JOB
Introduction to Job – This Book got its name from its central character rather than from its writer. While it is possible that Job may have written it, there is no concrete evidence that he did. Scholars think it could have been written in Abraham’s day or as late as 200 BC. I think the majority believe Job (or a contemporary of his) compiled the Book very early in history. Some think it was written before Genesis. No one knows for sure, and there is a possibility that someone else added to it later (all with the anointing of the Holy Spirit). “Job” means “much persecuted.” Perhaps “Job” was a nickname his friends gave him during his suffering. The Book reads as though an eyewitness of the events wrote it.
The purpose of the Book seems to reveal a little bit into the supernatural realm and a more complete picture about how God deals with mankind. For example, there are many revelations in the OT where God repays evil for evil and good for good. In Job’s case, however, His dealings are very different. Why does God allow the righteous to suffer? Job never receives a direct answer. Nor is one given to us by the author. The Book may teach us how the righteous should suffer (“You have heard of the perseverance of Job” – James 5:11).
Finally, I personally love this Book because it actually describes a dinosaur that Job could see, which sends evolutionists scoffing out of the room. 🙂 More on this later.
Job 1:
1-5: It describes Job as a wealthy, good man – blameless, upright, God-fearing, and turns away from evil. This does not mean that he was sinless. Only Jesus Christ is sinless. It does mean that he dealt with his sin in the proper way – admitting and confessing, sacrificing to God, and believing that he was forgiven. He would even offer a burnt offering to the Lord on his sons’ behalf just in case they sinned within their hearts. What a dad!
6-11: Angels, including Satan, presented themselves before God in heaven. Satan (also called “the adversary”) had been wandering the earth. So God asked him if he had noticed how good Job was. Satan scoffed and claimed Job was good only because God was protecting and prospering him. Satan predicted that if Job’s possessions were taken away that he would turn against God.
12: God allowed the devil to take away Job’s possessions but forbade him to touch his physical body. This shows how limited Satan is. God restrains evil, even though it exists. In His Long-Range Plan, He will destroy it forever.
13-19: Tragedy strikes big time. Job loses servants, livestock, possessions, and even his children.
20-22: Job’s response? He mourned deeply but still worshiped the Lord and confessed a well-known phrase that has lasted even to this day: “The Lord giveth and the lord taketh away.” He never questioned or blamed God. He knew how important God’s Kingdom is, how great God is, and how temporal this life is. His perspective helped him deal with tremendous stress. We, too, need this perspective to deal with hardship and death.
Further Comments:
1) The Scriptures reveal that God tempts no one (James 1:13). In other words, He is not the source of temptation and, therefore, He is not the author of evil. He does not try to get people to sin. He does, however, allow us to be tempted from other sources for our welfare (James 1:2-18). Those sources include the world (1 John 2:15-16), the flesh (James 1:14), and the devil (Job 1-2).
2) Perhaps God allowed Satan to test Job to silence Satan. It’s safe to assume that the experience strengthened Job’s character (James 1:2-18). Most likely, the main purpose of Job’s suffering was to reveal that God is sovereign and no matter what happens in our lives, God is on the throne and has ultimate authority. If we can maintain this faith (perspective) throughout our trials, God gets glory and we’ll have a tremendous eternal reward. It is easy to worship God when all is good. But to worship God when things are going bad…now that is something!
3) Great faith doesn’t mean we are always happy. Job’s experience tells us this. Deep-seated joy can still be ours despite unhappy circumstances by keeping a right perspective (Phil. 4:4). We may not always be happy (enjoying our circumstances) but we can still trust and love God.
Job 2:
1-6: God tells Satan that Job did well under fire. He also reveals that there was no cause to allow tragedy to strike Job’s family. But Satan said if he could just touch Job’s flesh and bone, then Job would curse God. So God allowed Satan to do this, but Satan was not permitted to kill him.
7-10: Painful boils broke out all over Job’s body. His wife tells him to curse God and die (where’s the love Mrs. Job?). Job rebukes her foolishness by asking should they accept good from God without accepting adversity? He held his ground and did not sin against God because of his physical torment.
11-13: Job’s three friends came to him to sympathize and comfort him, although they ended up failing to do so. In fact, they ended up antagonizing him more. Their names were Eliphaz, Beldad, and Zophar. They didn’t even recognize Job when they first saw him from a distance. Then they mourned and wept and sat with him on the ground for 7 days without saying a word because Job’s pain was very great.
Applications for Today:
1) Physical pain will come to us at times and we may not know why. The question is: can we make it through without cursing or becoming embittered against God?
2) When someone is in much physical pain, it probably helps more if we say nothing but just be there for them. While we suffer, it is comforting to know someone knows about it and sticks by us even though they can do nothing to make the pain stop. I still remember years ago while I was working in the attendance office before first period began when a former student of mine came in weeping because she had just been told her boyfriend was killed in a car accident. The nurse brought her to the back room where I was. All I could do is hold her hand and be with her. I’m sure that was better for her than weeping alone or having me give her a sermon or something. I know some people prefer to be alone when suffering emotionally, and we need to give them their space. But in Job’s case, it was not emotional, it was physical. I think many people in this case appreciate company whether they be in physical or emotional pain.
