Job - Overview

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

July 21, 2012


 *WEEK 42 - OCT 14-20 - JOB - THE PURPOSE OF SUFFERING*


 *OCT 14. 1:1 (1-2) PROLOGUE. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose
name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared
God, and turned away from evil” (ASV ‘01). *Father, like Job we who live
godly in Christ Jesus, do suffer persecution. But Kingdom principles are in
this realized, for we are then identified with Christ in His suffering
(Colossians 1:24). *Hallowed be your :name.*


 *OCT 15. 3:11, 16 (3) JOB'S OPENING LAMENTATION. “Why did I not die from
the womb? Why did I not give up the spirit when my mother bore me? 16 Or as
a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.” *O
Father, our hearts go out to Job, for we know the true nature of his
testing, and the end from the beginning. In the dumbness and mystery of
suffering, may we accept Your will. *Your :kingdom come.*


 *OCT 16. 13:15; 14:14 (4-14) FIRST TRIAD. “Behold, he will slay me; I have
no hope; Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him. 14:14 If a man
die, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my
release should come.” *Father, we are strengthened immeasurably by the
example of Job. He clawed his way to faith and trust! *Your :will be done,
As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *OCT 17. 19:25-27 (15-21) SECOND TRIAD. “But as for me I know that my
Redeemer lives, And at last he will stand up upon the earth: 26 And after
my skin, even this body, is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see
God; 27 Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And my eyes shall behold,
and not as a stranger, My heart is consumed within me.” *What a testimony
of revelation-faith! Father, we bless You for such revelation to Job and
man. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.*


 *OCT 18. 23:10, 12 (22-37) THIRD TRIAD. “But he knows the way that I take;
When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 12 I have not gone back
from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured up the words of his
mouth more than my necessary food.” *Yes Father, trial and temptation is
the way of man in this life. Always be with us in them, that we may come
forth as gold. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our
:debtors.*


 *OCT 19. 38:1-2 (38-41) GOD'S CLOSING INTERVENTION. “Then Jehovah answered
Job out of the whirlwind and said, 2 Who is this that darkens counsel By
words without knowledge? *O Father, restrain us from foolish words! Hold us
back from speaking during the throes of testing! *And bring us not into
temptation.*


 *OCT 20. 42:5-6 (42) EPILOGUE. “I had heard of you by the hearing of the
ear; But now my eye sees you; 6 Wherefore I abhor myself, And repent in
dust and ashes.”* Yes, this is as it should be. A revelation of You,
Jehovah Father, puts us in right understanding and relationship. *But
deliver us from the evil one.*


 *NOTE: *Who can ever plumb the depths of the mystery of suffering? Yet in
this book God unfolds at least two of His purposes that bring good and
glory to His Name out of suffering.


 *First Quote, p.10: *There are things in our heavenly Father's dealings
with us which have no immediate explanation. There are
*inexplicable*providences which test us to the limit, and prove that
rationalism is a
mere mental pose. The Bible and our common sense agree *that the basis of
human life is tragic*, not rational, and the whole problem is focused for
us in this Book of Job. Chapter 13:15 is the utterance of a man who has
lost his explicit hold on God, but not his implicit hold - “Though He slay
me, yet will I trust in Him” (R.V., “wait for Him”). That is the last reach
of the faith of a man. Job's creed is gone; all he believed about God has
been disproved by his own experiences, and his friends when they come say,
in effect, 'You are a hypocrite, Job, we can prove it from your own creed'.
But Job sticks to it - 'I am not a hypocrite, I do not know what accounts
for all that has happened, but I will hold to it that God is just and that
I shall yet see Him vindicated in it all'.


 *Second Quote, p.103: *Because a man has altered his life it does not
necessarily mean that he has repented. A man may have lived a bad life and
suddenly stop being bad, not because he has repented, but because he is
like an exhausted volcano. The fact that he has become good is no sign of
his having become a Christian. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance.
The apostle Paul never forgot what he had been; when he speaks of
'forgetting those things which are behind', he is referring to what he has
attained to; the Holy Spirit never allowed him to forget what he had been (*
see* 1 Corinthians 15:9, Ephesians 3:8, 1 Timothy 1:13-15). Repentance
means that I estimate exactly what I am in God's sight and I am sorry for
it, and on the basis of the Redemption I become the opposite. The only
repentant man is the holy man, i.e., the one who becomes the opposite of
what he was because something has entered into him. Any man who knows
himself knows that he cannot be holy, therefore if he does become holy, it
is because God has 'shipped' something into him; he is now 'presenced with
Divinity', and can begin to bring forth 'fruits meet for repentance'.


 A man may know the plan of salvation, and preach like an archangel, and
yet not be a Christian (cf. Matthew 7:21-22.) The test of Christianity is
that a man lives better than he preaches. The reality of the heredity of
Jesus Christ comes into us through regeneration, and if ever we are to
exhibit a family likeness to Him it must be because we have entered into
repentance and have received something from God. If the disposition of
meanness and lust and spite shows itself through my bodily life, when the
disposition of Jesus Christ is there, it will show through my bodily life
too, and one need never be afraid that he will be credited with the
holiness he exhibits. “Now my eye sees You,” said Job, “wherefore *I* abhor
myself” (“*I *loathe my words”, R.V. marg.) “and repent in dust and ashes.”
When I enthrone Jesus Christ I say the thing that is violently opposed to
the old rule. I deny my old ways as entirely as Peter denied his Lord.


 Jesus Christ's claim is that He can put a new disposition, His own
disposition, Holy Spirit, into any man, and it will be manifested in all
that he does. But the disposition of the Son of God can only enter my life
by the way of repentance.


 (The above quotes are taken from “Baffled to Fight Better,” Oswald
Chamber's Commentary on the book of Job. The book is well worth while
procuring and reading.)


 Young and old alike read the book of Job with interest and empathy. Many a
time we have felt like Job. Many a time we have wondered at our friends.
Let this book work in us the desire that though baffled, yet we will fight
the good fight of faith better.


 Memory Verse: James 5:11 (7-11 - NNT) - *“Lo, we call them blessed that
endured: you have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of **
the** Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.”*



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