sibyllezion
- Aug 30
- 22 min read

Reading sample Job Part 2: Job – through trials to revelation: surrender and restoration

“How did I deserve this?”

In our hearts, we wrestle with what has long since conquered the world of proverbs as Job's messages: misfortune, strokes of fate, illness. “It could be worse – and it got even worse.”

At times in our lives, we stand bewildered in the face of spiraling misfortune that continues uninterrupted, spiraling ever downward: No sooner have we learned of the death of a friend than we are robbed of it, and the next piece of unfortunate news arrives: A friend has cancer, the company is bankrupt, our job is gone. Existential distress besets us, and if that weren't enough, our own health goes down the drain as well. “It just doesn't stop, I can't take it anymore!” cries the suffering in us. Our zest for life and hope fade away, while that which made us feel nourished and loved disappears. Our faith in God's goodness and justice falter, and doubt, fear and insecurity take over. In place of our seemingly unshakable trust in God, darkness and an insurmountable sense of futility dominate our lifes.

It is in these phases of life that everything inside us is in turmoil. The bitter question often arises as to why God allows all this suffering in the lives of his chosen ones, accompanied by a supposedly unbearable silence on the part of the Creator: “Why are you silent, Lord? Have I not been faithful to you? Did you not see that I seek you with all my heart? Look around, Almighty: All those who live godlessly and selfishly are doing well, while my own life is going to hell! Don't you see me? Do you bring charges against me? No matter how hard I examine myself, I find nothing that would justify such harshness against me!” Not only in Job do we encounter these complaints and struggles, but especially in the Psalms. No, we don't understand suffering, the generations before us didn't – and we don't want to understand it either. “It's wrong that it even exists!” our hearts cry. And they are right...

Job's name means 'the one opposed by the enemy'.

For the first time in the Bible, we find a clear picture of the spiritual battle that has been raging around people since the Fall of Man. We have previously recognized the consequences of this and how it affects our reality of life, indeed our own nature. Now we are introduced to what is happening beyond our control on the next level up. The fallen nature of the world and the fact that humanity has entered a contract with the adversary of God is real, even if we resist the mystical nature of the invisible world. The principles and consequences of the Fall of Man are clearly reflected in human history and in us. This is how spiritual reality breaks into our worldly lives instead of remaining an intangible parallel dimension. We encounter the struggle for undeniable, personal revelation of God amid an often brutal, spiritual war that takes place at levels that remain beyond our influence as human beings. We would rather not see it or rationally explain it away. It is not a particularly pleasant thought that there is a battle for us, fought by two different disembodied giants as if on a chessboard! The spiritual dimension of creation does not disappear just because we would prefer it to be so and we perceive the ground under our feet as more predictable and solid in this way. Jesus Himself confirms the existence of the adversary, Satan, in His statements. Where we still doubt the spiritual dimensions, the recognition of our hybrid nature does the rest.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” [1]

Peter reaffirms the nature and reality of Satan:

“Be sober, be vigilant! Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking someone to devour.9 Resist him, firm in your [8]faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is being accomplished by your brotherhood throughout the world."[2]

In Old Testament times, Satan is subject to punishment, but he has not yet been banished from the spiritual dimension. It is only later that God's judgment will befall him. Until his “head is crushed,” as announced in Genesis 3:15, he is the adversary and accuser of mankind, the thief, destroyer, and lying spirit under God's command. Unlike God, Satan is not omnipresent, but limited in his presence, as are the other angels. So he roams the earth in search of worthy victims of his destruction, against whom he brings charges before God. This idea seems strange at first, even disturbing: for Satan appears in the divine council together with the Sons of Heaven. Suddenly heaven is full and no longer limited to God and his angels! But the Old Testament leaves no doubt here: in 1 Kings, Zechariah and Job, we encounter the motif that Satan is present as the accuser and executor of delusion in God's counsel. What is disturbing about this at first glance is that Satan becomes a kind of executive of God's will, receiving permission to blind people, harden hearts, or, as in the case of Job, to pour out illness and unjustified suffering. The reasoning behind the adversary's position, his power and at the same time his limitation, can be found in his restriction to the will of God: It is not God's will to give Satan room for maneuver, he does not chat with him on an equal footing. On the contrary: Satan's restriction to God's own plans means that Satan is not free in the design of his rebellion, but remains on a short leash and bound to God's instructions. Satan has power, yes. He has managed to deceive the images of God and lead them into rebellion,worse, into an inner sense of his own infallibility. He has brought people under his influence and therefore has a right to access to them. Satan is consequently allowed to exercise his power wherever people deviate from God's ways or follow him voluntarily. A third possibility arises where people – like Job – elevate their own righteousness to be blessed by God. Satan's accusations against Job may have been unjustified, but he was not without sin, as we shall see.

