The Book of Job: Expository Commentary from Sermons by Dr Peter Masters

Bible Commentary on The Book of Job

by Based on an overview by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London with substantial content from Bible Notes

‘One of the grandest portions of inspired Scripture . . . A Heaven-replenished storehouse of comfort and instruction . . .’

‘The patriarchal Bible, and a precious monument of early theology . . .’ 

‘It is to the Old Testament what the Epistle to the Romans is to the New . . .’

‘Acknowledged to surpass in sublimity and majesty every other book in the world . . .’

These are some of the phrases used in descriptions of the Book of Job by commentators of the past, and not surprisingly, for although these events took place about the time of Abraham (2000 BC) this book has such a powerful evangelical character and message that it can only add lustre to the phenomenon of divine inspiration. It presents man’s need of salvation by grace, a personal walk with the Redeemer, and his caring sovereignty, contrasted against the dismal rewards of justification-by-works theology.

Far from being in the least primitive, as one might expect of such early history, the Book of Job contains teaching unique in the word of God for its profound spiritual sophistication. In no other book of the Bible do we find the confrontation between Satan and Almighty God over the temptation of men; a perfect summary of the views of ‘modernists’ and theological ‘liberals’ (of all ages) presented by themselves; an event of revelation coming upon a surprised and unready recipient, and a comprehensive biographical view of the discipline and sanctification of an individual believer.

A basic decision has to be made in our interpretation over the status of Job’s comforters, for what we make of his comforters will very much affect the way we interpret the whole book. A few commentators are overimpressed by some of the profound sentiments expressed by the comforters and regard them as basically good men (in spite of their harsh words, and the heavy reproof which they receive from Elihu and Almighty God at the end of the book). Most older commentaries, however, assume that the comforters were unregenerate and unspiritual men clinging tenaciously to a doctrine of justification by works.

To do full justice to the Book of Job, it is really necessary to go further, and to accept as essential the following presupposition: that there was considerable underlying tension between Job, as a true evangelical, and his friends, who as quite typical ‘liberals’ found Job’s spiritual opinions deeply offensive. Despite all that they had in common (wealth, property, learning and literary gifts) Job was a thorn in the side of these friends.

He was a source of aggravation because he seemed ‘holier-than-thou’ in his manner. He believed in a personal God who could be known and felt, and he professed to have a living relationship with God such as they knew nothing about. At times their pride was hurt by his patronising habit (to their jaundiced view) of urging them to seek God in the same way. Job insisted that only perfect holiness was acceptable with God, and as man was incapable of achieving this, he could only approach God as a weak, lost sinner, seeking salvation as an undeserved mercy. Job offered sacrifices and believed in the principle of atonement. Furthermore, in the eyes of his friends he seemed to think he had a monopoly of the truth.

All this was highly injurious to the pride of Job’s friends who regarded their prosperity and success as evidence of God’s favour toward them. So when Job was cut down by poverty, loss and disease, though they were his friends, and though they felt truly sorry for him and could not find words on seeing his condition, yet his debased condition soon evoked their pent-up resentment over his spiritual ‘superiority’. The more they spoke to him, the more their hostility became evident, until eventually they were almost grasping at his tragedy as a means of vindicating their own religious views and rejecting his. Job, then, was a source of irritation whose evangelical views condemned their own religion.

To see this situation with Job and his friends is a most important key to the unfolding debate, and one which will be confirmed by many passages in the book.

There is one further presupposition which will help considerably in understanding this book. It is to accept that it is not primarily a book about suffering. Of course there is a background of suffering, and suffering runs through nearly every chapter. But in spite of this it is not a book which sets out to explain all human suffering or to answer the problem of pain. According to Scripture people suffer for different reasons – sometimes for sin, and sometimes to glorify God, to prove him and to demonstrate that the sustaining power of God is sufficient for every circumstance. The Book of Job only touches upon Job’s suffering. So really there is much less on the principles and the explanation for suffering than is often supposed. But we do learn much about some aspects of suffering as far as it applies to believers.

1. Salvation by grace

Before proceeding to the chapters of the book, some emphasis must be given to several of the key themes. The dominant theme of this book is that of salvation by grace alone. These pages hold up the greatest contrast of all – the contrast between the doctrine of Job’s friends, that a man can be sufficiently righteous by his own efforts to be blessed by God, and Job’s doctrine, that a man is justified before God on the basis of mercy alone.

Again and again Job’s comforters press their doctrine upon him. ‘You must be a hypocrite,’ they assert, ‘because otherwise you would not be in the terrible condition you are in.’ They are convinced that happiness, health and prosperity are tokens of God’s approval of a successful and good man.

That is the main theme of the book; from beginning to end it is a book about grace. Here in the Book of Job the liberal says everything he has to say, and he is refuted partly by the words of Job, more by Elihu, and finally by Almighty God. Any who have had to read liberal theology at unsound theological colleges will see, as they study the Book of Job, the very sentiments, ideas and notions that they agonised under in those years. Such error is as old as the hills, for there is nothing new under the sun.

Now of course the comforters say a number of good and right things. They have in their speeches many profound observations and deductions, especially among their quotations from ancient oriental poetry. But we must never lose sight of the overall position of the comforters as believers in ‘works’, nor forget that Satan propagates the most serious errors mixed with truth.

2. The necessity of revelation

Then again there is another great theme in this book: it is a book about the absolute necessity of divine revelation. Note how the comforters speak out of their own heads. They reason and say, ‘Our fathers thought thus and thus,’ and ‘Experience teaches thus and thus.’ The whole tenor of the statements of the comforters shouts aloud the inadequacy of the unaided human mind to ‘find out God’. By contrast we find Job values a revealed wisdom and constantly cries out for God to explain his predicament.

