Week 37, September 7–13: Job 7–27
- Sun Sep 7 Job 7–9
- Mon Sep 8 Job 10–12
- Tue Sep 9 Job 13–15
- Wed Sep 10 Job 16–18
- Thu Sep 11 Job 19–21
- Fri Sep 12 Job 22–24
- Sat Sep 13 Job 25–27
As we read through the main body of the book of Job, we need to keep in mind the key details from the narrative prologue that opens the book. Job’s opening two chapters, which we read last week, frame the rest of the book in way that is critical to our interpretation of subsequent chapters. There in the opening we were let in on some inside information Job and his friends know nothing about, information that would significantly reshape the way they are understanding the suffering Job is experiencing.
This privileged perspective we were given as readers showed us a God’s-eyed view of what went on behind the scenes between the Lord and the adversary, Satan. We know that God allowed Satan to strike Job and bring great suffering in his life. The attacks of Satan, which God allowed, were the cause of Job’s suffering. We also know the divinely authoritative assessment of Job’s character; he is upright and blameless (1:1, 22) and he fears God (1:8–9), which is the Bible’s defining feature of righteous, godly wisdom (Prov. 9:10).
Job’s suffering is not a result of his sin. This truth undercuts the basic premise of the argument Job’s three friends make relentlessly and carelessly in response to Job’s cries of lament. Essentially, they believe Job is suffering because he has sinned, and they are trying to convince Job of this and persuade him to repent. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar apply the concept of retribution theology to Job’s situation.
Retribution theology, in a nutshell, is the idea that if you sin, you will suffer. This is a biblical concept; one that can be seen clearly all over the Bible (See, for example, Deuteronomy 28). However, the problem with Job’s friends is that they have reversed the logic of this true principle. They assume retribution theology also means that if you suffer then you must have sinned. They, like so many others, including us at times, believe that Job’s horrific circumstances are the God-given consequence of some hidden sin in Job’s life. Their faulty assumption is like that of Jesus’ disciples in John 9, when they see a blind man and ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” (John 9:1–2).
Job’s friends rightly believe God to be just, and much of what they say about the Lord is true. Their problem, which is something we too should be careful of, is that they they apply truths of God’s justice inappropriately. They overestimate their ability to know the ways of God, and this is one of the key themes of Job as a whole. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar think they know things they do not in fact know. With the behind-the-scenes information we have as readers, we know they are wrong. We know God’s assessment of Job and that Job’s suffering is because, in his sovereignty and wisdom, God allowed Satan to strike Job.
“Dominion and fear are with God;
he makes peace in his high heaven.
Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does his light not arise?
How then can man be in the right before God?
How can he who is born of woman be pure?
Behold, even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
how much less man, who is a maggot,
and the son of man, who is a worm!” (Job 25:2–6)