Job 3 – After 7 days of suffering and silence, Job speaks and promptly curses the day he was born (he did not curse God). He wonders why a person is given life but then suffers. I don’t think he is merely complaining at this point, but he is asking some difficult questions and we can only speculate about the answers. Then he wished he had never survived as a newborn. All the joys of his life could not compensate for what he was experiencing now. Job was bitter but not out of control. He was angry with God but not cursing God. He was in despair but not defiant toward God. He was feeling his pain intensely but not accusing God of being unjust. His grief had not yet descended to its lowest depths.
Application: We tend to do the same when we are hurting. It is also difficult for us to see hope in the future during our time of intense suffering. Many POWs who survived their tortures claim a key to making it through it all was clinging to faith and hope for that future. They claim this was their lifeline.
Job 4 – Eliphaz assumes that all illness is a punishment from God, so he starts to find fault with Job saying that Job admonished other people and even helped them be strong, but he doesn’t do so well when he is the one who is hurting. Regarding this notion that people suffer for specific sins, Jesus said “no” in Luke 13:1-5. Bear in mind, however, that I think it is safe to assume they had no written Word of God in those days. In addition, we do not know if these guys had ever seen or heard of the account in Genesis.
Job 5 – Eliphaz recommends that Job confess his sins to God because only God is totally good and will protect and heal and help people.
Job 6 – Job responds by further describing his woe and plight. He angrily rebukes Eliphaz for thinking that specific sin has brought this upon him. He longs to die. He also says he would admit his sin if he was guilty.
Job 7 – Unconvinced that his sinning has caused all this suffering, Job further explains why he hates his life. All his suffering makes him ask God why it is happening to him. No answer comes.
Application for Today: When things go wrong with a friend, we cannot assume we know why. We need to be careful not to jump to conclusions as Job’s friends did. Great truths have power to do more harm when misapplied and heady logic can never replace love to comfort the afflicted.
Job 8 – Bildad responds to Job with the same assumption that Eliphaz had. He insists that Job’s sins have caused the calamity and illness. He sites past history to back up his assertion rather than personal experience as Eliphaz did. Bildad makes many true statements but they do not apply to Job.
Job 9 – Job answers and maintains his innocence. At the same time he knows he cannot fight against God and win, not even tie. He acknowledges the great power of God and confesses that though he be right, he still could not even speak to God without a helper. This, of course, was before Jesus which makes Job’s realization quite insightful. Job is not justifying his own salvation by works, he is simply asking how can he be justified regarding this issue of him being punished by God in this life for sinning. He has concluded that God is unjust because He cuts off the guilty and the guiltless. To justify this wrong concept of God, Job refers to innocent people dying in plagues and some evil people prospering in life. I don’t sense that Job is becoming arrogant but rather is becoming self-loathing. He rebutted his friends’ contention that God consistently blesses the good and blasts the evil.
The real problem revealed in this 9th chapter is not a lack of a good reason for suffering, but rather how can anyone gain a right relationship with God which can make suffering more acceptable. Perhaps God, through Job’s suffering and calamities, is hinting that a Savior is necessary for fallen mankind. I believe a large part of Old Testament history attempts to do this. For example, Galatians 3:24 states that the purpose of the Ten Commandments was to lead us to Christ because they reveal our sinful state directly (i.e., no one can obey them all the time).
Also, the overriding concept of the Book of Job is that suffering is not always due to specific sin(s) on our part, but sometimes God tests us to see if we can maintain a good attitude through it. The good news is that there will be a great reward for those that do in this life or in the life to come (see Revelation 7:14-17 – note: The King James Version does not have the word “the” before “great tribulation” but the Scofield Version does. Cyrus Scofield was a dispensationalist. They believe there is “one great tribulation” just prior to Christ’s Second Coming, so he allowed his biased way of thinking to influence his translation. This is not acceptable scholarship. The Bible speaks only of tribulation, and I believe this reference in Revelation refers to all believers who experienced great suffering, not just a single group from a futuristic society. In addition, my commentary on Daniel 9:24-27 eliminates the entire concept of a 7-year great tribulation in the future).
Job 10 – Job cries out to God in frustration and confusion. He wants to know why God is doing this to him. He wonders why God would even bother to create him if this is part of life. Curiously, he never asks God to heal him (at least it’s not recorded). Perhaps because his self-loathing and frustration were so intense. He wants to die, but his notion of where he goes after death does not jell with my concept from the Scriptures. Despite believing that death is deep darkness with no order to it, he would rather experience that than continue suffering on earth.
Job 11 – Zophar responds by asserting that God is punishing Job far less than he deserves! Wow. He does, however, speak accurately when he states that no one can fully understand the depths of God. He ends by telling Job to confess his sin so God can make things right in his life. Like his two friends, Zophar lacked compassion and was overly critical.
Job 12 – Half of Job’s rebuttal was addressed to his friends (12:1-13:19) and the other half was spoken to God (13:20-14:22). Job could not agree with his friends and he did not know why God was doing these terrible things to him, so he wrongly concludes that God is unjust. He especially took umbrage against Zophar’s attitude of knowing so much wisdom and contended that he was just as intelligent as Zophar. Furthermore, Zophar had not said anything that wasn’t common knowledge of his day. Job, however, does show insight when he said that God sees all, even the secret things, and will judge people.