When Elihu speaks, he denounces the human wisdom of the comforters and upholds the necessity of ‘God-breathed’ truth. Through Elihu’s words, and through the words of Almighty God at the end, the Book of Job utterly exposes the feebleness of man’s puny wisdom, and shows that infallible truth must be revealed from Heaven. So there is a great contrast between the kind of theology which flows from man’s wisdom and that which comes from revelation, when God discloses his holiness and salvation by grace alone.

3. Growth in grace

Then another major theme which must be highlighted is that of sanctification and instruction in the faith. We are given the closest possible view of one child of God through the period of his life when God wrought the greatest changes for his personal sanctification. Through this terrible experience, God so blesses him that his condition at the end is far better than his condition at the beginning. Do not focus upon his lost wealth, nor even his lost family. (He was subsequently blessed in these respects also.) Look, rather, at his understanding and greater spiritual usefulness and power at the close of this painful episode.

At the beginning of this whole experience, for example, Job, though a true child of God, does not even seem to understand that there is an afterlife. He clearly does not understand about the glories of Heaven. He says repeatedly, ‘I am suffering and when I come to the end of my life, I must die, and I shall be nothing again.’ But then there comes a point when it is revealed to him that he shall stand at the end of life’s journey as a redeemed man, saved to live for ever, and shall see his Maker. All this is quite new to him; it amazes him. So he learns the doctrine of eternal salvation.

A further advance effected by these terrible afflictions was the realigning of Job’s friendships. He had undoubtedly made a grave mistake as a child of God, for instead of fellowshipping with other true believers like Elihu (whom he barely seemed to know), he mixed with men of his own social class, wealth and literary attainments. It is quite clear from the ‘debating’ procedure followed by these comforters that they had held formal literary meetings many times before, and were Job’s equals in terms of wealth and prosperity, all being landowners and employers. In particular, the comforters were literary equals. Is not the Book of Job quite remarkable with so many literary giants crowded into it? Though it is given by inspiration of the Spirit of God, the speeches of the comforters are an accurate record of their thoughts, not God’s. But what sublime, marvellous language is used!

We can easily see what drew these men together, regardless of their spiritual differences. When they speak, phrases of gripping poetic quality pour out of their lips. They marshal and command ­illustrations and proverbs like veteran generals in the field of verbal battle. They were wonderful poets and sagacious debaters.

If only Job and Elihu had shared spiritual things. This omission is just one of the instances where God, through this terrible experience, lifts Job up to a new level of living and puts him into fellowship with the people who matter in his life, weaning him off the friendship of those who have nothing in common with him spiritually.

Then there is a third major respect in which Job’s personal sanctification was to be wonderfully advanced in the matter of earthly rewards. There is a great autobiographical chapter (chapter 29) in which it becomes clear that Job had taken much satisfaction, at a sadly carnal level, in his reputation. He wistfully looks back upon the years when he only had to walk through the town and people would nudge one another and say, ‘That’s Job, the wealthiest man in these parts and the most benevolent.’

He tells us how much it meant to him when people would bow their heads and respect and acknowledge him. But what do they do now? His former employees are out of work; they scorn him, and make up filthy stories about him. While unquestionably all this might upset anyone, Job discloses to us that he had set far too much store by these things. He had derived too much from this world. He had too great a stake in this world, and its flattery and honours just meant too much to him. And the Lord who loved his soul was going to deal with him and wean him from the allurements of worldliness.

Then, as we go through the book, we find a fourth wonderful advance gained through all the pain, in connection with Job’s doctrine of God. While Job was a clear evangelical by contrast with his liberal comforters, yet there is no doubt he had absorbed some of the ‘local’ doctrine, and the Lord desired to wean him from it. Though saved through grace alone, he had been influenced by the idea that suffering is a consequence of sin and prosperity a reward for righteousness. He has also come to think of his Saviour God as being somewhat remote and spasmodic in the attention he gives to his people. He also has a strong trace of self-justification. A trace of self-justification? Surely there is considerable self-justification in the Book of Job  ? Yes, there is, but do remember that Job was under such harassment that he was virtually driven to it. We cannot excuse him or condone him but we must try to understand him.

Notice how his wonderful faith and patience holds up in the first chapter, and in spite of the terrible tragedy that has befallen him, he does not charge God or sin against him. But then these liberal friends arrive and begin to accuse him. They say, in effect, ‘It is now apparent that all along you were a hypocrite.’ They accuse him of serious sin and of maintaining a sham religious stance.

Their main interest is to discredit Job’s evangelical doctrine and his past claims to special spiritual life, and to re-establish and confirm their own liberal views. Of course, Job must resist their extreme and wrong conclusions, but as he tries to resist overstated and grotesque charges, he is pinned back further and further into a position of apparent self-righteousness.

All his denials and explanations are gradually beaten into the ugly shape of self-justification. Nevertheless there is a measure of real self-righteousness there, for Job begins to ache and sorrow that God should ever have allowed all this to happen. Job’s pride is greatly inflamed because his affliction has humiliated him in the eyes of his friends. He is almost crying out saying, ‘Oh, Lord, why have you let me down as a lone evangelical and let these people appear to triumph? I have never deserved such hurt. What could I possibly have done?’

While it is wrong, we can see how these unusual pressures amplified his tendency (even as a saved man) to self-righteousness. (When the Scripture tells us that the friends ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes, that is not the judgement of the Holy Spirit being recorded; it is a statement telling us what the comforters thought of him.)