Let’s return to the prologue, vis-à-vis to chapters one and two of the Book of Job once more. Here we find that God addresses a being called the satan. Meaning ‘the enemy’ or ‘the adversary.’ Folks can believe whatever they wish about this being, but I do not recognize him as a spirit being who rebelled against God either before or after the creation of mankind. None of the references to satan, the devil or the serpent show that he is an evil angel. That said, and for the purpose of this study, I’ll hereafter refer to him as the adversary. So, let’s look at what took place between him and the Lord. God spoke with the adversary and pointed to Job, asking if he had considered how Job behaved. God claimed Job was the Lord’s servant, and said he was the most righteous man on earth (Job 1:8). That, in itself, says a great deal about Job, and what we’ve studied about him thus far. Nevertheless, the adversary painted a different picture. Read the rest of this entry »
In the very first chapter of the Book of Job, our hero loses everything he has. He loses all his wealth through murderous attacks upon him by his enemies, and then he loses his family through an apparent act of God (Job 1:13-19). Job’s reaction was to accept it all as from the Lord. After he was destroyed, Job said: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21)! While folks who heard Job’s reaction might think he was a holy and religious man, we need to consider the fact that the text really doesn’t say Job spoke to God, but only about him. He never addressed the Lord over what was done, only that the Lord had done all those things, but he (Job) would accept it all, just as he had accepted all the good things, the Lord had given him over the years (cp. Job 2:10). Read the rest of this entry »
46576809 – what’s wrong question handwritten on vintage school slate board isolated on white
The Book of Job opens by describing Job’s character. He is a very good, moral person (Job 1:1). In other words, Job faithfully followed God, and for all intents and purposes, there was absolutely no reason for God to punish him. However, is that what God was doing? Keep in mind that the story of Job takes place in ancient times, probably during the time of Abraham. If Abraham had to be taught what God was like, certainly other folks at that time were ignorant too. Therefore, if they were to learn deep truths about the Lord, God had to break into their lives in some way and bring them to the point, where they would understand him better, and, in doing so, correct their then current, but false, worldview. Read the rest of this entry »
When the Lord previously described the animals that he wanted Job to consider, he didn’t go into much detail in his descriptions of them. Not so here! In fact, the Lord says he doesn’t intend to be silent with respect to leviathan. He fully intended to describe how he was made, his power and his beauty, vis-à-vis not in appearance, for he was a fierce looking creature, but beauty according to the attributes of his great strength, his power of offense and defense (Job 41:12). Read the rest of this entry »
Just as it is difficult to claim with authority what Behemoth is, so it is equally difficult to identify with certain authority what Leviathan is. He has been variously thought to be a great serpent, a mythical sea monster, a water dinosaur, a whale, a dolphin or some other fish, but most commonly he is identified as a crocodile. Leviathan’s description is the longest of the animal kingdom in the Book of Job. As such, it is probably a fitting conclusion to the Lord’s remarks to Job. It is interesting how the author of the Book of Job brings out a vivid picture of the Almighty through “the things that are made” (Romans 1:20), which, according to Paul, is adequate to appreciate even the great eternal power of God. Therefore, the Lord’s remarks to Job are an adequate reply to his arguments, because Job should have been able to discern these things, so that, although he was the most righteous man on earth (Job 1:8), he was without an excuse for mystifying the friends and otherwise making the Almighty’s power and wisdom an enigma before his listeners in an effort to defend his own righteousness. Read the rest of this entry »
Previously, the Lord had described certain land animals and birds to teach Job what he wished him to understand about God and man’s obligation to express his respect to his Creator. In like manner the Lord concludes his remarks to Job by describing two more creatures, the Behemoth (Job 40:15) and the Leviathan (Job 41:1). Moreover, by no means are Biblical scholars agreed upon what these creatures are, whether among those we know roam our planet today, or whether they are extinct creatures. Nevertheless, according to the context, Job knew about the animals, which the Lord mentioned. The Lord’s description of them would have been meaningless, if Job didn’t know them. Read the rest of this entry »
Job had been humbled by the Lord’s first reply. Moreover, although he once believed he would desire to speak to God and declare his innocence and make his righteousness known before him, so the Lord would vindicate him in the presence of the friends and others who believed him to have been secretly wicked (Job 13:18-19, 22; 23:10), Job, now, declared he had spoken foolishly and no longer claimed any right to present his defense before God (Job 40:3-5). Therefore, the Lord resumed speaking out of the whirlwind (Job 40:6), telling Job to prepare himself in his Presence, because he would demand an answer from him by reason of what he was about to say (Job 40:7). Read the rest of this entry »
Nowhere in the Lord’s first discourse in the previous two chapters of the Book of Job does he accuse Job of sinning or rebelling against him, as did the friends and Elihu. Moreover, neither has the Lord explained why he had caused Job’s calamities to fall upon him. Instead, the Lord approached Job and answered him out of the whirlwind, and in doing so he used judicial terms, which recalls Job’s desire that the Lord would justify him. In other words, the Lord answered Job according to his request to appear before the Lord, as though he were in a courtroom. Read the rest of this entry »
