CR News

Job: History or Allegory? (2)

One of our readers asked, “Is the book of Job a true story or an allegory?” In the last News, I defended the historicity of the book of Job and noted James 5:11’s important commentary and very practical application to us in the new dispensation. But we must also have an overview of the book, if we are to appreciate this Word of God.

Job suffered as few saints are called to suffer. He lost everything he possessed, including his ten children, and, in a certain sense, his wife, for she never once offered him a word of comfort but only added to his torture. He was stricken with boils so that his excruciating pain left even the three friends speechless for a whole week. All this is presented in the book as coming from God’s hand. True, Satan brought it on in his hateful spite of God and of Job, but the devil could do nothing but what the Most High enabled him to do. Job himself recognized that all came from God.

Job’s three friends persecuted him with their lengthy, sometimes sarcastic and always cruel speeches, for they wrongfully accused Job of being so terribly afflicted because he had sinned grievously—something which the book itself clearly shows to be false (Job 1:1, 8). Their sin was so great that Job had to make special sacrifices for them or they would have gone to hell for what they had said (42:7-9).

In his responses in the agony of his suffering, Job did not himself always say what was right. He sometimes sinned as, for example, when he cursed the day of his birth (3:1-26). But one point Job continued to make throughout all his suffering: He did not know why the Lord sent such great afflictions, but he did know they came from God. As Luther points out, sacrifices had to be made for Job’s three friends, but no sacrifices had to be made for Job’s wrong words, because Job believed absolutely in the sovereignty of God.

Job’s sin was also that he wanted to know from God the reason for his suffering. He implored God to make this reason known to him. He, in effect, insisted that if only he knew, he could bear it all. He wanted to summon God into the dock, so to speak, and require Him to give an account of the reasons for Job’s suffering (23:1-9). But he tells us that he could not find God, no matter where he looked.

Yet, as James 5:11 reminds us, Job was outstanding for his patience. One must remember that patience is the spiritual ability to bear up under “the mighty hand of God” (I Peter 5:6). And to do so without criticism, complaint or rebellion.

In patience, Job made some remarkable confessions. At the very beginning of his trial, Job “arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:20-22).

Even when he wanted to summon God to the witness stand, he still added, “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (23:10). In such suffering as he endured, his patience shone through in a willing submission to God’s way: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (13:15).

Finally, there is Job’s stirring and deeply moving confession of hope in his Saviour. After mournfully reciting all the suffering he was called to endure at the hands of those that claimed to be his family and friends (19:1-20), and after, with almost unbearable poignancy, begging for a show of pity (19:21-22), he confessed his great hope with such assurance that he wanted his words to be preserved forever in stone (as indeed they were in an even more permanent way when God infallibly inspired this wonderful book): “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me” (19:25-27).

The story is told of a rehearsal in England for a rendition of Handel’s Messiah. The soprano was singing that moving aria “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” when the conductor suddenly stopped her. With a puzzled look on his face, he asked, “Do you believe what you are singing?” She responded, “Yes, I do.” The conductor replied, “Then sing it that way.” There was not in the entire orchestra, so the story goes, one dry eye. Job’s wonderful confession has not ceased to thrill the souls of God’s people and bring them comfort as they stood on the edge of the grave.

God’s answer to Job is striking and powerful—and goes a long way to explain what patience in the life of the believer really is. The gist of God’s words to Job is, if I may put it bluntly: “Job, who do you think you are? Do you really think that you can summon the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth into a witness stand that you have set up? I am under no obligation at all to explain to you what I do. You are less than a speck of dust and I am the infinite God. I need give no account to you of My actions. It is wrong of you, terribly wrong, to demand that I do this.”

What was Job’s response? “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have 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” (42:2-6).

The great truth of the book of Job is that God does what He wills in the lives of His people, even bringing them great suffering. But He has pity on us in our suffering and causes us to suffer as we do because this is the only way we can be saved.  We learn from Job that the “end [i.e., purpose] of the Lord” is to show us His great mercy that saves us from our misery (James 5:11), especially the misery of our sin, and brings us to Himself in everlasting covenant fellowship through Christ, who will vindicate our cause before all the wicked at the general resurrection. All of what I have written about this wonderful book of Job is true because the narrative of Job records real history. 

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Additional Info

  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 6
Hanko, Herman

Prof. Herman Hanko (Wife: Wilma)

Ordained: October 1955

Pastorates: Hope, Walker, MI - 1955; Doon, IA - 1963; Professor to the Protestant Reformed Seminary - 1965

Emeritus: 2001

Website: www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Prof._Herman_Hanko

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