There is no punishment involved with gods dealing with job, instead he is bringing him to a more perfect understanding of himself. If you find yourself in the job market, remember that god has planned a particular job for you. Though job has not been perfect, at times impatiently demanding that the creator explain the reasons for his suffering job, he has also persevered in faith. Job explores the difficult question of god s relationship to human suffering, and invites us to trust god s wisdom and character. All through this book job has been crying out of his pain, his bewilderment, and his tortured heart for an interview with god, asking god to explain what is happening to him, hoping that he could come before him and ask him some questions about what is going on. In the book of job, how was it possible for god and satan. Since god validates elihus points 3841, the adversarial tone in gods answer to job makes even more sense. Its how a 17 year old girl, nadia, turns from being a devout muslim to a fanatic. And, after the conversation with the friends is over, god says to the friends, you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant job did job 42. As we will see, jobs woes begin at work, and the book gives us valuable insights into how a follower of god may faithfully function within the ups and downs of work life. Years later, in the book of the revelation, the apostle john wrote about a future day when satan will be kicked out. The book of job talks about the relationship between god and job. The greatness of god from the book of job sermon by john.
Go home resources prayerpraying the names and attributes of god weve compiled 30 names and attributes of god with accompanying verses to help you learn more about him and be drawn into worship. The book of job is the closest thing in hebrew to a greek tragedy. There are many places in the scriptures where god symbolizes his presence by a wind. Talking about god is devoted to an elaboration of the nature of god in the book of job. A critical reading of the book of job must confront the issue of innocent suffering in a. Jobs repentance and restoration reformed bible studies. In the book of job, the character is described as a righteous man, indeed the most righteous man to be found on the earth, but one whom satan claims is righteous only to receive blessings from the hand of god. The depth of gods control in the textover physics, time, and emotionis so vast that humanity could not possibly hope to understand it. How could satan access heaven in the books of job and the.
He was the greatest man among all the people of the east. As the economy worsens, more and more people now need, or fear they will soon need, a new job. That purpose, according to elihu, was to purge out of jobs life a residue of pride that had lain quietly at the bottom of his life. Shaddai occurs some thirty times in job, six times in the pentateuch and seldom elsewhere. Job 1 niv prologue in the land of uz there bible gateway. He must have known a great deal about god and creationin some ways his knowledge of god may have been superior to ours. Instead of appearing in court to accuse god of the unfairness of human suffering, god showed up as a tornado and interrogated job with 77 rhetorical questions.
Above all, though, what happened to job lets us know that god, our creator and sustainer, is in charge of everything and has a. The book of job is one of the literary masterpieces of all time, and provides a profound discussion on the suffering of a just man. Job 1 niv bible in the land of uz there lived a man. It makes us realize that there is a very thin line between the very religious and the fanatic if there are people who know how to exploit it. Meaning, origin and history of the name job behind the name. Dead mans chest when summoning the kraken, davy jones channels the book of job, saying, let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake the. The book portrays job as a faithful man who honestly tried to do right before god, and who acknowledged his errors and sought to correct things when he faltered 42. Job chapters 1 and 2, part of the bibles oldest book, say that satan has access to heaven. Surely chapters 3841 are the climax of this great book of job. Jobs faith in god is put to the extreme test, and the story intimates that jobs commitment to god wanes. Those that presented themselves before god where gods onlybegotten son jesus,john 1. The pastor of my church gave me a short commentary, and once finished with it, i was impressed by the lesson of humility that prior to my study i had not been aware of, my father inlaw who i had respected in past years, because of his biblical knowledge, asked me what i thought the lesson was to be. The style and form are typical of the mystical tradition, as early theologians began to fuse emerging preenlightenment concepts of classification and organization with religion and alchemy, to shape an artful and perhaps more conceptual view of god.