The story of Job is quickly told: Job is a righteous man before God who lives in the land of Oz. His righteous deeds and his love for God are outstanding: He offers God vicarious sacrifices every time his seven sons and three daughters gather in family gatherings without him. He acts with wise foresight, for something could have happened in their carelessness that God would consider a sin. God answers Job's faithfulness with immense riches; he lacks nothing.

Satan roams the earth looking for those he can bring down and appears before God's throne in council. He brings charges against Job, who had previously been singled out by God as the joy of his heart: mocking God's naivety and affection for Job, Satan claims that the faithful only love God for his gifts:

“9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Do you think that Job fears God for nothing? 10 Have you not protected him, his house and all that he has, all around? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, he will curse you to your face!"[3]

God therefore allows Satan to harm Job, provided that Job himself is not touched. In a cruel succession of misfortunes, the righteous man loses all his possessions – and all his children. Yet Job remains loyal to God, even though he grieves terribly.

Once again, Satan goes before God's throne and declares that Job will no longer be faithful to him if he, Satan, physically afflicts him. Satan says that Job will surely curse God if he loses his health. In response to this accusation, God allows him to rob Job of everything except his life, which he is not allowed to take.

Job suffers unimaginably, is afflicted with boils and is plagued by pain every day. He literally sits in the ashes of his life. Only his wife, who belongs to his life like Sarai to Abram, is not taken from him. His family of origin turns away, his servants no longer listen to him, he becomes the laughing stock of everyone. Job loses his prestige, his good reputation, his wealth, his authority, his health. His wife no longer understands God and urges Job to reject his faith and curse God. His long-standing friends rush to his aid: Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuhah and Zophar ofNaama. They can neither look Job in the face nor bear his suffering with him; on the contrary, their words and advice become an additional trial for the sufferer, who feels betrayed and sold by everyone. Job's cries for the God he serves become louder and louder, as does his self-defense and rebellion against his fate. He accuses God of injustice and fears his (final) death just as much as he longs for it. He argues with God, who blesses the wicked as well as the righteous, and complains that in the end both go to the pit. He asks about the benefit of righteousness, when the same is given to murderers and thieves as to those who serve God: A legitimate question in times when the prospect of eternal life simply did not exist. Because of his blameless life, he accuses God to the point of self-aggrandizement. In his struggle for understanding, for recognition, Job demands answers from God and refuses to drop 'his case'. He does not find God for a long time, and yet, in a dialogue of bitterness and despair, he throws the misery of his soul at the feet of the One he does not understand. What we encounter is a stubborn struggle for answers, a rebellion of his faithful heart. It is moving and provides a deep insight into his soul, as it wrestles with its Creator for recognition and justice.

Job is confronted with futility in his suffering. He sees death as the final end of his existence, and in the overwhelming pain, only meaninglessness. Everything that was given to him before is taken away from him. He finds himself at the end of his days, miserable, disfigured and plagued by pain, sitting in the ashes to at least relieve the ever-present itching a little.

Job cannot find a plausible explanation for all that befalls him. His friends, on the other hand, are eager to preserve their all-too-limited image of God, which is based on reciprocity: they torment Job with their belief in retribution. Good deeds are rewarded, bad deeds punished. In their world, it is as simple as that, and clearly predictable. And since no one is righteous in the eyes of God, they say, everyone will be punished in some way. The guilt for personal suffering inevitably lies with the person concerned and is rooted in their own sinful nature. A statement that, on closer inspection, reveals the cold-heartedness of the supposed friends: “You deserve the suffering you find yourself in!” Innocent suffering, pain inflicted by another, does not exist in this model, and thus, ultimately, there is no guilt and sin among each other that could unjustly hurt.

His friends confront Job with a God who is predictable and reliable, black and white – and who always acts in the same right/wrong way. The image of God they have is also colored by narcissistic abuse of power and manipulation: a God who punishes and rewards – repays for deeds – brings people into his dependence and control instead of loving unconditionally. In what they say, we can all too easily recognize attitudes that are still used today to justify undeserved suffering: whether depression, anxiety disorders, physical illnesses or strokes of fate such as miscarriages and deaths, all these incomprehensible, painful events are blamed by pious, Christian companions are often classified as 'deserved suffering', 'God's punishment' or 'lack of faith'. Such attitudes intensify the grief and hopelessness of those trapped in suffering, adding massive guilt feelings; it reveals the pride and ignorance of those who are not affected.

“27 You would even sell an orphan, and you would bargain for your friend. 28 Now then, choose you: turn yourselves to me; I will not lie unto your faces. 29 Repent, and turn yourselves now, lest there be no righting: return now, and yet this day is right in my hand. 30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? Doth not my skin feel destruction?" [4]

“Turn again to me,” Job pleads, ‘you humans know me! What are you accusing me of? It's not true! Why won't you believe me that I have done no wrong? That all this suffering is falling on me unjustly?’ His friends do not let up on him. The innocent sufferer is overwhelmed with even more pain and torment by their intrusiveness: The accusations, the calls to repentance, the reproaches become more and more vehement in the face of Job's openly expressed doubts and inner turmoil. They put him up against the wall, corner him. When finally the youngest in the group raises his voice, another aspect is added: God uses suffering to shape, grind and purify the believer. Suffering, destruction and death are no longer the result of Satan's ways, but God's 'means of education' – and thus gain a right to exist; Satan, as a result, is on a par with God.

It is hard to bear that someone should suffer for no reason. And yes, in their efforts to help Job, the three friends almost overwhelm him with good advice and their insights into God. What they do not do, however, is enter into a dialogue with God, as Job chooses to do for himself. What they also fail to do is show him genuine friendship and stand by him in this difficult time through shared prayer, their care and support. No, in their minds, God is so exalted that he is also unreachable. Job's personal struggle in prayer seems proud, presumptuous and self-righteous to them. Their own attitude, their belief in retribution and their judgment of Job becomes a torment for the sufferer: he experiences rejection instead of attention, accusation instead of encouragement. No one steps with him before God's throne; instead, they hold him back from it with an iron grip. Jesus later calls those who behave in this way those who block the way to God for others, and he has no kind words for them.[5]

Job has long since rejected his wife's request to give in to her and renounce God, to curse his name. Job seeks answers, not withdrawal.And he knows that he can only receive it from the Creator. He needs this one personal revelation from his God, a proof of his existence, a being seen by him, to finally be healed. But instead of a communal struggle before God with his companions, he only finds their rejection, accusations and reproaches.

Only when Job gives up and wants to die does God confront him in a storm and challenge him to face him like a man and without self-pity. He reveals himself to him, comforts him, broadens his view and allows his faithful servant to understand how vain his accusations against him, the creator of all being, are. With countless images of glory, power and strength, God gradually reveals himself to Job, until the latter, overwhelmed by worship, confesses:

“I know that you can do everything, and that no plan is impossible for you."[6]

Job is moved by God's greatness, and his ‘legal case’, his appeal from a position of equality, is replaced by the request to teach him:

“Hear now, and I will speak; I will ask you, and you shall tell me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."[7]

Job's struggle with God is proclaimed to him as righteousness, as is his praise and the realization that nothing exists outside of God, that human beings can add nothing to God nor offer him anything. God rejects the accusations of Job's three friends, who only spoke about him from hearsay – without any real knowledge of his nature. He lifts Job out of the dust. The life of the sufferer, who did not reject God until the end, is fully restored and exceeds in blessing the previous one. It is not Job's actions, not his words, but his heart's attitude that saves him: He loves God for His own sake and struggles for understanding instead of rejecting Him. All the darkness that haunts him does not match his image of God, and he strongly resists having to associate it with him. In the final analysis, he has thus correctly recognized God's nature: The suffering was not inflicted by him, but by Satan. He experienced the nature of the adversary, not that of Almighty God, who had withdrawn during the time of trial. However, the power of the accuser was so great that even his friends became instruments in his hand.

Job is a wisdom book that consistently thinks through what it means to love God undividedly. It addresses shortsightedness, theological, empty disputes and the limits of human understanding.

The accusation that Satan raises against Job can easily be applied to the relationship between people: “She only married you because of your wealth, he's only your friend because you give him everything!”It is the question of the motive for loyalty and whether it is genuine: Does Job follow God out of conviction or because he knows that God blesses his faithful ones especially? Does he hope for an advantage, or would he remain loyal even if the hoped-for reward failed to materialize or was even replaced by suffering?

The first two friends have internalized an image of God based on the belief in retribution, and in doing so, they reveal their attitude towards God: “You receive blessings as long as you behave as God wills, and he withdraws his blessings when you do not.” In other words, “A good, obedient child loves God, a bad, wicked child hates God!” As a result, God allows himself to be controlled, manipulated and instrumentalized by human actions. In this way, the (voluntary) blessing of the Creator becomes a predictable commercial agreement, and every form of suffering becomes one's own failure. Furthermore, God is no longer exclusively the source of all life, but also the source of destruction, death and suffering. Satan thus achieves the equation with God he so desires. His rebellion against creation, his unconditional will to deceive and destroy is attributed to God, not to him as the originator. If faith and discipleship are anchored in such thinking, then deeds become a guarantee of personal well-being, not of genuine devotion to the Creator God: Paul later calls this attitude of the heart 'works righteousness'.

This righteousness of deeds is the subject of both the accusations of the first two friends and Job's self-justification: he had, he complains, clothed the poor, taken in the orphan, treated the servants well, and walked in God's ways. Nothing, says the faithful servant of God, justifies God's behavior; his indictment of him is void.[8]

An important aspect of Job is the question of whether it is worth being righteous and whether there is a right to God's blessing. With this question, Job reveals that he, like his friends, thinks in patterns of retributive faith. It is this pattern of faith that causes him to despair when God allows Satan to withdraw the blessing from him: He feels that he has not earned it, that he has been robbed of his reward for good deeds.

Why do we follow God? This question is perhaps the most essential that people of faith must ask themselves: Do we do it because we expect reward and personal gain, or do we recognize God as the source of all that exists? Do we follow God's ways because we truly internalize that it is the right thing to do, regardless of what it gets us? If we care about Him, do we wrestle with Him—or do we just want His favor because it makes life easier? How do we act when the reward is withheld, or we even suffer losses? In short: Where is our heart anchored: In him or in his blessings, his possibilities and his power?

God allows the one who roams the earth to bring his faithful down. He allows Job to endure so that God's superiority over Satan can be demonstrated through him. God trusts that in the end the undivided heart will triumph over the challenge. He subjects Job to a cruel and unjust test of faith, which allows him to mature in his knowledge of God and to understand the Creator's autonomy. Pain and suffering, however, are not part of God's gifts, but the fruit of the adversary, who not only deceives but also destroys. God, the giver of life, withdraws and leaves Satan to his own devices, within clearly defined limits.

The path to the knowledge of God's true nature opens through Job's supplication that God may reveal Himself to him. Even when Job casts his doubts, his wrong assumptions and his anger before God, he is not rejected by God. Instead, he receives the answers he so urgently needs. What his friends reject and accuse as arrogance and sin shows the sincerity of Job's heart. Job puts all his struggles and all his inner struggles into God's hands. His soul, everything that torments him, everything he holds against God, reveals his true state of mind before him. He does not deceive God. Job speaks the truth naked and bare – his truth, his doubts and how he judges God's actions. In this way, his true questions are revealed before God; Job's complaints reveal all the points where he lacks true knowledge of God. The supposedly well-intentioned support of his friends, their attempt to hold Job back in his complaints, instead reveals their own distance from God. They do not prove to Job that they are loyal friends who support him in his struggle with God, but instead become instruments of Satan through their accusations against Job.

God allows – and this is the first, harrowing message of Job – the righteous in his eyes to be attacked by Satan. On the other hand, he allows those far from God to grow and flourish, in perfect health and with perceptible success:

“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."[9]

Jesus says, thus explaining God's blessings as not being earned by human deeds.

Why be righteous then? Why strive for the good and refrain from less honest ways if it brings no personal gain, neither security nor earthly, reliable reward guaranteed? What should one hold on to in one's trust in an invisible God, if he allows the 'righteous to fall'? God's answer to this question is: You must be rooted in voluntarily chosen loyalty that does not depend on God's ability to bless – nor rely on it in a sense of entitlement. Only when one's own inner attitude reflects this unconditional following is the human heart devoted to God undividedly. It is God's nature to bless – not as a weapon of education nor as a 'payment for good deeds'!Job carries a profound message: while his friends follow their own knowledge, parroting what is recognized as universally valid, Job seeks dialogue with God. He dares to question and confront him. In doing so, Job does not spare the injustices he feels as an accusation against God. Rather than not speaking to him at all, he prefers to present his case, his anger, his lack of understanding and his longing for death.

Is his struggle wrong? Unholy? Does God reject his questions? Does he coldly and authoritatively demand acceptance from Job? No: God hears the pleas and struggles of his righteous servant and turns to him to answer him. He does not do so without harshly putting Job's friends and their pious platitudes in their place. The Almighty answers the questions Job asks with compelling, gracious sovereignty: He reveals himself as the Creator God who himself created the one through whose nature of destruction and accusation Job is beset. With this revelation, he demonstrates his superiority over Satan, pointing out the latter's limitations and dependence on God's will.

Job finds God in a direct encounter and is overwhelmed by his greatness and glory. He comes to a higher level of knowledge than that which has characterized his faith until now: He understands that it is not for him to evaluate God, to analyze him, nor to define him in a way that makes his actions predictable for him. In place of the old belief in retribution comes the wisdom that he can never fully grasp him because God thinks, directs and acts in completely different dimensions than he does. The revelation that God gives him puts something into his hands that is a precious gift: instead of letting God become an image according to his understanding, he may question him about what he does not understand, what he struggles with – and he will receive an answer:

“2 Thus says the LORD, who makes it happen, the LORD, who forms it to establish it,1 Jahwe is his name: 3 Call me, and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things2 that you do not know."[10]

God makes himself approachable and sees Job's doubt. Job is allowed to rise above what others offer him as their knowledge and traditional beliefs by addressing his questions directly to God. The Almighty will answer without burning anger, explaining things to him that seem too high and too unfathomable to him. Consequently, Job transforms himself from a self-righteous accuser of God into a zealous disciple of God, who allows himself to be guided and taught by Him: He understands that grace, God's love and kindness, is completely undeserved and not a personal right.

In the end, the Creator God returns to the faithful Job everything and more that was stolen from him by Satan: his health, his possessions, his family and the happiness of a long life. The Highest personally declares the righteousness of his servant. God literally lifts him out of the ashes and rewards his faith: Job has passed the test of his heart: He grows from a vengeful faith to an intimate relationship with God.

From this point on, the greatest good is to know him not only by hearsay but personally, and to be deeply recognized and seen by him. He enters into a wondrous, very personal relationship with God. In addition, as a result of his unwavering spiritual battle, he experiences deliverance from everything through which Satan was able to attack him and turn it against him: His doubts, arising from the perceived distance to God, his bitterness over injustice, arising from a false belief in retribution, are erased. Job first had to put all his eggs in one basket before God revealed Himself to him. He submitted to his creator in acknowledgment of his greatness, and this proved his true goodness to him. God showered Job with his favor and generosity again in complete restoration of his life.

