Day 2 Job 11-20

The reading for November 2 is Job 11-20.

The part in this section that stood out to me most immediately was Job 19:25 'For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth'. This verse is a little bit confusing and has been interpreted by people in a few different ways. Without going into details, i think what we can be sure about is that Job had faith in the goodness of God, and of his own security with God, and this gave him strength in his trial. I believe it is also indicated here that Job did not believe his security with God did not depend on his own perfection, but he trusted that God would count him worthy and accept for the faith that he did have.

Jobs three friends looked at Jobs suffering very simply, because God is righteous, He punishes sin with suffering, therefore suffering is proof that one is sinful; therefore as Job was suffering, he must be sinful, probably holding back some kind of secret sin. Likewise Jobs own children were killed because of their sin, according to Bildad in the first reading 'If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.'(Job 8:4).

However, note that Job both trusted in a Redeemer in his own life, and the life of his own children, thus his faith was not in his own perfection but in Gods. Job did not regard himself as perfect; in the speech given in chapter 8 by Bildad above, Bildad tried to make a case that suffering is a result of evil, in chapter 9 Job replies saying 'Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times'(Job 9:2-3). He seems to be saying that if God was to always punish evil, we would all be suffering. In this way Job seems to reject that his suffering and the suffering of his children are linked to sin in terms of punishment(there is apparently a lot of legal vocabulary in Job, which is used least of all in Gods speeches in the end, this probably indicates that the primary relationship between Job and God is not legal but personal). Job rejects this in relation to his children, because Job made sacrifices for them 'And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually”'(Job 1:5). I think that this passage (Job 1:5) combined with the passage Job 19:25 show that Job trusted not in his own goodness for his and his childrens security with God, but in Gods goodness toward Him, for sacrifices were a sign of trust in God to redeem a person. Job did complain that God was mistreating him, but this seems to be because Job believed his sin was covered. Job talks about his blamelessness, but his 'blamelessness' was a confidence in his redeemer, and because he believed in a Redeemer, it was not legaly right for God to punish Job, Job was innocent because of his faith in God.

According to Job, his suffering despite his trust in the righteousness of God to redeem him indicates that God was wrong to punish him. I believe that this is true, God would be wrong to punish Job if Job trusted in the righteousness of his Redeemer, for sins to require a punishment(the book of Hebrews talks about his alot, see Hebrews 9:22),so therefore performing a sacrifice represents a trust in God that that punishment has or will be paid, that is it represents a trust in God to forgive sins. If Jobs sins are already forgiven, then it would be wrong for God to punish Job, if God says he forgives sin, but punishes people who have trusted in Him to have their sins forgiven, then God would be a liar. However the reason Job was wrong was because God was not punishing him because of his sin, in fact I don't think God ever really gives Job a reason. The main focus of Gods concluding speech is just 'I am wise', the point therefore, seems to be that we should trust God no matter what, always believing He is good and righteous and just, and not believing that our suffering is a result of our sin. For if our sin were to be judged, we would be dead. Elihu, in his closing speech seems to give the closest thing to an explanation, but that is much too far ahead for today.