Chapter 7: Studies in Job, Part 1

IN THIS CHAPTER, you will discover:

• A literary masterpiece of drama, faith, and prophecy.
• The six stages of faith.
• The relationship between righteousness and prosperity.
• The role of doubt in the development of faith.

AS A RESULT, you will be able to:

• Appreciate the multifaceted greatness of the book of Job.
• Develop depth and maturity in your faith.
• Worship God for who He is.
• Have a rich and genuine relationship with God.
   

Reading: "Job," International Bible Commentary (IBC), pp. 520-21; "Job," NIV Topical Study Bible (NIVTSB), pp. 543-44.
Key Scripture: "Let us learn together what is good" (Job 34:4).
David McKenna begins our guided tour of Job by reflecting on the book as a whole. Job is a classic because its central theme, the problem of suffering, is a universal dilemma. People in every age and culture ask the same question when they suffer: "Why me?" We all feel that we suffer unfairly. The protest "Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous perish?" has hindered belief in a just and sovereign God throughout history.
McKenna notes that the book of Job is a masterpiece on many levels. Like a diamond, it reveals different facets depending upon how we examine it. Because of its profound wisdom, it has been a reservoir of insight for philosophers and theologians. But Job's literary passion and beauty has fascinated poets, novelists, composers, and playwrights as well. Dante, Milton, Goethe, H. G. Wells, Dostoyevsky, and Jung are among those who have reflected Job's language and themes in their work. The dramatic sweep of Job?from its prologue in heaven to its awe-inspiring, visionary climax?is truly amazing.
The book of Job can also be read as a journey in faith. In his book The Stages of Faith, Dr. James W. Fowler attempts to define faith from a developmental perspective. He speaks of faith as "a way of moving through life" and as a relationship that "gives order, coherence, and meaning" to human existence (Communicator's Commentary on Job [CCJ], p. 21). Fowler identifies six sequential phases of growth in faith. McKenna uses these stages to examine the arguments of Job and his friends. The six stages are:
1. Intuitive-projective faith. This most elementary form of faith is shaped by fantasy, imagination, and powerful imagery. It is imitative, illogical, and taboo-ridden. Children move beyond this level of faith when they begin to question what is real and what is imaginary.
2. Mythical-Iiteral faith. This is the type of faith appropriate to early childhood. It interprets rules and symbols at face value. It reflects an "either-or" perspective and sees the world in terms of "black and white." Children begin to move beyond this level when they recognize the logical contradictions in their beliefs.
3. Synthetic-conventional faith. This "adolescent" faith embraces the belief system modeled by peers, family, community, and cultural tradition. It is a "conformist," authority-oriented faith. Transition occurs as one moves toward autonomy and intellectual adulthood.
4. Individuative-reflective faith. The initiation of "adult" faith is characterized by critical thinking and independent reasoning. At this stage one is capable of real dialogue and is willing to take responsibility for one's actions. Transition to higher stages of faith occurs as one considers the inherent limits of rational knowledge and experiences the diversity of truth.
