Job: Human Battlefield
Roger Forster and Dr Paul Marston
The second chapter of the classic book, God's Strategy in Human History, taken from the expanded new-millennium edition.
NB This online version is presented without endnotes.
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God is, of course, the reason why everything continues to exist, he is author of all reality. The God of the Bible, however, is also clearly shown as one who acts in special ways in his world. He is not only author but participant. Our various books on apologetics have always argued this strongly, and it seems to us to be central to Christian faith. The biblical picture of a God who acts in particular situations is consistent neither with a kind of deistic absentee landlord, nor with a God who determines everything which happens. The biblical God is a spiritual person in whose image we are made. This is not, of course, in the sense of shape or physicality, but of emotion and volition. He has particular intentions and plans and he acts to fulfill them.
The Bible also seems to speak of other spiritual forces at work. We are well aware that some believers take this as purely figurative personification, but in our view this is not the most natural way to interpret scripture and experience. It may be unhealthy to become over-preoccupied with this, but Christians may need to be more aware of spiritual forces in the heavenlies.
Spiritual warfare is the subject of a well-known passage of scripture: Ephesians 6. We use this passage, therefore, to guide our thoughts at the start of this and the two subsequent sections. To begin with, let us note the last part of verse 11: Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. This gives us a clue as to the identity of the master mind behind those who take counsel against the Lord and his anointed, to throw off his rule. This role of Satan is seen very clearly in the book of Job. The issue turns on Satan’s charge that people love God solely because he has shown them some special favor:
Does Job fear God for naught? Have you not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? (Job 1:9-10)
Satan is saying that God’s kingdom is based on expediency, and that just as some people worship Satan to gain power and favor, so others worship God because he is more powerful. God takes up this challenge of Satan, and a battle is declared - with the battleground as the heart, mind and being of faithful Job. The most obvious temptation for Job is the temptation to revolt and godlessness - to renounce God and die. Job did not do this, and so Satan’s prediction was confounded. Satan still has, however, a more subtle line of attack. How will Job stand up against an appeal by his friends to seemingly orthodox traditions? Surely Job has heard that a person suffers only because of his or her own unfaithfulness? The fundamental assumption in all the speeches of Job’s three comforters and young Elihu is that it is God who binds up, who smites and heals, and who enters into judgment, and even then he is punishing wicked Job less than he deserves. They fail to understand that Job is not suffering because God wants to chasten him or because of his own sin, but because in the conflict against Satan the latter is allowed to afflict one of God’s blameless and upright servants. The comforters and young Elihu remain convinced that it is God who is afflicting Job, and that he is doing so because of Job’s sin. “God is so holy,” they say, “that he does not even trust the angels, whereas man is abominable and corrupt, a mere worm. God is so high that a man’s righteousness can never bring pleasure to him.”
Notice how misled were these four, who imagined them-selves to be proclaiming God’s truth. They believed that God was too exalted for Job’s righteousness to be of any account with him. The Lord in a sense (to use a human analogy) staked his reputation on Job:
Have you considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil; and he still holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him to destroy him without cause. (Job 2:3)
These words not only show us God’s pleasure and confidence in Job, but the reasons for Job’s sufferings become clearer. It was not God but Satan who instigated and effected Job’s misfortunes. It was Satan who first suggested that Job suffer materially and physically. Further, although Satan suggested that God should “put forth his hand” there is no indication that God did so. God says: you moved me against him to destroy him but there is no indication that he complied with the request. Rather, he said; he is in your hand; only spare his life, and it was Satan who destroyed Job’s possessions and health. It is enlightening for us to see that God was in no sense, either directly or via Satan, the cause of Job’s afflictions. God allowed Satan’s actions but this is another matter. We must be clear exactly what we mean if we say that God “could have stopped” Job’s suffering. We may indeed accept that he had the sheer power to stop or even destroy Satan. The problem is that in this case, even as Satan sank under God’s wrath and destruction, he would have gone with a sneer on his lips as though to say, “I told you so.” Such a “solution” would have left forever unanswered Satan’s accusation that God’s kingdom was based (like his own) on force and expediency. It was not lack of power that prevented God from crushing Satan - it was a matter of principle. It is, perhaps, comparable to the moral restraint that makes it impossible for God to lie. Satan’s accusations must be answered, and they cannot be truly answered by a force that simply crushes the accuser. They can only be fully answered by the method God adopts, by allowing Satan to remove Job’s privileges. He must show that the servant in whom he trusts loves him for himself and not for what he can get out of him.
