Who’s up for a look into the Book of Job today? 

 Happy Thanksgiving, by the way. This book actually opens up where families are gathered eating, and 42 chapters later, it ends with a similar setting. So this has to be a ‘confirmation’. :- ) 

 Why Job? Well…I believe we are offered more insight here to some significant truths that can only better help us understand certain ways in which God operates. 

 I make no pretense in being an expert on the bible nor do I want to sound like I have this ‘all figured out’. But I have no doubt, that all that I continue to study and learn is making more sense and so biblically sound and connected…and all I can do is share and put it out there for others to study for themselves. [and just to add here, God is not obligated to ‘make sense’ to us. But He loves us enough to give us ‘understanding’. ] 

 The book of Job is certainly one of those books that has created some challenges for believers over the years. And the ‘go to’ line I often hear when someone is undergoing great suffering and misery is a half hearted alignment with Job figuring ‘if God could do this to Job, then I guess He can do it to me as well’. I’m just not sure I buy in to that line of thinking. But I will offer up some more food for thought on this subject matter today. I just hope you will revisit it again after all that other food you eat today has settled and the brain numb from hours of football on TV wears off. ;-) 

 Let me begin with discussing a term that bible students would be familiar with and it has to do with ‘types’. You may be more familiar with the literary term ‘foreshadowing’. Simply stated, we see various characters in the OT that serve as a ‘type’ or foreshadowing of Christ and God’s master plan. 

 For example, we understand that Moses was a ‘type’ of Jesus who delivers God’s people from Egypt (the world) and then leads them through the wilderness after crossing the Red Sea (type of baptism and turning away from the world). Jesus delivered us from ‘the world of sin’, etc. You get the idea? 

 Oh, one other point on this. While the OT has actual historical events and happenings, in the natural realm, there are so many ‘spiritual’ truths and applications that they convey. When we come to the Lord and humble ourselves, He has this way of ‘unlocking’ these truths and ‘revealing them to the babes’. (Luke 10:21) 

 Now this is not to suggest that Moses was a perfect ‘type’ of Jesus for a host of reasons, but it serves a purpose. It is presented in scripture for us to better understand God’s word and His ways that eventually serves to equip and aid us in our own walk with God. 

 I can see some aspects in the story of Job that might possibly suggest he was a ‘type of Christ’. We know that Jesus suffered and died undeservingly and without cause for He was perfect and righteous. And He did this for our benefit. 

 God does not hide the fact that He considered Job to be blameless and upright and one who fears God and shuns evil. In fact God says there was none like him on the earth. (1:8) He adds to this in the next chapter telling the devil that he incited Him against Job, to destroy him ‘without cause’. And why? I would propose that Job ‘took a bullet for the team’ so we might have better understanding and insight to just how and why Satan operates within the parameters that God has laid down. 

 We have no reason to believe that Job did anything to bring this onslaught on him other than God used him to teach us something about how and why the devil operates. God made it clear that Job did nothing to warrant it. Now I’m not building a doctrine around this idea of Job being a ‘type of Christ’, merely proposing it as a matter to consider. Please just hear me out. 

 So what can we learn in those very first two chapters? First of all, Satan does NOTHING without God’s permission. 

 To suggest or believe that Satan or demons can strategize and do things without God’s knowledge is foolishness. That’s why we are to not fear them, but God alone. We know that demons do have ‘power’. Jesus acknowledged this in Luke 10 when He told His disciples He was giving them power over ‘all the power of the enemy’. (vs 19) And all power and authority on heaven and on earth is derived from God alone. 

 Secondly, what I would suggest is the most significant insight here is this: When God presented Job to Satan, his response was immediate. “I can’t touch him because you have a hedge around him. Not only him but his household and everything he has.” (vs. 9) Then he challenges God, if I can use that wording, to ‘remove the hedge or His hand’ then things would be different. So God does…with restrictions. 

 You might say God has Satan on a ‘leash’. God set conditions, or a boundary, and Satan had to abide by that. 

 So let me repeat the first point again. Satan can do NOTHING without God’s knowledge or permission. 

 This should not come as a shock to us…really. I mean… you do realize that God could have, at any time, removed Satan and every fallen angel/demon from existence. But He didn’t or has not…Yet. 

 So there must be some reason for them hanging around.

 Let’s take a look at this idea of a ‘hedge’ for a moment. We see this term used in other parts of the bible. For example, in Matt 21:33- Jesus begins another parable: “There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it.” It talks of how he went on to build a winepress and such. 