The hebrew text for the name the most common english transliteration in italics a definition for the name, references to the tanakh, and frequency information additional comments, if applicable. A diagram of the names of god in athanasius kircher s oedipus aegyptiacus 165254. Paul acknowledges the divine origin of this ancient document in 1 corinthians 3. In the bible there are many different names given to the one true god. When it comes down to it, any human listeningor in our case, readinghas to admit powerlessness in the face of all these questions. It is sovereign, it blows where it will, and except a man be. I dont believe homicide was ever hinted at in the book. Job knocked on heavens door, hoping to gain a legal court hearing so that he could ask god some tough questions about human suffering. Satan by permission from god strippeth him of all his substance. The most frequently used names are yhwh, usually rendered as yahweh ca.
Job, upon seeing such a beautiful a woman, would have immediately laid down his arms against god in the knowledge that hey, he got the short end of the stick, but god is aokay. Suddenly, god speaks to job out of the whirlwind and grants him his desire. Jesus said to nicodemus, the spirit of god is like the wind. Stauth subtitles his book the true story of the fight to save children from faithhealing homicide. At the same time, it also asks the question we rarely. God clearly does judge sin, but the name of yhwh is associated with this activity of god. The characters in the book of job consist of job, his wife, his three friends bildad, eliphaz, and zophar, a man named elihu, god, and angels one of whom is named satan. God has put a hedge around him and has blessed him beyond all mortals, and as a result the devil accuses job of serving god only because. Gods answer to the problem of undeserved suffering grand rapids.
Furthermore, there are many creative attributes about god in the book of job especially in chapters 38 and 39 for us to learn about. There was a man in the land of hus, whose name was job, and that man was simple and upright, and fearing god, and avoiding evil. Here the voice of jehovah himself is heard, speaking out of the whirlwind. But after job showed that he did in fact love god more than all else in the world, there was another purpose that god sought to achieve by letting his suffering drag on for several months. This and eloah are the characteristic names for god in job and are used sparingly elsewhere. Further, the book never resolves jobs suffering by pointing to some spiritual growth on his part. From reading the entire book of job, we know that god declares job to be good at the beginning of the book, there is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is job 1. Addressing the problem of theodicy the vindication of the justice of god in the light of humanitys suffering it is a rich theological work setting out a variety of perspectives. Gordis focuses on gods response to job at the end of the book, asserting that gods speech about the beauty and mystery of the natural world is not merely an evasion, but a implicit claim that just as there is order and harmony in the natural world, so there is order and meaning in the moral sphere. It begins with an introduction to jobs characterhe is described as a blessed man who lives righteously in the land of uz. Contrary to what ive been reading, what i see is more and more people out of a job. The many names of god documents old testament documents miscellaneous documents give thanks to yahweh, call on his name psalms 105. In the book of job in the old testament he is a righteous man who is tested by god, enduring many tragedies and hardships while struggling to remain faithful. Job 2 again there was a day when the sons of god came to.
It is not prophetic because job was not a prophet, the book is plainly the story of what happened to job and his relationship with. Today we are finishing our brief study of the book of job as we consider jobs response to the lords revelation of himself and gods evaluation of his servant. The devils accusation that jobs faith lacked integrity, focusing on the blessings god gave rather than god himself. The matter is complicated first because we are not sure of its origin. Jobs faith in god was the result of an inseparable and permanent union between god and job, by the holy spirit. God and job are treated as literary characters and the job poet as a consummate artist. A perfectly innocent manone who feared god and turned away from evilis visited by a series of calamities. Use this guide to enrich your understanding of god by taking a description of him and meditating on it, drawing you into worship throughout the day. To make things a little easier, well take a look at him in two sections. One factor is the manner in which the book is treated by inspired writers of the new testament. Was it unfair for god to allow job to suffer over what was.
I have not taught on this subject in a very long time but i received a question that needed to be answered. Laird harris professor of old testament covenant theological seminary a few years ago, there was a man of the eastthe eastern united states, that isnamed archibald macleish. I believed that there are many that can benefit from this response and i hope that you will receive this message with an open heart. What jesus said to peter after his beautiful confession, applies here to job, and to any believer who sits with job and says, though he slay me, yet will i trust in him.