Reading:
Philippians 3:1-16.
"I
had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye
seeth thee" (Job 42:5).
This
verse sums up the whole book of Job, for it is the deep
explanation underlying Job's life. This book takes a patriarchal
character and shows us, in a wonderful way, God's dealings with
that man in relation to Christ. Christ takes a very large place
in the book of Job; indeed, He is the object in view in all that
is happening here.
This
verse, then, sums up the whole book of Job and shows us a
tremendous transaction which is taking place in the life of this
man. Concerning his past life Job said: "I had heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear", so that his relationship to God
had only been by the hearing of the ear. Then came these
tremendous experiences that he went through. He went down into
the depth of sorrow, and this resulted in an altogether different
relationship to God: "But now mine eye seeth thee."
From hearing he went to seeing, and that is no small thing. It
marks a revolution in a life.
Where
do we begin with Job? First there are three marks which we must
consider:
(a) Fulness
At the beginning of his life we find Job in a state of fulness.
He was a wealthy man. He had a large estate, with every kind of
comfort, and a prosperous, happy family. He was highly esteemed,
a man who was taken account of and who held a position of
influence. His life was marked by fulness.
(b) Goodness
Job was a good man. God Himself challenged Satan as
to Job, saying: "Hast thou considered my servant Job? for
there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright
man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil." So
we see that Job was a good man; but the statement is made with
certain reservations, and is not absolute. However, as amongst
men, Job was a good man, that is, he was not wicked, and God had
a high estimate of him.
(c) Complacency
We see clearly that Job was quite satisfied with himself. He knew
no trouble in his relationship to God, neither did his spiritual
state cause him anxiety.
That
is where we begin with Job, but what comes out later?
As
to goodness, we have to look more intently, and we find that it
was an outward and legal goodness, not inward and spiritual. His
knowledge of God was more an objective knowledge. There was no
question for him as to the reality of the existence of God, but
to him God was something outward, someone up in His heaven while
he was on this earth. He had just heard about
God, and he adjusted his life according to the light he had, but
it was all outward. Job's righteousness was based upon his works.
He argued with his friends about that. When they said to him that
his sin was the cause of his suffering, he gave a whole catalogue
of all his good works. So his righteousness was rather of works
than of faith.
Thus
we see in Job fulness, outward goodness and self-satisfaction.
The Transition
Now
let us turn to the beginning of Job's transition:
"Now
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord
said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the
Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from
walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast
thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the
earth."
But
Satan challenges God, and says:
"Doth
Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him,
and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every
side?" In effect, Satan is saying that Job does
it because it is for his own benefit. It is easy to be good when
you are protected from suffering! "But put forth
thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce
thee to thy face."
God
accepts Satan's challenge and gives him permission to touch Job,
except that he may not touch his life. And Satan goes, and does
his work. All Job's outward wealth falls under Satan's power: his
home, his children, his herds, everything is destroyed. Then Job
is touched in his body, and finally his wife and his friends turn
against him. And at last he suffers from the stroke of Satan. (We
will touch that later.)
Gathering
all these difficulties and needs of Job together, we have the
spectacle of a man whose life had been very full on this earth.
He had had friends, earthly means, a home, a family, a standing
amongst men, influence, and a sphere of usefulness. He was not a
bad man. But now he is broken and utterly emptied, until he
reaches the very bottom of himself. He is emptied of all he
possessed, he is broken in spirit, broken in soul, broken in
body, and brought down to the very bottom - and at the bottom he
meets God on a basis of pure grace. He has learned the lesson of
his own nothingness. It often takes a tremendous amount to bring
people to that place of recognising their nothingness! Job's
knowledge of God had not been an inward knowledge, a knowing Him
in his own heart, but something from the outside, and therefore,
as there was no true knowledge of God, there was a corresponding
ignorance of his own heart. This is always so! So Job did not, at
the beginning, know his own heart.
"I
had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye
seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes."
This
is the transition stage! But what was it all unto? On the one
hand, fulness and goodness, a great measure of
self-righteousness, and on the other hand, brokenness, emptiness,
everything gone - and all that by God's permission!
We
must remember that Satan was God's instrument and he was not
doing this independently of God. After the first blow, when Job's
possessions and family were destroyed, Satan went back to God and
challenged Him a second time. Again God asked him: "Hast
thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the
earth... and he still holdeth fast his integrity, although
thou movedst me against him." God did
it through Satan, but why did He do all this? We can never say
when some trouble comes into our life: 'This is absolutely from
the devil!' It may be from the devil, but there is the Lord's
meaning behind it. What was all this unto?
We
have the all-inclusive answer in this verse: "...but now
mine eye seeth thee." What does that mean? It is Christ who
comes into view again and again. Job is in quest of God in a new
way. He knew Him - "I had heard of thee by the hearing of
the ear" - but now he cries: "O that I knew where I
might find him!" Job is crying out to find God, for God is
not in him. He is crying for a personal, inward knowledge of God;
and why does he seek after a personal, inward and spiritual union
with God? Because this is the only thing which can save him now.