 Do you know why you build a hedge, or a wall constructed either of stone or thick shrubs as a barrier around something? -> To keep predators out. 

 Let that sink in for a moment. 

 I mentioned the other day that when a new believer turns to God with all their heart, despite all the ‘junk’ that still resides within them, they usually will begin to experience a genuine presence of God’s Spirit characterized by an overflow of His Joy and Peace. You can see it on their face. 

 What happened? I would submit to you that at that moment, God sets a ‘hedge’ or protective barrier around them and gives them peace unlike anything they have ever had before. You might say it’s a peace that passes all understanding and a joy unspeakable and full of glory. :- ) (old song we use to sing) 

 Prior coming to Jesus, you can read in John 3:36 what was abiding or all over them – the wrath of God. (and Ps 78:49 & Eph 2:2 tell you exactly what that is) Remember, because of the blood of Christ being shed, the ‘veil was rent’ and now we can come with confidence before His throne of grace to receive grace and mercy in the time of our need.’ (Heb 4:16) 

 We know that “in His presence there is fullness of joy”. The idea or plan here was…for us to walk in this peace all the time. Paul writes: “Let the peace of Christ Rule in your heart”(Col 3:15) and that we should ‘pursue peace’ (Heb 12:14) 

 Think in these terms- remember that old game we use to play where someone was blindfolded and went in search of an object and the closer they got to it, we yelled ‘hot, hot, hotter…burning hot’ or just the opposite if they strayed in the opposite direction. So when we ‘lose that peace/joy’ usually it has something to do with us failing to follow and obey. 

 Have you ever come out of a church service or maybe a morning devotional time that was such a blessing to you and your heart was touched and you felt His presence just flowing through you. Then, not long after maybe a ‘test’ arose. It could have been a phone call (or simple FB post) where someone wanted to gripe and gossip about someone you knew and instead of shutting it down, you joined right in. 

 And when you ended the call…what did you notice was missing? 

 Yep. That peace and joy was gone.

 God lifted his ‘hedge’ and guess what came in? Most likely a ‘predator’, with restrictions, of course. It’s the way he disciplines those whom He loves. (Heb 12:7-11) 

 Are we not God’s ‘vineyard’ and does He not want to produce ‘good fruit’ in us? We have a whole book of history of how God dealt/deals with His people. It’s not like God is short on patience, but there comes a time when He will allow things to come in to chasten us, wake us up, etc. In the OT, God lifted his hedge of protection and brought in or allowed neighboring nations that were wicked and stronger than the Israelites to execute vengeance. 

 That was the OT. In the NT, who is our ‘enemy’? (Any lights coming on here yet?) 

 God sent Isaiah the prophet to warn the people of God. Turn with me to the 5th chapter of that book and begin reading aloud, verses 1-7. See if anything gets your attention in verse 5. I would suggest just reading through the rest of the chapter but slow down for verses 24-30 and see if that does not speak to you. 

 In Joshua 3 , we read how the only thing that was preventing the Israelites from entering the Promised Land was the Jordan River, which at that time of year, was at ‘flood’ stage. When the priest bore the ark upon their shoulders per God’s instructions, the waters upstream began to ‘pile up’ and all the people crossed over on dry ground. It was as if God set a ‘hedge’ to stop the flood. We have talked in the past about what the ‘flood’ represents often times in scripture. God’s wrath, or when the ‘enemy comes in like a flood’ and how the ‘flood came and took them all away in the days of Noah…”. Why Jesus talked about a ‘flood’ coming and beating against two houses to test their foundations. (Matt 7:25) 

 Now back to the first chapter of Job. 

 After given ‘access’ by God and a limited ‘removing of the hedge of protection’, we read where one calamity after another begins to strike Job’s family. There are raids by the neighboring Sabeans and Chaldeans, hostile enemies who rush in stealing, and killing and destroying. (Do those words sound familiar? John 10:10) 

 Then we see in vs. 16 that ‘the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and servants’. I’m sure if this was being reported today that ‘climate change would be the blame’. Then in verse 19, the final destructive act is unleashed and a great wind came across the wilderness and killed off Job’s children and their families who were gathered for a meal.

. 

 Job, upon hearing this news, is devastated…he tears his robe and shaves his head and falls to the ground in worships. The last verse of this chapters declares that ‘in all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.’ 

 I’ve gone a bit long today and it is Thanksgiving and I’m sure you have a full day. We can continue on tomorrow with more insights from Job. 

 Have a blessed day. I can’t wait to share more tomorrow. 

 I’m telling you, there are some of you whose lives will be changed as you begin to see where all this is leading. :- )