Tag: Job

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Job

Job

We don’t know when Job lived, but many Bible scholars consider him a contemporary of Abraham. This places Job several generations after Noah in our biblical timeline. 

Job lives in the land of Uz. We know four key things about him:

First, he is a righteous man, acting justly in all he does and conducting himself with blame-free confidence. He puts God first and avoids evil. 

Next, Job is a family man. He and his wife have ten children, a quiver full (Psalm 127:5), which people see as a sign of God’s favor.

Third, Job is concerned for his kids and their future. After they have a party, he offers a burnt offering sacrifice for each one of them to purify them of any sin or careless thought. He wants to help make them right with God.

Last, Job is rich. He owns over 10,000 animals, with a large staff to oversee his herds. He is the wealthiest man in the area and esteemed by all.

As such, Job enjoys an idyllic life of ease with favor from God. Everyone looks up to him, and Job’s life seems perfect.

Yet Satan seeks to torment Job. Though God gives Satan permission to act, God isn’t the cause of Job’s suffering, Satan is. Don’t forget that. 

Satan strips away Job’s wealth and kills his children. Then Satan attacks Job’s health, leaving him clinging to life with an unsupportive wife. But in all this Job remains faithful to God.

Job perseveres through these afflictions and doesn’t buckle under his friends’ less-than-helpful advice, as we’ll see in the following four chapters. 

Eventually, God rewards Job for his faithfulness by restoring his health, returning his wealth times two, and giving him ten more children. Job lives another 140 years, celebrating life with his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

When unthinkable hardship afflicts us, how can we remain steadfast in our devotion to God? When it seems everyone and everything is against us, will we continue to put God first?

[Read Job’s story in the book of Job, especially Job 1, 2, and 42. Discover more in Ezekiel 14:13–14 and 9–20.]

Learn even more about Job and his friends in the devotional Bible study I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job, which explores this classic story as a modern-day screenplay.

Learn about more biblical characters in Old Testament Sinners and Saints, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover. Get your copy today.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Daughters of Job

The Daughters of Job

After Satan’s tormenting of the innocent Job, God restores what Satan took away, which includes all his possessions and his first set of seven sons and three daughters. In fact, God doubles Job’s wealth and gives him ten more kids: seven more sons and three more daughters. Though the sons’ names aren’t recorded in Scripture, the daughter’s names are: Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch. The girls are heralded as the most beautiful in the land.

In mentioning them by name, the Bible honors Job’s girls, even at the risk of elevating them over their unnamed brothers. Even more so, Job goes against the conventional practice of the day, giving his daughters an inheritance along with their brothers. 

In doing so, Job reveals his heart and God’s perspective. This is even more remarkable, given that Job lives in a male-dominated society.

May we see things as God sees them. What might we do to further God’s perspective, even if it means challenging the status quo?

[Discover more about Job’s three daughters in Job 42:13–15.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Books of the Bible

Job

Job

The book of Job (rhymes with robe) has often been called the literary masterpiece of the Bible and is part of the collection of wisdom/poetic writings.

Job powerfully and poignantly delves into the question of suffering and explores various understandings and responses to it, along with the help of his so called friends.

The bulk of the book (chapters 3 through 41) are a series of verbal exchanges between Job and his friends, who turn out to be not too good of friends after all. This is preceded by an introduction (chapters 1 and 2) that sets the stage for the dramatic dialogue that follows.

The book ends with a conclusion (chapter 42) showing Job’s steadfast faith and God’s grace. Don’t get so focused on the discourses in the middle of the book that you miss this fitting conclusion.

You may have heard the phrase, “the patience of Job” (think “longsuffering”). That saying originates from this book and Job’s stellar example. Perhaps an even better synopsis of this book would be “the love of Job.”

Indeed, Job conclusively shows what real, unwavering love is towards God. We generally love others because of what they do for us or give to us. We rarely love in spite of what they do or how they treat us. In the same way, most people approach God for what he will do for them.

But when they don’t feel his love or when he doesn’t make sense, their love for him waivers, fades, or even goes away.

Job shows us a different way: We should steadfastly love God in spite of what is happening in our lives and what struggles we are going through.

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

When Was Job Written?

Earlier I wondered if Job was real person or a fictional character.  Despite support for both perspectives, my conclusion was that it doesn’t really matter.  We can learn from him regardless if his life is a fictitious or historical account.

Another debated question, which is without definitive answer, is when was Job written?  While some say that it was an early book of the Bible — perhaps even the first — this conclusion is more speculative than evidentiary.

Regarding this, let me make two observations:

  1. There are significant thematic parallels between the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, specifically regarding the brevity of life and futility of living.
  2. The books of Job and Song of Solomon have a similar construction, which is not found anywhere else in the Bible.  Each is heavy in dialogue — almost exclusively so — reading like a screenplay.

The books of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon were both written by King Solomon.  Because the book of Job shares a similar construction and theme, perhaps Solomon also wrote Job.