Application for Today: Although I would not judge Job to be truly suicidal (longing to die is not the same as attempting to kill ourselves), his statement in Chapter 10 that said, “I would rather experience that than continue suffering on earth” is typical of a strong demon speaking the big lie into the thought-lives of people who are in a fragile mental state. God builds within all life forms mechanisms instincts and desires to stay alive. When humans become truly suicidal, it has been a result over a long time of losing the “thought-life war.” The lying thoughts must overcome all what God had built inside us. The Destroyer’s lies about us and this life are subtle at first. Then, if we hearken unto those voices more than truth voices (thoughts), then we start believing lies. Subtle voices may speak partial truth, i.e., “My life stinks” and “I have suffered pain for along time.” Then further on the voice says, “No one cares about me” (the first lie), “Things will never change” (ah, there’s the second lie), and “Death is better than this life” (now here is THE BIG LIE). We have no way of knowing this last one is true. Moreover, life on earth is way better than the Lake of Fire, the second death. If we believe these lying thoughts to be true, especially that last one about death being better than life, then it makes logical sense to end our life. Job does not know it, but he is giving way to wayward thoughts (voices). Deep inside our soul, I believe that we will believe the voices to which we give more listening time. One side will overpower the other eventually, but it takes time. We do not become suicidal over night. This is why God tells us to dwell on what Philippians 4:8 says.
Job 13 – Job understands what Zophar has said and there is nothing new to it, and he remains frustrated with talking with mere humans about his issue. He longs to talk with God Himself. He deeply resents his friends speaking for God when God has not said those things. Job is ready to take his case to God Himself and he is ready to perish if that’s what it would take to see Him for he knows there is hope only in God. He is starting to feel confident to speak to God because none of his friends have presented a good enough case against his contention. Job does add two conditions, however: 1) that God would not totally abandon him, and 2) that God would not terrify him with His presence. Job wants to know two things from God: 1) what are his sins that caused all this, and 2) why does God hide His face from him?
Job 14 – Job gets no answers from God (or his friends) so he lapses into despair. Only death awaits him after dealing with life’s constant struggles (as if God were against him always). He implies that trees are better off than humans because they have a chance to sprout again if cut down. Although he believes in some semblance of an afterlife, he doesn’t understand much about what that is like. In any case, Job’s “Hope Meter” has run out.
Job 15 – Eliphaz (friend #1) immediately accuses Job of being a big bag of wind and having no reverence for God. He clings to his erroneous belief that all evil men are poor, needy, and suffer pain. So in his mind, since Job has lost wealth and is in pain, there has to be sin causing it all.
Comments:
1) Regarding evil men being punished… it is true that “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). However, it is wrong to conclude that we will reap ALL what we sow before we die. Our final judgment will come after death. Job and his friends seemed to lack this longer view of life.
2) I deeply appreciate Job’s awareness of how mighty and awesome God is in spite of what he was experiencing while his soul and spirit were encased on earth in flesh and blood. Sometimes when people get frustrated with God, they arrogantly abandon all reverence. Let us hope that we never cross that line no matter how much we may suffer here. I recall one day years ago when I was in the front yard doing lawn work, I was mulling over my life’s frustrations. Issues had been building up for a few years. Then I suddenly did something that I’ve never done before…or since. I paused, looked heavenward, shook my fist, and angrily yelled, “God! What do You want from me?!” Even as I was doing this, I got scared. When my tirade was over, I hung my head knowing that I had crossed a line. The sad thing is that my problems were minuscule when compared to Job’s (or thousands of other people). If I could have all knowledge (awareness) opened to me, I would feel even more ashamed of my outbreak. Today I thank God that I was not immediately struck with lightning.
3) Job’s desperate and loud demand for God to be heard and reckoned with was actually in the middle of his “hearing before God” but he had no idea that God was “sitting” right there. And I know that my unwise yell up to God from my front yard was definitely heard. (I think I later suggested to God that He remember that I am but dust). I figured that’s Scriptural so He had to do it…. 🙂
Job 16 – Job grows weary of his friends’ rebukes and continues to assert that God is targeting him for suffering, and he still maintains his innocence. He thinks he will die soon so he desires some kind of advocate or witness to carry on his plea. His suffering described in verses 10-11 may have come close to Jesus’ plight when He was handed over to sinners for mockery and crucifixion.
Job 17 – More complaining and despair. People mocking him in his despair and state. Job believes his death is coming soon. Still, in the midst of all that is coming at him, he is not suicidal.
Job 18 – Bildad maintains that sin caused Job’s afflictions and tragedies and continues to rebuke him.
Job 19 – Job hits a new low – his relatives and friends have rejected him, even his wife. He is so hurt emotionally and physically that he ironically announces his wish that his words be forever etched in a book. [He got his wish!] Then he hits a new high – he proclaims faith by saying he knows that his redeemer lives and He will eventually stand on earth. Furthermore, he knows that although his body will die, he will yet see God outside of his flesh. This is quite sudden and miraculous. Christian writer Philip Yancy said, “One might even call Job the first Protestant, in the fullest sense of the word. He takes his stand upon individual faith rather than yielding to pious dogma.” (“When the Facts Don’t Add Up,” Christianity Today, June 13, 1986, p. 21.) Was Job expressing hope at this point or despair because he gave up on God vindicating him before he died? I think it was a light that shone in his darkness, a breath of fresh air from God Himself.
