01 June

Bible In 365 Days                                                 

Job 1-4

Job 1

In magnificence of argument and beauty of style this Book is one of the grandest in the divine Library. The story of Job is presented in dramatic form.

It opens with a picture of Job. He is seen in three respects: first, as to character. The opening verses declare him to be "perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil." The language is simple, and suggests that high integrity which never fails to command respect. In the second place, he is seen in the midst of his home life, rejoicing in his children, not attempting to stay their festivity, while yet anxious concerning their character. Finally, he is revealed to us as a man of great wealth. The combination is rare and remarkable. The man stands before us, a strong and majestic figure, upright and tender, just and gracious; in the language of the chronicler, the "greatest of all the children of the east."

Then we are confronted with a most startling situation. Heaven is seen in argument with hell about earth. God is heard in defense of a man against Satan. The angel messengers of the Most High are seen gathering to Him in counsel. Among them was one, like them in nature, and yet unlike. He is here named the adversary. His estimate of Job was that his attitude toward God was based on pure selfishness, and that if what Job possessed was taken from him he would cease to be loyal to the throne of God. To the adversary permission was given to deal with the possessions of Job. To this permission bounds were set beyond which he might not go. The person of the patriarch was not to be touched. The storm broke on the head of Job. All the advantage seemed to be with the enemy, for up to a certain point Job was powerless against him. There was, however, an inner citadel which the enemy could not touch. Satan is revealed here in startling light. His malice is seen in the choice of time. He strikes in the midst of festivity. His persistence is manifest in that he proceeds to the uttermost bound of the permission is limitation is evident in that he cannot transgress that bound.

The answer of Job to the sweeping storm was characterized by heroism and vast breadth of outlook. There was no affectation of stoicism. He was afflicted, and showed it in all the outward signs of mourning. In the midst of these, however, he turned to the highest act of life, and bowed in reverential worship. His words were of the profoundest philosophy. He recognized that man is more than the things he gathers about him. His beginning and his ending are in nakedness. Discerning the hand of the Lord in bane as well as in blessing, he lifted to Him, out of the midst of dire calamity, the sacrifice of praise. Thus the adversary's lie in the council of heaven was disproved.

Job 2

Again the solemn council met, and again Satan was present. The Most High uttered the same estimate of His servant as before, adding thereto a declaration of Job's victory in the conflict which had taken place. The adversary declared that the limits which God had set had hindered him in the accomplishment of his purpose. Though Job had triumphed over his loss of possession, he was not therefore proven loyal to God. The essential greatness of the man was unimpaired in that his own life had not been touched by weakness. Let him but feel there, and renunciation of God would immediately ensue. It is the devil's perpetual estimate of humanity that flesh is supreme. Once again he was permitted to prove his slander, but again the divine limit was set to the sphere of his operation.

The enemy went forth on his terrible work, and immediately we are presented with the awful picture of the man of God weakened in his personality by the unutterable misery of physical affliction. To this was now added the new and subtle attack of the sympathy of his wife. Her love, utterly misguided it is true, counseled that he die by renouncing God. His answer was characterized by tenderness toward her, and yet by unswerving loyalty to God.

Here the adversary passes out of sight. He has done his dire and dreadful work. His slander is manifestly a lie. The darkest days of all for Job now began. There is a stimulus in the clash of catastrophe. The very shock and surprise of the strokes create strength in which men triumph. It is in the brooding silence which enwraps the soul afterward that the fiercest fight is waged. To that the patriarch now passed. These verses tell the story of the coming of his friends. There were only three of them, joined presently, perchance, by another, when Elihu came on the scene. While it is true that Job suffered more at the hands of these friends ultimately than by the attacks of the foe, yet some recognition must be made of the goodness of the men. They were admirable, first, because they came at all. Even more were they to be admired because they sat in silence with him for seven days and nights. In overwhelming sorrows, true friendship almost invariably demonstrates itself more perfectly by silence than by speech. And even in spite of the fact that Job's friends caused him sorrow by their words, they are more to be admired because what they thought concerning him they dared to say to him, rather than about him to others.

Job 3

Silent sympathy always creates an opportunity for grief to express itself. Job's outcry was undoubtedly an answer to their sympathy. So far, it was good, and they had helped him. It is always better to tell out the dark questionings of the heart than to brood over them. This lamentation of Job is of the nature of a cry for escape, rather than a description of the oppressing sorrows. In it there are three movements. The first consists of a terrible cursing of the day of his birth and the night of his conception (1-10). In it the anguish which hates the very fact of being sobs itself out in agony.

The second consists of lamentation over his preservation (11-19). In it he contemplated the blessings of death. To him in these hours of living sorrow cessation of being would be, he thought, the greatest blessing, a condition in which men escape the troubles of life.

Finally, existence is lamented in his own particular case, because characterized by such unceasing and irremedial sorrow (20-26). It is a great lamentation, pulsing with pain, expressive of the meanings of the most terrible of all sorrows, the sense of mystery, the inexplicability of it all.

Job 4

Now begins the great controversy between Job and his friends, which occupies the major portion of the Book. This controversy moves in three cycles. The first, commencing here, runs through chapter fourteen. In it each of the three friends speaks to Job, and is answered by him.

The first speaker, Eliphaz, commenced with a courteous apology for speaking at all, and yet a declaration that he could not withhold himself. After expressing surprise at Job's complaint, and asking if his integrity ought not to be a sufficient guarantee of his safety, he proceeded to a general explanation of the problem of suffering, declaring it to be God's punishment of wickedness, a harvest for which there must have been a previous sowing. He argued the truth of this by insisting on the fact of man's sin in the sight of God. This had been revealed to him in a solitary hour, in the dead of night, by a mystic presence, a form. The inference of this is that Job's suffering was the result of Job's sin.