Bibliotheca Sacra 96 (384) (Oct. 1934) 78-86
Copyright © 1934
by
Department of English
Bible Exposition
Merwin A. Stone, Editor
THE BOOK OF JOB
By
CHARLES LEE FEINBERG
Editor's Note: This article was Written as a
class paper in the Bible at
the
Professor, Dr. Henry
A. Ironside, who recommended it for publication.
Mr. Feinberg, a Hebrew Christian,
took his academic degree at the
The Book of Job has been so designated
because of
its principal character, Job. In the Hebrew canon
it
stands among the Hagiographa
or Holy Writings. In
our canon it is placed among the poetic books.
Unlike
the Pentateuch or the Prophets which are read in
the
synagogue every Sabbath, or even the Megilloth or rolls
(Song
of Solomon, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and La-
mentations) which are read on certain
festive occasions,
the Book of Job is not read in the synagogue. It is
usually the more educated class that reads the
book be-
cause of the lofty and difficult Hebrew. The
authorship
of the book has been and still is disputed. Many
think
it was written by Moses.
The
book is set as to time in patriarchal days. There
is no indication anywhere that the law or the
great
social, legislative, ecclesiastical, and judicial
system
brought in by it, were in existence at the time;
the law,
as such, is not mentioned. What makes it particularly
difficult to place the book in point of time is
the fact
that there are no references to outside contacts
with
either political or ecclesiastical events. As to
place, the
story takes place in the
of
us that it occurred outside of
never be said that God persecuted a righteous man in
by its setting in Uz is
more of an international, or rather
intercommunal, outlook. It is
interesting to note, in
The Book of Job 79
fact, that throughout the book the names for God are
for the most part Elohim,
Eloah, and Shaddai. These
are used in God's dealings with all peoples;
Jehovah is
more particularly used in God's redemptive and cove-
nant relations.
There are eight characters in the book:
God, Satan,
Job,
his wife, Eliphaz the Temanite,
Bildad the Shuhite,
Zophar the Naamathite, and Elihu the Buzite. God
appears as the sovereign Ruler of His creation
who
delights in His saints and seeks their
justification and
vindication, whether in the sight of Satan or of
Job's
friends. We see "that the Lord is very
pitiful, and of
tender mercy" (Jas.
God's
saints before Him. He uses his old tactics as he
did in the garden: by casting doubts through
questions.
Needless
to say, this is of none effect with the Almighty
God. Job, the main character, is a man "perfect
and
upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed
evil,"
according to the testimony of the Lord. He was
said by
some of the Rabbis to have lived in the time of Abra-
ham. Others said he lived in the time of Jacob and
married Jacob's daughter Dinah. Still others
held he
was a righteous Gentile who lived shortly after the
time
of Jacob and (on what authority it is hard to
tell)
was smitten with his great malady because he
advised
Pharoah to cast all the male infants born in
the river. Setting aside these fantastic speculations,
from the book itself we learn that Job was "the
greatest
of all the men of the east." He possessed
much wealth
and was highly honored in his city. Listen to him
as
he describes it so vividly: "I washed my
steps with
butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil; When
I
went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared
.my
seat in the street! The young men saw me, and hid
themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up. The
princes refrained talking, and laid their hand
on their
mouth. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue
cleaved to the roof of their mouth. When the ear
heard
me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me,
it
gave witness to me: Because I delivered the poor
that
80
Bibliotheca Sacra
cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to
help
him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish
came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing
for joy" (Job 29 '6-13). Job's wife, who comes
into
view in 2:9 only, appears to be impetuous and unre-
flective; she is hasty in her
judgments and foolish in
her advice. Then there are Job's three friends, Eliphaz,
Bildad, and Zophar.
Eliphaz is one noted for his saga-
city and practical wisdom. He is much more calm than
the others, and appeals to experience. Bildad has gained
his knowledge from the accumulated lore of
tradition.
Zophar is an out-and-out legalist and a dogmatist as
well. The last character to be mentioned is Elihu the
Buzite who appears to be respectful in his manners,
waiting for the others older than himself to
speak
before he cared to voice his opinions. He is less
harsh
than the rest and really shows insight into the
situation
perplexing Job and his friends.
The subject matter of the book is
dramatic and the
whole resolves itself into a continuous narrative.
Along
with the Psalms and Proverbs it is the only other
book
in the Old Testament that the Massoretic
scholars
pointed in such a way as to show its poetic
form. Ex-
cept for the prologue
(chapters 1 and 2) and the epi-
logue (ch.
42:7-17) the form is that of the Hebrew
poetry with the couplets. In the latter half of some
of
the couplets we have a reiteration of what has been
ex-
pressed previously, but in others we have the
opposite
expressed, the antithetic parallelism. This latter
form,
to be sure, is more marked in the Psalms and
Proverbs
than in Job. The production as a whole and in all
its
parts is beautiful for its lofty style, its vivid
pictures,
and its reproductions of natural scenes and
objects; it
abounds in figures. This book has always held a
high
place in Biblical literature; so much so in fact,
that the
critics have placed its writing in the time of
the literary
prophets, Amos and Isaiah for instance. In
contents
the book has passages which are parallel to others
in
the Bible. Job 3:3-8: "Let the day perish
wherein I
was born, and the night in which it was said, There
is
The
Book of Job 81
a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness;
let
not God regard it from above, neither let the light
shine
upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain
it;
let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the
day
terrify it. As for that night, let darkness
seize upon it;
let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let
it not
come into the number of the months. Lo, let that
night
be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. Let
them
curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise
up
their mourning," reminds us quite distinctly of
similar
words by Jeremiah in Jer.