5. Conjunctive faith. During mid-Iife and old age we reevaluate who we are and strive for a comprehensive worldview. We try to deepen our discernment of what is valuable and real so that we can live with dignity and serve others meaningfully. Conjunctive faith is tolerant of ambiguity and mystery, and can see truth from a "both-and" perspective.
6. Universalizing faith. This is the faith of the "world citizen," the rare individual who realizes transcendent wisdom through a life of radical self-giving.
(Excerpts from The Stages of Faith by James Fowler. Copyright Ó 1981 by James Fowler. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.)
The Christian cannot follow Job's own journey through the stages of faith without seeing Christ. Job is a book of great prophetic power in which Christ and His mission are prefigured. Job's early and repeated cry for an intercessor foreshadows Christ's role as mediator between God and humanity.
Job himself can be seen in many ways as a kind of "intermediate man" between Adam and Jesus. Both Job and Jesus demonstrated that God can bring redemption and restoration out of suffering when it is endured with faithfulness. Job, though guiltless, bore his affliction with great patience. Although his faith in God was shaken, it never collapsed: "Though he slay me, yet will l hope in him" (Job 13:15). In the end, all that was taken from Job was restored many times over, and his understanding of God was greatly deepened.
Likewise, Jesus, who was sinless, took upon Himself the terrifying burden of the Cross. He prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). Out of His obedience, universal restoration was won. Job's suffering reached the depths of human despair, but Jesus' anguish embraced death and plumbed the very depths of hell. Because of the suffering He accepted, a day will come when all suffering will cease and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 7:17).
We do not find a simple answer to the problem of suffering in the book of Job. But we do learn about the kind of faith relationship with God that makes it possible to find the answer. The key to seeing through suffering is seeing through suffering. For this reason, Job is a book that cannot simply be studied?it must be experienced.
Key Concepts:
1. ___________________________ can be defined as "a way of moving through life" and a relationship that gives order and meaning to life. [See above]
2. _____ True or False. Faith is static, with no element of growth involved. [See above ]
3. The key to seeing through suffering is _________________ through suffering. [See above]
4. The whole book of Job seeks to answer the primary question: (Why does suffering happen?, How am I to suffer?). [IBC, 520]
5. The book of Job shows that we should allow grief, anger, and impatience to direct us (away from, toward) God. [IBC, 521]
6. The basic answer to the problem of suffering is the _________________________ of God. [NIVTSB, 543]
7. Much that is said in the speeches contained in the book of Job (does, does not) reflect God's own perspective on suffering. [NIVTSB, 543]
Further Study: Read "Job, Book of," The New International Dictionary of the Bible (NIDB), pp. 529-30.
Points to Ponder:
A. Examine Fowler's scale of faith development. Consider how one progresses through the six stages. Bearing in mind that chronological age does not determine your level of faith development, at what stage do you find yourself now? What incidents and insights helped you make the transition from the previous stage to this stage? How did you redefine "faith" during that process? According to the scale, what concerns will prepare you to move to the next stage? Are any of these concerns part of your experience now?



