WWUTT 804 Introduction to Job?

In James 5 .11 we read, Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.

You have heard the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the

Lord is compassionate and merciful, when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. Well, in our Old Testament study on Thursday, we begin a brand new study in a very old book.

In fact, many would say this is the oldest book of the Bible, the book of Job. I'm going to read through all of chapter 1 and then we'll come back through and talk about the background behind this book, the reason for writing it, who the author is, some of the key themes, and who the intended audience is supposed to be.

Chapter 1, verse 1. There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was

Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7 ,000 sheep, 3 ,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

For Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the

Lord, and Satan came in among them. The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come?

Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.

Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears

God and turns away from evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear

God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?

You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand 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 hand, only against him do not stretch out your hand.

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

And there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the

Sabians fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

Then Job arose, and he tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped.

And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall

I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the

Lord. In all of this, Job did not sin or charge

God with wrong. That's a pretty powerful opening chapter, and it just gets more intense from there.

Job is the first of what are called the wisdom books of the Bible, and they consist of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.

Job is a masterfully written work. And of course it is, because all scripture is

God -breathed, right? But even those who do not acknowledge that the

Bible is the word of God, they nonetheless have a deep admiration and appreciation for the book of Job, for it is a literary masterpiece.

And like I said in the very beginning, likely the oldest book of the Bible. It even predates

Moses writing the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Now of course, in the chronology of the events that we read about in Job, it doesn't predate Genesis for Genesis says, in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. But where this falls on the timeline, it's likely that Job is either at the time of the patriarchs,

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or possibly predates Abraham. Now, what are some of the clues that we have for that?

Well, the first clue is actually in the very beginning of the book, Job 1 .1.

There was a man in the land of Uz. Uz was not in the land of Israel.

It was further to the east. In fact, Israel is never mentioned in this book. We don't have any idea what

Job's relationship is to the people of Israel or to even Abraham.

So the likelihood is that at least as far as the events are concerned that we read about in the book of Job, this would have happened either at the time of Abraham or before.

Another clue that we get is at the very end of the book. So we have a clue in the very first verse, and we have a clue in the last two verses.

This is Job 42 verses 16 and 17. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons for generations.

And Job died an old man and full of days. So Job likely lived longer than Abraham did.

And people did not live that long many years or in the years shortly following Abraham.

So that's another clue that we have that this may have predated Abraham for Job to have lived that long.

Now who the author of this book is, we really don't know. The author would certainly help us in dating the book.

Jewish tradition holds that Moses wrote this book. And the reason why that's common in Jewish tradition is because Moses wrote the first five books of the

Bible. So it only makes sense that the Bible's first author would also be the author of the

Bible's oldest book. But I'm not convinced by that argument. When I got old enough to study the

Pentateuch and compare the language there with the language that we have in Job, I didn't see a lot of similarities, at least enough that would indicate to me that it's the same author of all six of these books.

So where does that leave us? I mean, if we knew who the author of Job was, that would certainly help us with the dating of this book.

But that's always going to be a mystery. We're never going to know for sure who the author of Job is.

But I think there are a few clues that might indicate as to who this author could be or the most likely candidates.

And I'm going to present two for you. First of all, Job himself. We have it written down in Job chapter 19, verse 23.

Oh, that my words were written. And this is Job speaking. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book.

Oh, that they oh, that with an iron pen and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever.

So maybe after all of these events had transpired, Job wrote them down himself.

It's like a journal of things that had happened. We read there in chapter 42, verse 17,

Job died an old man and full of days. So maybe that's how he concluded his work.

He was close to the end of his life. So he just wrote all of these things down and then concluded it with that.

He knew he was dying soon anyway. So Job died an old man full of days. Maybe he's the author of this book.

Well, here's another theory. I think the author could actually be Elihu. There are three friends of Job's that are mentioned in this book.

And then there's one other man, a very young man who seems to speak more sensibly than Job's friends.

And that's a man named Elihu. And so it's possible Elihu is kind of behind the scenes and watching all these things unfold and lets

Job's friends speak their stupidity enough until he finally speaks up.

Maybe Elihu, operating as kind of like a prophet of God, becomes the one who writes this particular book.

I think it is a plausible explanation. Now, there are some scholars out there who take a much more liberal approach to the dating of this book.

And even among conservative scholars, they'll just think that the book was written at a much later time, even though it may concern events that happened around the time of Abraham.

The actual writing of the book would have been much, much later. And how do they come to that conclusion? Well, they point to certain verses in Job that seem to quote other passages of the

Bible. For example, Job 12, 9, who among all these does not know that the hand of the

Lord has done this? Well, that looks very similar to Isaiah 41, 20, that they may see and know and consider together that the hand of the

Lord has done this. There's also Job 12, verses 21 and 24, which together read, he pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong.

He makes them wander in a trackless waste. We read in Psalm 107, 40, he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in a trackless waste.

Well, that looks pretty similar to something that Job said. So Job must be quoting

Isaiah and Psalms, right? I don't understand why that's the argument instead of Isaiah is quoting

Job and the author of the Psalms is quoting Job. So because if that's the case, then

Job, the writing of this particular book would predate even Isaiah and Psalms. And I think that that's a more likely possibility.