20:14-18: "Cursed be the
day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my
mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who
brought tidings to my father, saying, A man
child is
born unto thee; making him very glad. And let that
man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and
repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning,
and the shouting at noontide; Because he slew me
not
from the womb; or that my mother might have been my
grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Wherefore
came I forth out of the womb to see labour
and sorrow that my days should be consumed with
shame?" Job
shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set
thine heart upon him? And
that thou shouldest visit
I
him every morning, and try him every moment?" brings
to mind the words of the psalmist David in Psalm
8:4:
"What
is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the
son of man, that thou visitest
him?"
In
order to get a closer and more satisfactory view
of the book, its subject matter, purpose, and
problem
involved, let us look into the story as it is
related to us.
At
the outset Job is seen living in comfort and in the
fear of the Lord as was his wont, and surrounded by
his
ten children. His zeal for God is seen in his
sacrifice of
burnt offerings for his sons after their days of
feasting,
lest they might have offended God in a moment when
they were susceptible to temptation. Then we are
intro-
duced into a scene where the
sons of God presented
themselves before Him and Satan came also. When
82
Bibliotheca Sacra
Satan
was asked whence he had come he said: "From
going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up
and
down in it." This is true of him today for we
know that
our "adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour" (I Pet. 5
:8). It
has been well said that although Satan, by his experi-
ences, is much wiser than
when he was first created, yet
in his consistent and constant opposition against
God he
still uses his same tactics. We must not be ignorant
of
any of his devices. When the Lord delighted Himself
in
Job
and said to Satan: "Hast thou considered my serv-
ant Job, that there is none like him in the earth,
a
perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and
escheweth evil," Satan
malignantly asked: "Doth Job
fear God for nought?"
By this Satan was by so much
arraigning God for His control of affairs, so that
it paid
one to serve Him; on the other hand, it was
reflecting
upon Job as being one who desired to serve God
merely
for gain. God then allows Satan to try Job with the
command that he touch not the person of Job.
What a
comforting thought that although the Lord uses
means
(Satan
and others) to chasten His saints, the means are
ever in His control and He watches over us until His
will in us be accomplished! When We
are tempted or
tried we need never fear that God has left us or for-
saken us. He knows His own
and cares most tenderly
for them. There is sweetness to be found in Him
through chastisement, be it as severe as it may.
In his
first attack upon Job, Satan uses the Chaldeans and the
Sabeans to strip Job not only of his wealth, but
of his
children as well. Yet in "all this Job
sinned not, nor
charged God foolishly." When Satan had
failed the first
time, he answered God when God asked him concerning
righteous Job: "Skin for skin, yea, all that
a man hath
will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now,
and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse
thee
to thy face." So God allowed Job to be tested
further
by the infliction by Satan upon Job of a loathesome
disease. When Satan saw he had failed here, he
appears
to have used Job's wife to advise him to do what
Satan
The Book of Job 83
said he would, namely: "curse God, and
die." Yet "in
all this did not Job sin with his lips."
If the purpose of the book were to
show how God
can defeat Satan and sustain His saints in trial it
might
very well end at this point. But the Lord has much
more in view than this. Job must yet come to an
honest
estimate of himself. There were in him elements
of
character, self-justification and self-righteousness,
which
had not been called forth into display because
circum-
stances had not evinced them. Job must recognize
them,
judge them, and repent. But, you ask, was not Job a
perfect and righteous man? Just so; and it is
here that
God
would show us that the best of us has nothing to
boast of, but needs repentance and self-judgment.
With this in mind let us take up the
trend of the
narrative. Job's friends had come to visit him in
his
sore distress. We must remember that they are mere
auxiliaries in God's hands and our attention must be
centered upon Job. It appears that Job could more
easily bear his sorrow alone without his silent
friends
sitting about him. Perhaps the contrast in their
condi-
tion and his was irksome and
distasteful to him. Then
he begins to speak and curses the very day of his
birth.
Eliphaz seeks to comfort Job by referring to
facts that
he had culled from his experiences. He uses his
favor-
ite words--"I have
seen"--time and time again. He
I
intimates very mildly that the trouble is in Job and
that
he should commit his cause to the Lord, for
"who ever"
perished, being innocent? or
where were the righteous
cut off?" Job, however, is not satisfied with
this answer
to his problem and asks to be taught wherein he
has
erred, for he claims he is as able as any to "discern
per-
verse things." Bildad
answers next and maintains that
tradition has ever shown that the punishment of
God is
upon the wicked and that "the hypocrite's hopes
shall
perish." Job refuses the application of this principle
to himself and bemoans the fact that he has not
one to
plead for him with God: "For he is not a man, as
I am,
that I should answer him, and we should come together
in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us,
84
Bibliotheca Sacra
that might lay his hand upon us both" (Job
and further: "O that one might plead for a man with
God,
as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!"
