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:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders[a] of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.[b]
9 But Yahweh's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
Yahweh made Israel his special possession. They were his inheritance--his portion. All the other nations? Meh. Yahweh decided to contract out the work of ruling over them to the sons of God. But this doesn't mean that the sons of God are independent from Yahweh, or don't have to answer to him. Yahweh is Most High. He's still in charge. Yahweh expects the sons of God to exercise authority rightly, and when they don't, He condemns them. This was Psalm 82. Here, we are getting a picture of what all of this looked like. The sons of God come, and present themselves before Yahweh. I'm guessing, they then give an account of how they have ruled, and how it's going.
But then we learn that one of the sons of God is different than the others. The Satan, or the Adversary, also came in their midst. And he's unique. When we read "the Satan" here, it's impossible for us to hear this as anything other than Satan. Right? But what we have here isn't the name for a spiritual being. It's a title. "The Satan." "The Adversary."
In England, the political party not in power is called Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (for all that follows, I'm pretty sure I'm borrowing from N.T. Wright, somewhere]. Their job is to ask the hard questions, to be difficult, to make sure that the party in power doesn't have too easy a time of it. It's easy to be in charge, and run things the way you want them to go. It's easy to become corrupt, and let the power go to your head. It's easy to ignore the people you disagree with, and just try to please the people who can scratch your back. What you need, if you're in power, is someone who will speak up, keep you in check, and keep you honest. You need someone to ask hard questions about the wars that you are fighting, about the federal deficit you're budgeting for, and about how you're running the country. In God's divine council, the Adversary's job is to be His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. His job is to roam the world, and ask the tough questions. This is the job Yahweh gave him. He's not tied down to one nation.
Verse 7
And Yahweh said to the Adversary,
"From where were/are you coming?"
And the Adversary answered Yahweh, and he said,
"From roaming on the earth, and from walking on it."
So here, in verse 7, we learn that the Adversary has a unique role among the sons of God. The others all seem to have specific nations/peoples they rule over. But the Adversary? He roams the earth.
Verse 8
And Yahweh said to the Adversary,
"Did you set your heart/mind on my servant Job
because there is no one like him on earth-- a man blameless and upright, a fearer of God and a shunner
from evil?"
Job is exceptional, and Yahweh brags about him to the Adversary. It's like when your kids do well at something. You can't help but nudge the parent next to you, and say, "Did you see my kid do that?" Yahweh says, "Have you seen Job? Have you set your heart on him, and really thought about how he's living? There is no one like Job. He's everything people were meant to be." When you have a servant like Job, you can't help but brag.
Verses 9-10 are the Adversary's response to Yahweh. The Adversary doesn't argue with Yahweh about Job's character. Job's character is above reproach; he truly is exceptional. However, the Adversary does have two questions, which are appropriate given his role in God's divine council. These two questions have to do with why Job obeys. So here are the two tough questions the Adversary asks, as His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition:
And the Adversary answered Yahweh,
and he said,
"For nothing does Job fear God? ["For nothing" is focused]
(10) Haven't you put a fence around him,
and around his house,
and around all that is his on every side?
The work of his hands you have blessed,
while his livestock have increased in the land.
The Adversary says, Job has all the motivation in the world to fear God, and live uprightly. Yahweh has blessed him in every single possible way. He has protected him and his house-- which means, his family, and all his possessions-- from every evil. God looks at Job, and he sees a man who is truly exceptional. The Adversary looks at Job, and he sees a man who knows where his bread is buttered. And so he asks the tough questions. "Is it for nothing that Job fears God? Haven't you done everything you possibly could, to make him want to obey you?"
As readers, we at this point are supposed to think back to verses 1-2. Job was blameless and upright, and then he had 7 sons and 3 daughters. We, as readers, are pretty sure we know the answer to the Adversary's questions already. Yahweh blessed Job, in every possible way, because Job was faithful.
In verse 11, the Adversary goes on to very politely make a request of Yahweh.
(11) but stretch out your hand, please,
and touch all that is his,
and surely/truly, to your face, he will "bless" you.
In this verse, the Adversary has a request for Yahweh. It's horrible. And the Adversary knows it's horrible. He knows he's asking a lot of Yahweh. He knows this is a stretch. And so the Adversary says this as nicely as he can. He says "please." "Yahweh, stretch your hand, please, and touch everything Job has to destroy it." It is only then that they will all be able to see if Job won't, in the end, "bless" Yahweh. But the Adversary is confident that this will end with Job "blessing" God.
(12) And Yahweh said to the Adversary,
"Look! All that is his [is] in your hand.
Only, against him you shall not stretch out your hand.
Yahweh isn't willing to stretch out his own hand against Job. He won't harm Job, a man who is exceptional among all of humanity for his faithfulness and blamelessness.
But the Adversary's hand? That's another story. Yahweh gives everything that Job has into the Adversary's hand. The only restriction Yahweh places on the Adversary, is that the Adversary not stretch out his hand against Job.
I think this is the hardest verse in all of Job. We already think we know from verses 1-2 why and when Job obeyed. Job obeyed Yahweh before Yahweh blessed him. So why does Yahweh place Job in the Adversary's hand? Scholars have wrestled with this, and come up with different explanations. Duhm thinks we should read this, and condemn Yahweh for his readiness to bring evil on Job. Rowley thinks that God himself doesn't need to be convinced of Job's righteousness, but is prepared to allow the Adversary to satisfy his curiosity. Or are we supposed to somehow think that God agrees to the Adversary's polite request as a way to deepen Job's faith?