Life Application: According to David A. Clines, "two different but complementary answers are given by the book as it portrays Job's reactions to suffering" (IBC, pp. 520-21). In the beginning of the book we see "Job the patient." But as the conflict over Job's suffering escalates, "Job the impatient" appears. Clines states that when our equanimity fails, grief, anger, and impatience are natural and unavoidable. These emotions can even be constructive if they are directed the right way. Do you have misdirected grief, anger, and impatience in your life? How can you channel these emotions more creatively?

Reading: Job 1:1-5; International Bible Commentary, pp. 522-23; "Wisdom," New International Dictionary of the Bible, pp. 1066-67.
Key Scripture: "This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1).
In scene one of the prologue we meet Job, a citizen of the land of Uz and an entrepreneur of the rugged eastern wilderness. He is a great patriarch, exemplary in his righteousness, in his accomplishments, and in his relationships. The Key Scripture?and later God Himself (1:8; 2:3)?declare Job "blameless." This does not imply that Job was sinless. It means that he had integrity, being upright in both his inner character and his outward actions. The nobility of his ethics was matched fully by the trustworthiness of his behavior. Indeed, this is the meaning of integrity: that our being and our doing are in harmony.
Job's righteousness is all the more impressive when we consider that the Ten Commandments had not yet been given to Moses. Job was not a Jew, and he had the benefits of neither the written law nor the Mosaic priesthood, yet Job worshipped the true God. Job's insight concerning God and His moral laws came through natural revelation?the knowledge of God discernable through reason from the order of creation and through the human conscience (Ps. 19:1-4; Rom. 1:18-20; 2:13-15).
The Wisdom School was the biblical school of thought that focused on natural revelation. It stood in some sense independent from the schools of the priests and the prophets. The character of Job personified the ideals of this school. The most fundamental precept of the Wisdom School?one that we find repeated throughout the Wisdom literature of the Bible?is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom. It is not surprising that we are told in the first verse that Job "feared God and shunned evil."
Another common assumption of the Wisdom School was that material success inevitably followed obedience to God. Initially, this would appear to have been the case with Job. The loftiness of Job's ethical standards was matched by the splendor of his family and the extensiveness of his financial holdings. Both displayed a kind of "perfection." The numbers seven and ten?symbolic of perfection and completion?appear repeatedly in descriptions of Job's wealth and family (IBC, p. 522).
In Hebrew, the conjunction "And [so]" between verses 1 and 2 suggests that the birth of Job's sons and daughters and his ownership of livestock and servants were rewards for his virtue. It implies a direct causal connection between Job's superior ethical uprightness and the fact that he was materially "the greatest man among all the people of the East" (v. 3). In part, the book of Job was the Wisdom School's attempt to consider whether such a "theology of affluence" is justified (see IBC, p. 98).
Job was such a genuinely upright man that even success did not spoil him. He did not succumb to "affluenza" (CCJ, p. 33), nor did he oppress his children with legalism or joyless religion. Job's family regularly feasted together, and harmony reigned between brother and sister. In Christ-like fashion, Job acted as a mediator and priest between his children and God. He sacrificed regularly for them to atone for any sin they may have committed against God in their hearts. McKenna sums up Job's ideal character with these words: "In fulfillment of his righteousness, he is wise; in gratitude for riches, he is wealthy; in his love for his family, he is worthy" (CCJ, p. 34).
Key Concepts:
1. This is the meaning of integrity?that our being and our doing are in ___________________. [See above]
2. Job's insight concerning God and His moral laws came through (special, natural) revelation. [See above]
3. The biblical school of thought that focused on natural revelation was called the School ________________________. [See above]
4. The most fundamental precept of the Wisdom School is that the ___________________ of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. [See above]
5. _____ True or False. The Bible says that Job was sinless and perfect. [IBC, 522]
6. Which of the following biblical books is not an example of Wisdom literature: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah? [NIDB, p. 1067]
7. _____ True or False. Wisdom literature often seems to equate doing right with material profit. [NIDB, 1067]
8. The highest expression of wisdom?called by Paul "the wisdom of God"?was manifested in _____________________________. [NIDB, 1067]
Further Study: Read "The Theology of Wisdom," p. 64 and "Introduction to the Wisdom Literature," pp. 96-100 in the IBC.
Points to Ponder:
A. Look up the definition of "wisdom" in a dictionary; then review the Scriptures under "Wisdom, B. Human wisdom" in the Topical Index of the NIVTSB, p. 175. What is wisdom? Are there different kinds of wisdom? Do all forms of wisdom have something in common? In your own words, what is the "fear of the Lord?" What role does this attitude play in fostering wisdom?

Life Application: David McKenna observed that parents today commonly abdicate spiritual responsibility for their children to the established church and to professional pastors. What do you think of this trend? What is lost or gained by such an approach to parenting? Does Job have anything to teach us today about serving as intercessors and spiritual leaders for our families? List several ways you can imitate his example.


 