One of his friends says to him: "Acquaint now thyself with
him, and be at peace," but Job says: 'It is easy to say:
"Acquaint now thyself with God!", but that is just my
difficulty. I cannot find Him, so how can I get to know Him? Oh,
that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His
seat!' That personal, inward knowledge of God has been the quest
of men throughout the ages, and Christ is the answer to that cry.
"Oh,
that I knew where I might find him!" "He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father"; "Lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world"; "If a man love me, he
will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him." God is found in
Christ, and in Christ the Holy Spirit becomes an inward reality.
But first all our own righteousness and fulness and
self-satisfaction have to go and Christ has to be our
righteousness, our fulness and our satisfaction.
Victory Over Death
Then
we see another thing in Job's life, and that is the matter of
victory over death. Job came face to face with death. This had
not caused him any difficulty before, because the sin question
had not been dealt with, but now he had questions about himself.
He was shaken and his soul was torn through fear of death. He was
not sure about himself and his relationship to God, and he asks.
"If a man die shall he live again?" There must be an
explanation, or is life only a dream? Is there no answer, no
vindication? He had lost all, yet he had believed in God. Is that
all now? Is God a myth and life a tragedy? If a man die, is that
all, or shall he live again?
Let
us turn to the Gospel of John to find the answer to this acute
question: "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and
the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he
live."
Job
wanted the resurrection and the life, and Christ is the answer to
his need. Christ governs everything. Job came to see that there
is life beyond, a life triumphant over death, and now he is at
rest. In the forty-second chapter we find Job as a man who has
come through the storms. His heart is at rest and his problems
are solved: "Now mine eye seeth thee."
The Great Daysman
Then
there is another point. Job's friends were accusing him of sin;
Satan, through those friends, was acting as the accuser. In
himself Job was not sure and he longed for assurance. On the
other hand, it looked as if God had a controversy with him, as if
something had gone wrong. His friends could not help him, and Job
cried for a daysman to stand between the opposing sides, for such
a man who could come in between to see that both sides had fair
play and that all got their rights: a man who had no personal
interests, neither on one side nor on the other.
We
know our New Testament well enough to see that Jesus Christ has
become that great Daysman. He is the great mediator. In 1 Timothy
2:5 we read: "For there is one God, one mediator also
between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus." Christ
answers Job's need and is the One who will see that there is fair
play on both sides.
The Great Redeemer
Just
one thing more for now. Job needed a redeemer. He needed to be
redeemed from sin, redeemed from Satan,
redeemed from the power of death, and
redeemed from the corruption of his own flesh.
He cried for this redemption; then, towards the end of God's
dealings with him, there came a flash into his heart- only a
flash - but in that flash he saw Someone and he cried: "I
know that my Redeemer liveth!" And then darkness returned.
"He
is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God
through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them" (Hebrews 7:25). That is what we need - redemption to
the uttermost! Here Job saw his Redeemer for a moment and knew
that HE lives. And because He lives - "He ever liveth"
- He can save to the uttermost.
What
we want to emphasise is that the great transition of Job was a
transition from himself to Christ. God thought it
worth while to lead him through the depths, to empty him, and to
break him completely in order to bring him to an inward knowledge
of Christ. God finds it far more important that we should know
Him in a deep personal way than to do a great many good works.
Perhaps
God has led us that way of taking certain things away from us -
our reputation, or the estimation of our friends. Perhaps those
who are near to us have lost their confidence in us. We may have
known a certain sphere of fulness, many a door has been open to
us and we had many friends - and then God has laid His hand upon
that and it has all gone. Perhaps we are increasingly conscious
of our own nothingness, and we are coming to the place where we
do not think we are as good as we thought we were. Our heart,
perhaps, is not quite sure about our spiritual state, and it may
be that our relationship to God is not quite what it should be.
Perhaps friends say to us that we are going wrong and are
mistaken. But that through which we are now going may be the way
into something much larger, and we may get to know the Lord in a
much deeper way. In Philippians 3 Paul speaks of himself and of
the law. He possessed much by birth, through education and
teaching, and was much esteemed by others. But then Christ came
into his life, and all these things had to go in order that he
might win Christ; yet the knowledge of Christ was far more to him
than what he had possessed before.
We
are speaking of the momentousness, the tremendous significance of
Christ, but it is only through experience that we enter into
these things - not through hearing about them, nor by studying
the Bible, nor by going to church. Those are not the ways which
will bring us there. Only by being emptied and broken do we come
into the fulness of Christ. But the end justifies all: the great
place which Christ has in us. It is worth everything to know
Christ in fulness! A good man is broken and loses everything in
order to find more of Christ. The floodtide of God is Christ. May
we be filled unto all His fulness!