Job 1:1-5--Job's Character and Wealth

Job's Character and Wealth​
1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 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.

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The book of Job unfolds like a drama or a play--first you start with an aside to introduce the main character and let everyone know who they are supposed to focus on--that's basically what these verses here do for us.  They focus our attention on Job and his integrity (notice that verse 1 calls him "blameless"--that word is used over and over again in the book of Job to describe Job's character and one of the main things we are to focus on in this story).

We also see Job is a man of the Near East (the land of Uz (recall from Genesis 10:22-23 that Uz was one of the sons of Aram, and a grandson of Shem.  So, this book is probably about people and events that happened sometime shortly after the Tower of Babel and the table of nations that we see in Genesis 10, so that probably makes this book the oldest book of the Bible, since authorship of the book of Genesis and the other books of the Torah are usually attributed to Moses and that would come many generations later.  Keep this in mind as we study the book of Job as this predates the Law, the Prophets, and was probably somewhere around the time of Abraham--which should give us hope that God has always been at work in the Gentile nations, even from the beginning.  Oh, and since I didn't mention it, most biblical scholars think that "the land of Uz" became the land of Aram which we'll read about in Genesis other places in the Old Testament and is roughly in the same geographical location as the country of Jordan today.  It seems though that the land there was a lush river valley full of life and was not the desert area that we see today--a lot of that has to do with how people treat the land and God's blessing on the land.

Let's also remember at that time that everything was very agrarian and wealth was measured in terms of the size of a man's land and herds and even the number of servants that he had to help him take care of his land and herds, but we also know that children were seen as a huge blessing as well and the ability to have children was seen as a blessing and the lack of children was seen as a curse--this will play into the story later, so don't forget that.  In fact most of the people of that time associated material blessing with obedience and lack of wealth as a sign of someone being disobedient and in need of repentance--we see this idea throughout the Bible and it still exists in some form today in some of the false gospels that are preached today--namely the "Prosperity Gospel," "Word of Faith" and "Name It and Claim It" movements that try to pass themselves off as Christianity today.  As we study the book of Job, I think we'll see that God tries to adjust our thinking on these issues (among others) because we see that Job did nothing (at least at first) to deserve God's correction and God will even come back and correct Job's "friends" in this story to tell them that Job had done nothing wrong, but at a certain point, God does bring correction in the form of asking Job some rhetorical questions that will reveal to Job God's nature and character and who He is by what He has done (just like we recently talked about with His covenant name of "I AM," but long before He ever revealed that name to Moses and the Israelites).  Keep that idea in mind though that people are going to depend on their own knowledge and experience to define who God is to them and the kind of god that they believe in.  Are we really that different today?  Don't we hear people jump to their testimony and experience before turning to the Bible to see how God reveals Himself in His Word?  Job and his friends didn't really have that benefit, so don't be so quick to judge them that way--but they will show that "there is nothing new under the sun" as Solomon will say in the book of Ecclesiastes--many of the "new age" religions are just repackaged versions of the views held by Job's friends in this book--we'll get there soon, but have to finish setting up the stage and the main characters.

We see that even at this time, Job somehow understood the role of a priest and substitutionary atonement and acted as a priest for his family.  In fact, he offered sacrifices for others who would not offer them for themselves hoping that God would see and accept those sacrifices--that's something interesting that we don't really see--a different kind of understanding of God that payment needed to be made in full, but perhaps someone else could pay for the sin-debt of another.  Ultimately we'll see the fulfillment of this idea in Christ as He will pay the sin-debt of all of the elect (possibly the whole world, depending on how you read certain passages) past present and future.  In fact, there is a "scarlet thread" of redemption woven throughout the entire book of Job that I don't want you to miss--it's very easy to miss, so I actually want to give you a "key verse" now that I think might help you "unlock" some of the truths of this book as we study it.  

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth. (Job 19:25)

You'll understand that verse a little better in its context when we get there, but it is the first place in chronological history of the Bible that we see God called our Redeemer, and it's not the only Messianic prophecy that we'll see in the book of Job.  In fact, we'll see several places where Job will cry out to God to ask for there to be a mediator between God and man.  We see in the book of Hebrews that Jesus was the answer to that prayer.  It is a book full of "hidden gems,"

On that note, let me give you a word of caution about reading this book.  It is historical narrative (much like some of the other books of the Bible we've been reading recently like Genesis and Exodus) and it is important to read it in that light.  The text is often times descriptive and should not be seen as prescriptive (especially when it comes to Job's friends, but even some of Job's reactions wouldn't be appropriate for us with the additional revelation of God and His Word that we have at this time).  Notice that God only held Job accountable for what He knew and not for what he didn't know--we see this idea in the book of Romans, but Job knew enough to know better at the end of the book.  This is a great book to answer the hypothetical question that many ask about the person that never heard the gospel and how can God judge such a person.  We'll see exactly what God thinks of Job and each of his friends at the end of the book.

I hope you're getting a little excited for this, but we have more to talk about to set up the story as in the next blog we'll pull back the curtain and show a secret conversation that's happening in heaven that our main character(s) know nothing about, but we as the audience get to know about it so that we can see it play out in front of us throughout the rest of the drama that is about to unfold.

Last, but not least, I've used the language of a play or drama, and the book certainly is written in that kind of format, but do understand these are real people in a real place and real historical events.  Remember that we're probably at a time in history where the easiest way for the historical events to be recorded and told to future generations was to reenact them.  It should also give us some idea that the people of that time weren't so "backwards" as we might imagine and probably understood the arts as well as we do.  There is something about a story like this that gets boring and monotonous if you just read it (imagine reading one of Shakespeare's plays verses going to see it acted out in front of you.  Which is more interesting and which do you remember more?)  I think God understands that and we probably need to have that mindset that we're reading something that actually happened but was recorded in a "dramatic" format (not that it lost any historical accuracy or truth value) and that it was probably made to be "acted out," so please bear with me as we read the text together.  Try to imagine the play unfolding and how God has scripted the whole event and what you as an audience member are supposed to think and feel at different points.  Put yourself in the place of the characters as the story is unfolding and try to let yourself know only as much as they knew at the time.  How would you respond?  Would you be more like Job or Bildad, Eliphaz, Zophar, or maybe Elihu who doesn't speak until the end but thinks he has a lot to say when he does.  Again, we're getting to all of that.

I'm looking forward to studying this book with you and hope that you are also excited for it.