Reading: Job 1:6-2:13, International Bible Commentary, p. 523.
Key Scripture: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised" (Job 1:21).
In verse 6 the story of Job begins to unfold in a radically new setting. The author infuses dramatic tension into the plot by contrasting the peace and perfection of Job's earthly life with an ominous account of conflict in heaven. Is Job 1:6-12 a verbatim transcript of what actually occurred in God's throne room? In answering, we must consider the repetitive and highly stylized nature of the narrative (compare with 2:1-6}. As with Jesus' parable about Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31), the book of Job presents us with deep spiritual truths in a pictorial form we can understand.
We have already learned much about Job's character. In this lesson Satan's character and God's character are revealed. Clines suggests that in Job we do not see the Satan of the New Testament, but an agent provocateur, a divine prosecuting attorney (IBC, p. 523). It is true that Satan's status as the personal embodiment of evil is only fully revealed in the New Testament (see "Satan," NIDB, pp. 899-900). But the figure we meet in Job is certainly similar in character to Satan as pictured in the New Testament. In both cases he is "the accuser" (Rev. 12: 10) and the tempter (Matt. 4:5). His pride is overwhelmingly apparent (1 Tim. 3:6). He is contemptuous of God and jealous of the worship accorded Him (Isa. 14:14; Matt. 4:9).
We must beware, however, of thinking that the book of Job presents us with a dualistic view of God and Satan. Satan is not an independent rival of God who is equal to Him in power and authority. He must obtain God's permission before testing Job. Even then, he can go only as far as God permits and no further. Satan can create nothing?he can only distort or corrupt the good things God has created. His strategy is to deceive and counterfeit. For this reason the early church father Tertullian rightly referred to Satan as "God's ape."
The author of Job tellingly presents Satan as a vagabond spirit, aimlessly wandering the earth (Job 1:7). Because of his rebellion against God, he knows no peace; indeed he is tormented by the peace of others. Satan's cynicism is really a mask covering his hatred. His insolence is an expression of his underlying lust for destruction. Like a wicked child, he is so self-absorbed that he cannot even conceive that anyone could act unselfishly. Like some modern ethical theorists, Satan presumes that the disguised motive behind every act?no matter how righteous it may appear?is some subtle form of selfishness. He insinuates not only that Job honors God solely to receive his blessings (1:9), but also that God blesses Job because God needs Job's worship! Satan taunts God: "But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face" (v. 11).
What do we learn about God's character from scene two of Job? First, God is sovereign. Even Satan, the rebellious son, is one of His creations. We also see that God is actively involved in ruling His universe. The angels (literally "sons of God") are accountable to Him for their activities throughout the earth. God has not ceased to care for, govern, and delight in His creatures. Indeed He speaks to Satan of Job's righteousness with a fatherly pride (v. 8).
Significantly, God, who is all-powerful, is neither proud nor aloof. He freely enters into dialogue with Satan, eventually accepting his challenge and withdrawing His hedge of protection from Job's family and property. Does this make God a partner with Satan in creating suffering? No, for God has a higher purpose in view. Through Job's faithfulness, God will demonstrate that love is more powerful than greed, and that faith is more powerful than fear. God intends to reveal to all that no earthly power or disappointment can shatter a righteous man's redemptive relationship with God.
