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First we need to take a look at Job's relationship with God as seen In Job 1:1-5.
Job is described as blameless and upright and one who feared God. This may seem to contradict those passages that say no one is righteous, all have sinned. But it does not as we see when we read farther. It is a positional relationship before God, just as the believers justification through faith is. It is a covenant relationship as we see in v 5. when he offers burnt offerings to God in case his children have sinned during their feasts. A patriarchal role of priest for his family, as Abraham was (Gen 3 15:9-10).This covenant relationship is God's doing, just as it was at Sinai and for us in the New Covenant. No one ever invites themselves into a covenant relationship with God, they are brought into it by God. Job had faith in God, not just knowledge of him and acquiescence to him.
In chapters 1:6-12 and 2:1-8 we see conversations about Job between God and Satan. We know this but neither Job or his friends did not know it.
What follows through chapter 37 is conversations between Job and his friends who had initially come to comfort him, and instead ended up in a big argument. It is apparent that Job's friends knew a lot about God, and Job too. Not everything they said about God was untrue. They began judging Job by this "little" knowledge, when in fact they were also judging God. And Job accused them while at the same time, he was accusing God.
Now we can give them a bit of leeway here, since they didn't know what had transpired between God and Satan, and we never know what is going on with God or in the spiritual realm either. So we could all be guilty of both the legalistic judgment of Job's friends, and of Job's defense of himself, both with his friends and with God when we find ourselves in trouble. But we do have God's words to Job and can learn from them. We can learn to humble ourselves before God as he displayed his absolute sovereignty over everything he created. They had such a profound effect on Job that in 42:2-6 he said to God: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 'Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear and I will speak; make it known to me. I will question you, and you make it known to me.'
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I repent in dust and ashes."
Notice Job had this reaction even though God never told him why these things were happening to him, and he still does not tell us the answer to the questions that naturally arrive in our thinking about the conversations between God and Satan.
To offer a "moral to the story": In our conversations and thoughts, we must keep watch over what we say about God, when we peer into why and how he does this or that, and who he is. For example---and this is a terrible case of overstepping and standing in judgement of God, yet it is repeated often----if God chooses who to save instead of leaving it up to each individual to make that decision, then he is not only unjust but evil. Or if people believe that Jesus is God then they don't believe what Jesus says and have no faith. Those are extreme, to be sure, but we often walk a fine line and do so especially with those doctrines that are not salvific.
Job is described as blameless and upright and one who feared God. This may seem to contradict those passages that say no one is righteous, all have sinned. But it does not as we see when we read farther. It is a positional relationship before God, just as the believers justification through faith is. It is a covenant relationship as we see in v 5. when he offers burnt offerings to God in case his children have sinned during their feasts. A patriarchal role of priest for his family, as Abraham was (Gen 3 15:9-10).This covenant relationship is God's doing, just as it was at Sinai and for us in the New Covenant. No one ever invites themselves into a covenant relationship with God, they are brought into it by God. Job had faith in God, not just knowledge of him and acquiescence to him.
In chapters 1:6-12 and 2:1-8 we see conversations about Job between God and Satan. We know this but neither Job or his friends did not know it.
What follows through chapter 37 is conversations between Job and his friends who had initially come to comfort him, and instead ended up in a big argument. It is apparent that Job's friends knew a lot about God, and Job too. Not everything they said about God was untrue. They began judging Job by this "little" knowledge, when in fact they were also judging God. And Job accused them while at the same time, he was accusing God.
Now we can give them a bit of leeway here, since they didn't know what had transpired between God and Satan, and we never know what is going on with God or in the spiritual realm either. So we could all be guilty of both the legalistic judgment of Job's friends, and of Job's defense of himself, both with his friends and with God when we find ourselves in trouble. But we do have God's words to Job and can learn from them. We can learn to humble ourselves before God as he displayed his absolute sovereignty over everything he created. They had such a profound effect on Job that in 42:2-6 he said to God: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 'Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear and I will speak; make it known to me. I will question you, and you make it known to me.'
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I repent in dust and ashes."
Notice Job had this reaction even though God never told him why these things were happening to him, and he still does not tell us the answer to the questions that naturally arrive in our thinking about the conversations between God and Satan.
To offer a "moral to the story": In our conversations and thoughts, we must keep watch over what we say about God, when we peer into why and how he does this or that, and who he is. For example---and this is a terrible case of overstepping and standing in judgement of God, yet it is repeated often----if God chooses who to save instead of leaving it up to each individual to make that decision, then he is not only unjust but evil. Or if people believe that Jesus is God then they don't believe what Jesus says and have no faith. Those are extreme, to be sure, but we often walk a fine line and do so especially with those doctrines that are not salvific.
