***

Introduction

That Job was a historical person is validated by both the Old Testament (Ezek 14:14-20) and the New Testament (Jas 5:11). As for the book’s authorship, although there are competing Jewish traditions, the Talmud explicitly names Moses as the author (Baba Bathra, 14b, 15a). This fits with James Ussher’s dating of both Job and Moses.

Ussher’s chronology says that Job apparently lived during the time of Joseph, which would have been between 1745 BC and 1635 BC. Ussher dates the book of Job as “about 1520.” This was during the time of Moses’ 40-year stay in Midian. (For more detail on the chronology of Moses’ life, see BSN Moses.) Midian (where Moses spent 40 years) and Uz (Job’s homeland) were not far apart, so it’s not hard to see Moses as the author. Psalm 90 is also ascribed to Moses.

To sum up, Job was clearly a historical person, and Moses is the likely author of the book of Job. I know modern scholars do not favor such positions, but they are not as reliable on ancient issues as ancient scholars. (Modern Biblical Scholarship versus Ancient Biblical Scholarship)

I have found that the contents of the book of Job are most easily digested if the book is read as a play. If there are poems and songs amidst the prose of the Bible, it should not be too hard to think of a play as being in the mix, too. I am not suggesting that Moses wrote it as a play – only that it can be viewed as a play, and that it is helpful to do so. In the description that follows, I’m going to use “book” and “play” interchangeably.

To start with, there is an obvious structure to the book. The first two chapters are historical prose…as is the last chapter. In between, there is dialogue. A lot of it! The only Bible book that is like it in structure is the Song of Solomon, which is much shorter and exclusively dialogue.

The Structure of the Play
(from 100,000 feet)

Chapters 1-2 – (2) – Narrative
Chapters 3-41 – (39) – Dialogue
Chapter 42 – (1) – Narrative

You can see from the chapter counts above that the dialogue makes up the bulk of the book. However, lest we get caught in the weeds of all that dialogue, we have to remember that the dialogue is framed by the action that takes place in the beginning and ending chapters. So, to drill down into the structure of play, let’s focus first mainly on what happens in the course of the play.

The Structure of the Play
(from 75,000 feet)

Chapters 1-2 – (2) – Narrative – Job is afflicted.
Chapters 3-41 – (39) – Dialogue – Job and his friends struggle to understand why.
Chapter 42 – (1) – Narrative – Job is restored.

People who know anything at all about Job know that he was afflicted. In fact, that’s often the only thing anyone knows about him. And that’s unfortunate because that is not the main point of the book of Job. The book’s main point is this:

Eccl 8:14 There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.

Job was a righteous man “to whom it happened according to the deeds of the wicked.” Just like it did with Jesus. #FJOT Job is a type of Christ.

The arc of Job’s story is that he was a righteous, prosperous, and healthy man. He had everything going for him. This was all because Job had put God first, his family second, everyone else third, and himself last. Because Job was making God look good, Satan was jealous and sought permission to afflict Job in hopes of turning him against God…and thereby making God look bad. After a relatively brief period of great pain and struggle, God blessed Job twice as much as he had been blessed before his great trial. The book does not say how long Job’s period of affliction lasted, but the most reasonable inference is months – not days, and not years. His lifespan was at least 140 years, and perhaps, according to some ancient Jewish sources, as much as 210 years. Thus Job’s period of affliction was less than 1% of his adult life. Conversely, he lived a remarkably blessed life 99% of the time! This is why I described his sufferings as lasting for “a relatively brief period.”

None of this is to minimize the severity of Job’s suffering – no matter how short the duration. It was awful! Satan went after Job in two waves of evil. The first wave cost Job all of his many children and the whole of his considerable fortune. He and his wife became childless and penniless in an instant of time. The second wave cost Job his health. He became covered from head to toe in sore boils – simultaneously wracked with physical pain and intense shame. Conversely, when the Lord delivers Job from the adversity, the blessings on Job are doubled from what they were before! Job’s suffering was as extreme as his glory – just far less time-consuming. The problem for Job was the same as the problem we have during times of trouble: it seems like the trouble is never going to end. No time of trouble ever seems short until after it’s ended. Let’s drill down on the play’s structure and consider how the relevant issues are presented to us.