Satan uses the cruelty of the Sabeans and the Chaldeans and the natural forces of lightning and tornadoes to strip Job of his family and possessions. But Satan finds no sin or weakness to exploit in Job. His spirit is sincere and unshaken. To Job, tragedy and blessing alike are expressions of God's grace. He blesses God and does not charge Him with wrongdoing (vv. 21-22).
In chapter 2 the scene is again God's heavenly court. Rather than admit defeat, Satan blames God and Job for his failure. He accuses God of continuing to coddle Job by protecting him physically. He explains Job's apparent submissiveness to God as self-serving hypocrisy, implying that Job blesses God solely because the only alternative is to "curse God and die."
Given leave by God to torment Job physically, Satan strikes Job with a horrible, disfiguring disease. Job's illness has been diagnosed as probably either elephantiasis or leprosy. A survey of Job's symptoms (2:7-8; 6:4; 7:4-5, 14-16; 16:16; 19:17, 20; 30:17, 30) reveals the gruesome extent of his agonies. Job responds to this affliction with resolute patience. Urged by his wife to choose death rather than endure such misery, Job replies, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (2:10). Job goes to the ash heap outside of town and sits in silence amidst the dung and the rubbish. In keeping with the view that sees Job's innocent suffering as prefiguring Christ's suffering, we can think of Job's ash heap as analogous to the Cross. Both were profane settings fit only for the despised, the rejected, those nearer to death than to life.
From afar three wise men come to comfort Job?his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Struck by Job's pitiable condition, they consider him as good as dead. Following the custom of the day, they keep silent, waiting for Job to speak.
By mourning with Job and offering him the "sacrament of silence," Job's friends acted appropriately. But beneath their silence lay an unspoken accusation. Job's three friends subscribed to what McKenna calls a "cash-register" theory of justice. According to this view, if you ring righteousness into the cash register, you get blessing; if you ring sin into the cash register, you get suffering. Clearly, to them, Job must have sinned greatly to be suffering so horribly. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar probably never suspected that Job was about to challenge aggressively their most strongly held beliefs.
Key Concepts:
1. _____ True or False. Satan is an independent rival of God who is equal to Him in power and authority. [See above]
2. Satan charged that the motive behind Job's worship of God was (faithfulness, selfishness). [See above]
3. Job's response to losing his family, his property, and his health was to ______________ the Lord for both good and evil. [IBC, 523]
4. _____ True or False. Job's response to calamity was a form of fatalism. [IBC, 523]
5. _____ True or False. The fault of Job's three friends was an uncritical acceptance of orthodox theology. [IBC, 523]
Points to Ponder:
A. The book of Job clearly implies that God protects those who obey Him. McKenna writes, "Each new day brings evidence of His "hedge" against evil in our lives" (CCJ, p. 39). Perhaps the only one ever to have felt the full brunt of evil unmediated by God's mercy was Jesus (Mark 15:34). In retrospect, can you detect God's ':hedge" protecting you or your family? Do you think Job's work as a priest and mediator for his family strengthened God's hedge around them?



