Bible 101 - Job Chapters 1-5

Presented January 16, 2006 by Phyllis Gilbert

Job 1: In the first five verses of this book, we are told who Job is, where he lives, how he lives and how his faith is seen by God and others. Job lives in Uz, a land, we're told in Lamentations 4:21 in the area of Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea. (Edom is the land of Esau's descendants, and a perpetual enemy of Israel.) This geographic placement is one reason why many commentators believe Job was an actual, historic figure. Another reason is that he is mentioned in James (NT) and Ezekiel (OT) as an example of a righteous man who endured suffering patiently. In fact, the phrase "patience of Job" is a fairly accurate summary of his character. We're told immediately that he was "blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil." He's the opposite of those men whom God destroyed with the flood, those God described as "wicked" because "every inclination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5). Job is a man whose life is marked by his integrity in dealing with others and his trust in God. He gives God honor with his sacrifices and acknowledges that all he has has come from God. Job is wealthy: thousands of sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys. He had 10 children and many servants. In sum, "He was the greatest man among all the people of the East." (1:3b) The designation "people of the East" would include all the people of Job's area as well as neighboring desert regions. We're meant to know that many people respected him and that his reputation for honest dealing has spread far and wide.

Job 1:4: Job's sons and daughters liked to celebrate their birthdays with big, weeklong feasts, and afterwards, Job would "send and have them purified." In terms of the law, this would be a specified period of waiting and a ritual of cleansing in order to allow the person to rejoin the community for worship and sacrifice. It could include time, a sacrifice, washing of clothes, etc. In this case, it probably meant some abstinence from rich foods and celebration, a spiritual and mental "bath" before Job offered sacrifices for their sins. Recall that Jacob told his family after the debacle at Shechem and on the way back to Bethel, a place where he'd met God, "'Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come and let us go up to Bethel where I will build an altar to God.'" (Gen. 35:2-3). Jacob's sacrifice was before the law was given and so is Job's. We read in v. 5 that "this was Job's regular custom." He's a faithful man, a man who knows sin separates man from God, and so he does all he can to humble himself before God and to serve as an example for his family.

Job 1:6: The scene now switches from Uz to heaven where we see God and angels that include Satan. We know that Satan is one of God's creatures, a former angel who fell from Heaven. Jesus tells us this in Luke 10:18: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." The context of Jesus' statement is the report of the 72 whom he sends out to heal and teach. He is telling his disciples that their work is having an effect on Satan's work in the world. But it can also be interpreted as Satan's initial fall from grace. Isa. 14:12 asks "How you have fallen from heaven oh morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations." In Isaiah's prophecy, he's referring to the king of Babylon, but may also be comparing this king to Satan or Lucifer, once a member of God's angelic host, and now a "prowling lion seeking whom he may devour" as Peter tells us in I Peter 5:8. The name Satan means deceiver or accuser. We recall his first appearance in scripture in Gen. 3 as "cunning and shrewd" and with his talent, deceiving Adam and Eve.

Job 1:7: God asks Satan where he's been. This is a curious question since we know God knows where he's been, but perhaps God's purpose is to hear from Satan what he's been doing. He tells God he's been roaming the earth. Jesus tells his disciples that the devil is "the prince of this world" in John 12:31. And because his domain is that of human activity, he's been looking for those he can deceive and keep from God. In this conversation between God and Satan, God calls attention to Job. He asks Satan "Have you considered my servant Job?" In other words, "have you looked at him? Do you notice what a good man he is and how he honors God in all he does?" The same words used to describe Job in 1:1 are repeated to Satan. Satan, a being who does nothing without an ulterior motive, suggests that the only reason Job fears or honors God is because God honors him with wealth and a good life. Satan says "if you take all he has, he'll curse you to your face, God." Satan believes that the only reason Job remains faithful to God is because he's comfortable in his life; if his comfort is removed, he'll become a pagan, blaming and rejecting God. Here Satan is the accuser and he believes he's on firm ground. But God is more sure of Job's faith than the enemy is, and he tells Satan "take all that Job has." But God puts a limit on Satan: he can't touch Job's body or mind.

Job 1:13: Satan leaves God to do his dirty work. In dramatic fashion, all of Job's flocks, herds, working animals and family are destroyed. The scene opens with Job's sons and daughters holding one of their feasts when a raiding party gets to all Job's oxen and donkeys at work in the field, rustling them away. His essential wealth - tractors and harvesters - is taken by Sabeans, a nomadic tribe who became wealthy by taking others' property. All the servants with the oxen and donkeys were killed by these raiders - except for the one left to bring Job the bad news. And while he's speaking, another messenger comes to say that fire from God ( probably lightning) burned up all the sheep and servants tending them. He's still speaking when a third messenger comes to say that the Chaldeans, another nomadic tribe, have taken all Job's camels and the servants with them were killed. And a tornadic wind, Job is next told, has destroyed the house where his sons and daughters were feasting, leaving no survivors. In each of these four attacks on Job's herds, working animals and family, a lone survivor is left to take the telegram to Job. It's devilish in nature: Satan destroys all Job's wealth leaving a single eye-witness to let Job know it's gone and how it's been destroyed. Job's reaction is significant: he tears his robe, shaves his head and grieves, saying "naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Job remains faithful to God; he does not react as Satan had predicted by "cursing God to his face." The final verse of chapter one sums it up: "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." We can read some faith in Job's declaration: all that he has is from God, and surely, God will give him a new family and new flocks. He praises God; that's real faith. The devil must be livid.