Clines suggests that "God can agree to the proposal to 'smite' all that is Job's only because he too, like everyone else, does not know what the outcome will be . . .not even Yahweh knows what has not yet happened; his knowledge does not encompass all possible hypothetical situations. He has confidence in Job, but not a confidence that would enable him to use Job as an object lesson to refute the Satan's aspersions. He too has taken it for granted that he will bless the pious man; but that benign reciprocity has obscured the true relation of piety and prosperity. The Satan has the right to ask the question, and Yahweh is in the right in having the problem probed."
I think the answer to this is found in part in Genesis 22. In this chapter, God tests Abraham by asking him very politely, very nicely, to sacrifice his son Isaac. Genesis 22:2:
"And he (Yahweh) said,
"Take, please, your son, your only son, who you have loved, Isaac,
and go for yourself to the land of Morah,
and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains
which I will say/show to you."
Abraham could say no-- God asked him very nicely, without demanding. But Abraham obeyed, and after he obeyed, we read this in verse 12:
12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
When God wants to know if people will be faithful under trial, he does so not by peeking into the future, to see how you will react. We maybe think God does this. We maybe think he should do this. But when God wants to know if people will be faithful, He does so by testing them. This is only fair. And the Bible is consistent on this point (1 Peter 1:6-7).
We already learned in Job 1:1-2 that Job's obedience preceded God blessing him. But now, at this point, Job's ongoing faithfulness, and Yahweh's ongoing blessing, have become so intertwined that it's hard to know what would happen if you tried to separate them. The only way to know is by testing. Yahweh isn't personally willing to bring evil on Job, but the Adversary has the right to ask-- it's his job to ask these types of hard questions-- and he has the right to check. And the only way to really check, is to destroy Job's life.
[This explanation of Job fits very nicely with how the Bible describes why God tests (Genesis 22:12). Faithfulness is always something that is determined through testing (1 Peter 1:6-7; James 1:3). It's not determined by foreknowledge.]
Picking up again in verse 12:
And the Adversary went out from before the face/presence of Yahweh.
(13) And then, one day, his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their first-born brother,
(14) and a messenger came to Job,
and he said,
"The cattle were plowing
and the female donkeys were feeding beside them,
(15) and the Shabeans fell [on them]
and they took them,
while the servants/youths they struck with the mouth of the sword,
and I escaped-- only I alone-- to report to you.
(16) While this one was speaking, another one came and he said,
"The fire of Elohim has fallen from the heavens,
and it burned up the flock and the servants/youths,
and it consumed them,
and I escaped--only I alone--to report to you."
(17) While this one was speaking, another came and he said,
"The Chaldeans have formed three bands,
and they raided on the camels
and they took them,
while the youths/servants they struck with the mouth of the sword,
and I escaped--only I alone--to report to you."
(18) While this one was speaking, another came and he said,
"Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their first-born brother."
(19) And look! A great wind/spirit came from across the wilderness
and it struck the four corners of the house,
and it fell on the servants/youth
and they died,
and I escaped--I alone-- to report to you,"
(20) And Job stood,
and he tore his robe,
and he shaved his head,
and he fell to the ground,
and he bowed down/worshipped,
(21) And he said,
"Naked I came from the womb of my mother, ["naked" is focused]
and naked I am returning there.
Yahweh has given,
while Yahweh has taken.
May the name of Yahweh be blessed."
(22) In all of this Job did not sin,
and he did not charge wrongdoing to God.
The Adversary, having received permission from Yahweh, immediately goes and destroys Job's life. All of the things God had blessed him, the adversary destroyed.
And how does this story end?
The Adversary raised the tough question-- would Job "bless" God if everything was taken from him? And here, Job does in fact bless God. But the Adversary was wrong-- Job truly blessed God. He didn't curse him.
So the Adversary asked the hard questions, that perhaps needed to be asked. But Job was faithful. He didn't sin. And if we were impressed by his faithfulness to God before, what are we supposed to think now? Job is truly an exceptional man of faith.
----------------------------
This passage isn't really focused on the sons of God. Job 1 assumes that Yahweh is the Most High, and all the sons of God report to him, and have to give an account for how they have been ruling the nations. Yahweh doesn't live in the heavens in isolation. He's surrounded by the sons of God--at least at times-- and what we are seeing is his divine council. Job 1 fits in very nicely with what we've already read in Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 82, and Psalm 97. I'm hoping that it's all starting to come together for you.
What Job 1 introduces us to, that's new, is the Adversary. The Adversary is a unique son of God. He has a special role. His job is to be His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. At some point, the Adversary takes his job to the extreme, and he sets himself up as Yahweh's rival. But here, in Job 1, we don't see any of that. The Adversary asks humbly, politely--but he asks the hard questions of Yahweh that need to be asked. He's doing a tough job, and he's doing it well. At least, that's what I'm trying to tell myself.
If I step away from this, and just focus on reading Job 1 responsibly, and not as part of a bigger series, I'm not sure what to tell you. I don't know how to try to sum up this passage, or help you wrestle with it.
Job is the not the kind of book that is written to give you easy answers. It's not neat and tidy. Job 1 is not supposed to leave you satisfied. Be unhappy. Be bothered. Let there be questions in your mind. Why did Yahweh do this? If we are too scared to ask this, we won't hear the rest of Job rightly.
But there is one thing that's absolutely clear at this point in the book of Job. Job is a remarkable man of faith. He is always upright, always blameless, always concerned about the spiritual status of his family. And I, for one, am not so sure that if everything was ripped from me in an instant, that my immediate response would be to stand up, tear my clothes, shave my head, and fall down and worship God. How can Job respond to what happened to him, by blessing Yahweh? We read this, and we should marvel. Job has passed the Adversary's test.
And, maybe, that moves us to think about how seriously we take our faithfulness to God. Are we Job? I don't know. I'm glad I'm not Job. I don't know if I could be Job. But this makes me want to try.