B. What do you think of Tertullian's characterization of Satan as "God's ape"? What are the implications of the fact that Satan cannot create anything, but only warp and corrupt natural human appetites? Examine Satan's temptation of Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11). To which of Jesus' natural appetites did Satan appeal? Jesus did not overcome Satan's temptations by foreswearing his natural appetites. How did he conquer Satan's temptations?


Life Application: The exchange between God and Satan described in the book of Job makes it clear that God rejoices in His creation. He took personal joy in Job's uprightness and faithfulness. What do you think you have done recently that God could rejoice in? Do the basic motivations that drive your life reflect the charity and faithfulness that please God most?


 

Reading: Job 3: 1-8:22; International Bible Commentary, pp. 523-527.
Key Scripture: "Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?" (Job 8:3).
As his three friends prepare to leave him for dead, Job cries out, voicing his pain for the first time. His patience is finally exhausted. Job's scalding "May ? " utterances found in 3:3-10 are Semitic curses that express his grief, confusion, and physical agony. As an elder member of the Wisdom School, Job also subscribed to the "cash-register" theory of justice. He believed that righteousness inevitably brought prosperity and that unrighteousness brought suffering. But, inexplicably, Job's righteousness had been rewarded with suffering instead.
Job's conscience was blameless; he knew that he was innocent. Consequently, the cause of his suffering must be God Himself (6:9). In his heart, Job could not believe that God would act with such apparent unrighteousness. The warfare between Job's mind and his heart was more unbearable than the painful lesions on his body. His reason and faith were divided, causing a rupture at the center of his being. Unable to curse God, he curses his pain, the day of his birth, the very fact of his existence. Job's misery at being betrayed and abandoned by the Almighty erupts in a desperate cry to heaven: "Why?"
Eliphaz, the eldest of Job's friend's, steps in to answer Job's question. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar all show some degree of human sympathy for Job. But their attempts to solve Job's dilemma are fundamentally efforts to defend their own belief in "cash-register" justice against the implications of Job's claim of innocence. If Job is blameless and God is responsible for his suffering, their "orthodoxy" is exposed as a sham. Moreover, their "righteousness" may no longer be used as coinage to obtain blessings and prosperity from God. They are guaranteed nothing in this life or afterwards; for in Job's day death was conceived to be a doorway to non-existence. Job's friends, therefore, undertake to prove him guilty at all costs.
Eliphaz argues from an empirical perspective. He maintains that observation proves that the upright are preserved and the evil are destroyed (4:7-8). Eliphaz suggests that this is such a universally recognized fact of experience that Job would be simple-minded to question it. Eliphaz the elder speaks condescendingly and with aristocratic authority to Job, making reference briefly to the depth of his mystical insight (vv. 12-21).
He considers his judgments decisive and indisputable. Eliphaz also flatters Job, probably hoping to soften his resolve (5:17), but Job is not taken in.
Bildad directs the argument of orthodox traditionalism against Job with less sympathy and with less subtlety than Eliphaz (8:8). He effective calls Job a windbag (v. 2). Bildad is ruthlessly simplistic in his dogmatism. He poses the question given in the Key Scripture and then levels his finger at Job intoning, "God does not reject a blameless man" (v. 20). Job's suffering is as surely the result of sin as are the deaths of his children (v. 4). Job's alleged innocence is as frail as a reed (v. 11), as substantial as a spider's web (vv. 14-15), and as short-lived as a gourd (vv. 16-19). Bildad's arguments display the telltale black-or-white mentality of mythical-Iiteral faith, as well as the slavish conformism and lack of empathy of synthetic-conventional faith.
With poetic flair, Job tells Eliphaz that his manipulative generalizations are trite and off-center (6:5-7). He also rebukes Eliphaz for the lack of human kindness revealed by his self-serving rhetoric. Job recognizes that his three friends are frightened?perhaps more than even they know (v. 21). They are all too willing to sacrifice Job's integrity to allay their discomfort (v. 29). Wisely, Job turns his hope and his attention away from his friends and toward God. He pleads with God either to reveal his sin to him and forgive him, or to let him depart to the land of shadows into the nothingness of death.
Key Concepts: [All answers above]
1. _____ True or False. Like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Job initially subscribed to the "cash-register" theory of justice.
2. _____ True or False. Death was conceived to be a doorway to non-existence in Job's day.
3. Eliphaz argues that (experience, Scripture) proved that the upright are preserved and the evil are destroyed.
4. Bildad directs the argument of orthodox _________________________ against Job.
5. Bildad's arguments display the black-or-white mentality of (mythical-literal, synthetic-conventional) faith.
Points to Ponder:
A. Examine Eliphaz and Bildad's arguments. Note how they reflect the weaknesses of both mythical-Iiteral and synthetic-conventional faith. (Review these stages of faith in Lesson 1 of this chapter.) Much of what they say is true, yet the mystery of Job's experience (and of our own) reaches far deeper than their moralistic generalizations and explanations. How has the "sacrament of suffering" caused you to move beyond "either-or" types of faith toward a faith that can embrace contradiction and change?