Job 2: The scene in heaven is repeated a second time, God asking Satan where he's been and Satan saying he's been roaming the earth. God once again points to Job's faithfulness, repeating the description we saw twice in chapter 1 of Job's blameless and upright nature. God adds: "And he still maintains his integrity though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason." Notice that Satan's power is only by God's permission. This is a test of Job; God will limit Satan's power to hurt him. And God is pleased that Job has remained a man of righteousness. He is not only still praising God in his grief, but he expresses his acceptance of God's ways. Satan doesn't believe it: no one can be that righteous, he says, and every man has a price when his own life is threatened. Job is still alive; he may have lost all he owned and have no family to comfort him, but his heart still beats and he can think and speak, offer sacrifices and pray. Satan is convinced that if God afflicts Job with pain and disease, Job will "curse God to his face." So God allows Satan to touch Job's body, but tells him "you must spare his life." So Satan's heavy hand brings physical suffering to match Job's emotional suffering: his body is covered with sores that will not heal and which are extremely painful. Tradition has called them boils; we don't know what he has, but whatever it is, we can be sure that it's more than a rash or a skinned knee. He suffers. His wife, seeing his distress, says "curse God and die." What a wonderful helpmate! She thinks God is against Job so Job might as well reject God and blame him for all that's happened. Dying, she suggests, will end Job's suffering. Job is sharp with her: "you are talking like a foolish woman," he says. "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" Job is a wise man. He has seen his neighbors, his children, and others whose lives are a mixture of good and bad, and he knows "that's life." Job still does not sin; he doesn't curse God. The devil is undoubtedly gibbering like a madman at what Job does. Job is all that God has said he is and the devil can't believe it. We hear no more from Satan, but now Job's friends appear.

Job 2:11: Three friends named Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, hearing of Job's troubles, come from their homes to sympathize with Job and comfort him. Interestingly, the disasters that have befallen Job have made news. These friends do not live as Job's neighbors, but word of the horrors Job has suffered have traveled to them, and so they set out to see him. We're told that when they first see him, they don't recognize their old friend. They mourn, too, with weeping and dirt on their heads. For seven days, they sit with him saying nothing. ("Sitting shiva" is a Jewish tradition to this day. "Shiva" comes from the Hebrew word for "seven" [seven is always a symbol of completion in the Bible] in which a bereaved family ceases all other activity except mourning for a week following a death. Friends come to call and "sit with" the bereaved in a way of giving comfort and honoring the dead.) This period of silence is, as we shall see, the best thing these three did for Job. They were with him in his grief; they offered no quick fixes, no aphorisms, no jokes or diversions. They simply were with him.

Job 3: This chapter is the beginning of a cycle of dialogues. Job speaks, his three friends, one at a time, speak, and Job replies to each. Then a new cycle begins. There are three cycles of debate with these friends; a fourth, Elihu, younger than the others, appears in ch. 32 and adds his thoughts. Then God speaks to Job, and the book ends with Job's restoration.

Job 3:1: Job speaks and its pure poetry. He will not curse God, but he curses the day of his birth, effectively saying "life isn't worth living; I wish I'd never been born." He wants no celebration of his birthday ever again. And he praises death as a state to be envied. He reminds us a bit of Hamlet in his "to be or not to be" soliloquy.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.

In these first nine lines, Hamlet expresses what Job does: life is filled with troubles that overwhelm human beings. Why wouldn't it be better to just die? At least death, or sleep, brings us peace. But then Hamlet realizes that no one knows what comes after death:

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. (III, 1)

Of course, Hamlet's reasons for wishing to die are far different from Job's and he reaches a different conclusion. He won't commit suicide because he's afraid of what's on the other side. Job doesn't even suggest taking his own life; he only moans that God makes life too long for those who suffer. He tells us, in wonderful imagery, that his only food is sighing, and groans are his tears. (v. 24) His observations of life have shown him that it's possible to have such a reversal of fortune and he had "feared" and "dreaded" such a future (v. 25). He ends this passage by saying he has no peace, quietness or rest, simple comforts he once took for granted.

Job 4 and 5: Now Eliphaz speaks to Job, first reminding him of the wisdom he's formerly shown to others. "Job, your words have supported others," he says, "and now that you're in trouble, you're discouraged." He suggests that Job's faith must be exercised; he's been a pious man - won't that count with God? And then Eliphaz shifts into blame: no innocent or upright man is destroyed; rather, it is the wicked who perish; therefore, Job, you must have sinned. He then describes a dream or vision he's had in which a question is raised: "Can a mortal be more righteous than God?" No, Eliphaz answers, human beings can never be sinless; they are humans; God is God. There's a difference.

In ch. 5, Eliphaz asks who might act as Job's priest or mediator to present Job's case before God. He goes through a list of possibilities, but rejects all humans and tells Job to appeal directly to God saying, "I would lay my cause before him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed." (5:8-9). He suggests that Job must have sinned, or that God is disciplining Job (v. 17), and after this time of testing, God will once again make him so happy that he'll laugh at his former troubles (v. 22). "Job, you'll be a wealthy man, have a great family, if you just endure the Almighty's time of testing," he concludes.

Summary: There is some truth in what Eliphaz says. In fact, many of the Psalms echo these ideas. Psalms 1 and 2 are good examples because they suggest that the wicked are punished for their sins, but the righteous prosper. God rewards those who are faithful and punishes those who are not. However, Job has seen men who have no ethical standards prosper, and he's seen the innocent suffer. We have seen this, too. There are men of great wealth who have gained it by means that aren't taught in business schools. And they are celebrated; God doesn't afflict them with disease or loss. They may enjoy the "good life" here, but we know they will have to give an account of themselves at the end. Jesus said that all that counts is our faith in him - not in ourselves or what we've accomplished. "What will it profit if a man gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" Jesus asks. Job will reply to Eliphaz in ch. 6 and 7, and that's where we'll begin next week.

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

Let's close in prayer.