In this particular instance it seems that God allowed Job to be afflicted to prove to Satan that someone could love him without any reward and even in the midst of misunderstanding about him. Implicit in this, of course, is the Hebrew notion that Job had some choice in how to react to the calamities in his life. The Lord’s fatherly boast in his servant Job would hardly have any point if job was faithful only because God was secretly forcing him to it. Job is dependent, Job recognizes his need for a redeemer, but Job has real responsibility and choice.
Was God’s confidence in Job vindicated? If we read through the book we find that Job, like his friends, mistakenly ascribed his misfortune to God. Yet Job remained certain of his own innocence and cried out for an opportunity to bring his case for trial. He seemed to have felt that something had somewhere gone wrong. There had been an anomaly in the justice of the universe. We see, therefore, that Job did not understand the situation he was in. Satan had ruined Job’s fortunes and, through the comforters, had multiplied Job’s doubt and confusion. Would Job, as Satan had predicted, renounce God to his face?
Job, albeit without full understanding, vindicated his Lord’s trust. He said: though he slay me, yet will I wait for him: Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him. Job would serve God, come what may. God showed, through him, that his kingdom was not based on the obedience of expediency but the obedience of love.
It is instructive to set out in detail a comparison of what God says and what is said by the comforters and young Elihu:
(a) God has confidence in his servants
God says: Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth. (Job 1:8; 2:3)
But the comforters say: He puts no trust in his servants. (Eliphaz in 4:18) Can a man be profitable unto God?…Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it a gain to him, that you make your ways perfect? (Eliphaz in 22:2-3) If you are righteous what give you him? Or what receives he of your hand? (Elihu in 35:7)
(b) Job is perfect (ie complete) and upright
God says: a perfect and upright man. (Job 1:8; 2:3)
But the comforters say: If you were pure and upright surely now he would awake for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. (Bildad in 8:6) Behold God will not cast away a perfect man. (Bildad in 5:20) Remember, I pray you, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off? (Eliphaz in 4:7) I have heard the voice of your words, saying, I am clean without transgression; I am innocent neither is there iniquity in me:…in this you are not just. (Elihu in 33:5-12) What man is like Job, who drinks up scorning like water? Which goes in company with workers of iniquity and walks with wicked men. (Elihu in 34:7) How then can man be just with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? (Bildad in 25:4) What is man that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous? (Eliphaz in 15:14) For you say, My doctrine is pure, And I am clean in your eyes. But oh that God would speak... Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves. (Zophar in 11:4-6)
(c) Job’s attitudes to God and to evil are right
God says: One that fears God and eschews evil. (Job 1:8; 2:3)
But the comforters say: Yea, you do away with fear, and restrain devotion before God. (Eliphaz in 15:4) Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? Is not your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. (Eliphaz in 22:4-5)
(d) The innocent do suffer “without cause”
God says: And he still holds fast his integrity although you (ie Satan) moved me against him to destroy him without cause. (Job 2:3)
But the comforters say: If you were pure and upright; surely now he would awake for you. And make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. (Bildad in 8:6) Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves. (Zophar in 11:6) Remember, I pray you, who ever perished being innocent?… they that plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same. By the breath of God they perish. (Eliphaz in 4:7-9) For Job has said, I am righteous,… notwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar; my wound is incurable though I am without transgression. What man is like Job, who drinks up scorning like water?… For he has said it profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. Therefore hearken unto me, you men of understanding: Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness:… For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. (Elihu in 34:5-11)
(e) Job’s affliction is caused by Satan and not by God
The truth is: So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. (Job 2:7)
But the comforters say: Therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty. For he makes sore, and binds up, He wounds and his hands make whole. (Eliphaz in 5:17, 18) Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves. (Zophar in 11:6)
Is it for fear of him that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? (Eliphaz in 22:4) Behold, God is mighty and despises not any… He preserves not the life of the wicked; but gives to the afflicted their right. (Elihu in 36:5-6) Yea, he would have led you away out of distress into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which is on your table should be full of fatness. But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. (Elihu in 36:16-17)