He is, as before Noah and Abram, raised to the status of a confidant, a friend of Yahweh. However, like his fellow believers, he does not manage to achieve victory through works, deeds or his own ability: Job admits that he spoke nonsense before the revelation of God and believed it. It is God himself who corrects and completes the image, not Job's own wisdom that would have grasped him. God looks at the heart that wants to recognize him in spite of all darkness in deepest pain - and at the same time convicts Job's claim to argue with his omnipotence.

So what can we take with us, what can we learn from Job?

"6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; 7 casting all your care upon him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant! Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is being accomplished by your brotherhood throughout the world." [11]

Spiritual warfare is real. There is an opposing force that seeks to bring us down. However, the adversary does not operate on the same level as God, but is limited in his actions. We fall under his influence through retributive faith, conscious turning away from God's good ways and where we only know God by hearsay.

We can overcome in our struggle for divine revelation and knowledge. The path to salvation does not work by talking about God, but with God! All human wisdom cannot redeem, it requires direct confrontation with God in wrestling, praying and revealing all our inner needs.

People are not entitled to God's blessing just because they align their paths with him. God expects us to follow his ways because we recognize them, because we are convinced from the heart that we are doing the right thing with them.

Job focuses on mercy, care, helpfulness, support, intercession and devotion to the needy in mildness and generosity as godly ways. Doing the right thing out of conviction and not out of greed, even when the reward is absent, overcomes the belief in retribution and the righteousness of works. Love for the sake of love – discipleship for the sake of discipleship – does not depend on blessings and well-being.

But what is the promise contained in Job, what is the preannouncement of the New Covenant?

Job becomes an allegory of the man unjustly accused by Satan, who is stripped of all his honor, of his life in agony, and from whom his friends turn away. In his suffering of being unjustly accused and punished, we encounter the agony of the cross:

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' That is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"[12]

His restoration to newness of life through God's vindication and the returning of his life in abundance symbolizes the resurrection of the suffering servant from the dead.

But there is more that is promised to us:

The restoration of all that was stolen from Job by Satan, the intimacy that he seeks and that God so fully answers, is a foreshadowing of what restoration means: Satan may rage, Satan may steal, but he must not take the life of the one who is tempted. Ultimately, God will not and cannot allow His elect to be robbed, even if everything around them is burning. He does not promise that preservation means never being hurt or suffering. But He does promise that in the midst of it all, nothing will happen to our soul and true essence. Satan may not take the life of Job, whose boundaries God preserves; he may only burn what does not attack his life:

“14 If what he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 But if what he has built burns down, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is sacred – you are that temple.” [13]

The Book of Job announces a promise of God that transcends everything that has gone before: the bodily resurrection of the dead. Life that never ends for those who are in Christ and their complete restoration to a blessed, meaningful life in deep, personal intimacy with the Creator.

Thus, Job joins the ranks of the metaphorical announcement of the One who, in the end, is the fulfillment of the Word, indeed, the Word Himself; to whom all Scripture points: Jesus Christ, God's Messiah. Job reflects on His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and the promise to all believers that He will give abundant life- a life that never ends. Unlike Job, Jesus will not open His mouth in His suffering, not to struggle for supposed justice: He accepts both from the Father's hand and does not impute evil to Him, for He knows whom He will conquer. And so Jesus remains free from sin where Job fell.

Footnotes:__________________________________________________________________________________________

[5]Cf.: Mt 23, 13-14: “13-14 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven[8] against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you let those who are entering go in.” Cited from: Elberfelder Bible 2006, © 2006 SCM R.Brockhaus in the SCM Verlagsgruppe GmbH, Holzgerlingen (www.scm-brockhaus.de).

[8] Cf.: Job 31:16 ff.

Foto: LeandroDeCarvalho, thank you. Amazing work!

Reading sample Job Part 2: Job – through trials to revelation: surrender and restoration

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