishes and curses the one who rebels against his Word.

For example, as Israel prepared to enter the promised land Moses explained,

And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. (Deuteronomy 28:1-5 ESV)

On the other hand Moses warned,

1“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 TheLord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought[a] and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. (Deut. 28:15-22)

King Solomon, the wisest of all living men, said, Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” (Proverbs 10:9) Righteous Job walked in integrity and yet that very integrity caused him to be attacked by powers he could not contend with and thus he walked in insecurity, the exact opposite of Solomon’s proverb. Again, Solomon said, What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.” (Prov. 10:24) Job, however, lived a righteous life and still that which he dreaded came upon him. Job himself said, “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” (Job 3:25) Job experienced the exact opposite of that which God promises.

Job experienced such great harm, oppression, and injury that his book records,

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

“Let the day perish on which I was born,
    and the night that said,
    ‘A man is conceived.’
Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it,
    nor light shine upon it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds dwell upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.
Behold, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry enter it.
Let those curse it who curse the day,
    who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light, but have none,
    nor see the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
    nor hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
    Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
    I would have slept; then I would have been at rest….  (Job 3:1-13)

Job, the most righteous man on earth, the very man whom God commended in heaven before the sons of God, now finds himself so stricken with grief and sickness that he curses the day of his birth and laments his very existence. He lived according to the ways of God, but every promise given to the righteous has failed. Has God’s Word thus proved itself untrue? Has God shown himself a liar? This is the mystery of Job and it is no simple mystery to unravel.

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