The unseen universe - Chambers, Oswald

Job 1:1–12

Man is not god but hath gods end to serve, a master to obey, a course to take, somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become. Grant this, then man must pass from old to new, from vain to real, from mistake to fact, from what once seemed good, to what now proves best.

Robert browning

(1) the record of the natural ( job 1:15) the greatest man in the east (a) his goodness ( job 1:1) (b) his grandeur ( job 1:24) (c) his graciousness ( job 1:5)

(2) the record of the supernatural ( job 1:612) the scenery behind the seen (a) sons of god ( job 1:6) (b) satan and god ( job 1:78) (c) satanic sneer about god ( job 1:912)

it is in such a book as job that many suffering souls will find consolation and sustaining, and this because no attempt is made to explain the why of suffering, but rather an expression is given to suffering which leaves one with the inspiration of an explanation in the final issue. The problem in connection with suffering arises from the fact that there is seemingly no explanation of it.

To say that job was perfected by means of his sufferings is begging the question, for job was perfect in moral and religious equipment before suffering touched his life. Hast thou considered my servant job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that . . . Escheweth evil? ( job 1:8). Job suffered according to the will of god; he never knew the preface to his story.

Verses 612 are a record of the supernatural; there is nothing familiar to our minds in them. The bible deals with what no ordinary mind sees the scenery behind the things that are seen. We have means of inferring the existence of a supernatural world only when it interferes with us. These verses refer to some- thing that happened in the supernatural world, and it is what happened there that accounts for jobs sufferings; therefore the upset which came into the life of this great and good man is not to be laid to his account.

There is a difference between Satan and the devil which the bible student should note. According to the bible, man is responsible for the introduction of Satan: Satan is the result of a communication set up between man and the devil (see genesis 3:15).

When Jesus Christ came face to face with Satan he dealt with him as representing the attitude man takes up in organizing his life apart from any consideration of god. In the temptation the devil is seen in his undisguised character; only once did our lord address the devil as satan then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence, satan . . . (Matthew 4:10). On another occasion Jesus said that self-pity was satanicbut he turned, and said unto peter, get thee behind me, Satan . . . (Matthew 16:23).

The devil is the adversary of god in the rule of man and Satan is his representative. Because a thing is satanic does not mean that it is abominable and immoral; our lord said that that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of god (Luke 16:15). Satan rules this world under the inspiration of the devil and men are peaceful when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peacethere is no breaking out into sin and wrongdoing. One of the most cunning travesties is to represent Satan as the instigator of external sins. The satanically-managed man is moral, upright, proud and individual; he is absolutely self-governed and has no need of god. Satan counterfeits the holy spirit. The holy spirit represents the working of god in a human life when it is at one with god through the redemption; in other words, holy spirit is the heredity brought into human nature at regeneration. When a man is born from above he has granted to him the disposition of Jesus, holy spirit, and if he obeys that disposition he will develop into the new manhood in Christ Jesus. If by deliberate refusal a man is not born again he is liable to find himself developing more and more into the satanic, which will ultimately head up into the devil.

Then Satan answered the lord, and said, doth job fear god for nought? Job 1:912 might be para- phrased in this way: Satan is represented as saying to god, you are infatuated with the idea that man loves you for your own sake; he never has and never will. Job, for instance, simply loves you because you bless and prosper him, but touch any one of his blessings and he will curse you to your face and prove that no man on earth loves you for your own sake. It must be remembered what jobs creed was. Job believed that god prospered and blessed the upright man who trusted in him, and that the man who was not upright was not prospered. Then came calamity after calamity, everything job believed about god Was contradicted and his creed went to the winds. Satan sneer is the counterpart of the devils sneer in genesis 3; there, the devils object is to sneer about god to man; here, satans object is to sneer about man to god, he is the accuser of our brethren. To-day there is in our midst a crop of juvenile sceptics, men who up to the time of the war had had no tension in their lives, and as soon as turmoil embroiled them they flung over their faith and became cheap and easy sceptics. The man who knows that there are problems and difficulties in life is not so easily moved. Most of us get touchy with god and desert him when he does not back up our creed (cf. John 6:60, 66). Many a man through this war 6 has lost his form of belief in god and imagines that he has thereby lost god, whereas he is in the throes of a conflict which ought to give birth to a realisation of god more fundamental than any statement of belief.

There are things in our heavenly fathers dealings with us which have no immediate explanation. There are inexplicable Providences which test us to the limit, and prove that rationalism is a mere mental pose. The bible and our common sense agree that the basis of human life is tragic, not rational, and the whole problem is focused for us in this book of job. Chapter 13:15 is the utterance of a man who has lost his explicit hold on god, but not his implicit hold though he slay me, yet will i trust in him (RV , wait for him). That is the last reach of the faith of a man. Jobs creed is gone; all he believed about god has been disproved by his own experiences, and his friends when they come say, in effect, you are a hypocrite, job, we can prove it from your own creed. But job sticks to iti am not a hypocrite, i do not know what accounts for all that has happened, but i will hold to it that god is just and that i shall yet see him vindicated in it all.

God never once makes his way clear to job. Job struggles with problem after problem, and providence brings more problems all the time, and in the end job says, . . . Now mine eye seeth thee. He saw that all he had hung in to in the darkness was true, and that god was all he had believed him to be, loving and just and honourable. The explanation of the whole thing lies in the fact that god and Satan had made a battleground of jobs soul without jobs per- mission. Without any warning, jobs life is suddenly turned into desperate havoc and god keeps out of sight and never gives any sign whatever to job that he is. The odds are desperately against god and it looks as if the sneer of Satan will prove to be true; but god wins in the end, job comes out triumphant in his faith in god, and Satan is completely vanquished.

Will i trust the revelation given of god by Jesus Christ when everything in my personal experience flatly contradicts it?