(Job
But
blessed be God that we know: "It is
Christ that
died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the
right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us"
(Rom.
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he
ever
liveth to make intercession
for them" (Heb.
"there is one God, and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). Then
we have
the advice of Zophar who
restricts God's dealings to
hard and fast legalistic principles. He invites Job
to
"Know
therefore that God exacteth of thee less than
thine iniquity deserveth." An exacting God! how
unfair
to Him! But Job is still not convinced. And thus
the
contention goes on throughout the greater part of
the
book with Job's friends condemning him and he trying
to vindicate and comfort himself. Instead, they
should
have tried to comfort him, so that he would have
been
brought to self-condemnation. In Job's last
answer
(chapters 30, 31, and 29) to his "miserable
comforters"
and their intimations that he was a hypocrite while
he
contended his righteousness and showed glimpses of
great faith (
blessing of former days: "Oh that I were as
in months
past, as in the days when God preserved me"
(29:2).
But
could not God bless him now also? How like so
many of us! When we are undergoing trials and per-
plexities we forget the troubles
of the past and the grace
that was daily vouchsafed abundantly to us, and we
long and sigh for "the good old days." Our
God is
abundantly able to renew His grace to us day by day
and refresh us in the inner man with His heavenly
manna from His tender hand. But Job continues in his
reminiscences concerning his past
honor and dignity.
Can
we not feel his mental anguish and troubled heart
as he says "But now"? How Job laments
his fate! Can
we not the more then adore Him who when He
"was
oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not
his
The Book of Job 85
mouth! He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as
a sheep before her shearers IS dumb, so He opened
not
His mouth" (Isa.
53:7).
And all for us! How our
hearts and lives should go out to Him in adoration,
praise, and grateful service! If Job could only have
said: "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good
in thy
sight" (Mt.
"If
I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted
to deceit; Let me be weighed in an even balance
that
God may know mine integrity" (31:5, 6). It has been
well said by Dr. E. J. Pace that there are pride of
race,
pride of place, pride of face, but worst of all is
pride
of grace. The spiritual Christian can NEVER find
any-
thing in himself whereof he can glory, for "He
that
glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord" (I Cor.
chapter 31 and verse 40 we read "The words
of Job are
ended." How different is this ending from the
one we
find in Psalm 72:20: "The prayers of David the
son of
Jesse
are ended"! In the former case Job had been
assiduously attempting to justify himself rather
than
God;
in the latter David had been praising the Lord for
His abundant mercies and His wondrous works. How
much more honoring to God are "the
prayers" of His
saints than "the words" of His saints.
Elihu, who
had been from all appearances a witness
to these accusations and refutations, now speaks
and
rebukes the friends of Job for their
inapplicable and
false principles and their misrepresentations of the
char-
acter and dealings of God. N
or does he excuse Job in
his contentions. He is God's temporary answer to
Job's
desire for a Daysman. Elihu delivers himself of a com-
mendable theodicy, and at the same
time he shows sym-
pathy and kindness for Job in
his plight. The gist of
his argument may be summed up thus: Behold, in this
thou are not just: I will answer thee, that God is
greater
than man. Why dost thou strive against him? for he
giveth not account of any of
his matters" (33:12,13).
And:
"far be it from God, that he should do wickedness,
and from the Almighty, that he should commit
iniquity"
(34:10).
Does it not remind us of Paul's words in
86
Bibliotheca Sacra
Romans
9:20: "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that
repliest against God 1 Shall the
thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus
Finally,
God out of the whirlwind answers Job and
shows Job his utter insignificance in contrast to His
greatness in all His workings. Job replies at
first: "Be-
hold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay
mine hand upon my mouth" (40:4). But Job has
more
to learn yet. In his second answer he says:
"I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine
eye seeth thee. Wherefore
I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes" (42:5, 6). How like Isaiah
this is
who when he saw the Lord delivered himself
similarly
as the Word records: "Then said I, Woe is me!
for I
am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and
I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for
mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6:5).
Job
had come now to the place where he knew the
potency of the truth: "For I know that in
me (that is,
in my flesh,) dwelleth
no good thing" (Rom.
Thus far, in the words of James, we
have seen "the
patience of Job." Now we see also "the
end of the
Lord;
that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender
mercy" (Jas.
three friends according to the command of God, we
read: "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" (42:10). How blessed is that
word "when"! Is It
not true that Just when we are
striving in prayer with God for others that He so
gra-
ciously and abundantly blesses
us also? And can we
not find for our own hearts and lives an
application of
this book in the words of the apostle Paul:
"For if we
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we
are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we
should
not be condemned with the world" (I Cor.
Oh!
that we might recognize in our trials and chasten-
ings the good hand of the
Lord and turning to Him in
the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ call upon His
grace
in time of need!
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
www.dts.edu
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at: