Introducing אִיּוֹב (Iyov or Job)

Introduction

Last week I ended our series entitled finding Jesus in the Tanakh. I know that I really enjoyed going through and finding little glimpses of our New Testament savior all through the pages of the Old Testament. It really helped me to pull the two together. In fact, we could continue to do that little exercise forever, and rather than tie it all as part of a big huge series, I want to start a new series today, and I want us to look at a very intense character in Scripture. This is a fellow who not many people like to read about, because his story makes people uncomfortable. A few things about his story actually make people uncomfortable. The first, is the suffering and trial that Job endured make people extremely squeamish. He suffered some pretty horrible things, the next thing that makes people uncomfortable is the fact that God would permit him to go through those trials and that suffering in the first place is not only disconcerting, but for a lot of us, it doesn’t fit our doctrine nor does it fit most church tradition for what the nature and character of God is, or should be! We don’t understand it, and so we avoid it.

What I’d like to do today is perhaps give you a little glimpse into the heart and character of God and His ways. That glimpse may help us to understand how a righteous man like Iyov would ever have to endure this kind of suffering.

So who was this Iyov?

Was He an Allegorical Figure?

Some scholars seem to think he was. They ask questions such as. “Where did he come from? Is Uz even a real place” or if he was an historical figure, why then is he in the Ketuvim instead of in the Torah where the history lives, or in the prophets where the rest of the history books are?” Or perhaps they’ll point to the extreme nature of the story and say, “Come on. This is so extreme, how could this ever have happened?

Was He an Historical Figure?

Some scholars and many Hebrew sages will claim he was an historical figure. In fact some of the ancient Hebrew sages claim that the book of Iyov was written by Moses at around the same time he did the Torah. If this is true, then that means that he would have lived around the same time as Abraham, and actually there are some ancient Hebrew sages that claim that oral tradition tells them that Iyov was Married to Abraham’s daughter Dinah. God refers to Iyov in the same sentence as Noah and Daniel, and we know those to be historical figures, and James refers to Iyov in the New Testament, so he was obviously well known to them as well. So much for the idea that he was an allegorical figure, but does that mean that the book is an historical account?

Here’s what Messianic Hebrew Scholar Dr. Golan Broshi believes, and I would tend to agree with him on his assessment. He says he believes “the book of Iyov is a story based on true events, as retold by Moses”. I mean, how many people wax as poetic as Moses in the midst of such extreme suffering?

The Structure of the Book

This is a book that is structured rather uniquely, and so it will affect the way we go about studying it. It starts out in narrative form for about the first two chapters, then it shifts into a poetic form for most of the rest, and then it ends up on the final Chapter as narrative again. It’s rather built like a sandwich. A big fat sandwich, but a yummy for your spiritual tummy kind of sandwich.

The book explores a lot of themes, and we could literally stay on this book for the next five or six months before we exhausted the material and we’d have still had questions at the end. I’m not sure how many parts this series is going to have, but I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to cover the entire book. I’m going to make every effort to hit the highlights and the passages that the Holy Spirit points out as the most significant. With that in mind, let’s get into Iyov.

Job 1:1–5 CJB

There was a man in the land of ‘Utz whose name was Iyov. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen and 500 female donkeys, as well as a great number of servants; so that he was the wealthiest man in the east. It was the custom of his sons to give banquets, each on his set day in his own house; and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. After a cycle of banquets, Iyov would send for them to come and be consecrated; then he would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for each of them, because Iyov said, “My sons might have sinned and blasphemed God in their thoughts.” This is what Iyov did every time.

So let’s take a look at what the Bible says about Iyov

He was blameless

תָּם

definition: sound, wholesome, complete, morally innocent, having integrity

That’s a lot to say about a man, how many people in your life have you known that you can say that about? I for one, do not know of many. And as a result of being blameless, he was incredibly wealthy. He had so much livestock and so many servants, look at what it says about him:

He was the wealthiest man in the east!

Then it goes on to give an example of Iyov’s piety. Now let’s set this against the backdrop of what’s going on a the time. First, we are about 250 years after the confusing of the languages at the tower of Babel. And what we’ve found is that humanity hasn’t really learned their lesson. Even after everything had been destroyed by the flood, you had humanity rebelling against God. Then there was Terah who with his three sons, one of whom you know as Abram, they were in the business of making idols! It was against this backdrop that we see a man standing above it all in righteousness. Iyov, stood with Yehovah. What did these two have in common? Well Scripture tells us this:

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 CJB

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing, if you listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am giving you today; and the curse, if you don’t listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God, but turn aside from the way I am ordering you today and follow other gods that you have not known.

So that tells us why Iyov was so amazingly wealthy and successful, but that also is what is so dreadfully depressing and difficult about this book of the Bible, and that is that while Iyov was righteous even by the declaration of the Lord Himself, he still endured trials, at the hands of ha satan. How is this right? Today I want to try to demystify that part for you, so that perhaps you can be a little easy on God regarding this episode with Iyov. And by extension, I am hoping that you can be more forgiving on yourself if you aren’t living a charmed and blessed life like Iyov, and I hope by the end of this series we will all learn to make the most of our trials, and become enriched by them because whether we want to admit it or not, suffering is the currency of the economy of God. So let’s get back to Iyov

Job 1:6–9 CJB

It happened one day that the sons of God came to serve Adonai, and among them came the Adversary [Hebrew: Satan]. Adonai asked the Adversary, “Where are you coming from?” The Adversary answered Adonai, “From roaming through the earth, wandering here and there.” Adonai asked the Adversary, “Did you notice my servant Iyov, that there’s no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil?” The Adversary answered Adonai, “Is it for nothing that Iyov fears God?

