What does the Lord want us to learn from the Book of Job?

Beloved of God, Romans 15:4 tells us: “Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us.”

All of the Scriptures have to do with our Saviour Jesus Christ and our salvation by Grace through faith. A quick background is necessary to understand the mindset that Job had before and during his trial- until after the Lord answered him:

Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:

"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

He is the reason for our justification and eternal salvation, even from wrath as it is written in Romans 5:9-

"Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the wrath of God through Him."

Unfortunately, in many places of worship, Romans 5:9 above is being interpreted as:

"Since we have been justified/declared free of the guilt of sin by the blood of Jesus, we have to do our best to be sins-free and be free of guilt by ourselves so that we can be saved from God's wrath and maintain our prosperity."

Such teaching seems moral but it subtly reposes confidence in the arm of flesh (human effort) for the attainment of good aka godliness (be like God.) It is no different from the false doctrine which Satan sold to Eve in Eden. Always behind such antichrist declarations is the hankering after self and self-glorification hidden under the guise of godliness and morality - "Yes we are in Christ but we still have to...." - when in reality, one simply cannot be in Christ without living right. Beware of such preachers. Having their mindset is nothing but Pride in self aka--

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and me...I also played my part by being obedient and had the good sense to pray and be diligent and xyz and that is why God did abc for me."

Our Maker says "There is none good but God." But such false teachers, under the guise of morality and godliness, challenge God by presuming to be able to produce even an ounce of good and be free from guilt and wrath by their own strength, apart from Christ. Enter Job. all need to learn a lesson or two from Job who had this same mindset of "I am a good person" before God opened his spiritual eyes.

Job's life was all about doing good works and doing his best to be on the right side of God. Yet calamity befell him. Job claimed the following as his resumé for the honour which he received from men and why he did not deserve to endure his suffering:

“11 For when the ear heard, it called me happy and blessed me; and when the eye saw, it testified for me [approvingly],

12 Because I delivered the poor who cried, the fatherless and him who had none to help him.

13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me or clothed itself with me; my justice was like a robe and a turban or a diadem or a crown!

15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

16 I was a father to the poor and needy; the cause of him I did not know I searched out.”

Job really thought that he did all of these and much more with his arm of flesh (human effort) that God's word says will fail. Also see his words in Job 27:1-2--

“1Job again took up his discourse and said, 2 As God lives, Who has taken away my right and denied me justice, and the Almighty, Who has vexed and embittered my life,

He thought he did not deserve what he was getting. Eventually, he saw the truth and wrote “I abhor myself…”

So Job thought that his righteous works such as being “eyes to the blind" and assisting the poor were from his personal goodness and that they mattered in the issue his prosperity and protection. He even looked for and received approval and testimony for his being a good/just person from man --

"And when an eye saw [me], it testified for me [approvingly],"

But man cannot see as God sees. Christ tells us that such works which men hold in high esteem are an abomination to God:

“Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:14-15

Job listed his righteous works as his defense for why he should not suffer. We also see a snapshot of Job's heart in chapter 1 where he thought that his sacrifices to God on behalf of his children after their birthday partying was what made God preserve them from danger. Isaiah 64:6 shows us what God really thinks of those righteous works and "hard work" which many cling to as the reason for their success or God blessing them and protecting them from wrath:

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

The ONLY reason why Job was prosperous and protected is written for us and acknowledged by Satan as we see in the Accuser's words to God in the same book of Job:

“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land." Job 1:10.

Very significant is the word "hedge" in this passage. It is translated from the Hebrew word "suwk" which has the following meaning:

"to entwine, i.e. shut in (for formation, protection or restrain):—fence, (make an) hedge (up)."

Hold on to "restrain."

Job thought his righteous works such as "being eyes to the blind" and assisting poor people mattered in the issue his prosperity or being blessed. Like many churchgoers today and yours truly before Grace found and carried me, Job had no idea that it was because of God's restraint - the HEDGE of protection - that he could even begin to do any of the things that he boasted in. Without that restraint which God put in place, Job's suffering could have begun earlier and surely ended in death. All it takes is for Satan the Accuser aka prosecuting attorney to call his number before the Judge. This is why Satan has to go about seeking whom to devour. He is looking for people who think that it is their being eyes to the blind, helping the poor and their good works that is making God bless them aka people who trust in self.

Satan is the Accuser aka prosecutor at law. HaSatan is literally "prosecutor at law" in Hebrew. Satan cannot just go about arbitrarily killing and dashing people curse and such, just as an earthly lawyer cannot arbitrarily throw a criminal in prison. The LAW decides that. The law is what Satan uses to bring charges against the sinner so that he can put them in the prison of lack, sickness and death. The law is the only weapon in Satan's arsenal and it condemns the best of those who try to keep it aka depend on their works to get God to do anything for them; and no matter how good a person is, we all deserved to go to that Job kind of prison. All have sinned. James 2:10 says:

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble at one point he is guilty of all."

All men are guilty by default. The only language that the law-wielding attorney aka Satan the Accuser understands for his charges against anyone to fall flat is the blood of Jesus by which we are justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] before God the Righteous Judge is the blood of Jesus-

"Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the wrath of God through Him." Romans 5:9.

It is a legal battle that we are in- this warfare. It is sad to see churchgoers trying to be free from demonic oppression, generational curse and poverty by fasting for 70 days or trying to be godly (be like God) in order to "not perish but have everlasting life." Firstly, Christ says right after the popular John 3:16-

"Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God." John 3:18.

The MSG version puts it thus: "Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him."

Notice the judicial terms above? Go to any court of law and see what happens to a person who has been condemned or failed to get acquitted for a crime whose penalty is death.

Those ones who are fasting and sowing seed in order to be acquitted and thus free from the clutches of Satan the prosecutor and the prison of death are already condemned and even in the prison of death (preceded by earthly ills like those that befell Job) where they are subject to prison wardens of poverty and demonic oppression, BECAUSE they are not justified by the blood of Jesus but by their fasting and other works.

Demonic oppression, sickness and poverty are mere prison wardens. Trying to escape them by fasting and sowing seed is akin to a death row inmate at a maximum security prison trying to escape a prison warden who is always beating him by fasting and praying to the Judge to set him free. The law has condemned him. There has to be a righteous Foundation for acquittal. Only by having Christ as our Righteousness and Bearer of sins are we acquitted of guilt and thus free from the prison of sin and death.

But for God's restraining hand (the HEDGE) which is preventing Satan from being able to wield the law over many churchgoers who think that it is because of the money they give to the poor, etc and who are still running around trying to do things like sow seed and fast in a bid to prevent wrath from befalling them, many would be experiencing Job's situation today. I am not knocking sowing seeds and fasting. The motive behind these works is what is crucial. It is a dead work if one believes that those activities are what will nudge God into protecting or providing for him- as useless as Job thinking that his children will not die if he made sacrifices on their behalf.

Job thought he was "good" when God's Word says “There is none good but God.” Beloved, God's merciful and restraining hand is the only thing standing between the one who trusts in himself the tiniest bit and him facing Satan the Accuser's charges as Job did. Without His restraining hand, all of Job's already unnecessary attempts at preserving the lives of his children by his strength and his "being eyes to the blind" and helping the poor would be absolutely impossible. Yet many boast in these same works today. Some even present such works (e.g. I fasted for 70 days and prayed for 24 hours) as their defense when bad things begin to happen to them. So much to say here. Paul addressed this truth in Romans 1 where a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) devolved into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —

“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”

The wages of sin is death. This death is not just physical death. It is translated from the Greek word "thanatos" which means-

"the misery of the soul arising from sin, which begins on earth but lasts and increases after the death of the body in hell."

In essence, sickness, lack, depression, stupid mistakes, low IQ/EQ, working so hard and having so little to show for it and Job's travails-- all these things are "death begun.” This death was man's destiny by default which God's hedge/restraining hand is preventing many people from experiencing and which many churchgoers and non-believers think that they are not experiencing because of their smarts and non-existent good.

If God lifted off His restraining hand - the HEDGE - that restrains man from devolving into committing heinous sins AND paying the wages of sin as He did when He briefly lifted His restraint/hedge with Job; if Satan the lawyer should call anyone's number, that one can expect a slice or more of Job's terrible experience no matter his fasts and seeds.

