"Stand in the place where you live, now face north. Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before." -R.E.M.

Book of Job

Job 1: The Accusation

09/10/2005 01:06 PM Filed in: Theology | Bible Study

With my understanding of the identity of “the Satan” firmly established, I’d like to move past the setting for the great council and dig into what actually transpired between the Lord and the accuser.

Many theologians have pointed out the fact that God is the one who brings Job up for discussion. The Lord brags on him in 1:8 saying, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

It’s important to note here that by God bragging on Job, He’s really bragging on Himself. There is no righteousness apart from God; Job seeks to please no one but God. Were God not the perfect and benevolent being he is, then Job would not be the “blameless and upright” man who the Lord finds great favor in.

Satan immediately answers God by questioning Job’s motives. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan asks in verse nine. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, to that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.”

Just as God’s bragging on Job was equal to boasting on Himself, so the Satan’s negative accusation of Job is a negative accusation against God. Satan is essentially telling God that the pleasures He finds in His relationships with humans are a farce; they praise God for the works of His hands and fail to see the radiant glory of His face. “But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has,” Satan contends, “and he will surely curse you to your face.”

What is happening here, and what Job never comprehends, is spiritual warfare. Behind the curtain of the heavens, God’s ability to compel us by His glory is subjected to questioning. The accusation, once made, must be answered. Even destroying the accuser, the Satan, will not rid God of the indictment. As we see in this passage and throughout the Bible, God goes to war against the kingdom of darkness. As in any war, there are casualties and there are losses.

Tags: Book of Job

Job 1: Purpose and Blamelessness of Job

09/08/2005 01:03 PM Filed in: Theology | Bible Study

The book of Job has impacted me greatly in the last year. In studying its text and studying the comments of those who have poured their lives into this book, I have gained a deeper appreciation of spiritual warfare and what it means to be loved by God. I’m excited about doing a month and a half study on it with you guys.

I want to begin by discussing purpose. My belief about Job is that the author’s primary purpose in writing his story is to refute the popular theology of his day as related to evil and suffering. This theology is best seen in the speeches and discourses of Job’s friends all throughout the book (i.e. Job 4:7-9) and can be summed up easily enough: when bad things happen to people it is because they deserved for them to happen. In other words, wicked things only happen to the wicked; the good always prosper while the unjust are always punished.

The first chapter of Job begins by introducing the man who we will be following throughout both good times and bad for the course of the book. Job is not established as a Jew, and his location (“the land of Uz&rdquo

is neither clearly Jewish nor Gentile. Job’s lineage is not the author’s focus because the only feature of Job that is to take center stage is his blamelessness. This is the key to understanding the book because if Job is blameless and yet still has terrible things happen to him, then the leading theology of the day is put to death by existential reasoning.

In verse five we are told that Job took the position as priest and offered sacrifices on behalf of his family. This fact places the date of the tale of Job to pre-Exodus because the father of the family functioned as the high priest for his wife and children until the law of Moses set aside the position of Levitical priest from the tribe of Levi. Again, we see that Job is faithful in performing his duties as the priest of his family, and there is no blame to be found in him.

Tags: Book of Job

Job 1: The Identity of "The Satan"

09/09/2005 12:59 PM Filed in: Theology | Bible Study

Starting in verse six we are told of a fascinating scene that takes place “before the Lord.” Satan is introduced to us in this section, and there have been varying opinions as to who this character is.
Some believe this speaks of Lucifer himself. Others argue that since the definite article appears before the term (the satan) that it is merely a description of either a position of the heavenly council or a description of what that angel was doing at that time (satan literally means accuser or adversary).

It certainly does not seem that “the satan” being there is in the least bit surprising to God. When he strolls in with the other angels, there is no demand of God as to why he is there. Some, however, have argued that since it is explicitly stated that he came “among them” he could not have belonged to their number (Terrien) or that “it is because he has no right to be there that he alone is asked his business” (Anderson). Others have argued that to be “among” usually meant that you were part of the group in question (Clines); that Lucifer himself could have been a tempter in the royal court of God at this point, and therefore still a part of the heavenly host (Utley).

My personal opinion on the matter is that there is simply not enough information given by the author of Job on this point in order for us to have undeniable proof of “the satan’s” position or affiliation. However, we are given clues as to the ethics and morality of this character, and that is where I believe the biggest hint to his identity is.

We know “the satan’s” intentions: shortly after being introduced, we are told of his attempt to discredit Job and dishonor God. Though we will eventually look at his assertions in closer detail, the very fact that he turns against God and accuses Him of having petty relationships with humans based solely on material possessions seems to reveal his character to us. In my opinion, this could not have been a loyal servant in the court of Yahweh. He was not carrying out the will of the Father, but rather attempting to thwart it. Because of this fact, I do not feel it is a stretch to say that this “satan” is quite likely Lucifer himself.

Throughout the narrative, we see him doing evil things to Job; things that go directly against what Jesus teaches us about the character and the nature of God. If this angel is commissioned by God to carry these acts out, rather than allowed by God in order to defeat the accusations of the great “accuser”, it is the same as if God were doing it Himself. Satan, then, must be an enemy of the divine purpose, for his accusations do nothing to further the kingdom, but rather seek to destroy it.

Tags: Book of Job

Commenting on Job

09/06/2005 12:53 PM Filed in: Theology

Hello all. I have decided to get this little web site up and running again (at least in some capacity), and my hope is that it will be a springboard for discussion.

As many of you know, I have been studying the book of Job for about a year now as I feel that it has a great deal to say about God and suffering, the Christian and prayer, and Satan and his ongoing struggle against the kingdom of light. I am so thankful for this book and feel that with each reading I learn so much more about God and about myself.

For the next couple of months, I will be writing on the book of Job. The plan is to comment on one chapter per day with thoughts on the passage, application, and exegesis (sometimes I may do all three, sometimes only one or two). Occasionally, especially in the beginning, a chapter may take several days to finish. I welcome comments and thoughts and hope that this study will lead to some great discussions.

So here we go. It’s important to note that what follows is not meant to be an in-depth analysis or commentary on Job. Many, many commentaries, books, papers, and journals have focused thousands and thousands of pages on attempting to exegete the text of this beautiful book. Theologians have looked carefully at the Hebrew, compared it to other texts from the Bible and the same time period, and have matched their work against hundreds of other theologians. What follows is not nearly as in-depth.

However, having read Job and many commentaries on the book, I hope to at least unpack some of the issues contained within that I feel are essential to the point of the original author, and are vital truths for modern Christians to understand and to implement into their world view.

I welcome you to join in the discussion…

Tags: Book of Job