Application for Today: When we suffer for a long time, we need to cling to Job’s proclamation about his redeemer living, knowing that our day will come when God comforts us and takes us into His eternal arms. Can you imagine if some unbeliever heard us say this amidst prolonged suffering? They would never forget it. Some may even open up to Jesus Christ and get saved because of it. At very least, we can obtain some degree of comfort that can help us tolerate the pain.
Job 20 – Zophar is still angry with Job but says nothing new. He emphasizes the fleeting prosperity of the wicked and the inevitable punishment from God.
Job 21 – Job argues that wicked people thrive sometimes and live long.
Job 22 – Eliphaz accuses Job of all sorts of sins even though he does not know that he committed them. He simply strongly assumes so because Job is suffering. His view of God is wrong. To him, the only time God seems to interact with man is to punish his sin rather than delighting in fellowshipping with him. His “retribution theology” is a wrong approach to take when we share the Gospel with sinners. God does not require reformation before He accepts a sinner and He does not promise worldly wealth to those who do repent.
Job 23 – Job ignores his friend’s accusations temporarily and speaks in a soliloquy about him being right, but he is very frustrated that he can’t see God and talk to Him face-to-face. He seems to be shifting a bit, however. Before, he demanded to know why God is doing this to him, but now he sees his testing as an avenue toward refining himself so that he comes out pure as gold. This is huge.
Job 24 – He still seems dismayed that God does not punish the evil doers immediately while they are upon the earth.
Application for Today: There are many people today who are more ignorant about God than Job’s three friends. It is up to us to tell them about how God made everything perfect but we were the ones to goofed it all up by refusing to obey. At that point God had the right to banish all mankind to The Pit, but chose us before we chose Him. The Messiah would come and do what had to be done to gain eternal life for souls fallen from grace. All actions and motives will be perfectly judged by the One who knows everything. When we witness, we need more than intellectual ascent when talking about God. If we don’t, then we are like Job’s friends. Job was a realist. He saw the inconsistencies and injustices to the god that his friends were portraying. We must be realists as well. We need to explain many issues from a Biblical perspective. We all must have a Biblical Worldview.
The first step in this worldview is that we assert that the Bible is the Word of God and all our thinking must spring off that Rock. If we let circumstances or culture dissuade us from standing firm with what the Bible says, we walk on sinking sand. For example, many people refuse to believe the Bible until it is proven true. I believe the Bible until it is proven false, and none of it has been proven false. Man’s theories conflict with it, but not facts. Science, for example, can either be a friend or foe to the Bible. It all depends on the inner bias of the one teaching the science (and there is no such thing as an unbiased human being). A staunch evolutionist will look at Grand Canyon and say, “Wow, look what a little water did over a long time.” A Bible-believing scientist would say, “Wow, look what a lot of water did in a short time (Noah’s Flood).” They both look at the same evidence, but draw different conclusions based on their beliefs. Let us all stand on the Word of God rather than man’s ideas (see Psalms 118:8 – the exact middle verse in the Bible).
Job 25 – Perhaps Bildad is running out of arguments at this point because his words are brief. He appeals to the great difference in goodness between God and man. Maybe he thought that this would make Job realize how much of a sinner he was. But that was not the issue. The issue was “Does God always inflict judgment against a person who suffers from maladies or tragedies due to specific sins?” In general, Job knows he is a sinner, but feels he has been doing well on the morality meter lately. So why has it all happened to him, he wonders and argues.
Job 26 – Job rebukes his friend with sarcasm again. Then he goes on to agree how great God is. One interesting part is found in verses 7-8. Here is a man making a true scientific statement thousands of years before it was established by man. The earth was hung on nothing. He also spoke of God stretching out the heavens in v7. Today, scientists have observed our universe expanding (stretching out). In v8 Job praises God because He can contain so much water in clouds without it bursting down onto the earth. So here we have astronomical and meteorological facts gushing forth before man discovered them. Too bad scientific skeptics do not read the Bible. With their intelligence, they may be able to unlock mysteries sooner.
Job 27 – Perhaps seeing that his friend was “out of ammo,” Job continued and claimed he was still innocent of a specific sin that caused his woe. He acknowledged that God does punish the wicked and that there is no hope for the godless.
Application for Today: When we help people who are down, we must listen with our heart, not just our head. Often they just need to vent, so allow that. Rather than giving quick advice or using unemotional logic like a Mr. Spock from Star Trek, we need to listen carefully so that we can say back to them in our own words what they are feeling. Then they will realize that you care for them. We should not jump on every little wrong thing they say or feel, just get the whole picture first. Not finding fault with what they say does not mean we agree with them. If we want them to respond with the truth within us, we need to build that relationship first. They will tend to listen more to us later, especially when the emotions have died down. In short, do not use Job’s friends as role models. 🙂
Job 28 – Job recognizes that mankind can work and figure out how to do so many things that help him get along in this life, but he cannot obtain wisdom from all these activities. He concludes that only in God there is wisdom and this is it in a nutshell: Fear God and depart from evil.
