So, I was at the daily Harvest House Prayer Meeting, and our daily scripture came from the book of Job. This, of course, opened up a discussion of 'why did God afflict Job ?', and so on. Having studied 'the question of Job' in detail, I shared some Biblical truths that aren't necessarily taught by the Church in most circles today. It's a fascinating study though. So let's look at the "righteous" Job for a moment, shall we.
First off, although Job may have been righteous, but he was in no ways 'perfect':
- He didn't discipline his kids for partying. (1:4-5)
- He didn't make a great choice regarding a wife. ( 2:9 ) Scholars have made the suggestion that this woman must've been extremely good-looking. This seems to line up with the whole study of Job. In other words, Job made bad relationship choices!!!
- Job lived in 'fear', which is the opposite of faith. ( 3:25 ) This implies that even when Job had the 'righteous' title ascribed to him, he had been living in fear.
Because of these things, satan not only had a right to afflict Job, but he actually had a right to kill him. Because of man's free choice (which resulted in the Fall, and the giving over of our dominion to satan), Job was fair game. God prevented satan from killing Job. And Job, it seems, was not even aware of the existence of satan. Nowhere does he acknowledge the existence of such a being. Relates a bit to Hosea 4:6. The afflictions towards Job were caused by satan, not God ( 1:12, 2:7 ). In Job 1:16 God doesn't say He sent the fire, only a servant (who apparently has no idea of satan either) says so. We must always be aware of who is saying what, when we study scripture. From Job's point of view, God took things away ( 1:21 ), but the preceeding verses suggest otherwise.
In the totallity of his book, Job seems to blame God for his misfortunes. He even calls God a terrorist at one point!!! ( 6:4 cf. Eph 6:16 ) Anything taken from the book of Job before Elihu starts to speak should be studied with extreme scrutiny. Job himself repents of all his past opinions about God when He is revealed fully to Job at the end ( 42:3-6 ).
The study of Job leads to many questions about Divine Healing, the Goodness of God, Suffering, the Will of God, etc. Getting into these subjects would take a loooooong, looooong time. If you have any questions regarding Job, let me know. I might not have an acceptable answer for you, but maybe I might? What I do know is this:
The central theme of the Bible is REDEMPTION/GOD'S GOODNESS.
The question of Job in no way contradicts this.
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