WTW 2021
Job Simplified
A Working Summary
YHVH let satan rob Job, yet he did not sin. (1)
Then, YHVH let satan afflict Job.
Job lost everything except wife and life.
His wife said curse God and die.
Job did not so much as sin in anything he said.
Then, his friends came and sat with Job in silence for seven days. (2)
Job (3) – I wish I had never been born.
Eliphaz (4-5) – If you really fear God, just pray and He will forgive you.
Job (6-7) – The truth is, I know I am not being punished for any sin, but this suffering is almost unbearable.
Bildad (8) – Stop lying, Job!
Job (9-10) – God knows I’m not lying, but I’m suffering anyway. Why, God?
Zophar (11) – You claim to be a saint, but you are clearly still a sinner. Just stop sinning and things will improve. Do good, and you will be blessed.
Job (12-14) – Please, stop talking. You’re all wrong. God is sovereign. I just want to plead my case with Him. God, I would rather be in the grave.
Eliphaz (15) – Now you are speaking foolishness. What’s true is that the wicked are ultimately punished during their lives.
Job (16-17) – With friends like you all, who needs enemies? If you were in my shoes, I would at least comfort you. I have no comfort left except hoping for the grave. What I need is a Divine Attorney!
Bildad (18) – We are desperately trying to get you to listen to real wisdom. The simple truth is that the things which have happened to you only happen to the wicked.
Job (19) – Bounce off me and stick to you. Clearly, everyone including you has turned against me. The only thing left is my innocence itself. I know my Redeemer lives and in the end He will stand and the truth will be vindicated.
Zophar (20) – It is the wicked who get all these punishments.
Job (21) – This seems wrong, but this is the way things are: the wicked actually prosper and die in peace, and their children are left to suffer punishment for their parents. Why aren’t the wicked punished for their own wickedness instead?
Eliphaz (22) – You, Job, have been a very bad, bad man. Repent, and God will make you prosper.
Job (23-24) – I am confident in my innocence. If I could only find God, if I could get in touch with Him to make an appointment, I know it would go well. The wicked do eventually meet their end, and God gets the final say, but He also brings down every man and does what He pleases with everyone.
Bildad (25) – God is in heaven and man is on earth. God is so righteous even the moon and stars are impure by contrast, so man is like a maggot!
Job (26-31) – Job’s Magnum Opus
26 – God rules over everything from sheol to the highest heaven.
27 – No matter what man says, the end of the wicked is destruction.
28 – The fear of Yahweh is wisdom. Shunning evil is understanding.
29 – There is nothing equal to the favor of God in the life of the righteous.
30 – Oh the deep, deep…darkness of being forsaken by God.
31 – God, You know I have done nothing wrong. Why are You punishing me? Answer me!
The three men stopped answering Job because he was self-righteous.
Elihu (32-37) – Yahweh is sovereign. Only the wicked receive His punishment.
YHVH (38-41) – WHO (WHO) IS (IS) THIS (THIS) THAT (THAT) DARKENS (DARKENS) MY (MY) COUNCIL (COUNSEL)?
Job (42) –
YHVH rebuked E-Z, B-D & Z
Job prayed for his friends.
YHVH blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former.
Wisdom in the WORD 
Powerful Overview of Job
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[eyn]
The beauty of chapter 7 is that we can likely all relate to Job to some degree in his searching for an answer to why his suffering is happening. How often do we struggle to piece this together without really seeing the reality of what God is doing, how He’s redeeming even the worst of situations and accomplishing things far beyond what we even considered.
It’s also interesting that God tolerates (for a long time) all of the speculation and puzzling of these men, none of which touches on the reality of why this has happened to Job.
Or does it? Why did God give Satan the opportunity to bring such calamity to Job? Was it purely to prove Satan wrong? Does God need to prove anything to Satan? Was it like 2 men that decide to settle a debate with a bet? Was Job merely a pawn in this heavenly banter? We have to be careful not to attribute our own inclinations to God.
Is it wrong to hang onto a statement like this?
But it is still my consolation, And I rejoice in unsparing pain, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 6:10
Paul put it this way:
But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.
1 Corinthians 4:3 – 5
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The Good Book
Can you imagine having only Job before any other scriptures were written? It seems like that would make it be pretty difficult to know exactly how to synthesize it all.
Honestly, in the past few days, this thought has come to me on numerous occasions that Job is like a micro Bible.
(Now, I had considered that pretty seriously for many many years about Isaiah with its 66 chapters…that is, until we studied Isaiah this past February-March. That’s when I found that there is only minimal parallel roughly around chapters 39-40 and then in the 60s.)
But again, it seems now at least in some ways like Job is a sort of micro Bible. The beginning explains the whole human experience. The long bulk of the book is man trying to figure it out. Then in the end in a smaller section closing the good book, God himself gives the only best answer to resolve everything in the fullness of time and at the culmination of His Story.
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Reread [eyn] post above, and you will see precisely how perfectly this fits within this idea of the book of Job as Micro Bible. We are currently in the OT of the micro Bible with so many things that are true though they are aiming toward the new covenant.
Quoting this excerpt, you can likely see how it parallels…
The beauty of chapter 7 [the OT] is that we can likely all relate to Job [fallen man] to some degree in his searching for an answer to why his suffering is happening. How often do we struggle to piece this together without really seeing the reality of what God is doing, how He’s redeeming even the worst of situations and accomplishing things far beyond what we even considered.