Job 29 – He recounts his blessed days when God “watched over” him. He was not only prosperous, but he also did many kind acts for others and had much respect in his community. He also counseled many and helped them with their problems. This led him to believe that he would die a quiet, peaceful death after leading a good life.
Job 30 – Now he returns to his bitter present situation where he has lost wealth, family, and social stature (they mock him now). He feels that God is not answering or him or helping him.
Job 31 – He lists all the proper actions and attitudes (including not looking at a female with lust) that he has in life. He is willing to be punished if he has been guilty of any sin in these areas (it was no short list, by the way). He even compares himself with Adam claiming that he had not tried to hide his sin like he did. With this, Job ends is “case against God.” Here’s a guy who is prepared to insist upon all this before Almighty God. How many if us could do this? This now has set up two stages: 1) the continuous rage of his friends against him, and 2) God’s judgment on all involved. This will be interesting….
Job 32 – Now everyone is really ticked off. Then a fourth visitor named Elihu entered the conversation. He may have been a relative of Abraham. He was younger than the rest so he held his peace until now. He also was angry because there was no good answer from the three friends, and Job seemed bent on justifying himself before God. He is bursting at the seams to speak. He did not flatter anyone but was frank.
Job 33 – Elihu’s approach to Job’s case was different from the three friends. He basically said that God was indeed communicating with Job which was something Job had rejected. Elihu believed that God was trying to teach Job something through all of this, but Job wasn’t listening. Perhaps God was using pain to humble Job because He saw that pride would have taken him over and that would actually cause his death. So God, according to Elihu, was saving Job’s life by allowing him to go through suffering…an interesting theory.
Job 34 – Now Elihu did agree that Job was guilty of sin and that God could punish him for it. He affirms that God can do no wrong and He is not answerable to anyone, so he feels that Job is wrong when demanding God to answer him. Keep in mind that we learned from the first two chapters that Job’s suffering was not because he sinned, so even though Elihu said many true things about God, he still assumes Job has sinned and deserves to suffer to this extent.
Job 35 – Job thought that God should have rewarded his good behavior not send punishment, but Elihu maintained that God is not obligated to react to our good (or bad) behavior and that God was silent because Job was proud. Elihu did insist that our behavior does affect others so that it is still worth it to be good. He also asserted that God does not respond to the oppressed because sometimes their prayers are born out of selfish motives so he counseled Job to wait for his answers.
Job 36 – This is Elihu’s last speech, and it is his best. Rather than repeating and underscoring what has been said by others, he adds new insights about who God is and how He operates. People who are doomed to wickedness will perish under His thumb but His mercy will afflict the righteous in order to cleanse them of sin and pride. If people refuse to listen and do not respond correctly to God, then they will lead a life of shame and meet with untimely deaths. The righteous will learn from suffering and live on. So he encouraged Job to respond correctly and not abandon godly living. Next, Elihu told Job to worship God through it all because He is worthy and it will allow him to learn from Him. If he yields to complaining and wallowing in self-pity, he will not learn anything from God.
Job 37 – Elihu’s last approach is to magnify God’s greatness by what we see in nature. Although not perfect in all that he assumed or stated, Elihu came the closest to what God is about. He saw God more as a teacher whereas the other men spoke of Him as a judge (with little or no mercy). It seems like his comments are a bit of a segue into what God Himself was about to say to them all.
Application for Today: (stemming from chapter 35) – We can usually come up with different reasons why prayers are not answered. Some include: we did not have enough faith, we had wrong motives, or we have some hidden sin. We also realize that all these have applied at one time or another because we are so far from being perfect. I dare say that if the only prayers that would get answers depend on this criteria, few, if any, would be answered. But many are answered (thank God). One main thing that God looks for in our prayer lives is honesty and being open to truth. This is what I believe made King David “a man after God’s own heart.”
Job 38-39 – Our Inadequate Science
God finally speaks. He starts with challenging Job by asking a series of difficult questions about how things in nature were made. I think this means that Job should not have challenged or criticized God because he simply does not and cannot know everything in order to judge fairly. Job 38:7 reveals that the angels shouted for joy as they watched God create the earth. There is a mention of “the morning stars” singing together. These stars may have been angels. In Isaiah 14:12, the Word refers to Lucifer as the “son of the morning” (or star of the morning) which may include him with those rejoicing angels before he fell. Most theologians believe that Ezekiel 28:13 refers to Lucifer before he fell, and it states that he was in the Garden of Eden still perfect (no sin yet). The implication is that Lucifer did not fall until sometime after God created the earth.
Job 38:16 contains scientific revelation before man knew of it. God speaks of the “springs of the sea.” Man discovered springs within the oceans only recently. Hot springs and cold springs are spewing from the ocean floor. Back in Job’s day, only the Creator would have known about them.
In Job 38:19, God challenges even the greatest of scientists today with His questions about the “way of light.” With all our knowledge gained over thousands of years, many aspects of light still remain a mystery to scientists. Then God “enters Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone” by asking Job where is the place of darkness? Huh? Then in verse 24 He asks where is the way that the light is divided? Not sure if scientists today could answer these questions. They still don’t even know what light IS let alone these other properties of it. Gravity is still a mystery too. Contained in these two amazing chapters was information about cosmology, oceanography, meteorology, astronomy, and zoology!