To conclude this portion of his interrogation of Job, the Lord asks him, if it were by his (Job’s) wisdom that the hawk takes flight (Job 39:26). The hawk is a very swift bird of prey, and, as a carnivore was considered unclean in the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 11:13, 16). However, the ancients celebrated its swiftness. Men stood in awe of the hawk’s great ability to move effortlessly and so speedily across the sky up to our modern day, when our engineered vehicles began to exceed the hawk’s great speed. Then the Lord mentioned the hawk’s flight to the south, its sense to migrate to a warmer climate during the winter months, and he asked Job, if it were by Job’s wisdom that the hawk did so (Job 39:26). Read the rest of this entry »
In the Lord’s previous address about the ostrich, the Lord seemed to put the horse in a bad light in order to express his special gift to the ostrich, but, as though he would say: ‘Speaking of the horse…’ God went on and immediately asked Job, if it were he (Job) who had given the horse his strength. However, the Lord wasn’t merely pointing to how strong the horse is, but, rather, to all those things about the horse that is considered his strength: his courage, his ability to serve man in the field, as man’s vehicle of transport, as a special servant on the field of battle, etc. Thus, it has to do with those things one normally remembers about the horse, when one considers his worth. Moreover, the Lord asked Job, if he (Job) was the one who “clothed his neck with thunder” (Job 39:19). Many Biblical critics balk at this, believing it simply doesn’t fit the context, nor does it describe the horse. What in the horse’s neck would remind one of thunder? Read the rest of this entry »
One of my earliest memories as a child is that my grandfather raised chickens in his yard, and so did one of his neighbors, who lived up the street, or about 50 yards away. As I think of that scene, I remember that the cock bird had a habit of flapping its wings just before he crowed in the morning. I am told, but I’ve never seen the sight, that if two cock birds fight, the victor will flap its wings. It seems as though the act of a bird flapping its wings, but not in flight seems to have a proud or glorious connotation. I don’t wish to go too far here and attribute human feelings to birds, but I do suggest that God often uses the habits of his creatures to point to one of man’s attributes, whether for good or for evil.[1]Read the rest of this entry »
If one brings up the subject of the unicorn, most folks think of the myth that involves a horse-like creature with a horn in the center of its forehead, some variations show the same creature having wings. Of course, there is no evidence that such creatures ever existed. However, there is evidence of a large rhino/ox like creature that existed long ago, and is now extinct. Nevertheless, I don’t believe this creature is the one that we find recorded in the Book of Job. Job’s unicorn is supposed to have had unequaled strength (Numbers 23:22), had two horns (Deuteronomy 33:17), and seems to be classified with bulls and bullocks or oxen (Deuteronomy 33:17; Isaiah 34:7). Therefore, I’m inclined to agree with how most translators seem to have rendered the Hebrew into English, namely the wild ox or bull. Read the rest of this entry »
No doubt we’ve all heard and used the expression/truism that none are so deaf as those who will not hear. Moreover, this expression, if known and used in Job’s day, could, no doubt, have been applied by the friends, against Job, and by Job against the friends. Obviously, whenever folks disagree and argue a point in an effort to make known the truth, but the parties never come to an agreement, someone, if not everyone, is usually being obstinate. The Lord, in fact, often accused his people of being obstinate, refusing to listen to his servants, or refusing to obey what he had revealed to them in the Law (Isaiah 30:9; Jeremiah 22:5; Malachi 2:2). Read the rest of this entry »
In Genesis 2:19 we are told that the Lord brought all the animals he created before Adam, and Adam named them all (Genesis 2:20). This, of course, was to fix the fact in Adam’s mind that he lacked and needed a mate, but I believe we miss something alluded to in the text, if all we do is read the creation account with that in mind. The Bible shows us that names have meaning, and whenever someone names anyone or anything in the Bible, it is to express a certain idea. For example, Jacob named a place, Bethel (house of God), in order to express his deep feelings over the dream he had there (Genesis 28:16-19). He also renamed his twelfth son, Benjamin (son of my right hand), because Rachal named him Benoni (son of my sorrow), because she believed Joseph, her firstborn was dead, and instead of her newborn adding to her treasures, he only reminded her of her loss (Genesis 35:18). With these things in mind, when Adam named the animals, the text is alluding to the fact that he studied their behavior first, and named them accordingly. The text is telling us that Adam knew the beasts, what they did and the dangers involved in their environment! Read the rest of this entry »
The Lord continues to speak with Job in chapter 38, asking him about light and the wind (Job 38:24). Throughout the chapter the Lord had confined himself to questioning Job about the physical things he has created. How much does Job know about these things, and by whose power do they operate? Can Job (or mankind) cause the sun to rise or the rain to fall? Can he bring the seasons of spring, summer, autumn or winter? Is mankind qualified to be the god of his environment, or does he need a higher power to assist him, provide these things for him, like a bird does for its young or the lion does for its whelps (cp. Job 38:39-41)? Read the rest of this entry »
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