The question that is raised in Job is, “Why do the righteous suffer?” We will walk through the answer to that in the chapters of this book, but the final answer is that the subject is beyond the human mind to fathom. The finale of the book is not a cut and dried answer, but a vision of God’s greatness and a new surge of worship in Job. As we read through the book, take note of the following: Evil and suffering were not God’s ideas. They originated with Satan. God permitted Satan to work out his design within set limitations. He permits this only in order to defeat and silence Satan in the end. Do not let the length of the book give the impression that the suffering Job endured was forever. At most, it covered a few months, after which God restored to him all spiritual, physical and material blessings. This book never suggests a lifetime, or a lifestyle, of suffering in the physical and material realms. As you read through the book, constantly remember the sneer of Satan that started everything. It was an attack on Job’s motives: “Does he serve You for nothing? He serves You for what he can get out of You materially!” In this brief period of permitted suffering, God vindicates His own testimony of this man of faith. When all material things are lost, Job continues to trust Him in naked faith, through his questions and doubts.
OUTLINE OF JOB
1:1 – 2:13 THE SCENE IS SET
1:1-5 Righteous Job is described to the reader.
This wealthy and godly businessman is described in Ezekial 14:14,20, as one whose righteousness could have prevailed if it was possible for a human to redeem a nation. Although no date is given to the story, everything points to its taking place in the time of the patriarchs, possibly Abraham. There is no mention of Tabernacle, Temple, or Levitical priesthood. In this book the head of the house acts as priest, as it was in the patriarchal families of Genesis.
1:6-12 The scene changes from earth to the invisible world where Satan walks in on the court of God.
It is interesting to note that Satan is described as a transient spirit wandering throughout the earth. He has no court, he is king of nothing! Satan brings the ultimate sneer and accusation. Job serves God for what he gets out of Him; material prosperity is not the postscript to his faith, but its root cause. This man serves God to be wealthy and happy. Take away Job’s prosperity, said Satan, and he will soon stop serving you! Meditate on this accusation. It is the key to the book. God does bless us physically and materially, but we serve Him because of who He is, not because of what He gives us.
1:13-22 Evils fall around him.
All these disasters could have happened to anyone in that part of the world at that time. The reader knows that they originate in the spirit world; they are not coincidence. Job’s response is the opposite of Satan’s prediction. He blesses God, deliberately placing himself in His hands, regardless of the situation in which he finds himself.
2:1-8 Satan now accuses Job of not caring for what happens to others.
As long as it is other people’s skin being hurt, who cares! Let Job’s own skin be touched and see if he will praise God. Job suffers from some eastern skin disease. It appears to be some form of leprosy. Leprosy is suggested because he sits in the town garbage dump, despised by all the town folk. He obviously did not choose to go there; the local public health would have demanded it. Feel his situation–he who had been the greatest man in the east, now, to the mockings of the people, makes his home with the garbage of the city.
2:9-13 His wife unknowingly sides with Satan.
What she calls on her husband to do is what Satan had predicted he would do. Job sees beyond her and the circumstances. Whatever happens, God has not forsaken him. God is ultimately in control, and so Job worships Him.
3:1 – 31:40 THE SERIES OF SPEECHES
There follows a series of three interchanges between Job and the visitors–friends who came to him. The first series, 3:1-14:22; the second, 15:1-21:34; and the final series, 22:1-31:40. In each, his friends address Job, and he answers them. In these sections, note that when men use the human mind to fathom the ways of God, it only leads to controversy, and disillusionment with all that has traditionally been accepted as truth. With nothing to fill its place, the result is despair. Job and the friends did not know about the heavenly counsels that took place in the introduction, and so they were trying to fit a jigsaw puzzle together with the most important pieces missing! This warns us not to try to fit God into a formula. The friends brought the best of human theology and their religious answers to the inequities of life. They first of all hint, and then directly accuse Job of living in secret sin. His suffering must be a result of that! Rightly, Job violently denies their accusation. Something is going on that defies the neat explanations of men.
32:1 – 37:24 THE ELIHU SPEECH
Elihu has not been mentioned before. His words show an awesome reverence for God and, along with it, the sense that sin goes far deeper than the three friends have suggested so far. He sees God as One who will lead a person through the sufferings of life to a deeper trust and understanding of His wisdom. Significantly, at the end of the book Job is not called upon to pray for him, only for the other three.
38:1 – 41:34 GOD’S ANSWER
In all that has been said so far, the suggestion has been that God is not acting consistently with Himself, but rather in some unintelligible way. God now comes on the scene to refute that. By a series of questions, He shows Job the marvels of the universe and of the animal kingdom; and the omnipotent, wise, love-caring God, faithful in all His works. When God’s Word and revelation of Himself came, all debate and argument were over. Note: God neither answered Job with logic and so address Job’s intellectual problems; nor gave an explanation concerning Satan that the reader already knows. Amazingly, He does not answer the theories of the friends concerning suffering being the result of sin! His answer was to give a new revelation of Himself as all powerful, all wise and all faithful in His care of creation. See especially 38:26,27,39; 39:30. The final answer is evident: a God so faithful in the material world can be trusted in the invisible spirit world. God did not give Job an answer to his questions–He presented Himself as the answer.
42:1-6 JOB’S RESPONSE TO GOD
Compared with what Job knows now, he looks upon his previous experience as secondhand knowledge.
42:7-17 FINALE
The friends have been wrong; and Job not only forgives their hurtful words but prays for them. By comparison, God refers to Job as His servant four times over. Job has expressed himself very strongly and in anger; the friends stated their traditional religious views. This book would tell us that it is better to face life honestly, even if it upsets everything we have believed, rather than to cling to accepted views that do not fit life’s experience. The book ends not only with the vision of God, but also with Job’s prosperity restored and doubled! This is so alien to the legalists’ interpretation of the book that would have Job suffer and live in poverty all of his life. Through Job’s faith, Satan has been shown that he is the liar. He has no more permission to harass and hurt Job; instead, Job is blessed over and above all that he has lost.