The Structure of the Play
(from 50,000 feet)

Chapters 1-2 – (2) – Narrative – Job is afflicted.
- Chapter 1 – (1) – Satan goes after everything Job has – all his children and all his wealth.
- Chapter 2 – (1) – Satan goes after Job himself – robbing him of health and what remained of his reputation.
Chapters 3-41 – (39) – Dialogue – Job and his friends struggle to understand why.
Chapter 42 – (1) – Narrative – Job is restored.
- verses 7-9 – God rebukes Job’s three friends.
- verses 10-17 – God restores Job’s family and fortunes…double.

Summing up to this point, Job was a great man who experienced a great trial, and, as a result, became even greater.

What makes the book so long are the dialogues that take place after Job is afflicted but before he is delivered from his afflictions. Let’s drill down farther and see what’s going on in those dialogues.

The Structure of the Play
(from 25,000 feet)

Chapters 1-2 – (2) – Narrative – Job is afflicted.
- Chapter 1 – (1) – Satan goes after everything Job has.
- Chapter 2 – (1) – Satan goes after Job himself.
Chapters 3-41 – (39) – Dialogue – Job and his friends struggle to understand why.
- Chapters 3-31 – (29) – Dialogue – Job and his three friends go three rounds.
- Chapters 32-37 – (6) – Dialogue – A fourth man intervenes to challenge Job.
- Chapters 38-41 – (4) – Dialogue – God challenges Job…and Job eventually acknowledges that God was in the right and he was in the wrong.
Chapter 42 – (1) – Narrative – Job recovers.
- verses 7-9 – God rebukes Job’s three friends.
- verses 10-17 – God restores Job’s family and fortunes…double.

The dialogues consume 39 of the book’s 42 chapters, and the first three-fourths of those 39 chapters are taken up with Job and his three friends arguing about the reasons why Job has experienced such a reversal of fortune. The truth of the matter is something none of them knows – they’re all speculating. God is the only one who knows and he’s not telling. Even in the last one-fourth of the book when God finally speaks, He’s still not telling. In fact, instead of giving Job answers, He’s rattling off questions for Job to answer. By this time, Job realizes he’s neither knowledgeable enough or wise enough to give the answers, so he just starts trusting in the goodness of God…which is what he should have been doing all along. Drill down with me one last step as we identify the steps and flow of the dialogues.

The Structure of the Play
(from 10,000 feet)

Chapters 1-2 – (2) – Narrative – Job is afflicted.
- Chapter 1 – (1) – Satan goes after everything Job has.
- Chapter 2 – (1) – Satan goes after Job himself.
Chapters 3-41 – (39) – Dialogue – Job and his friends struggle to understand why.
- Chapters 3-31 – (29) – Dialogue – Job and his three friends go three rounds.
  - Round One:
    - Chapter 3 – After having his three friends – Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – come to sit with him on the ground in silence for a week, finally Job speaks. This begins the first of three rounds. (Zophar only speaks in the first two rounds.)
    - Chapters 4-5 – Eliphaz answers.
    - Chapters 6-7 – Job answers.
    - Chapter 8 – Bildad answers.
    - Chapters 9-10 – Job answers.
    - Chapter 11 – Zophar answers.
    - Chapters 12-14 – Job answers.
  - Round Two:
    - Chapter 15 – Eliphaz answers.
    - Chapters 16-17 – Job answers.
    - Chapter 18 – Bildad answers.
    - Chapter 19 – Job answers.
    - Chapter 20 – Zophar answers.
    - Chapter 21 – Job answers.
  - Round Three:
    - Chapter 22 – Eliphaz answers.
    - Chapters 23-24 – Job answers.
    - Chapter 25 – Bildad answers.
    - Chapters 26-31 – Job answers, speaks extensively, and then falls silent. His friends fall silent as well.
- Chapters 32-37 – (6) – Dialogue – A fourth man intervenes to challenge Job.
  - A younger man named Elihu had been listening to all that Job and his three friends had been saying. Elihu was angry that the friends were condemning Job without being able to explain the situation satisfactorily. And he was angry at Job for saying, in effect, that he was more righteous than God in this situation.
  - After explaining why he had remained silent for so long, Elihu lays out his arguments to Job. Elihu’s arguments pave the way for the Lord Himself to enter the discussion. Elihu is thus a forerunner for God in the same way that John the Baptist was a forerunner for Messiah.
- Chapters 38-41 – (4) – Dialogue – God challenges Job…and Job eventually acknowledges that God was in the right and he was in the wrong.
  - God’s peppers Job with questions for two chapters (Chapters 38-39). Job’s response is to humbly say that he should keep his mouth shut (verses 3-5 of Chapter 40).
  - God peppers Job with more questions which go on for another two chapters (Chapters 40-41). Job’s response this time is to say that he should never have opened his mouth in the first place, and that his sole focus after hearing God is to repent (verses 1-6 of chapter 42).
Chapter 42 – (1) – Narrative
- verses 7-9 – God rebukes Job’s three friends.
- verses 10-17 – God restores Job’s family and fortunes…double.