God doesn’t attempt to answer Job’s seemingly pressing questions about the reason for suffering when one has been fairly good in life. God seems to be pecking away at Job’s pride with all His unanswerable questions about creation and nature’s wonders.
Job 40 – Job had basically wanted to take God to court over his case of unfairness against Him. After God revealed His wisdom and power to Job, He asked him if he still wanted to pursue his case by condemning God to justify himself. Needless to say, Job’s proverbial winds were gone out of his sails. Interestingly, God continued on a bit about His amazing creation. In order to further prove His superiority in wisdom and knowledge, God told Job to “Behold behemoth.” Now this means that Job could see this animal indicating it was a contemporary with his generation. In other words, this animal was not imaginary nor was it extinct. Neither was is a metaphor. It actually co-existed with mankind. This rebuts theologians who claim behemoth was a mythical creature.
Theologians and translators often placed a footnote on the word “behemoth” because they were not sure what it was. The footnote usually states that it was a hippopotamus or elephant. This judgment, however, is extremely short-sighted and indicates two problems with these men: 1) they did not read the Job account thoroughly regarding behemoth’s description God gave us, and 2) they were “evolutionized” (brainwashed by the theory of evolution therefore it could not be a dinosaur).
Let’s examine problem #1 – the Bible clearly states that behemoth ate grass, its strength was in its belly, and it hung out in the swamps (fens, in King James’ English). So far, the hippo could be a fit. But then the Bible describes behemoth’s tail and compares it to a big, strong cedar tree. I’ve seen hippo tails and they are not too impressive. Some versions claim this creature was an elephant. This Biblical footnote description does not fit either as the tail contradiction also applies. So what could behemoth be? After seeing many skeletons of dinosaurs, the apatosaurus (originally wrongly called the brontosaurus) is a complete fit to God’s Word to Job. The apatosaurus’ tail was huge and powerful and resembles a cedar tree. This beast has been classified by scientists as the largest animal that has ever lived on earth. Therefore, it is no surprise that Job 40:18-19 states, “His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are like bars of iron. He is the first of the ways of God.”
Let’s examine problem #2 – The main reason most scholars were blind to perceive a dinosaur in the Book of Job is because they all “knew” that evolution was true and that these animals became extinct 70 million years prior to Job’s existence. Is this a scientific fact or belief? Belief, of course. In order to be a scientific fact it must be observable, able to be demonstrated, and able to be repeated in an experimental setting. Since ancient history can never be observed by anyone except Jesus who was there during the beginning, the only way to assert about the past is to INTERPRET evidence left behind. Herein lies the problem. People whose hearts are closed toward the Bible being the infallible Word of God, tend to accept evolution while people who are open to God’s Word tend to reject evolution. Now, please understand, there are exceptions to this statement as illustrated by the fact that some real Christians interpret the Bible differently and in their own minds have justified evolution (they bend the Word more than a professional contortionist, however).
Ramifications – If behemoth was a dinosaur, then man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. An evolutionized person will think that this creates many hard to answer questions for the Bible-believer. Over the years, I have examined all those so-called difficult questions and most of them are easily answered from a scientific and Biblical worldview. Some remain difficult, but there are many more indefensible questions for the evolutionist to deal with, and they tend to ignore them. Biblical creation scientists have tackled many tough questions head-on and have even raised tougher questions about the Biblical accounts than the evolutionists have. Evolution theory is a Goliath of a controversy that will not go away easily.
The Spirit of Compromise: Didn’t God use the evolutionary process to create? Not the God of the Bible. If He did, He did not create everything good (complete) the first time. Then He used death and suffering (survival of the fittest) to create what we see today on earth. Do you want to worship a god who did that? Not me. I will worship the true God who created everything perfect the first time. Humans in rebellion against a righteous God messed up everything on earth. God should not be blamed as He so often is.
One problem in many people’s minds is about time. They assume that the earth is billions of years old because they have heard it billions of times surrounded by the veil of science falsely so-called (1 Timothy 6:20-21). Evolutionists do not tell us about the major problems and deficiencies with all of the dating methods. They are all based on assumptions that cannot be substantiated. For example, they all assume that rates have remained constant over the years. New evidence suggests otherwise. They assume that the “parent” sample had contained a full amount of whatever (potassium, or radium, etc.) before the change rate began. They also assume there was no outside contamination occurring during this process over billions of years. Needless to say, the science behind all dating methods is complicated and not as straight forward as reports and textbooks suggest.
There is evidence that the earth (and our universe) can only be thousands of years old and cannot be billions of years old. To fully understand this evidence, you need to attend a creation seminar, but I will throw out a few “nuggets” for your thoughts: Scientists know the current rate of ocean water changing into salt. Right now, the ocean is about 3.6% salt. But if the earth is billions of years old, then there should be much more salt formed in the oceans (and this takes into account that fresh water springs feed the ocean). If the earth’s water was fresh from the beginning, then after about 6,000 years, the oceans should have its current level of salt. Helium leaks up and through everything. If the earth is billions of years old, no helium should be left, but there is quite a lot left. The fact that comets still have tails strongly suggests very young comets. If the universe was billions of years old, those tails would have burned out eons ago. To counter this fact, evolutionists have claimed there exists what they call the Oort Cloud, even though no person has ever seen it. They further claim that our comets are “refreshed” or new ones made up and then thrust out into our galaxy or universe. It seems like shaky ground to me. Dr. Russell Humphreys has formulated a theory about how the light from far distant stars could reach earth in 6,000 to 10,000 years even though they are many light-years away. Humphreys is no quack. He is brilliant and has much credibility as a scientist. For those interested, Google search “R.A.T.E. Radioisotopes and the age of the earth” to find perhaps the best evidence yet that earth is only thousands of years old. They studied several samples of organic life found at various depths in the earth’s crust that supposedly died millions of years ago. But all samples had plenty of carbon-14 left which should have converted to nitrogen if they died millions of years ago. Their results demonstrated that they all died thousands of years ago and at the same time no matter how deep or shallow the samples were found! This sounds like the work of Noah’s Flood to me. The only rebuttal from evolutionists to this study was the claim that the samples were contaminated. While this is a very small chance of being true, no group to my knowledge has tried to duplicate it. They appear to be so convinced that those findings are wrong because of their evolutionary bias that they are not motivated to see if it is correct. If it is correct, that would be earth-shattering headlines in all newspapers (or would it??). There is so much to say against evolutionary thought which makes it a double shame that civil, fair, open-minded discussions about those problems and allowing other explanations from current evidence are so discouraged in our culture today. If you wonder why, see Romans 1:18.
Note: I know I have diverted from the main message of the Book of Job, but I think it was worthwhile.
Job 41 – More About Dinosaurs
God describes one of His creatures called leviathan. His purpose was to show that no man could stand and contend with that beast, and since God designed him, how can any mere man stand and contend against God? In other words, God continued to humble Job before His mighty presence, power and wisdom.
For years theologians have pondered what this leviathan creature actually was. Here is a summation of God’s description:
1) Man could not draw him out of the water with a fish hook because he was too fierce.
2) His outer layers were so tough that a harpoon or spear could not pierce it.
3) His scales were air-tight and so overlapped that it was like the strongest armor ever.
4) No man in his right mind would ever rouse him.
5) He had a terrifying set of teeth.
6) It had a powerful neck.
7) Even his fleshy parts were folded making him immovable by human hands.
8) His heart was hard as stone.
9) He could raise himself up (stand, I think), so he was no crocodile as many have surmised.
10) He was so fierce that when he raised up, the most mighty of men cowered in fear.
11) He was so strong that iron, bronze, sling stones, clubs, and arrows were like straw.
12) His underparts were very sharp (probably sharp scales).
13) He caused a big wake when swimming in the water.
14) Nothing on earth was like him, he had no fear of anything because he was so fierce.
15) Sparks and some sort of fire came from his mouth and nostrils (some dinosaurs had skulls with chambers that could have contained chemicals that when combined, could produce fire). Bombardier beetles have a similar capability today, although it doesn’t spew fire but does shoot out a complex chemical combination that chases any enemy away. If those chemicals are not combined perfectly by the inward constructs of this beetle, it explodes! I’ve often wondered how this bug could have evolved without self-destruction. Trial and error involving slow changes over millions of years would have certainly caused its early extinction if we apply Darwin’s theory to its history, yet those beetles live on today.
In my opinion, there is no such creature as leviathan on earth today. It seems to me that this beast (that has not survived over the many years) was some sort of dinosaur also, although much different than behemoth. I have been very disappointed in the attempts by scholars to identify this animal. Their attempts seem quite lame and their failure to conclude it was a dinosaur indicates that they have been more affected by evolution than they realize (which is true for any educated person today, myself included). As in the case of behemoth, scholars and translators fail to take into account all the descriptions that God provided in His Word, and by neglecting that important piece, they draw wrong conclusions about leviathan.
When I first began to research Biblical Creationism, the only tenet I initially struggled with was the age of the earth and dinosaurs fitting into human history. Now, this makes more sense than what evolutionists offer, and there is evidence that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. People have many drawings of dinosaurs from ancient Peru on their pottery. Indians from our “wild west” days described and drew pictures of pterodactyls (called piasaw birds). The term “dinosaur” does not appear in literature and history annuls because it wasn’t coined until 1841 by English biologist Sir Richard Owen. There are multiple references, however, to dragons and sea monsters. I realize that some are folk lore and are not to be trusted as literal history. But are all of them? I don’t think so. I’ve done too much reading in this area to discount all of them. “Loch Ness Monsters” have been cited worldwide, not just in Scotland. They’ve been seen in lakes in Canada, Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, Potomac River, and Japan. In the 1960s, there was a newspaper report about two boys being eaten by one while a third escaped near Pensacola, Florida. They’ve all been described as a plesiosaur. And why not? There have not been 6.4 billion years of history and they would have easily survived Noah’s Flood 4,500 years ago considering they live in water.
