Now’s the time for us to launch into the – little-read? – book of Job. Below are some initial, thought-provoking (I hope) things I’ve picked up about it…
Job has some fantastic nuggets we’ll hope to flag up as we go along. But I’ve realised I’ve in the past grasped what’s going on here maybe less than with any other Bible book. So it will be interesting. I’m glad! It’s Scripture that gives us roots (Psalm 1:1-4); and to stay fresh we need to keep pioneering into fresh areas. Asking, Why is this here? What’s it about?
I think we all know Job is an incredible book – a heart-wrenching description both of huge human anguish, and the enormous greatness of God. The first Bible book one of my former colleagues ever read, and it really helped her. Let me flag up three introductory things for now.
First: Job, along with Genesis 1-11, has to be recording some of the oldest events in the Bible, judging by the absence, even though its events take place near the Jordan (40:23), of any reference at all to Israelites. It certainly seems pre-Abrahamic, given that the 140 years Job is reported living after the book’s events (42:16) come after he is already `old` (32:6-9), and had risen to be `the greatest man among all the people of the East` (1:3). This puts his total age in the range of the primeval, pre-Abrahamic patriarchs of Genesis 11:10ff. (Indeed when we read 26:5 – `The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters` – we might even wonder whether this is not long after the Flood; particularly since the word for `dead` there is `Rephaim`, a slightly unusual word for it – and the Rephaim were Nephilim (Num 13:33, Deut 2:11), the apparently demonic mutants that the Flood was sent partly to wipe out (Gen 6). However, it needn’t be so. The Flood was such an awesome event that early humans no doubt recounted its history in detail for many centuries – translating it linguistically, of course, as we’ve done with our Bibles, and as no doubt happened too with this primeval history of Job.)
But beyond all that: since it seems clear from the absence of any reference to Israel, and particularly from Job’s age, that this comes from very ancient times indeed: two things become remarkable.
First, it’s striking how much it shows was already known of the gospel:
`If there be for him an angel,
a mediator, one of the thousand,
to declare to man what is right for him,
and he is merciful to him, and says,
“Deliver him from going down into the pit;
I have found a ransom;
let his flesh become fresh with youth;
let him return to the days of his youthful vigour”;
then man prays to God, and he accepts him;
he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
He sings before men and says:
“I sinned and perverted what was right,
and it was not repaid to me.
He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
and my life shall look upon the light”’ (33:23-28).
And the means for this transforming `ransom`, this `redemption`, is also already implied, in 1:5 and 42:8: sin must be dealt with, and judgment be held back, by sacrifice.
And then, there are even hints already of the Trinity:
`Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend…..
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! ` (16:19-21, 19:25-27).
Remarkable, and faith-building, when it all comes from so long ago! But there’s a second thing. If what we’re reading in Job are some of the Bible’s oldest events, it’s striking that what comes down to us from prehistory’s far depths is the desperate problem of suffering: basically, `My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?` Why can utterly horrible things happen to good people? And how we can possibly cope? This is already what Job is about; and the book makes clear that it’s okay to ask – even scream, like Jesus on Calvary – these questions. And as Christopher Ash notes, this is why it’s a long book; the answer to these desperate questions can’t be summarized on a postcard. Instead, God takes Job, and us, on a long, 42-chapter journey, with delays, many false answers, and people saying contradictory things. And that’s because this journey is so immensely relevant to us. And it’s actually in this journey that our human value is demonstrated (an issue that comes up repeatedly: 7:17, 13:25, 14:2-6); and (somehow) that real maturity is attained.
Which is about as far as I’ve got in the past. Preparing for these next posts, however, I’ve realised there are two other questions we need to bear in mind.
First, what, in the end, is the point of Job? God states carefully at the finish that Job has spoken about Him what is right, and the three `friends` have not (42:7). How? It’s a striking conclusion, given that Job has been saying things like `God has wronged me` (19:6). What then is it Job has said that’s `right`?
And secondly: This is clearly, somehow, a story of a believer’s – desperately painful – development and growth into deep relationship with God. (Horrible things really do happen to good people – but there has to be something great that comes out of them, even massively outweighs them; otherwise, God who loves us would obviously not let them happen.) What then is it Job needs? How does Job change, how does he grow? These are questions we need answers to as we journey through this mighty book.
(And there is one other issue we’ll pick up next time, from chapter 1, that can likewise be surprisingly relevant to us: there is much more going on in the supernatural `heavenly places` than we ever realise – and, it can really impact the lives we live…)
