Job Job 1:1-5 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed[a] God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. ==== It’s believed that Job lived around the time of Abraham and the patriarchs so this is one of the oldest events in the Bible outside of Genesis 1-11. That makes it all the more fascinating to see Job’s view of a promised redeemer, which is one of the primary things I’m looking for as I read through the book this time. This is not just a story or parable as other Bible writers refer to Job as a historical person (such as James 5:11) and even God himself in Ezekiel 14. Job was blameless and upright. Wow. It doesn’t say sinless. Not sinless, but blameless. Big difference. I won’t ever be sinless in this life, but my hope is to be blameless through the righteousness of another GIVEN to me. In fact that’s my only hope. This reminds me of the great doxology in Jude 24 – “Now to him…that is able to present you BLAMELESS before the presence of his glory.” There is no doubt as to Job’s or my own guilt; the fact is we commit sins and willingly so. The only hope is to be held blameless for them. Job was such a man – and I think this book tells us why – his faith, which manifested itself in his life. He will speak of his redeemer later on in the book, and he trust’s God’s character – that he is good. He feared God appropriately, thus shunned evil, and we see how it played out in his family life. It says he did this “continually” – Job wasn’t a on-again/off-again, I’ll be Christian whenever it’s convenient to be Christian type of person. He also offered burnt offerings as Able did apparently in a realization that blood must be shed for the remission of sins, long before the law was given. He approached God in God’s way, not in whatever way he thought would be OK. Its interesting to think how God gets his truth to his people – at this point there is no church, no law, no temple, no nothing – yet Job is worshipping God appropriately, is counting on him as his redeemer, and is counted as blameless. Cool.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 22:15:10 +0000
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