It’s also interesting that God tolerates (for a long time) [from Adam to Jesus] all of the speculation and puzzling of these men, none of which touches on the reality of why this has happened to Job.
Or does it? Why did God give Satan the opportunity to bring such calamity to Job [or give Adam & Eve free will & access to the tree of KOGAE]? Was it purely to prove Satan wrong? Does God need to prove anything to Satan? Was it like 2 men that decide to settle a debate with a bet? Was Job [the man] merely a pawn in this heavenly banter? We have to be careful not to attribute our own inclinations to God.
Is it wrong to hang onto a statement like this?
But it is still my consolation, And I rejoice in unsparing pain, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 6:10
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PRAISE BECOMES THEE O GOD
This is the day the LORD has made
I will rejoice and be glad in it
Even as we consider the depth of discouragement which Job had of old
Should we not now turn in even greater heights of victory to declare and proclaim the praises ofJesus in this new day
Even as Job said
Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. Job 7:7
Should we not even now remember the sheer miracle which is this life God has blessed us with? Oh how we take for granted this wonderful gift simply because we experience it every day.
Oh that we would turn in unhindered celebration of jubilation and joyous panegyris before the LORD of our salvation.
For HE has redeemed our very lives from the pit, from the abyss
And our lives themselves have never even been our own
But the gracious and creative gift of God Most High
All praise, honor and glory become Thee Oh God
We will praise You on Mount Zion
Praise becomes You on the Heights of Mount Hermon
Praise becomes You from the depths
I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Blessed art Thou O God of my life
I am Yours and Thou art mine
Make a joyful noise all you people
Sing a new song unto the LORD
Of His goodness and His mercy
Of His faithfulness and love
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Chapter 10 betrays the absence in Job’s understanding of at least two significant doctrinal areas we have now.
These are evident when we simply compare what he says to what we now know from the rest of scripture. This allows us to see certain things that were clearly revealed after his account recorded in this first written book of Scripture.
1. Original sin and sinful nature:
Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin—though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
Job 10:5 – 7
2. The after life:
Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Job 10:20 – 22
If they knew then what we now now…
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14NOV21
A Clear Picture
And so as we share together in each other’s current seasons and as we pray together through these seasons for God’s will, we come to know each other better and to understand His workings in a clear picture.
In the same way, the more time we spend reading deeply and praying in God’s WORD, we come to gain a more clear picture of Truth and what He has spoken and is speaking. His WORD has been seen through a veil by many through many generations, and some read through a dark veil even today. Some have their vision obscured by this veil every sabbath and every first day of the week. Others may seek more, they may begin to seek daily, to wait for the night, to move toward the light. These begin to see small rays of light coming through the veil. Pray for these that the veil be removed.
All my life, I have read Job, and I have known a hundred specific verses here which still stand out to me for their unique and specific dramatic impact, memorable sayings with potent messages of truth, like crackling pops from within a warm fall fire. For all their significance, these never dawned on the eyes and ears of my heart to produce any clear picture of what all these lengthy exchanges even mean, what point these men are even making in each lengthy exchange. I never paid attention to the summary view before of what each man is saying.
I had only heard with my ears.
Now mine eyes have seen.
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There is more to understand TOGETHER.
There is more for us to understand in our engagement with each other in this walk, in our journeys seeking JAMES WISDOM through these JOB SEASONS we are sharing and for which we are holding each other up in prayer.
Likewise, there is more for us to understand in God’s WORD, even here in this book of Job, in this very chapter of Job and also as we read each chapter through the wisdom of James 5.
There is a clear picture.
Even here, there is a clear picture.
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Thanatopsis
“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. So he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep. “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away. They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”
Job 14:7 , 10 , 12 , 18 , 20 , 22
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15NOV21
When we come to the scriptures and read the whole counsel of God continually without subjecting it to any other doctrines of man, we discover many things which help us understand truth which does not conform to man’s doctrines. We learn about life and origins and the end of days, the here after and the culmination of all things and so much more.
Among these are things we learn about paradise, ouranos and eternity, sheol, hinnom, Topheth & Tartarus as well as the new Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth.
We learn about the mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity
We learn about Mount Hermon, Mount Zaphon and Mount Zion
We learn about the city of man and the city of God
He makes us lie down in green pastures
He leads us beside tranquil waters
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16NOV21
So, animals certainly go into Qeber
Do they go into sheol?
Qeber is for bodies
Is sheol only for souls?
I talk to people about the evidence of a spiritual realm evident in the difference between a living person and a dead body. However, there is a difference between a living animal and a dead animal. Is that difference also nefesh (soul)?
Adam became a living nefesh.
It does not even say a living ruach.
…
In other words, Salmon asked it as a question. We accept it as irrelevant as we are created higher. But can we know? Certainly there are creatures in the hereafter but do these earthly creatures have nefesh or for them is the narrow natural science field of so called knowledge correct in this that their animation is merely a series of chemical reactions?
When KDA & co entered sheol in full regalia, did their basar (sarx) simply remain in qeber while their nefesh passed directly into sheol?
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17NOV21
What I have understood is that sheol (hades) was the land to which all souls were ushered at death, the ungodly to their place and the godly to the company of the righteous Abraham.
When JESUS gave up His Spirit to enter that land, he led captives in his train and removed fallen paradise from that place and relocated it to its rightful eternal place where we will be with the LORD forever.
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