By now, it should be clearer than ever to you why people get bogged down in the dialogues of Job and miss the broader points of the book. Job and his friends make a lot of wise statements, but not every wise statement applies to every situation in the same way. That’s why we can find some gems of wisdom in this book, but the broader context is that these wise men are missing the main point because their unspoken assumption is that we can figure out everything down here on earth. The truth is we can’t. Some things have to wait until heaven before we can understand them. Until then, we have to trust God – that is, have faith in Him.

Job’s friends kept insisting to Job that he must have gotten off of the straight and narrow or else God would never have let these bad things happen to him. Job’s response was that he had not changed. Job’s position was not that he had never sinned, but that he had lived consistently. Therefore, from his perspective, he either didn’t deserve the suffering he was currently experiencing or else he didn’t deserve the blessings he was previously experiencing. If he was living the same way, why should God treat him differently without an explanation? What he realized in the end was that God didn’t owe him an explanation; rather, he owed God to trust Him.

As I suggested above, it’s easier to understand the book of Job as the script for a play than to read it as a novel. In fact, if your FDT’s or ODT’s are big enough, you could act it out. I’m not talking about actually staging a play – just assign different people to read different parts. There are eleven speaking parts;

Narrator
God
Satan
Four messengers
Job’s wife
Job’s three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar
Elihu

Even if you just picture different speakers, it could help you sort out the content of this great and wonderful book. Embrace its lesson: Even when we don’t understand what’s happening, we should trust the Lord and do what is right. Then we can say what Solomon said at the end of Ecclesiastes.

Eccl 12:13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.
Eccl 12:14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

***

Job 1

Job’s Character and Wealth

Job 1:6 – The expression “the sons of God” in this context means angels – that is, heavenly beings. ***** “Satan“ means adversary.

***** Since the execution of the messianic plan, which culminated in the second coming late in the 1st century AD, Satan no longer enjoys this freedom of movement between heaven and earth. He was cast out of heaven. As it says in the book of Revelation.

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,
Rev 12:8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

This is why Jesus told His disciples the night before He died that He was going to make a place for them (and all the rest of us) in heaven. That is, by His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, Jesus was setting the stage for Satan to be cast out of heaven. That is what would make room for us up there. That all happened when Jesus came again. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

Job 1:8 – God rightly took delight in the life Job was living.

Job 1:9-11 – Satan is not only an adversary to God and His people – he is also an accuser. He accuses Job of doing the right thing but from the wrong motive. #FJOT This foreshadows what would happen to Jesus a righteous man wrongly punished. Job was thus a type of Christ.

Job 1:12 – God accepts Satan’s challenge, but puts a limit on Satan’s power (“only do not put forth your hand on him”).

Satan Allowed to Test Job

Job 1:13-19 – It was bad enough that all these calamities occurred, but the news of them was delivered to Job in rapid succession on the same day. This would have multiplied the crushing force of this news on him. Satan sought maximum discouragement for Job in hopes that he would turn away from God.

Job 1:20-21 – Much to Satan’s frustration, Job “worshiped” the Lord that day rather than turning away from Him.

Job 1:22 – Job kept on doing what he had been doing when he was blessed: worshiping and serving the Lord.

***

Job 2

Job Loses His Health

Job 2:1 – As for “the sons of God” and “Satan,” see note on Job 1:6 above.

Job 2:2 – The Lord’s question and Satan’s answer are identical to what they exchanged in Job 1:7.

Job 2:3 – Notice that God is still delighted with Job, making clear that Job has done nothing wrong – nothing to have deserved the troubles that befell him.

Job 2:4 – Satan just opposing and accusing because that’s what an adversary and accuser does.

Job 2:5 – Satan issues another challenge to God.

Job 2:6 – As in Job 1:12, the Lord accepts Satan’s challenge but limits Satan’s power (“only spare his life”).

Job 2:7-8 – This would not only have been intensely painful for Job; it would have been an enormous embarrassment. No one would even want to look at him! #FJOT Even in this, Job also foreshadows Messiah. Consider how Isaiah spoke of Him.

Is 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Job 2:9 – Even Job’s “helpmate” turns on him, telling him just what Satan wants him to hear: that continued devotion to God was pointless. But Job would not take the bait. Unlike Adam, Job had to the good sense not to follow his wife when she was off track. (One of the biggest challenges of loving your wife is knowing when to do what your wife wants and when not to.)

Job 2:10 – Without having known about Satan’s conversation with God about him, Job fully disproves Satan’s accusations against him. Recall Satan’s accusations against Job.

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
Job 1:10 “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
Job 1:11 “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”

***

Job 2:4 Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
Job 2:5 “However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.”

Now compare these accusations – accusations about which Job has no knowledge – to what Job actually did when the adversities hit.

Job 1:20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
Job 1:21 He said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

***

Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Job 2:10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Thus, without knowing the crime of which he had been accused or even that he had been put on trial, Job had demonstrated his innocence. However, the trial is not over.

Clearly, Job expected to die in the wake of his calamities. Recall that when he learned of losing his children and his prosperity, he spoke of dying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.” When he subsequently lost his health, it would have confirmed this expectation. But Job didn’t die. This turned out to be the most difficult aspect of Job’s trial. He could have lived with death. But living on without dying made no sense to him. That’s what he and his three friends would go round and round about, and what takes up so much of the book: trying to understand why all this had happened to Job.

Job 2:11 – Job’s three friends obviously came from separate lands and met up with each other before going to Job’s place. Their thoughtful and extended visitation was a testimony to Job’s character…and to theirs.

Job 2:12 – Nothing the three friends had heard prepared them for what they saw. The sight of Job – and probably the sound and smell, too – must have been overwhelming.

Job 2:13 – It is further testimony to Job and his friends that they could and would spend a week together in total silence. When they finally do speak, they will have plenty to say, for they will have spent a long time thinking before opening their mouths. No wonder they will converse for almost thirty chapters.

***

Job 3

Job’s Lament

Job 3:1 – Job is the first to speak, and he puts his finger on what is bothering him most: that none of this makes sense to him! He can’t see any point to ever having been born. In his integrity, he will hold fast to this point even though his three friends repeatedly insist that he must have done something wrong because God is too good to have done all this to Job for no good reason. The only thing that will get Job to drop his questioning is the argument made by another man (Elihu) and God in the last fourth of the book (chapters 32-41). Therefore, Job is going to maintain his position against all sorts of challenges for the next thirty chapters.

At this point in the book (“play” – see the Introduction to the book above if you don’t understand why I’m saying “play”), Job’s mind is where Ecclesiastes starts out…but not where Ecclesiastes ends up. Here, juxtaposed, are the opening and closing lines of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Eccl 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Eccl 1:2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

***

Job couldn’t figure out how God was ever going to make sense of his life. Keep in mind that Job didn’t get to observe the two scenes in heaven that led to his adversities as we did, so he didn’t know why any of this was taking place.

The reason Solomon could write what he wrote in Eccl 1 and reach the conclusion he did in Eccl 12 is that along the way he realized Eccl 8, specifically:

It wasn’t so much that Solomon was that much wiser than Job. Rather, it was that Solomon had something Job didn’t : the book of Job.

Job’s friends will keep telling him that he needs to keep examining his life until he figures what he did to cause all this…and then repent. They are wrong, because Job didn’t bring all this on himself, but there is something Job will need to repent of: demanding answers from God before he’s capable of understanding them. After all, even though we saw the scenes in heaven that Job didn’t, and even though we know all about the messianic plan and how it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we still can’t explain everything that happens in life – at least not while we’re still down here. As long as we lack complete knowledge, there is always room – and the necessity – for faith. Faith is what we’re down here to learn. And we have the book of Job – and the rest of the Bible – to help us.

***

Job 4

Eliphaz: Innocent Do Not Suffer

***

Job 5

Eliphaz: God Is Just

Job 5:13 – The apostle Paul draws on this verse to help him make a point to the believers in Corinth.

1 Cor 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.
1 Cor 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS“;
1 Cor 3:20 and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”

That it was one of Job’s three friends who made this statement is a reminder to us that this group was not wrong about everything they said – not by a long shot. They were just misapplying the wisdom God had given them over time in the moment. God has given you and me a lot of wisdom; that doesn’t guarantee that we’ll always apply it wisely.

***

Job 6

Job’s Friends Are No Help

***

Job 7

Job’s Life Seems Futile

Job 7:9 – This statement about Sheol was true until Jesus came and re-routed death so that it became a blessing instead of a curse. (Everyone Is Going to Heaven)

***

Job 8

Bildad Says God Rewards the Good

Job 8:7 – If this was true of Job, how much more of the baby born in Bethlehem!