Life Application: Sometimes we are reluctant to ask God genuine questions, to mourn (Eccl. 3:4), and to be still before God (Ps. 46:10) so that He can reveal Himself as the answer to the dilemmas of life. Unless we become vulnerable to pain and uncertainty, we can never experience the wisdom and peace that come from encountering the reality of God deep within. Is there some confusion or even anger in your life that needs to be faced and explored to allow such a meeting?


 

Reading: Job 9:1-19:29; International Bible Commentary, pp. 527-534.
Key Scripture: \"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God\" (Job 19:25-26).
Both Eliphaz and Bildad appeal to the overwhelming power of God in their arguments with Job. By marking the infinite gap between human and divine potentiality they hoped to impress Job with the rashness of his protest and thus silence him. On the point of God\'s omnipotence, Job appears to agree with his opponents. In chapter 9 he sings an eloquent hymn to the immense vastness of God\'s wisdom and power (vv. 1-20). Not only is God literally \"all-mighty,\" but His wisdom and righteousness are also beyond reproach.
Job freely acknowledges that one cannot argue against God. For only through God\'s nature and commandments are we able even to recognize or define justice, wisdom, and righteousness. \"Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty\" (9:20). However, this realization is only a counsel of despair for Job. Job may be powerless before God, but he is equally helpless to ignore the voice of his conscience. He cannot escape the knowledge that he is innocent, nor can he forget that an omnipotent God is utterly responsible for all the injustices that have befallen him (v. 24).
Job shrinks in disgust from life in a world in which God uses His irresistible power indiscriminately to destroy \"both the blameless and the wicked\" (9:22). He reaches the extremity of his bitterness as he contemplates an amoral God who \"mocks the despair of the innocent\" and \"blindfolds ? judges\" (vv. 23-24). It is a testament to the timeless significance of the problem of suffering that perhaps the most ancient book of the Bible is so contemporary in its dramatic insight, for Job\'s complaint echoes the despair at the very heart of twenty-first century atheism.
In the blackness of Job\'s despair appears the first of the prophetic flashes that illuminate the book of Job. As we have said, Job\'s position is awkward in that he must plead his case against God to the very God that he accuses of injustice. In chapter 9 Job glimpses God\'s own ultimate solution to this apparent problem: the appearance of an arbitrator or mediator to redeem humanity from the fear of God\'s retribution (vv. 33-35). Such a mediator could plead Job\'s case. God Himself would eventually take on this role in Jesus Christ, making divine mercy and grace visible and incarnate.
After Job\'s moment of visionary insight, he relapses into bitterness. Reasoning that he has nothing to lose, Job flings down the gauntlet, challenging God to reveal the charges against him (10:2). He chides God, accusing Him of pettiness unworthy of even a mortal. He charges that God creates human life with infinite care only to torment and destroy it. This is pointless and absurd. Job wearily asks God to leave him alone so he can at least have \"a moment\'s joy\" before sinking into the land \"where even the light is like darkness\" (vv. 20, 22).
Outraged by Job\'s words, Zophar now enters the fray. Eliphaz questioned Job\'s wisdom; Bildad called him a windbag. Now Zophar bluntly brands him a mocker and a heretic who is witless and evil. Zophar is the youngest of the three, and the most rigid, intolerant, and unforgiving. His determination to see everything in terms of \"black and white\" is revealed in 11:4, where he distorts Job\'s position so that he can rail against it more easily.
Job is not about to be so arrogantly reprimanded by his junior. In chapter 12 he turns against all his accusers with withering sarcasm: \"Doubtless ? wisdom will die with you\" (v. 2). In verse 3 he scoffs at their shallow wisdom: \"Men at ease have contempt for misfortune\" (v. 5). They are \"undisturbed\" and \"secure\" in their conceits because they \"carry their god in their hands\" (v. 6). Job\'s friends are smugly self-righteous because they think they have God \"in a box.\" Actually, their god is their prosperity (note the NIV\'s alternate reading for verse 6).
Job again turns from his counselors, who are \"worthless physicians,\" to seek his answers from God (13:4). In cleaving to his relationship with God as the key to unlocking the problem of suffering, Job again experiences an infusion of divine insight?this time in the form of supernatural faith. \"Though he slay me, yet willl I hope in him\" (v. 15). It remains true today that having a faith that will not let go of God enables us to see God\'s grace, which never lets go of us.
With courage born of resignation, Job turns to contemplate his death, which he feels is imminent. In light of human mortality, all hopes perish. A tree may be rejuvenated, but not a man (14:7-12). Yet in the midst of his meditation on death, prophetic inspiration again rings forth in Job\'s words. For the first time in the Old Testament the intimation of immortality emerges. Job will find release from the bonds of the grave (14:13; Heb. Sheol; see also \"Sheol,\" NIDB, pp. 931-32). The redemptive, covenantal love that had yet to be revealed to Abraham becomes visible in Job\'s hope: \"You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made\" (v. 15).
