The test of Job is that we do not love or serve God just because of what God can give us or do for us. Although this test is in the Old Testament, it still applies in the New Testament because the standards of the New Testament are much, much higher. Though the devil no longer occupies the same position as he did before Jesus went to the cross, for all authority and power has been stripped from him at Jesus cross and resurrection, our Father God still deserves a love greater than Job could have given Him. Our Father God has given so much more to us in the New Covenant and our Lord Jesus has revealed so much more to us, and done so much more for us than all of the Old Covenant saints. It is logical to assume that despite all the changes in the victory of Jesus over the devil and his cohorts, and the changes that are wrought for mankind through the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross and His resurrection, and all that has changed in heaven through the blood of the Lamb, that God is the same God who requires that our love and service for Him in the New Testament is on par with the Old Testament and even greater than what the Old Testament requires.
In our present-day culture where Christians live in grace and expect a lot of interventions from God in their personal prosperity and health, can we still find those who will love God outside of these benefits? God forbade and it will never occur again with Jesus’ sacrifice for us, but should God apply another test of Job to modern Christians, would He still find those who love Him for who He is? Even in the New Testament, the requirement to be a disciple of Jesus is far above anything in the Old Testament. Are there many true disciples of our Lord Jesus still? Or are most Christians just in for a ticket to heaven and ride on God’s benefits? I am sure there are good true disciples of Jesus present today but that number must increase until the whole world feels the might of those who love and follow our Lord Jesus unreservedly.
The three Hebrew young men who chose not to bow to idols at the risk of their own lives, are examples of how they love God even if they die. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego believed that God was able to save them from the fiery furnace, but they said that even if God does not deliver them, they will still not bow to idols, choosing instead to love God unto death (Daniel 3:16-18). They received one of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament when God saved them from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:26-27).
Job lived in the time before Abraham when the world had grown past the flood, the parting of the earth into continents, the Tower of Babel, and where unrighteousness was still increasing before the call of Abraham. Despite the evil present around him, he sought to be upright and walk with God blamelessly (Job 1:1). He had seven sons and three daughters and was one of the richest and greatest man in the East (Job 1:2-3). It was God who pointed out to the devil that there is none like Job in all the earth (Job 1:8). If Job had lived after the days of Peleg and the dividing of the earth, then he would have been a contemporary of Abraham, as shown in the chart below. He could have been around 70 years old when he was tested and then went on to live another 70 years, but this is only an assumption.
(extracted from viz.bible with approximate Job timeline added)
Through two recorded dialogues of the devil with God, Job was brought through various tests to prove the integrity of his love for God (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). The first test of Job involved removing all of his wealth (7000, 3000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 female donkeys). He was probably the wealthiest man in the East. In one day, Job’s properties were raided and stolen by the Sabeans, burnt by fire from the sky, raided and stolen by the Chaldeans. All his servants were killed with only three to report what had happened (Job 1:14-17). The suffering and loss of all possessions and assets, reduced to bankruptcy, is a pain only those who have gone through it would know. The suffering of poverty, going without food, clothing and shelter is only properly understood when one is in such a position. Many people give up their integrity, their dignity, their morality for food, clothing, shelter and money. Hunger and poverty can drive a person to extreme methods and many compromises. Only those who hold their integrity and uprightness to the end would rather die than give up their righteousness and obedience to God’s laws.
The second test of Job involved his loss of all his loved ones, except his wife. In one day, Job lost all his seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:18). Many people who loses a loved one, a family member, a son or a daughter have never recovered from their grieve. Many also gave up their faith in God and their holding on to the laws of righteousness that they live by when they suffer such personal loss. Even Aaron the high priest found it hard to perform when he lost two sons in one day (Leviticus 10:19-20). Job tore his clothes, shaved his head in mourning and grief, fell to the ground in deep anguish, yet he worshipped God (Job 1:20). He declared that all things came from God, all that he had, all that he loved, everything came from God and he did not sin nor charge God with any wrong (Job 1:20-22). How many of us would survived losing ten children in one day and still chose to worship God? It definitely is a sacrifice of worship filled with tears and sorrow, yet of total surrender to God who doesn’t always explain what He is doing. It involves complete trust and faith in a good God who will not let those who love Him suffer or be tempted beyond what they are able to. Job’s character strength must have been quite strong for God to allow him the sufferance of total bankruptcy and total and complete loss of all children. No grief or sorrow would have cried enough tears to comfort Job in the natural and in the soul. Yet his spirit was determined to love God, worship God and trust God implicitly.
