Job: Dark Counsel

JOB: DARK COUNSEL
The Miserable Comfort of Doctrine without Grace

Introduction:

Date- possibly around the time of Abraham (Chaldeans were not yet settled in Babylon)

Authorship: Possible Moses, Samuel, Ezra

Title: Job either means persecuted or repentant one (turning)

Matthew Henry called it a “Noble Poem”

Were ever the being of God, his glorious attributes and perfections, his unsearchable wisdom, his irresistible power, his inconceivable glory, his inflexible justice, and his incontestable sovereignty, discoursed of with more clearness, fulness, reverence, and divine eloquence, than in this book?[1]

Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.[2]

We are often taught in the scriptures that the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. And history seems to bear that out- it is often the virtuous who are the oppressed and only rarely do the wicked see justice. So, how would you describe your life? Is it one of comfort and prosperity or one of suffering? If you are not experiencing some affliction in this life, why?


Themes:
· “why do the righteous suffer?”
· “Why does Job serve God?”
· Connection between God’s debate with Satan and Job’s debate with his friends

READ CHAPTER 1
I. A description of Job

1. Job is described as being blameless and upright Because:
Blameless: complete, morally innocent, integrity
Upright: straight
“An upright man is an abomination to the wicked” Pr 29:27

· Worshipped the Lord: 1:5, 21
21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

· Trusted the Lord: 13:15
Though he slay me, I will hope in him;

· Spiritually Mature: 1:1, 8, 2:3 (described as blamess and Upright 3X for emphasis)
And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

· A Priest to his Family 1:5

· A Loving and Wise Husband: 2:9
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

· He had a social conscience: 29:7-17 (READ)

Job gives us a motivation for preaching the gospel. When we do works of service to our community, like helping the homeless and the fatherless, visiting prisoners, giving comfort to travellors, and the like, we are fulfilling the Law and living up to the righteous and blameless standard set by Job. But as Christians, we can go further then Job. Job was only able to meet the material needs of the needy. Christians have the added ability of caring for souls when we preach the gospel. Like Jesus, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon US to preach good news to the poor, heal the broken hearted, set the captives free, recover sight for the blind and to liberate the oppressed. If you are not preaching the gospel, you are not living up to your social responsibility!
II. Job’s Five Counselors

Good doctrine has one of two effects: it either makes people cold, critical and callous towards others (like the Pharisees). Or it produces overwhelming joy, generousity and grace towards others. I would say the latter is more orthodox, since that was the behaviour of Jesus who said- my doctrine is not mine, but it comes from the Father.

All have correct theology, only one has correct application: grace!

1. Eliphaz: 5:17-18; 15:14; 22:6-9
What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

2. Bildad: 8:20; 25:4-6
Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.

3. Zophar: 11:7-9; 20:5
…the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

4. Elihu: 32:2; 34:11
Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

So if their doctrine was so good, why does God say that they have darkened counsel?

The Problem was not their doctrine, it was how they applied- without grace!

5. God: 38-42

God comes, and does both, convinces Job first of his unadvised speaking and makes him cry, Peccavi—I have done wrong; and, having humbled him, he puts honour upon him, by convincing his three friends that they had done him wrong. These two things God will, sooner or later, do for his people: he will show them their faults, that they may be themselves ashamed of them, and he will show others their righteousness, and bring it forth as the light, that they may be ashamed of their unjust censures of them. (M. Henry)

38:3 I will question you. God silenced Job’s presumption in constantly wanting to ask the questions of God, by becoming Job’s questioner. It must be noted that God never told Job about the reason for his pain, about the conflict between Himself and Satan, which was the reason for Job’s suffering. He never gave Job any explanation at all about the circumstances of his trouble. He did one thing in all He said. He asked Job if he was as eternal, great, powerful, wise, and perfect as God. If not, Job would have been better off to be quiet and trust Him. (J. Mac).
III. Job Discovers Grace

1. His depravity: 9:20

Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

Job’s admission of depravity means that there is no one who can claim that their righteousness and religious zeal are able to produce blessing and divine favour. We so often assume that prosperity and comfort are signs of divine favour when the reverse may be more accurate. Maybe the Christians in Sudan, and Pyangyang are more beloved and dear to God then others. This is the lesson Satan had to learn: Job’s blessings were not the sign of his righteousness, Job’s faithfulness and reliance upon the grace of God were what produced divine favour.


2. Job’s flawed understanding: 40:4; 42:3-5

So often we apply doctrine and rules and commands from the Old and New Testament claiming divine sanction to use the Bible as club. I have seen Christians take an example of Jesus showing grace to a sinner and turn into a rule by which to judge a fellow believer and condemn them. How dare we bait and switch people with the gospel! How dare we offer the gospel as a free gift just to get them in the door telling them that receiving grace and salvation accomplished by Christ; and then we turn around and condemn over some minor point of Law while all the while violating the greater command exemplified by Jesus whenever he encountered sinners of showing grace. The only people Jesus ever rebuked or criticized were the Religious hypocrites.






Conclusion:

In How To Be Born Again, Billy Graham wrote: Several years ago I was to be interviewed at my home for a well-known television show and, knowing that it would appear on nationwide television, my wife took great pains to see that everything looked nice. She had vacuumed and dusted and tidied up the whole house but had gone over the living room with a fine-tooth comb since that was where the interview would be filmed. When the film crew arrived with all the lights and cameras, she felt that everything in the living room was spic and span. We were in place along with the interviewer when suddenly the television lights were turned on and we saw cobwebs and dust where we had never seen them before. In the words of my wife, “I mean, that room was festooned with dust and cobwebs which simply did not show up under ordinary light.”

The point is, of course, that no matter how well we clean up our lives and think we have them all in order, when we see ourselves in the light of God’s Word, in the light of God’s holiness, all the cobwebs and all the dust do show up.[3]

Two promises:

Satan will sift us: Luke 23:31-34;



We can do all things through Christ: Phil 4:12-13

12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.


NOTES:

[1]Henry, M. (1996, c1991). Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume (Job 1:1). Peabody: Hendrickson.
[2]Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson's complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed.) (633). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[3]Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson's complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed.) (141). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.