A Sneak Peak Into God's Divine Council (Job 1:1-22) Series

We continue our "sons of God" series today, by reading from Job 1. Let's start, by reading the first three verses:

(1) There was a man in the land of Uz.

Job [was] his name,

And that man was always blameless and upright,

and he was a fearer/reverer of God and a shunner from evil,

(2) and (then) there were born to him seven sons and three daughters,

(3) and his livestock was 7000 sheep/goats and 3000 camels, and 500 pair of cattle, and 500 female donkeys, and slaves, many, exceedingly,

and this man was greater than all the sons of the East.

With this, we begin the book of Job. Job is a model of what it looks like to be faithful toward God. He was always blameless and upright. He was a God-fearer and one who turned away from evil (Proverbs 3:7).

In verse 2, there's something subtle happening with the Hebrew grammar. If you read the KJV, you'll notice in OT stories that almost every sentence begins with "and." "And this happened, and then this happened, and then this." When the KJV does this, it's preserving the form of how stories are written. My translations do the same thing. The idea is that one event happens after another, in sequence. This is how stories work, right? Something happens, and then something else, and so on. Verse 2 begins with a wayyiqtol-- a "and then." When we see "and then," we understand that we are now reading about what happened next.

So Job is blameless, and upright, a fearer of God, one who always turned away from evil-- and then, what happened next, is that there were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

Children are a blessing from God. These 10 children were born to him after he was living blamelessly. All his livestock, and his slaves-- everything he had, he had after he was blameless. Verse 3 ends with the narrator saying, "There was no one greater than him." And we understand this very broadly. There was no one greater than Job in faithfulness to God. And there was no one greater in prosperity. Job is exceptional, in every possible way.

Verse 4-5:

(4) And his sons would walk

and they would make a feast at the house of a man on his day,

and they would send

and they would call for their three sisters to eat and drink with them,

(5) And then, when the days of the feast ended, Job would send, ["and then" updates story time, signaling

an advance]

and he would sanctify them,

and he would rise early in the morning,

and he would offer sacrifices for each of them because Job said,

"Perhaps my sons sinned and "blessed" God in their heart."

Thus Job would do all the days.

In verses 4-5, the narrator paints us a picture of just how upright Job was. Job's sons, on an ongoing basis, would have feasts at each other's houses, and they'd invite their three sisters to join them.

There is nothing wrong with feasts. There is nothing wrong with having family over, and enjoying each other's company, and celebrating life. But when the feasts were done, Job made a habit of rising early, and offering sacrifices for them in case they sinned. And Job was worried about one sin in particular. Maybe, it's just possible, that his sons sinned and "blessed" God. If you look at your translation, you'll see that "blessed" is in quotation marks. English Bibles all translate this as "cursed." And that's what Job means. But the idea that the sons could "curse" God is so appalling, that you can't actually stick the two words next to each other. It's unthinkable. Who would dare to curse God? Who would dare to suggest that as a possibility? So the book of Job uses a euphemism here. It uses the opposite word. Maybe, it's just possible, that Job's sons "blessed" God in their hearts. Not out loud, certainly--but in their hearts? Maybe. On the chance that they had done this, he would offer a sacrifice for their sins.

And this is what Job would do, all the days. Job was committed not just to being personally upright, but also making sure his family was living faithfully toward God. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. We see this picture of Job, and we can't help but look at him favorably. Job is a model for how we are supposed to live toward God. There really is no one like Job.

Verse 6:

And then, one day, the sons of God/Elohim came to present themselves before Yahweh,

and he came-- also/what's more, the satan/adversary-- in their midst.

Well. This is unexpected. We've just heard about what Job would do "all the days" for his sons. And now we read about one particular day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. We've read Deuteronomy 32:8-9 three times now in this series. These are verses that you should memorize, or at least remember where they are. So I'll read them again: