Understanding Job's Problems

The Book of Job has been one of the most misunderstood books of the whole Bible. It can hold many believers in bondage if they fail to divide the Word of truth rightly.

Paul said to Timothy: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15, NKJV).

Wrongly dividing the word of truth

A pastor's wife was a cancer patient. She stood behind the pulpit and proclaimed, "I am like Job, chastened by the Lord. After all the Scripture says, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord'."

She was wrong on two counts - Firstly, she was not chastened by the Lord. Secondly, the Lord does not take. Let us reason this out:

Chastening of the Lord

The writer of Hebrews said: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. (V.7) If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? (V. 8) But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons" (Hebrews 12:5 - 8).

The Greek word translated "chasten" in these verses means "to train up a child" or to "child train." Even if you don't understand Greek, Verse 7 reveals the meaning to you - Is there any father here on earth who has a child and would not teach or train his child? Clearly, the above Scripture is not implying that God is sending some calamity your way to teach your son. That would be child abuse, not child train. Then how on earth the pastor's wife says that God gives cancer (a deadly disease) to train her?

Furthermore, if God was going to give you cancer, He would have to steal it first. God does not have any sickness or disease. Sickness could not come from heaven, because there isn't sickness in heaven! Furthermore, in the light of Verse 8, since all God's children are partakers of chastening and if sickness and disease are the chasterning to the Lord, then no sinners would ever be sick. In other words, if you are not a child of God (but an illegitimate child or a sinner) you would not be chastened of the Lord. So if sickness and disease and problems of life were the chastening of the Lord, then no sinners would have any problem nor any sickness. Only Christians would have sickness and problems. But we know that is not true. Everyone faces problems in life.

The Lord does not take

Most Christians, including many pastors, say that the Bible is the Word of God and the Word of God is the Bible. We must not be presumptuous. We must understand that not everything recorded in the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible, especially in the Old Testament, records what people said and not everything they said is of God. In other words, not all Scripture is inspired of God.

Paul said: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitble for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16, emphasis added).

There is a difference between what is "given by inspiration of God", and what is "inspired of God." If you fail to understand the difference you are going to have problem in understanding the Bible.

Job said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gives, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21, NKJV, emphasis added).

What Job said above - "the Lord has taken away" is not inspired of God. But the entire content of the Book of Job is given by inspiration of God. God did not inspire Job to say - "the Lord has taken away." The Bible merely recorded what Job said. What Job said was not the truth. There are many other verses in the Book of Job that are Job's own words but not inspired of God. We need to realize that Job couldn't read the first chapter of the Book of Job and find out that it was the Devil who took away. The following sections will make this clear.

The root of Job's problems

Let us look at some of the things Job said and we will get some insight into how these things (problems) started.

Job said, "For the things I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me" (Job 3:25).

Let us approach Job's problems from a Scriptural viewpoint.

The writer of Hebrews said: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Paul said: "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

The above Scripture is a positive truth concerning hearing the Word of God.

Reciprocal truths

There is an opposite or reciprocal of truth concerning hearing the Word of God. Since faith in God comes by hearing the Word of God, then faith in the Devil would come by hearing the words of the Devil - the opposite end of the truth.

The Bible says that God has not given us the spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7) and so fear comes from the Devil. If you begin to listen to the Devil, it will produce fear. Faith is therefore the reverse gear of faith. So if faith is the substance of things desired (hoped for), then the reciprocal of that truth is that - "Fear is the substance of things not desired." Thre spiritual truth is - Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. And fear comes by hearing the words of the Devil.

If you listen to the Devil, you begin to believe the things the Devil says. Then you begin to speak what you believed. That was the reason why Jesus never would say anything except what His Father said. We should do likewise.

Live by God's Word or die by the Devil's words

We need to take note of the fact that when Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, Jesus would not say anything other than what the Scripture said. When tempted to turn stones into bread, Jesus replied:

"It is written, 'Man shall not live by read alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4).

Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 which is the truth and He defeated the Devil by the truth of God's Word. If you listen to the Devil you will die by the Devil's words. This applies to everyone.

Fear comes by hearing the words of the Devil

We cannot blame the Lord for what happened to Job. Job was speaking his fears after listening to the Devil:

Job said: "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me" (Job 3:25).

The Devil lied to Job. The Devil told Job that he was going to lose everthing he had. Even though God had put a hedge around him (Job 1:10), evidently, Job believed the Devil, because when calmity came, the first thing he said was:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name to the Lord" (Job 1:21).

Job was essentially saying: "I knew it was too good to be true; I was expecting it to happen."

Job's fear broke the hedge of protection

I believe Job didn't just fear. He was highly developed in his fear when he said - "For the thing I greatly feared ..." (Job 3:25).

Ecclesiastes 10:8 gives us some insight into Job's situation - "He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him" (KJV).

The serpent speaks of the Devil. Job's fear broke the hedge that God had put around him and the serpent bit him. Let us imagine the scenario. Satan said to God: "You have made a hadge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side until I can't get to him." God said: "Yes, that's Me. That's what I did and I will not take the hedge down."

The one who broke the hedge was Job and his fear and not God. Read the first three chapters of the Book of Job you will understand how fearful Job was. Not only he was fearful but also extremely worried, he was fretting, and was praying and offering sacrifices on behalf of his sons:

"His sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, 'It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did regularly" (Job 1:4, 5).

Notice that Job did all these things but he had faith in none of them. He did everything out of fear and not in faith. The Scripture says that whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).


Job refused to listen to wisdom


Solomon gave some insights on Job's problems - he failed to listen to the voice of wisdom.


Wisdom spoke out: "Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord" (Proverbs 1:24 - 29).


Wisdom won't come to you when you have operated in your own way. Job can't get wisdom because he was worrying, fretting, and in fear. Wisdom would not come to him because he had no faith for it.


The promises of Wisdom: "When you lie down, you will not be afraid; yes; you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught" (Proverbs 3:24 - 26). Job received none of these promises.


Job's realization and revelation


"Deliver me from the enemy's hand. Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; cause to to understand wherein I have erred. How forceful are right words" (Job 6:23 - 25)!


Finally, Job came to his senses and he had figured out that the root of his problems was the Devil and not God. And he realized that his tongue had something to do with it. He also came to understand and convinced that the right words are very forceful.


Job's repentance and restoration

Repentance


Job answered the Lord: "I know that You can do everthing, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; you said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.' I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:1 - 6, emphasis added).


Here Job admitted the problem of his tongue - "I have uttered what I did not understand." In other words, he said, "I utterly missed it. But I've learned some things that I didn't know."


Restoration


"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10, KJV).


God has been accused of doing many things to Job. But this is what God really did to Job. Notice that if the Lord didn't have Job captive, it had to be the Devil. Furthermore, when the Lord turned his captivity, also indicates that Job immediately had the Devil captive. This came about because Job prayed for his friends.


Conclusion


Have you noticed that most people never talk about the things God gave Job? They usually talk about what they thought God took away from him. But God was not the taker. He is the giver of all good gifts. Job allowed himself to be ensnared by the Devil becaus fear broke the hedge of protection.


God is a good God. The Devil is a bad enemy. We also need to understand that there are some things that happened under the Old Covenant that won't happen under the New Covenant.


For one thing, under the Old Covenant there was no intercessor. God had no man to stand in the gap and make up the hedge that had been broken. But we have a Man today - The Lord Jesus is our intercessor!