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What's The Point of Job?

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  • What's The Point of Job?

    What are we to get out of this book?

    The link can be found here.

    ----

    What is the book supposed to help us understand? Let's plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

    I have seen some discussions going on lately in a group I'm in on Facebook on the book of Job. What is going on in it? Sometimes, we go to the book of Job expecting to find the answer to the question of why God allows evil. It's understandable. That's what we've been told all our lives about it, isn't it? If you're going through suffering, try going through Job. It will help.

    The question is how. Job never really addresses suffering. Even when God shows up towards the end of the book, God never addresses the suffering of Job. He never tells Job why what happened, happened. Job never saw what happened in the prologue of the book.

    Yet the prologue of the book does contain the answer. It's amazing we look at the book and try to find out what it's about without maybe looking at the questions asked in the prologue to see what it's about. It can be summed up easily in the question of the accuser.

    Does Job serve God for nothing?

    It's an understandable question to ask. Look at Job. He's the Bill Gates of his day with money. He's loaded. He has everything he could ever want. He also has several kids who can carry on his legacy. Job lacks nothing. Why wouldn't he serve God? Life is good. Job will keep serving God because God has blessed him.

    Why does God agree to the challenge of the accuser? To show that there are other reasons for serving God besides blessing and to show that Job is a better man than the accuser thinks he is. Even when Job has lost everything and that includes his health, Job is still righteous in what he does.

    In the end when God shows up, Job repents. He realizes that he did speak some things out of turn, but that God is still God and God is to be honored. Job doesn't have perfect theology, but his theology is good enough. He doesn't understand the ways of God, but he does understand God is to be honored. Job honors God. Job himself is honored.

    God shows this publicly by blessing Job even more. This would be a divine vindication that would take place before everyone's eyes. Everyone would know that Job had been honored by God as a result of this. Come to think of it, I think another righteous sufferer was honored about 2,000 years ago by a public display before the world....

    So what does this book have to say to us today?

    Imagine being a Christian and realizing that yes, Jesus did rise from the dead, but that we will not rise. What if you were told that there is no heaven to gain and no hell to shun? This life is all there is.

    Will you still serve God?

    If not, then do you serve God only for the benefits? Do you not serve God because of who He is and is He not worthy to be served even if He does nothing like that for you? There's nothing wrong with enjoying blessings, but what if they aren't there? Will you still serve?

    You're a man who speaks regularly of his love for his wife. Then, an accident occurs. From now on, sex will be out of the picture. Will you still love? Will you still serve? Will you still love?

    Why do you serve? Do you serve for the benefits or because it's the right thing to do?

    That is what Job is asking.

    Only you can answer that.

    In Christ,
    Nick Peters

  • #2
    I'm actually writing a 5 week Bible study for my class on the Problem of Evil with Job as part of the centerpiece. I have some insights into this I think.


    Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post
    What are we to get out of this book?


    The link can be found here.


    ----


    The question is how. Job never really addresses suffering. Even when God shows up towards the end of the book, God never addresses the suffering of Job. He never tells Job why what happened, happened. Job never saw what happened in the prologue of the book.
    This is true, we know what's going on, but Job never does...and God does not really ever tell him, except, to remind Job there is a "cosmic" war going on and if not for Him, all would be consumed. ANE people, including Israel believed cosmic evil was shown in hostile waters that encircled and threatened to destoy the earth, See Job 38:8 - 11


    8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors
    when it burst out from the womb,
    9 when I made clouds its garment
    and thick darkness its swaddling band,
    10 and prescribed limits for it
    and set bars and doors,
    11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
    and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?


    Or that there were cosmic evil monsters (such as Leviathan, Behemoth and Rahab) who threatened to destoy the world. This was the way they thought what we see in the N.T. called demonic "principalities and powers" was depicted. Speaking about Leviathan in Ch. 41

    God says:
    18 His sneezings flash forth light,
    and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
    19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap forth.
    20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
    21 His breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
    26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,
    nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
    27 He counts iron as straw,
    and bronze as rotten wood.


    This fearsome creature fears nothing (41:33) and can't be caught or tamed...except by the Almighty!


    Yet the prologue of the book does contain the answer. It's amazing we look at the book and try to find out what it's about without maybe looking at the questions asked in the prologue to see what it's about. It can be summed up easily in the question of the accuser.


    Does Job serve God for nothing?


    It's an understandable question to ask. Look at Job. He's the Bill Gates of his day with money. He's loaded. He has everything he could ever want. He also has several kids who can carry on his legacy. Job lacks nothing. Why wouldn't he serve God? Life is good. Job will keep serving God because God has blessed him.


