The Book begins with a description of the many gifts God bestowed on Job, followed by a (God-inspired) dialog between God and Satan. That dialog essentially tells us, “Little did Job know that God agreed with Satan to test Job’s faith by turning his life upside down.“
Is that dialog needed? From the New Testament we know that God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God’s plans for people of faith cannot be reduced to any isolated cause.
In the wonderful poetry of Chapters 38-42, God thunders a long (evasive?) answer to Job’s question, “How did I offend you, Lord“? God never discloses His interchange with Satan. Why not? In any event, a NT writer tells “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Finally, the restoration epilogue is unnecessary: some of the faithful do in fact physically suffer and perish.
We are left with the question, why did God choose to cloud our understanding of Providence when He inspired this important work?
Blessings.
What Job suffered was temporary.
God deals with men on an individual basis.
God does whatever He wants and no one can call Him to account for what He does.
Job Proclaims God’s Righteous Judgments - Then Job answered and said: “Even today my complaint is bitter; My hand is listless because of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, And fill my mouth with arguments. I...
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1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Even today my complaint is bitter;
[
a]My hand is listless because of my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come to His seat!
4 I would present
my case before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words
which He would answer me,
And understand what He would say to me.
6 Would He contend with me in His great power?
No! But He would take
note of me.
7 There the upright could reason with Him,
And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
8 “Look, I go forward, but He is not
there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
9 When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold
Him;
When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see
Him.
10 But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 My foot has held fast to His steps;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
More than my [
b]necessary
food.
13 “But He is unique, and who can make Him change?
And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
14 For He performs what is appointed for me,
And many such things are with Him.
15 Therefore I am terrified at His presence;
When I consider this, I am afraid of Him.
16 For God made my heart weak,
And the Almighty terrifies me;
17 Because I was not cut off [
c]from the presence of darkness,
And He did
not hide deep darkness from my face.
Daniel 4
Nebuchadnezzar Praises God
34 And at the end of the [k]time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever:
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom is from generation to generation.
35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, “What have You done?”
Isaiah 40
5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see
it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 The voice said, “Cry out!”
And [
d]he said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh
is grass,
And all its loveliness
is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people
are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”
9 O Zion,
You who bring good tidings,
Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem,
You who bring good tidings,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift
it up, be not afraid;
Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God shall come [
e]with a strong
hand,
And His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, His reward
is with Him,
And His [
f]work before Him.
11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry
them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.
12 Who has measured the [
g]waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a [
h]span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or
as His counselor has taught Him?
14 With whom did He take counsel, and
who instructed Him,
And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,
And are counted as the small dust on the scales;
Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before Him are as nothing,
And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.
18 To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
19 The workman molds an image,
The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,
And the silversmith casts silver chains.
20 Whoever
is too impoverished for
such [
i]a contribution
Chooses a tree
that will not rot;
He seeks for himself a skillful workman
To prepare a carved image
that will not totter.
21 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants
are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He [
j]brings the princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.
24 Scarcely shall they be planted,
Scarcely shall they be sown,
Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,
When He will also blow on them,
And they will wither,
And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.
25 “To whom then will you liken Me,
Or
to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these
things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of
His power;
Not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak,
And to
those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew
their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