***

Job 9

Job Says There Is No Arbitrator between God and Man

Job 9:32 – Indeed, God was not a man in Job’s time…but He became a man in Jesus Christ.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Job 9:33 – And, indeed, there was no umpire between God and man…until there was.

1 Tim 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
1 Tim 2:6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

God Himself became the umpire by entering the playing field.

***

Job 10

Job Despairs of God’s Dealings

***

Job 11

Zophar Rebukes Job

***

Job 12

Job Chides His Accusers

Job 12:22 – As to “He reveals mysteries…” see Mysteries and Revelations.

Job Speaks of the Power of God

***

Job 13

Job Says His Friends’ Proverbs Are Ashes

Job Is Sure He Will Be Vindicated

Job 13:15 – Job should have stopped before saying “Nevertheless…” Then he would have been in the right – at least in this verse. If what I’m saying here does not make sense to you, see the notes below on Job 42:1-6.

***

Job 14

Job Speaks of the Finality of Death

Job 14:14 – The New Testament gives a definitive answer to this question. Here’s the shorthand.

1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

***

Job 15

Eliphaz Says Job Presumes Much

Job 15:7 – Eliphaz was asking Job a rhetorical question. However, we don’t have to regard it as rhetorical because the answer to this question for us is that Job wasn’t…but Jesus was (Col. 1:15). #FJOT

What Eliphaz Has Seen of Life

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Job 16

Job Says Friends Are Sorry Comforters

Job Says God Shattered Him

Job 16:19 – #FJOT Job’s hope has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The witness came down from heaven and returned there, were He abides forevermore.

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood–

***

Eph 4:9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Eph 4:10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)

This “witness” was in heaven during Job’s time…and He is also in heaven in our time. But in between Job and us, He descended to earth and even to Sheol before rising from the dead back to earth and then ascending back into heaven. What a God – He came down here to make a place for us up there!

***

Job 17

Job Says He Has Become a Byword

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Job 18

Bildad Speaks of the Wicked

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Job 19

Job Feels Insulted

Everything Is against Him

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

Job 19:25-27 – #FJOT How could any honest and reasonable person fail to see Jesus prophesied in these verses?

***

Job 20

Zophar Says, “The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short”

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Job 21

Job Says God Will Deal with the Wicked

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Job 22

Eliphaz Accuses and Exhorts Job

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Job 23

Job Says He Longs for God

Job 23:12 – It is as if Jesus is paraphrasing Job!

Matt 4:3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Matt 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'”

***

Job 24

Job Says God Seems to Ignore Wrongs

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Job 25

Bildad Says Man Is Inferior

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Job 26

Job Rebukes Bildad

The Greatness of God

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Job 27

Job Affirms His Righteousness

The State of the Godless

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Job 28

Job Tells of Earth’s Treasures

The Search for Wisdom Is Harder

***

Job 29

Job’s Past Was Glorious

***

Job 30

Job’s Present State Is Humiliating

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Job 31

Job Asserts His Integrity

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Job 32

Elihu in Anger Rebukes Job

Job 32:1 – Job and all of his friends meant well, but none of them achieved anything from all their talking. From Job’s standpoint, his friends weren’t scratching where he was itching. From their standpoint, he was just too hardheaded. It was going to take someone else to shift the trajectory of the conversation. That would be a man named Elihu. As John the Baptist began to shift the thinking of 1st-century Israel, so Elihu would begin the process of shifting Job’s thinking.

Job 32:2-5 – Elihu demonstrated wisdom and maturity by holding his tongue until the older men had their say.

***

Job 33

Elihu Claims to Speak for God

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Job 34

Elihu Vindicates God’s Justice

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Job 35

Elihu Sharply Reproves Job

Job 35:7 – This verse is similar in thought to Job 41:11. The NASB translators list both of these verses from Job as sources for what the apostle Paul wrote in Rom 11:35.

Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
Rom 11:34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
Rom 11:35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN?
Rom 11:36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

***

Job 36

Elihu Speaks of God’s Dealings with Men

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Job 37

Elihu Says God Is Back of the Storm

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Job 38

God Speaks Now to Job

Job 38:1 – Elihu has been challenging Job without interruption for six chapters. At this point, without skipping a beat, God takes over. He continues for four chapters, putting Job firmly in his place. God finished what Elihu started, much as Jesus of Nazareth finished what John the Baptist started.

