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Job's Turban

2/9/2019

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Was Job right in claiming extreme righteousness?
 
In Job 29:14, the Old Testament character of Job said he wore righteousness as his clothing and justice as his robe and turban. And in Job 29 and 31, he reported 24 ways in which he acted righteously.  Job said he:

  • Hadn’t walked in falsehood or had been deceitful.
  • Hadn’t concealed sin in his heart.
  • Wasn’t enticed by a woman.
  • Hadn’t trusted in gold.
  • Hadn’t rejoiced over his great wealth.
  • Hadn’t worshipped the sun or moon.
  • Hadn’t rejoiced over his enemy’s misfortune.
  • Hadn’t cursed his enemy.
  • Hadn’t denied justice to his servants.
  • Hadn’t failed to pay for the yield of his land.
  • Hadn’t broken the spirit of its tenants.
  • Took up the case of the stranger.
  • Hadn’t denied the desires of the poor.
  • Hadn’t let the eyes of the widow grow weary.
  • Shared bread with the fatherless.
  • Reared the fatherless from his youth.
  • Rescued those who had none to assist them.
  • From his birth, guided the widow and made her heart sing. 
  • Helped anyone he saw perishing for lack of clothing or needing clothes
  • Shared his food with his household.
  • Opened his door to travelers.
  • Was eyes to the blind.
  • Was feet to the lame.
  • Was father to the needy.
 
Was Job right? Read The Joy of Job to find out but, in the meantime, consider these four points:
 
1. Compare Job’s words with that of the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, as told by Jesus in Luke 18:9-14:
 
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
 
2. Contrast Job’s representations of benevolence with his own statements about the starving boys living among the rocks, whose fathers he “would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.” (Job 30:1) Rather than considering how to assuage their hunger, Job looked at them from a cold, mercenary point of view:  “Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?” (Job 30:2)
 
3. Compare Job’s words with the Biblical standard for humility, which is truth. “If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves,” states Galatians 6:3. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,” says 1 John 1:8. “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure. I am clean and without sin’?” states Proverbs 20:9.

​4. The very people he claimed to have helped abandoned him. Other than the four friends who came from afar, not one came to his rescue or aid during his time of suffering.
 
Read ​The Joy of Job, An Investigator’s Perspective on the Most Righteous Man on Earth to find out why interpreting Job correctly matters.
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Job said he reared the fatherless from his youth. (Job 31:17-18)
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Job said he guided the widows from his birth. ​(Job 31:17-18)
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Eliphaz told Job in no uncertain terms: "You stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land — an honored man, living on it. And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless." (Job 22:6-9)
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Job said he wouldn't put the fathers of the starving boys with his sheep dogs. (Job 30:1)
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Job was not Righteous. Here's Why.

1/31/2019

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Traditional interpreters of Job characterize Job as righteous before he repented, largely overlooking all but the first two chapters of the Old Testament book that bears his name. Here are 15 reasons to challenge their assumptions:

  1. Job exhibited ungodly pride and cherished his own glory (Job 29), in contrast to men of the Bible who humbled themselves and sought to please God, not people. (Galatians 1:10; Luke 3:16; Genesis 18:27; Numbers 12:3)
  2. Job listed more than two dozen ways in which he was righteous (Job 31), some of them unrealistic. (Job 31:18) In doing so, Job sounded remarkably like the New Testament Pharisee, who was confident of his own righteousness. (Luke 18:9-14)
  3. Despite Job’s claims of extraordinary benevolence, none of his beneficiaries supported him in his loss. (Job 19:13-19)
  4. Starving boys who lived among the rocks universally despised Job—and the feeling was mutual.  Job said he would have disdained to put their fathers with his sheep dogs (Job 30:1) and rejected them because they were too weak from hunger to be of use to him. (Job 30:2)
  5. Four friends challenged Job’s self-assessment and charged Job with the same sin: devastating business practices that took advantage of the vulnerable. (Job 22:6-9; See Joy of Job for other verses.)
  6. There is no evidence that Job’s friends possessed such evil character that would cause them to conspire to falsely accuse Job. They had no motive to lie, they sought Job’s restoration, (Job 8:5-7; 22:19-21; 33:26) and they likely spent weeks—possibly months—away from their homes to comfort Job without prospects of personal gain. (Job 2:11-13; Job 7:3)
  7. If Job’s four friends were evil-hearted, so was every other person in his life. All others—even the very people he said he helped—either abandoned him or mocked him. His family reunited with him only after he repented. (Job 42:11)
  8. Job mourned the loss of reputation (Job 17:2; 30:10; 16:10; 12:4; 30:15 and other verses) more than the loss of his children, whose names or memories he did not invoke.
  9. The reprimand by the Lord issued against Job’s three friends was not for wrongly speaking about Job’s character, as some analysts argue, but for speaking wrongly about God. (Job 42:7)
  10. Elihu wholeheartedly agreed with the other friends’ character assessment, but God did not rebuke him. (Job 36:17-21, NLT; Job 42:7)
  11. Job repented and took back everything he said.  (Job 42:1-6, NLT)
  12. Job demanded extreme loyalty, even at the Lord’s expense. He accused his friends of wickedly showing partiality to God and stated that his friends should be loyal to a man even if he abandoned fear of the Almighty. (Job 13:7-8; 6:14, CSB)
  13. Job condemned the Lord to justify himself. (Job 40:8)
  14. God angrily accused Job of talking with “words without knowledge” and commended him only after he repented. (Job 38:2; 42:8)
  15. It was Job’s regular custom to make sacrifices for his errant children, but there is no evidence that he tried to intervene or discipline them. In reality, the Lord did not want sacrifices without repentance. (Job 1:5. Isaiah 1:12-13, TLB)
 
For elaboration on these and other arguments against Job's claims of righteousness, readThe Joy of Job, An Investigator’s Perspective on the Most Righteous Man on Earth. Learn why Job matters. Buy the award-winning book here. 


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    Why Job Matters

    Many today talk about belief in an unconditionally loving God without recognizing the true state of the human soul. Sin and its author, Satan, are barely acknowledged.
     
    Like many of today’s Christians, Job had faith—but not repentance. He performed religious acts, while taking advantage of his fellow man. He confidently believed he was superior in God's sight. To break through this delusion of religious pride, God turned Job over to Satan, a painful process that allowed this ancient man of antiquity to finally comprehend the utter holiness of God.
     
    Job had to recognize who he was—a sinful, fallible, and misled creature—before he could enter the immense joy of relationship with his Creator.
     
    At a time when some  preach that only belief in a loving God—without repentance and complete obedience to a holy God—is sufficient, the true message of Job resonates today.

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