Treasures in the book of Job: Who was God trying to teach a lesson to?
I am in the middle of reading the book of Job and in the unexpected place I find Jesus in this morning's reading. It isn't plainly stated out, but as I read Job's cry of mercy, he says a line that makes me think of Jesus:
"If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God's rod from me..." Job 9:33-34
Thank you Jesus, that you are the arbitrator between us and a holy God! Thank you that we not only get to see greater glimpses of goodness and glory but that we can be in intimate and covenant relationship with an Almighty God!
When I used to read Job, it was always with this fear and misunderstanding of the passage. Many pastors and leaders tell their congregation members that when you read through the Bible, look for Jesus, but some passages were still left untouched or barely explained because of the lack of revelation of Jesus. Job would be one of those passages because of such great hardships that Job endured. The usual main point of the message (which is not totally inaccurate, but point missed) is that God is Almighty, He reigns and He can do whatever He wants. It is no place for man to question it. Maybe it was not the heart of what pastors wanted the congregation members to take away with them, but many ended up doing so.
As I have been reading Job the last year (and not very often at that), I see increasingly God's kindness, His heart, His patience and His good will through this book. This is a very contrasting theme I would have recognized just a few years ago. Thank you Holy Spirit for guiding and revealing understanding!
Who was God trying to teach a lesson to?
I believe it was May of 2012, I was sitting in the Redding civic auditorium by a young man. Some sort of special event was happening that weekend with the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and it was edging near the time of first year graduations. We had briefly introduced ourselves to each other right before praise started, but by the time we were listening to man who was teaching on the book of Job, this young man and I would briefly and quietly discuss over some comments about the book of Job during the teaching. One of those short discussions was when my lecture neighbor turn to me and asked me, "What lesson do you think God was trying to teach Job?" In my head, I could pull up many sermons about suffering and perseverance that I heard in the past about Job, but as I opened my mouth, the Holy Spirit intervened. He began to speak through me, "God wasn't trying to teach Job a lesson. God was teaching Satan a lesson." I was surprised at what had just come out of my mouth.
Do you ever have the experience that you are shocked and even getting revelation from the very words that are coming out of your own mouth? I think I felt what Peter must have felt when Jesus asked the disciples who they say he is and Peter without a thought says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" and Jesus commends him saying that it wasn't by his own understanding that he spoke this truth. Anyway, I digress...
I continued to say, "God wasn't punishing Job for no apparent reason. He wasn't punishing Job, but telling Satan that you can't win. God was bragging about Job to Satan and believed in Job. God was putting Satan in his place. Satan couldn't win!" What an amazing stance. If you think about it, it is pretty amazing--a man that withstood everything that Satan, himself, could throw at him...and God in full confidence in Job. Later at the end of the lecture again I was blown away as the speaker revealed the very same point!
I do want to state that Job's suffering was not in vain for a petty wager either. God used Satan's rage against Job as building and training for him as well. God is never to waste anything, even one's hurt or past. God also did not leave it there, but gave Job lavish recompense.
I do want to stress again that one of the main points (and the heart of God) of this passage is NOT about an almighty yet cruel and random God that would place you at the mercy of his will for petty exchanges with the enemy. He knows the champion you are...that the enemy cannot win against the one who knows to whom his/her life belongs to. The almighty God places such faith in you because of Jesus. Jesus paid for all your debts to free you for His kingdom, for the life you are meant to live and for a relationship unto Himself. When you let Jesus in your life, He comes to live with you and His power from resurrection overcomes the cross, the grave, sin and everything that stands in the way from God's perfect will. There He is again, the beautiful arbitrator.
With Christ on our side, we can be a sure bet. We may not be perfect, but with Christ we can be overcomers. We can be victorious.
Romans 8:31-39
"31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God's rod from me..." Job 9:33-34
Thank you Jesus, that you are the arbitrator between us and a holy God! Thank you that we not only get to see greater glimpses of goodness and glory but that we can be in intimate and covenant relationship with an Almighty God!
When I used to read Job, it was always with this fear and misunderstanding of the passage. Many pastors and leaders tell their congregation members that when you read through the Bible, look for Jesus, but some passages were still left untouched or barely explained because of the lack of revelation of Jesus. Job would be one of those passages because of such great hardships that Job endured. The usual main point of the message (which is not totally inaccurate, but point missed) is that God is Almighty, He reigns and He can do whatever He wants. It is no place for man to question it. Maybe it was not the heart of what pastors wanted the congregation members to take away with them, but many ended up doing so.
As I have been reading Job the last year (and not very often at that), I see increasingly God's kindness, His heart, His patience and His good will through this book. This is a very contrasting theme I would have recognized just a few years ago. Thank you Holy Spirit for guiding and revealing understanding!
Who was God trying to teach a lesson to?
I believe it was May of 2012, I was sitting in the Redding civic auditorium by a young man. Some sort of special event was happening that weekend with the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and it was edging near the time of first year graduations. We had briefly introduced ourselves to each other right before praise started, but by the time we were listening to man who was teaching on the book of Job, this young man and I would briefly and quietly discuss over some comments about the book of Job during the teaching. One of those short discussions was when my lecture neighbor turn to me and asked me, "What lesson do you think God was trying to teach Job?" In my head, I could pull up many sermons about suffering and perseverance that I heard in the past about Job, but as I opened my mouth, the Holy Spirit intervened. He began to speak through me, "God wasn't trying to teach Job a lesson. God was teaching Satan a lesson." I was surprised at what had just come out of my mouth.
Do you ever have the experience that you are shocked and even getting revelation from the very words that are coming out of your own mouth? I think I felt what Peter must have felt when Jesus asked the disciples who they say he is and Peter without a thought says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" and Jesus commends him saying that it wasn't by his own understanding that he spoke this truth. Anyway, I digress...
I continued to say, "God wasn't punishing Job for no apparent reason. He wasn't punishing Job, but telling Satan that you can't win. God was bragging about Job to Satan and believed in Job. God was putting Satan in his place. Satan couldn't win!" What an amazing stance. If you think about it, it is pretty amazing--a man that withstood everything that Satan, himself, could throw at him...and God in full confidence in Job. Later at the end of the lecture again I was blown away as the speaker revealed the very same point!
I do want to state that Job's suffering was not in vain for a petty wager either. God used Satan's rage against Job as building and training for him as well. God is never to waste anything, even one's hurt or past. God also did not leave it there, but gave Job lavish recompense.
I do want to stress again that one of the main points (and the heart of God) of this passage is NOT about an almighty yet cruel and random God that would place you at the mercy of his will for petty exchanges with the enemy. He knows the champion you are...that the enemy cannot win against the one who knows to whom his/her life belongs to. The almighty God places such faith in you because of Jesus. Jesus paid for all your debts to free you for His kingdom, for the life you are meant to live and for a relationship unto Himself. When you let Jesus in your life, He comes to live with you and His power from resurrection overcomes the cross, the grave, sin and everything that stands in the way from God's perfect will. There He is again, the beautiful arbitrator.
With Christ on our side, we can be a sure bet. We may not be perfect, but with Christ we can be overcomers. We can be victorious.
Romans 8:31-39
"31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
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