(f) Job’s words are acceptable to God
God says: My wrath is kindled against you (Eliphaz) and against your two friends: for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7)
But the comforters say: And how long shall the words of your mouth be like a mighty wind? (Bildad in 8:2) Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be justified? (Zophar in 11:2) For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. (Eliphaz in 15:5) How long will you lay snares for words? (Bildad in 18:2) And I have heard the voice of your words saying, I am clean without transgression… in this you are not just. (Elihu in 33:8, 12) Job speaks without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom. Would that Job were tried unto the end because of his answering like wicked men. For he adds rebellion unto his sin. (Elihu in 34:35-37) Therefore does Job open his mouth in vanity. he multiplies words without knowledge. (Elihu in 35:16)
What lessons can we draw from the story of Job? It is true that God sometimes allows sickness or catastrophe to come on someone as a “chastening,” but not all suffering is to be thus explained. The comforters seem to imagine that God is determining everything that happens in the world. If they were right in this, then it would be logical to expect suffering always to be either for punishment or for chastening. If everything happened as God willed, and if he is just, then the innocent could never suffer. “Who ever perished then being innocent?” asked Eliphaz, and on his own presuppositions it would be difficult to disagree with him - Job must be guilty. But in fact there is a battle involved, and thus it may often happen that one of God’s perfect and upright servants suffers.
It was not God but Satan who instigated the sufferings of Job. Nevertheless, God could use Job’s sufferings to bring him to a deeper relationship with himself. The principle is that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. Whatever disaster may strike and however bad the situation may be, God wants to work in that situation for good. He wants his servants, moreover, to cooperate with him in doing this. It is therefore important that we react rightly to situations of suffering or tragedy.
We may remember the incident when Jesus and his disciples saw the tragic sight of a man born blind. Sin is the ultimate cause of all suffering and sickness, and the disciples tried to raise the theological question: Rabbi, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? They were trying to unravel the causal chain linking suffering ultimately to sin. Jesus’ reply indicated the futility of such questions. The man’s blindness was not a result of his own sins and neither was it a result of those of his parents. It would have been pointless to have tried to unravel its causes. The real question should not be: “What caused the suffering?” but rather: “How can I cooperate in doing the works of God in this situation?” or in other words: “How does God want in this instance to work for good with those who love him?” Christ did not see suffering as an intellectual challenge but as a need and opportunity to show the works of God in healing. Sometimes a person may be suffering because he or she has sinned. More commonly, however, the causes of suffering are too complex to unravel. Our task should be to seek to cooperate with God in alleviating it. We see, therefore, that our reactions to suffering are important.
Also of importance is our attitude when we ourselves suffer. If Job had “cursed God and died”, he would neither have received blessing himself nor been a channel of blessing to others. Job did not curse God and neither was he content with pious platitudes. He was real with God in the situation, and therefore God commended his words. Job confessed his doubts, his confusion, and yet he knew he had not done the wickedness his friends imagined. God commended this, and then commanded Job to stand up and answer his questions. It is important in times of trouble for us to be open for him to reveal more of himself to us. Many people, like Job, have found a deeper experience of God through suffering. This does not mean that God necessarily brings such sufferings, but that he is ready to exploit any situation to bring in blessing. We read, further, that the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends… As Job turned from his own needs to those of others and began to cooperate with God to bring in blessing, he found that his bondage to despair began to lift. Thus it often happens that as a person becomes a channel for blessing, his own burdens seem lightened. At the end of the book Job may have realized something of the conflict that had been going on, for through prayer he himself became a participant in the battle.
Job, therefore, was a battlefield in which God proved to Satan that his servants could love him for himself, and not merely for what he could give them. Perhaps, as a result of his experience, Job began himself to realize what was happening, and actually participate, through prayer, in the bringing in of blessing.
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