Here is the linchpin of the entire book of Iyov. It happens right at the end of verse 9. “Is it for nothing that Iyov fears God? The Hebrew here actually says, “Does Iyov fear you for free?” In other words, of course Iyov fears you, he knows all the benefits he can get from serving You. The only reason He loves you is because you’re bribing him. Church, them’s fighting words now! The devil is picking fight on God and poor old Iyov is about to get caught in the middle of it. Today I ask you point blank, Do you fear the Lord for free? Do you fear him because He deserves it, ad not for the stuff you can get from Him? That seems like a hard question to ask, and it is, but you see, there comes a time in all of our lives where we have to make the decision that Iyov did. We have to decide if we have no other benefit from serving God, is He still worth giving Him our whole heart, mind, soul and even our life?

Maybe we need to write these words of the devil on our homes as an ironic reminder. “Do we serve God for nothing?” You say “Pastor, that’s crazy! And that is so difficult, who can do it?” God is always seeking people who will serve Him for nothing. Consider Abram who was asked by Yehovah to pick up all his belongings and leave his people and leave the land he knew and go into a new land - the land of the Canaanites. Or when after he had already proved his loyalty to God, and even had his name changed to Abraham and received a son of the promise, he was asked by God yet again for everything - with no promise of anything in return. God went to him and asked him, “are you willing to serve me for nothing?” Or look at Joseph, who had everything stripped away even though he was a righteous man. He was thrown into a jail and forgotten. Yehovah asked him to continue to serve Him - FOR FREE! Right there in that jail! For free. Are you hearing me church? Sometimes God wants to know, will you serve Him just because He’s worthy and for no other reason? How about Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego? Did they not serve God for free? Did they not give it all? They even said,

Daniel 3:16–18 CJB

Shadrakh, Meishakh and ‘Aved-N’go answered the king, “Your question doesn’t require an answer from us. Your majesty, if our God, whom we serve, is able to save us, he will save us from the blazing hot furnace and from your power. But even if he doesn’t, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will neither serve your gods nor worship the gold statue which you have set up.”

They all served God for nothing, and now the question is before the courts of heaven. Let’s pick up the story there.

Job 1:9–22 (NJV)

Then the satan answered יְהוָ֜ה and said, “Does Iyov fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, and around his house and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now , and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face. יְהוָ֜ה said to the satan, “Behold all that he has is in your power; only on himself do not stretch out your hand.” So the satan went our from the presence of יְהוָ֜ה

It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, that there came a messenger to Iyov, and said” The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked , and took them away. And they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking , there also came another, and said, “the fire of God fell from the heavens and has burned up the sheep and the servants and has consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold there came a great wind and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Iyov arose, and tore his rose and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb and naked I will return there. יְהוָ֜ה gave, and יְהוָ֜ה has taken away; blessed be the name of יְהוָ֜ה”

In all this, Iyov did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.

Iyov did not charge God with wrongdoing! Saints when we are ready to breathe our last, will we be able to continue to serve God right through the very end? Iyov was prepared to do so. And he wasn’t willing to bring a single accusation against God. That is some amazing trust right there. But even at this, it wasn’t enough for ha satan. No the adversary was not impressed, and you you know the rest of the opening narrative. The adversary comes before God the next day and God brags on Iyov once again, talking about how even after the ha satan had done his worst against everything Iyov had, Iyov still praised God and served Him. Well the adversary was not impressed, instead he taunt back.

Job 2:4–6 (NJV)

Then the satan answered יְהוָ֜ה and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce You to Your face!” And יְהוָ֜ה said to the satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”

And we know what happens next, the adversary inflicts painful sores upon the body of Iyov head to toe, so painful were the sores that he began to scrape them with a broken potsherd. Can you imagine the agony? It was too much for his wife to bear, she came in and offered this encouragement along with his friends.

Job 2:9–13 (NJV)

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Renounce God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Iyov did not sin with his lips.

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they each came from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him, and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

Then they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights an no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great. After this, Iyov opened his mouth and cursed he day of his birth.

There is a joke that says, we now know why the adversary did not take Iyov’s wife. She was no comfort to him at all, why take her? Better to let her do her thing and antagonize him in the midst of his suffering. All kidding aside though, her argument was sound. She knew scripture, “obey God and be blessed, disobey God and be cursed” So what was Iyov’s secret sin? He had to have one, otherwise why would he be so afflicted by God now? And he wasn’t the only one who suffered loss, she had lost everything as well, but now it was obvious (at least to her) that Iyov was to blame since he was now the one that was being directly afflicted. It made sense, and church it really did. The cautionary tale is, we can never presume to know anything about a person’s relationship with God. We cannot assume to be able to judge whether someone truly loves God or not. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard church people say, “Well she’s going through that because she’s got secret sin in her life.” or others are accused of having a lack of faith and therefore not receiving their healing. We cannot know what is going on between someone and God. And especially during a time when they are going through a major trial, we cannot know why they are going through it. For now at least, Iyov’s friends have the right idea. Sometimes, in these situations, it’s just best to sit with someone and commiserate with them.

Putting it all Together

There are times, that we cannot understand God. Three are times when the trials we go through make no sense at all. There are times where it almost seems like God has withdrawn His hand and gone back on a promise. But saints I can guarantee you this, God is good! I can guarantee you this, that He is worth serving for free! Here’s the thing, we never know the reason for our trials, but we do know that we have a loving God who rejoices in boasting about His children who love Him. Is there incredible blessing that comes with serving Him? Oh you’d better believe it! And is there cursing that comes with disobeying Him? Also yes. But just because you are chosen to live through a trial - either short or long, doesn’t prove anything. The only thing that proves anything is your response to the trial. Do you serve God for free?