Job goes on to talk more about his good deeds in Job 31, including-

"25 Did not I weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the poor and needy? 26 But when I looked for good, then evil came to me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness."

In essence, Job expected God to bless him because of the "good" things he did not knowing that it was because God blessed him and kept him from experiencing what he truly deserved that he could do ANY of those good things that he attributed to his self-effort.

After Job rattled out his good works as his defense for why he should not be experiencing the things that he did, essentially challenging God, God answered Him, with a series of questions and statements showing Job how utterly wrong he was in his thinking. In Job 40:14, He said to Job:

"[If you can do all this, Job, proving yourself of divine might] then will I [God] praise you also [and acknowledge that] your own right hand can save you."

Another version says: "If you can do that, then I Myself will praise you, because you are strong enough to save yourself."

In essence, man's right hand to save himself with his works is useless. The arm of flesh (human strength at being anything at all) will fail. And Job had a change of heart. He said of our Lord God:

"5 I had heard of You [only] by the hearing of the ear, but now my [spiritual] eye sees You. 6 Therefore I loathe [my words] and abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

May the Lord open our eyes to see the utter rotteness and helplessness of the flesh aka human strength; to see that it is because of His mercy/hedge/restraining hand that we are not consumed by sin and its wages (death and its symptoms of "death begun" such as poverty and everything terrible thing that Job experienced,) and not useless, arm of flesh-driven attempts at being godly (be like God) or those useless "good" works which many among us depend on in an effort to get God to bless, ward off Satan's charges or be saved from wrath.

But beloved, in Christ, we have MUCH MORE than God's restraining hand or His hedge that prevents us from experiencing the wages of sin in the form of “death begun" like Job. In the midst of his suffering, Job prayed a prayer-

"33 If only there were someone to MEDIATE between us, someone to bring us together, 34 someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more. 35 Then I would speak up without fear of Him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot." Job 9

Job did not have that "Someone" to save him from the wrath of the law which was the destiny of all mankind, no matter how good or sinless one tried to be. But believer in Christ, we do. His name is Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2 tells us-

"5 For there [is only] one God, and [only] one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 Who gave Himself as a ransom for all [people, a fact that was] attested to at the right and proper time."

This is our inheritance because our loving God gave up His own Son to be our Mediator:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

God is a just God and cannot sweep sin under the carpet. All have sinned. What we all deserved was the fate of Job and worse, unto death and death in hell- no matter how good we were or tried to be. It is His restraining hand that keeps man from collapsing into the sins-ridden mass of flesh that man is of himself so none can take credit for being a good person. Because of what God has done, we who believe Jesus Christ can NEVER experience wrath. Only by the blood of Jesus are we 100% free from the guilt for sin which Satan uses to unleash the righteous demands of the law for sins (wrath) on man as he did Job. See this in Roman's 5:9-

"Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the wrath of God through Him." Romans 5:9.

Beloved, let's take our blessed brains church: if we have no sins, why would we need salvation from wrath? If we have no sins, why would we need to be declared free of the guilt of sin by the blood of Jesus? Only the one who has sins needs saving from guilt and wrath. Wrath entails every earthly ill such as lack and depression as well as death in hell. In Christ, God sees us as righteous, "even though we are guilty of many sins." --

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins." Romans 5:16.

This truth (God's word!) is very hard to swallow for those who still trust their ability to even put one leg in front of the other and are yet to understand that the only thing standing between them and Job's painful experience is God's hedge/restraining hand; it is hard to swallow for those who are yet to abhor themselves as Job did when his spiritual eyes were opened to his uncleanness of himself despite his many good works or as Paul did when he wrote "In my flesh dwells no good thing." Such cannot but see God's Way of Salvation as license to sin and so plod on in that prideful walk of trust in human strength for the attainment of good (be like God) when God's word says "There is none good but God." Beloved, let's not be found here. In the Wisdom of God whose ways and thoughts are higher than man's, only by receiving His abundance of Grace and His gift of Righteousness to us in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death (plus the "death begun" that Job experienced)-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17.

When your believing is right, right living will follow.