The third test of Job was when he loss all of his health and suffered one of the most painful ailments: boils from the sole of his feet to the top of his head. It was painful, nauseating, and so unbearable that Job has to take a potsherd (a piece or shard of clay vessel) to scrub himself while he sat in the ashes mourning. And this is some time after he had already suffered bankruptcy and the loss of all his ten children. The funeral services were well over, the need to rebuild himself financially was impendent on him. He needed all his strength and encouragement to pull through and rebuild himself, yet on top of this came the loss of all his strength and health. No more wealth, no more health! Such is the predicament of Job! Would he still love God? Would he still trust God? Would he still serve God?
And just when he was struck in such a manner that he had no more strength, such that he must have wished to die, the fourth test occurred, in God using his own wife to encourage him to give up on God and curse God and die (Job 2:9-10). Job was already fighting the battle without, now he must fight the battle within. There is no greater need for a man when he is down to have his own loved ones support him. In this, Job found no one but God. Nowhere do we see anyone encourage him or support him until Elihu the fourth friend turned up. Probably this was the moment to die as Job probably had nothing else to live for in the natural. Yet he chose to live for God, accepting God as a good God in adversity or in prosperity (Job 2:10).
Three of his friends who came to see him saw such great grief in Job that they kept silent for seven days but just was present with him (Job 2:11-13). They truly came to comfort him and wept and cried with him. But in the end, they also became a fifth test of Job when they began to try to analyse what happened and allude it to Job’s integrity and secret sin. Eliphaz implied that God blesses the righteous and if Job is suffering such curses, it is possible that he had been unrighteous (Job 5:2-6). He said that Job was being “corrected by God” (Job 5:17). Bildad hinted that “God is judging Job” and he might have sinned against God (Job 8:1-6). According to Bildad, Job’s loss of abundance and blessings implied that he was an evildoer (Job 8:6, 20). Zophar told Job to repent for his “wickedness and sins” (Job 11:1-3, 11-15). Eliphaz points to Job’s iniquity and craftiness (Job 15:5, 10). He implied that Job must be a “wicked man” for the destroyer has taken his health and his prosperity (Job 15:20-21). Bildad chastises Job for thinking that they are stupid and said that Job as a wicked man would indeed die soon and his life be shortened (Job 18:3-7). He implied that Job is a “wicked man and does not know God like them” (Job 18:21). He also explained that was the reason for Job losing all his children (Job 18:19). Zophar preaches a sermon on the wicked man directly pointing to Job as the man he is talking about and a hypocrite whose pride reaches the sky (Job 20:5-6). He thoroughly explains that all that has happened to Job proves his point that Job is indeed a wicked man whose goods are taken away in the day of God’s wrath and whose iniquity is now revealed in heaven (Job 20:27-29). In the heat of the conversation, forgetting all the great suffering Job was going through, Eliphaz directly pointed to the perceived fact that Job had great wickedness and his iniquity is without end (Job 22:5). In the end, a fourth friend, Elihu, turned up and he was upset that Job had justified himself and said that he was righteous in his own eyes (Job 32:1). He was the youngest amongst them and argues the point that no man is righteous in themselves but we all need a ransom or redeemer, a mediator (Job 33:23-24).
Many of us have been like Job’s three friends and added salt to wounded hearts. Though Job was not wrong in regarding the fact that he was indeed blameless and upright before God when all the disasters struck, he was arguing from the point of self-righteousness and that he did not wilfully sin. He was so grieved that he was cursing himself and his birth, probably wishing to die (Job 3:2-11). When his three friends started implying and accusing him of wickedness and sin as an explanation for the disasters that took place, Job defended himself and argued that such did not occur but in doing so, became self-righteous. When God showed up, Job repented for his self-righteousness and also interceded for his friends whom God said spoke wrongly about him and accused him wrongly of sin (Job 40:1-3; 42:7-8).
The story of Job points very clearly to the fact that all prosperity and all blessings come because of the goodness, mercy and grace of God. Even in our most righteous works and acts, we will never elevate ourselves to the point of “deserving” God’s blessings. For all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All of God’s blessings come to those who implicitly trust and love God unreservedly. And where God so choses to withhold for some time, it is to test our hearts to see if we truly love God for who He is and not what He can do for us (Deuteronomy 8:2). Difficulties, delays, temporary setbacks, tough times are but moments for us to prove to God our pure and sincere love for God. Even times of hunger, thirst and lack and needs, did not stop Paul from loving God and serving God (2 Corinthians 11:27). He had this beautiful revelation that God always prepare something special for those who love God (1 Corinthians 2:9). The love and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, should make all of us more steadfast in our love for our Lord Jesus and our Father God. Even if, and that would never happen, our God stops all answers to prayers and never lift a finger to help us or bless us, all that Jesus has done on the cross for us should be enough to win our absolute love and devotion towards God unconditionally. God loves us unconditionally and we should also love God unconditionally. That would be perfection of Creator and creation. Let us all go beyond the test of Job and pass through this earth with flying colours giving our absolute unconditional love for God each and every moment and every day of our lives. Amen.