    Why does God agree to the challenge of the accuser? To show that there are other reasons for serving God besides blessing and to show that Job is a better man than the accuser thinks he is. Even when Job has lost everything and that includes his health, Job is still righteous in what he does.
    Here's where I think we sometimes miss the challenge...It's not really even about Job, he's just who Satan picked on...it's the accusation against God in the way He set up and continues to govern the universe. Satan is assailing God's integrity and wisdom, in overseeing His creation. Satan in effect was accusing God of being a "Machiavellian" ruler...and the only way to refute this charge is to test it. If God ignores the challenge or worse, just shuts up the accuser, then the accuser would be seen as justified in his charges. Satan's accusation boils down to, they only serve you because you're more powerful than I am and force things to go well for them...people only serve you (God) as a bargain to gain things, not out of love for you.


    In the end when God shows up, Job repents. He realizes that he did speak some things out of turn, but that God is still God and God is to be honored. Job doesn't have perfect theology, but his theology is good enough. He doesn't understand the ways of God, but he does understand God is to be honored. Job honors God. Job himself is honored.
    It's true that at first, Job does not accuse God of "sin" or wrongdoing, he eventually changes his mind based on his (wrong) theology...that God is doing this to him. It's not too long before Job starts to speak a LOT of bad things about God. His theolgy is terrible, and God's epilogue at the end rebukes him in no uncertain terms. Just a FEW of the examples of Job accusations against God. he accuses God of:
    laughing (mocking) at the misfortune of innocent and causes judges to rule unjustly? (Job 9:23-24),
    Accuses God of being a ruthless predator out to destroy him (Job 10:9, :
    God pays no attention to cries for help of victims of injustice? (Job 24:12)
    Job accuses God of being evil and cruel (Job 31:21)
    Of God hating him and making him desolate. (Job 16:7-9)
    Job's theology that "God did it" leads him to a terrible conclusion...we need to avoid this theology...
    I think one of the points of the Book of Job is to make us realize there's things that go on "behind the scene's" if you will that we never are privy to...things that are not God's plan or his will. Things that resist God's providental control, but that, nevertheless, affect our lives....and we know next to nothing and can do next to nothing about them other than pray and trust God to get us through it.


    God shows this publicly by blessing Job even more. This would be a divine vindication that would take place before everyone's eyes. Everyone would know that Job had been honored by God as a result of this.


    Come to think of it, I think another righteous sufferer was honored about 2,000 years ago by a public display before the world....


    So what does this book have to say to us today?


    Imagine being a Christian and realizing that yes, Jesus did rise from the dead, but that we will not rise. What if you were told that there is no heaven to gain and no hell to shun? This life is all there is.


    Will you still serve God?


    If not, then do you serve God only for the benefits? Do you not serve God because of who He is and is He not worthy to be served even if He does nothing like that for you? There's nothing wrong with enjoying blessings, but what if they aren't there? Will you still serve?


    You're a man who speaks regularly of his love for his wife. Then, an accident occurs. From now on, sex will be out of the picture. Will you still love? Will you still serve? Will you still love?


    Why do you serve? Do you serve for the benefits or because it's the right thing to do?


    That is what Job is asking.


    Only you can answer that.


    In Christ,
    Nick Peters
    Yes, why are you serving him is definitely the question. Also, the question of recognizing God is not behind your suffering and does not laugh at your travails. God is not to blame.
    Last edited by Littlejoe; 06-20-2018, 11:19 AM.
    "What has the Church gained if it is popular, but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" - A.W. Tozer

    "... there are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party, who occasionally get together and do something both stupid and evil, and this is called bipartisanship." - Everett Dirksen

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    • #3
      Generally, the point of Job is to Make Money.

      Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

      Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
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      I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by One Bad Pig View Post
        Generally, the point of Job is to Make Money.

        "What has the Church gained if it is popular, but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" - A.W. Tozer

        "... there are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party, who occasionally get together and do something both stupid and evil, and this is called bipartisanship." - Everett Dirksen

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post

          Imagine being a Christian and realizing that yes, Jesus did rise from the dead, but that we will not rise. What if you were told that there is no heaven to gain and no hell to shun? This life is all there is.
          According to Paul, if that were the case, we might as well eat, drink, and be merry.
          "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
            According to Paul, if that were the case, we might as well eat, drink, and be merry.
            That is one point in favor of that position, but we have to honestly check with ourselves still and ask why we do what we do. Do we do it just for the rewards or not?

            Comment

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