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Faith-full and Fear-less
Fear knocked. Faith answered. No one was there
BACKGROUND ON THE BOOK OF JOB
The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. God has
continually revealed more of himself to man with each generation as a part of His
covenant with Abraham. Therefore, we use NEWER revelations of about God to
shed light on the older ones (i.e. use the New Testament to shed light on the Old
Testament, not vice-versa). So, keep this in mind when reading the book of
Job:
1. Interpret scripture in light of the most recent revelation.
2. Always figure out who is doing the talking in scripture (Job had some very confused
friends as advisors).
Job lived about the time of Isaac & Jacob, east of the Promised Land (Iraq?),
and lived to be 200-250 years old. The destruction we read about lasted 6-9
months. Job was VERY RICH, with assets worth almost $2 billion by today's
standards (500,000 acres, 1,000 employees & $15M/yr gross).
Job had NO BIBLE and NO COVENANT (not a member of God's family like Abraham).
Job recognized God existed, as all mankind naturally does (Romans 1:20). Job 1:1 says he was "perfect
and upright", which did NOT mean "without sin". "Perfect" in Hebrew means
"mature and complete". So, Job was an adult (60-100 yrs old).
THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE JOB'S DAY
1. Satan has no access to God (the access was in the second level of heaven, not
the third level (the throne room).
2. Jesus took away Satan's power (Col. 2:14-15).
3. Satan can't tempt or bother Christians UNLESS THEY LET HIM (Luke 10:19,
1 Peter 5:8,
James 1:13). Also look at
Eph. 4:27 and
2 Cor. 10:3-5.
4. Satan is ignorant of God's ways until he learns them (school of hard knocks)
(1 Cor. 2:8).
5. God didn't give Satan "permission" to do something to Job. Job was "in
the world" and subject to anything in the world because of sin. Christians
are subject to the world if they don't take authority over the things of the world
(Gen. 1:28, 4:7,
John 16:33,
Rom 8:37). The word "considered"
in Job 1:8 means "set your heart on".
Satan really wanted Job to curse God, but Job never did (Job 1:11, 42:3,7).
SO WHY DID SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN TO JOB?
1. Job had no covenant protection from the curse (but Christians do!
Gal. 3:13,
Col 1:13).
2. Job operated in FEAR, not in FAITH (Job 1:5, 3:25, 21:6,
Prov 23:7 [KJV]).
3. Job's words. His mouth spoke disaster and fear, giving Satan a foothold
(Job 7:11,
Prov. 6:2,
18:20-21).
WHAT SHOULD WE LEARN FROM JOB?
James 5:11 tells us what we should learn from
Job. We are to be inspired by:
1. His patience and endurance (constant/unchanging), NOT HIS SUFFERING.
2. The redemption of the Lord. The emphasis in the book of Job is his redemption,
not his suffering.
Everything in Job's life doubled after he was redeemed! (Job 42:10-12).
Job is a book of extremes: extremely wealthy, extremely good, extremely limited
knowledge of God, extreme suffering and extreme deliverance.
God doesn't USE Satan for anything. There is no good in Satan.
God didn't strike Job; Satan did. Satan's desire was for Job to curse God,
but Job never did.
-Special thanks to Kevin Haas for providing
this bible study.
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