Again, it doesn't make any sense to have that late dating of Job when there's no mention of the people of Israel here.

It seems like the author of this book, if it's somebody that was around the time of the exile or maybe around the time of David or Isaiah or Solomon, since this is coupled with or since this is fit with all the rest of the wisdom books, maybe it would have been somebody during the time of Solomon.

If somebody was writing in that period, why would they have not made a connection between Job and the people of Israel since Israel is never even mentioned?

And the location in which Job lived was even outside of the realm of Israel. So that's just a couple of theories behind the author of the book and the approximate time in which it was written.

Certainly what we have here predates the children of Israel or the Exodus, their enslavement in Egypt.

Now, what about the reason for writing this book? What's the occasion and who is the intended audience?

Well, we don't know that Job was written to a particular group of people, but Job was certainly written to deal with the question of why a just and sovereign

God allows suffering. If God is so good, why is there so much evil in the world?

That might be one of the questions that is asked and therefore attempted to be answered by the writing of this book.

With so much suffering in the world, either God is not just or he is not sovereign or both.

That's the ultimatum that an arrogant and fallen man would come to anyway. See, there's so much evil in the world, therefore

God can't possibly be a loving God or he's powerless to do anything about it.

Or maybe he's both. Maybe he neither cares nor can he do anything about it. And that's even somewhat exemplified in Job's friends and his wife, who come to some very stupid conclusions in the theology, the theological responses that they have to Job's sufferings.

Sometimes Job's friends mean well, but their theology is oversimplified.

Job's friends really serve him best when they don't talk. And that's often discussed whenever we talk about Job's friends in this book.

They did great when they just mourned with him, but once they tried to open their mouths and give him platitudes, they really came across rather foolish.

And so are we, whenever we think that we know God's ways according to our own experiences or according to human wisdom, apart from the counsel of his word.

And then we're prone to ask questions like, why do bad things happen to good people?

But as I've heard R .C. Sproul say, that only happened once and he volunteered.

Bad things have only happened to one good person, and that's Jesus Christ. Now, even though the book of Job might be written to tackle why a just and sovereign

God allows such injustice and evil, or why God allows pain and suffering, the book never really answers the question, never gives us a direct answer anyway.

Even when God speaks up in four of the greatest chapters of all of scripture,

Job 38 through 41, he never addresses the question either. In fact, God ignores all of Job's questions when he finally speaks from the whirlwind.

Rather, God simply reveals that he's been there all along. He is the creator of all things, and he does as he wills.

Now, if Job's cry is, why is God doing this to me?

If that's Job's question, well, that question is certainly answered in this book. God sits in the heavens and does as he pleases.

We read that in Psalm 115 .3 and 135 .6. And in so doing,

God is never unjust. God never does evil. He is always good.

And we must trust that even when we are tested, which Job is certainly tested, and we'll probably never be tested like Job was tested, but we will be tested.

And when we are, we must rest in God. We must trust in God.

And we must rejoice in God. That he works all things together for our good and for his glory.

For all who have been called in the name of his son, Jesus Christ. All of these things are happening for our good and for his glory.

Do we trust God enough to believe that he's working something even better than our circumstances seem to indicate right now?

Like, God is way outside the moments that we're living in and we're experiencing.

Though sometimes we have such tunnel vision that we cannot see beyond the moment that we're in right now.

Job will even suffer from that a little bit as we read about some of his responses in this book.

God is certainly working in all of those moments, but his plan is much, much bigger than whatever it is that we are going through right now.

I mean, he is beyond time and space. He is not limited to the moments that we are experiencing, but God has decreed the end from the beginning.

As we read in Isaiah 46, starting in verse 10, I am

God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country, I have spoken and I will bring it to pass.

I have purposed and I will do it. And that is something that Job is going to learn over the course of this story.

Job 19 is a particularly powerful chapter for it's there that Job both blames

God for his suffering and also comes to realize that God is his deliverer.

Job 19 verse 25, for I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh,

I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another.

Job is not a fictional character. He is a real person who lived at a real time who really experienced these things and every time

Job is referred to in the scriptures, he is referred as an actual figure.

In Ezekiel, we have Ezekiel mentioning Daniel, Noah and Job. We don't question the existence of Daniel or Noah, well liberal theologians may question the existence of Noah, but Daniel was certainly real.

Job is definitely real as well and he is also referred to in James as an example that we should follow.

James chapter 5 verses 10 through 11, as an example of suffering and patience brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the

Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the

Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Again the words of Job in Job 19 verse 25, for I know that my

Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth, pointing directly to Jesus Christ.

We'll resume our study of the book of Job next week. Let us conclude with prayer.

Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for your word that it may be our guide.

We read in Romans chapter 15 verse 4 that what was written for us in former days was written for our instruction, that through the endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

Your word has endured all the way until now. In fact, Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away.

So it continues to counsel us even now, that even when we see the suffering of a man who lived thousands of years ago, yet you were faithful to deliver him up.

So we know you will be faithful to your promises even now and we will be delivered by faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

Deliver us God from sin and temptation. Let us not be led into any evil way today, but seize those thoughts and make them obedient to Christ, who is our

Redeemer, who lives forever and ever. Amen. This has been

When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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