Job cannot sustain this revolutionary vision. However, as Eliphaz descends upon him, revelation again breaks forth: \"Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high\" (16:19). There is a sense in which, in speaking of his \"advocate,\" Job is speaking of his life\'s blood (v. 18; cf. Gen. 4:10). But clearly more is intended. Indeed, the symbol of blood itself prefigures the redemption wrought through Christ\'s atoning sacrifice (Ex. 12:13; Heb. 9:13-15).
Bildad assaults Job once more, using words as his weapon. In his reply in chapter 19, Job reveals the depths to which his heart has sunk. Not only does God appear to be his enemy; his kinsmen, friends, wife?even the little boys on the street?also regard him with loathing and horror (cf. Isa. 53:3). But from these depths Job\'s heart is lifted to dazzling heights of faith. In a climactic vision, quoted in the Key Scripture, Job\'s allusions to a mediator and to immortality attain their loftiest, most concrete expression. As McKenna points out, this is the turning point of the book. For several chapters Job has been \"hobbling toward the holy\" (CCJ, p. 144); now he speaks with finality: \"I know that my Redeemer lives.\"
Job 19:25-26 is one of the most striking passages in Scripture. It is very difficult to translate, yet it is full of subtle and elevated implications. For example, the word \"redeemer\" (Heb. ga\'all) is a legal term designating a kinsman who acts to avenge, defend, or rescue someone in need (see Deut. 25:5-10; Ruth 2:20; 3:9; 4:4ff.). As we have seen, Job\'s earthly kinsmen have rejected him. Who then can his redeemer be? Scripture refers to God as the ga\'all par excellence (Ex. 6:6; Prov. 23: 10-11; Isa. 43:1; Hos. 13:14).
The Hebrew word hay, \"alive,\" (translated in verse 25 as \"lives\") is a common designation for Yahweh, the \"Living God\" (Josh. 3:10; Hos. 1:10). The Hebrew word \'aharon, \"last,\" (translated in verse 25 as \"in the end\") is a title of God. \"This is what the LORD says?lsrael\'s King and Redeemer (ga\'all) the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last\" (Isa. 44:6; cf. Rev. 1:8, 17). And \"he will stand\" (v. 25; literally \"he will rise up\") is an idiom used to denote an appearance of God (Ps. 12:5). Against all odds Job is being shown that the promises of 9:33 and 16:19 will be fulfilled. God Himself will ultimately save and justify Job.
Because of the ambiguity of the text, some argue that 19:26 refers to Job\'s face-to-face encounter with God at the end of the book, not to a meeting after death. In chapters 38-42, Job, whose skin was destroyed by disease, does meet God \"in the flesh\" and is justified and physically restored. But it is more likely that 19:26 is a confirmation of the promises of life beyond death that appeared earlier in Job (13: 15; 14: 14-17). Unless we take this view, it is difficult to explain verse 27. Job\'s prophecy of physical resurrection is so revolutionary and novel that he must follow it with the affirmation, \"I myself will see him with my own eyes?l, and not another\" (v. 27). It will not be another Job that isrecreated in the resurrection, but Job himself.
Through faith Job foresees a time when, sheltered by God\'s love, he will have passed the impassible barrier of death, beyond which no human hope was thought to endure. No wonder Job declares in anticipation, \"How my heart yearns within me!\" (v. 27).
Key Concepts: [All answers above]
1. Prefiguring Christ, Job glimpses God\'s solution to the problem of redemption?the appearance of an arbitrator or ________________________.
2. In accusing his friends of \"carrying their god in their hands,\" (12:6) Job reveals that their god is really __________________.
3. Job realized that his __________________________ with God was the key to unlocking the problem of suffering.
4. \"You will call and I will answer you\" (14:15)?with these words Job introduces us to the idea of (immortality, revelation).
5. _____ True or False. Job\'s words in 19:26 are probably not a prophecy of physical resurrection.
Further Study: For a deeper understanding of death as it was conceived in Job\'s time, read \"(j) Life after Death,\" IBC, pp. 63-64 and \"Resurrection,\" NIDB, pp. 854-55.
Points to Ponder:
A. Eventually the hour will come when we face death. Then any appeal to the \"god of prosperity\" will be useless; for, in Job\'s words, \"Naked I came from my mother\'s womb, and naked I will depart\" (1:21). Any appeal to Eliphaz\'s \"wisdom of observation\" will be pointless. From the empirical perspective, death is the obliteration of all consciousness and hope. Any appeal to Bildad\'s god of tradition will be of no avail, for we all die alone. Only faith that sees beyond circumstances to the unseen God can escort us through the valley of the shadow of death. And it is only this kind of faith that allows us to live fully here and now in this vale of soul-making, in the shadow of eternal life.



Life Application: As the book of Job makes clear, immortality is a gift from God. We survive death because God \"remembers\" us (14:13); because He \"calls\" us back from annihilation (v. 15); because out of love He desires to \"take [us] to himself\" (Ps. 49:15). How does this understanding deepen your trust in God? What does it suggest about the importance of having a living relationship with God? What does it suggest about the importance of pursuing holiness?