There is a short interlude halfway through God’s four-chapter speech when He asks if Job wants to keep on asking Him questions, at which point Job meekly declines (Job 40:1-5). God presses on for the other two chapters until Job finally says, “Uncle!” in full repentance (Job 42:1-6).

God’s Mighty Power

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Job 39

God Speaks of Nature and Its Beings

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Job 40

Job: What Can I Say?

Job 40:3-5 – Job is starting to get it. He realizes he has been talking too much – asking too many questions. Ecclesiastes would later put the understanding Job came to in this way:

Eccl 5:1 Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.
Eccl 5:2 Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.

But there is yet more God wishes to ask Job before He lets him off the hook.

God Questions Job

God’s Power Shown in Creatures

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Job 41

God’s Power Shown in Creatures

Job 41:11 – This verse is similar in thought to Job 35:7. The NASB translators list both of these verses from Job as sources for what the apostle Paul wrote in Rom 11:35.

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Job 42

Job’s Confession

Job 42:1-6 – Job finally gets it! He not only needs to stop asking incessant questions of God – he needs to be listening to Him! Thus does Ecclesiastes not just instruct us to zip the lip, but to listen more. Those are two separate, but related, decisions.

None of this is to suggest that we should not take questions to God. He doesn’t mind that at all. What He minds is our wasting time with meaningless repetition of our questions when we ought to be doing His will instead.

Matt 6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
Matt 6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Matt 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Matt 6:10 ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Matt 6:11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
Matt 6:12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Matt 6:13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]’

Jesus prayed “Thy will be done” three times – to be sure He was hearing right – in the garden of Gethsemane. Therefore, He’s not opposed to any repetition – just meaningless and robotic repetition. And certainly Job had carried his questioning of God beyond meaningful dialogue. As for the will of God that Job should have been doing, see Job 42:10 and the accompanying notes below.

God Displeased with Job’s Friends

Job 42:7-9 – Job was not as righteous as God, but he was more righteous than his friends. Notice by the example of Job and Jesus that the righteous should always pray for the unrighteous. This is as it was with Abel and Cain, and this is the way it will always be. For why should we expect righteousness from the unrighteous? What should be expected from the unrighteous is repentance…and then righteousness will flow from that.

God Restores Job’s Fortunes

Job 42:10 – “The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends” – This the key that unlocked Job from calamity and brought him back to a place of great blessing. That Job had dropped his demand that God explain the situation to his satisfaction was not enough to get him restored to a state of blessedness; it was praying for his friends as he had previously prayed for his family.

Job’s three friends were actually right when they said Job had gotten off track, but they were wrong about when. He didn’t go wrong before the calamities; rather, he went wrong after they occurred. He was a man of prayer; when his children were all taken away, he should have shifted to praying for his next closest neighbors (“near ones”) – his extended family and friends. Job’s troubles were not an excuse for him to stop praying for others. No matter how much we feel victimized, we must never give in to a victim mindset. It’s unbecoming an imitator of Jesus Christ. Job did not live at a time when he could have Jesus as an example…but we do. That is, Job did not have the New Testament; we do.

Luke 23:33 When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
Luke 23:34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.

Job 42:11 – Lest we be excessive in our criticisms of Job’s friends, let us remember that they were not only well-intentioned – they were also willing to visit Job when things were at their worst. They did not wait until he was better to come around – as his extended family had. Neither should we be excessively critical of his extended family. We just need to appreciate how devoted Job’s family and friends were his well-being – especially Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

Job 42:12-16 – No number has meaning by itself; it only has meaning when compared with another number. This is true of in all of life and therefore in the Bible as well. Compare the blessings God had given Job before his calamities with those He gave him after his calamities.

Job’s	in Job 1	in Job 42
sheep	7,000	14,000
camels	3,000	6,000
yoke of oxen	500	1,000
female donkeys	500	1,000
sons	7	7
daughters	3	3

Because we live in post-biblical times, we can see that God doubled Job’s children just as much He doubled Job’s livestock – the difference being that humans are raised from the dead and animals are not. In other words, because all humans would be raised from the dead, Job ended up with 14 sons and 6 daughters.

Job 42:17 – As I wrote in the introduction at the top of this modern “scroll,” Job’s period of affliction was less than 1% of his adult life; conversely, he lived a remarkably blessed life 99% of the time! This is the way we should think of Job – not as a victim but as a great overcomer! A shadow of the Greatest Overcomer – our God Himself, Jesus Christ.

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