Knowing when Job was written doesn’t really matter, but it is an intriguing thought to consider that perhaps King Solomon is the author.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Job’s Daughters

At the conclusion of the book of Job, God blesses him even more than before.  One of the blessings mentioned is that Job has ten children.  Seven are sons and three are daughters.

What is interesting is that in an age when sons are revered and daughters are essentially ignored, righteous Job elevates his daughters.

It is Job’s daughters who are mentioned by name, not his sons.

Additionally, Job grants his daughters an inheritance, along with their brothers.

This is a counter-cultural move — and one that I think pleases God greatly.

May we do the same.

[Job 42:12-15]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Job’s Conclusion

A common lament of Job throughout the story bearing his name is his begging God to answer his pleas.  However, it seems that Job (and his friends) are too busy talking to give God a chance.  When God does respond, Job’s friends are rebuffed and Job’s righteousness is affirmed.

Job’s brief reply to God’s discourse is humble and contrite.  After acknowledging God’s complete knowledge (omniscience) and total power (omnipotence), Job unabashedly admits:

“I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

With all of our knowledge and assumed understanding of God and his ways, I think that Job’s words are more often an appropriate and accurate posture then for us to assuredly spout our religious opinions (theology) as if they were fact.

[Job 42:7 and Job 42:3]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Pray When it Doesn’t Make Sense

After Job’s so-called friends fail so miserably to comfort him in his time of need, after they criticize and malign him, God steps in.  God puts them in their place for what they said and affirms that Job has spoken truth.

Then God tells the friends to prepare a sacrifice and to ask Job to pray for them.

Picture the situation.  Job’s life is in a shambles; he is destitute and in pain, despising life itself.  The only people who will even talk to him, attack him and his character, pulling him down even further.  Then they have the audacity to ask him to pray for them!

If you were Job, how would you respond?

Praying for them would be a hard thing to do; it would be far easier to give them the payback they deserve, but not Job.  In the midst of his torment, he prays for his misguided friends even though they seem to be in a much better state than he is.

God accepts Job’s prayers — and then restores his fortunes twofold.

What if Job had refused to pray for his friends, might God’s response have been different?

[See Job 42:7-10.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Random Reflections From Job

Here is a trio of thoughts from the book of Job:

1. What Job feared most happened to him

The enemy (that is Satan, the devil) knew Job’s fears and exploited them.  Although everyone fears something, we are best advised to turn our fears over to God and not dwell on them.

2. Job believed that through good behavior he deserved God’s blessings

Things are not any different today.  The common belief is that we can earn God’s love and attention.  Of course, the converse of that is rejected; people assume that bad behavior should be forgiven, not punished.  The right motivation for good behavior is simply out of respect for God and to honor him, not to earn something in return.

3. When Job had nothing left to say that is when God spoke

It is hard for us to listen when we are talking; it is no different in our relationship with God.  When you pray do you spend more time talking or listening?

[See Job 3:25, Job 30:25-26, and Job 38:1.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

The Big Picture

As readers of the book of Job, we are privy to the whole story: Satan torments Job in an effort to prove that Job’s Godly devotion is conditional, that it is dependent on circumstances.

Job, however, does not have the luxury of this grand view.  All he knows is that his once blessed life is now in shambles.  He is in pain, and with seemingly nothing left to live for, he wants to die and end his misery.

With a limited view of God and not knowing the back-story, Job’s only conclusion is that this is God’s doing.  His perspective is to blame God.

Job lacks an understanding of God’s overarching purpose at work.  Job is unaware that once he proves himself faithful and that the enemy, Satan, is proved wrong, all that Job lost will be restored — two-fold.

In many ways we are like Job.  We lack a comprehension of God’s overarching plan and end up blaming God for our pains, our disappointments, and our anger.

If we could just see a glimpse of God’s big picture, then we would know that he in not the source of our frustration, that it lies elsewhere; we would see the reward that awaits us if we but stay on course.

Job did just that, even though he didn’t see God’s big picture.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

The Movie Secretariat

The movie Secretariat evokes this fitting quote:

  • Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
  • Do you make it leap like a locust, striking terror with its proud snorting?
  • It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength, and charges into the fray.
  • It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; it does not shy away from the sword.
  • The quiver rattles against its side, along with the flashing spear and lance.
  • In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.

Although this is a most appropriate description of the mighty steed Secretariat, it was not written for him or the movie, but was penned several millennia before.  It is from the book of Job in the Bible; the movie quotes directly from the NIV version.

Secretariat is an inspiring, feel-good flick about a magnificent racehorse, his will to win, and his big, strong heart.  It is also a movie about the determination and drive of his owner to make it happen, fulfilling the vision of her late father.

Secretariat is not only a movie most worthy of our time to watch, but as a bonus, it is also family friendly.  From a production standpoint, it is top-notch, especially with believable recreations of the races themselves.

[See Job 39:19-24.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.