Perhaps the most damaging evidence against the evolution model of history is when evolutionist Dr. Mary Schweitzer discovered soft tissue within a T-Rex thigh bone in 2005. She realized this was impossible if it died millions of years ago. Thousands of years, yes. Millions, no. Instead of rejecting evolution, they are trying to find out how this tissue could last for millions of years. The most recent theory (2007) is that iron might have played a major role because it changes after death into something similar to formaldehyde. One problem is that no one can observe the action of iron for millions of years. If these researchers would consider all of the above facts, they, if open-minded, would at least pursue some of the research that creationists are pursuing, but I’m not holding my breath.
Interesting note: Before ocean ships had motors and relied solely upon wind and sails for propulsion, captain log books are replete with sightings of swimming reptile-like creatures. As soon as ships became motorized with noise levels traveling miles through the water, however, sightings dropped off to nothing because the creatures could hear the boat coming and it drives them away. In addition, ocean-going vessels have “roadways” they are locked into, thus most of the square mileage of ocean waters are not traveled any more. So there is plenty of human-free space out there for these animals to live and go unnoticed.
For the evolutionist, dinosaurs pose a great mystery. For the Biblical Creation scientist, however, this mystery dissipates. They believe dinosaurs were pre-flood reptiles that flourished in the favorable atmospheric conditions of that phase of human history. But once that flood hit, many things on earth drastically and suddenly changed, including weather patterns and climate. With these adverse changes along with the advancement of human civilizations, I contend that most became extinct in the centuries following the flood. The flood also caused one big “ice age” that perhaps contributed to their downfall as well. Some dinosaurs should have survived, however, hence the various sightings in modern times.
The Congo has a huge swamp the size of Florida called the Likouala Swamp. It is extremely hostile to humans (heat, poisonous snakes and tons of mosquitoes). No one in their right mind ventures into this maze from which some have not returned. The native people who live on its perimeter have seen a creature that seems to be a smaller version of the apatosaurus, but sightings are rare because of their apparent fear of humans and most of their bodies are constantly submerged. When Noah got off the ark, God told him He would put fear of man into the animals. This why they tend to shy away from mankind. The natives have named this creature Mokele-mbembe. Dr. Roy Mackal, a former University of Chicago professor, heard of this and went in to get evidence of a “living dinosaur.” The environment was so hostile (mosquitoes and heat) that he did not obtain all that he had hoped. Keeping his technical equipment working properly in the heat and humidity also posed problems, but he did photograph footprints of some creature that could have been that dinosaur. Could some dinosaurs actually be alive in remote pockets of the earth? It is not only possible, but probable in light of literal historical accounts in the amazing Books of Genesis and Job.
Job 42 – Job repents and admits that he does not understand all things concerning God, and that he will not in this life. He does not repent of sins that have allegedly brought on the suffering; he repents of the arrogance of demanding an answer as if such were owed him. He repents of not having known God better and he now knew that God can never be thwarted successfully, and I think after some thought, he may have realized that this is a good thing. God rebukes Job’s three friends because they did not speak rightly of Him as Job had done. He orders them to sacrifice a burnt offering, and then He said that Job would pray for them. I assume that this meant that Job had forgiven his friends as well. Because God accepts Job, He would accept the others rather than punishing them. God then restores to Job a double portion of what he had before and he was comforted by his relatives. He was blessed more in his latter days than his beginning. He lived 140 more years and then died a contented man.
Why did God not rebuke Elihu? Perhaps because Elihu represented truth about God, although it did not properly apply to Job. The other three left out the concept of God’s sovereignty by wrongly asserting He always punishes the wicked and always rewards the righteous in this life (prosperity preachers take note on this one).
Conclusions from the Book of Job:
1) Gives people insight about how to suffer in a righteous manner.
2) We are arrogant and mistaken about the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God if we think we can run this life better than Him.
3) God does not reveal to Job (or to us) what Job wanted to know, but God did reveal more of Himself to a true servant of His and this caused repentance, contentment, and the sparing of punishment for others.
4) Since we cannot know all there is to know about our experiences on earth, we need to simply love and trust (bow our knees to) God because He is God. Furthermore, since God always “writes our final chapter,” we have assurance of total justice and comfort in the end.
5) Job’s friends tried to restore him back to God via intellectual philosophy. Job restored them to God via prayer and an improved personal relationship with Him. His relationship with his friends had to have improved as well because Job did agree to forgive them all that they said wrongly about him. I think also, that after one has suffered a long time, there is a depth of maturity that is wrought in their soul, and I tend to listen to their wisdom.
6) In his Bible notes, Dr. Thomas L. Constable summarizes the Book of Job well: “Temptation to become distressed overtakes us all when bad things happen to us. We want to know why things happen as they do. If we know that God is in control and that in His loving wisdom He has permitted our suffering and controls it, we do not need to know why we are in pain. That is not to say we should stop trying to discover reasons. Our suffering may be due to our sin, as Job’s three friends said, or because God wants to teach us something, as Elihu affirmed. However suffering may not be our lot for these reasons. When we cannot determine why we are suffering we can still rest in God and continue to trust and obey Him because we know He is sovereign and loving. This is a very important perspective to help other people who are suffering see. By sharing it we can be genuine comforters, not miserable comforters like Job’s friends.”