The Stars in the Book of Job
(Job
9:8, 9; 38:31-33)
Job is
considered the oldest book in the scriptures. In the book of Job the LORD Jehovah speaks of
His message in the stars that tells of the righteousness of the covenant Son and
His establishment of the kingdom of God on earth (Job 9:8, 9, 38:31-33). This message of the Eternal Covenant in the
luminaries in Job substantiates the significance of the covenant stellar signs
(Genesis 1:14, 15).
The
book of Job as a whole is poetic and figurative, leading some to regard it as
allegorical. Questions considered by
Bible scholars are many. Some of these
questions include when was it written, who is the author, and what is the
setting or where does the story occur; that is, where is the land of Uz and is Job
a fictional character or did he live.
In the
scripture, God gives figurative pictures portraying literal truths and He gives
literal pictures in a figurative manner.
Both ways convey truth. Although
portions of Job may appear to some as figurative, the events recorded are
factual - not allegorical, not fictional.
The
LORD unmistakably declares the authenticity of Job’s existence in the
introduction of the book as well as in the first few chapters. The introduction and first few chapters are a
simple record of actual circumstances in Job’s life.
As to
the land of Uz, Uz was a son of Aram, who was the son of Shem who was the son
of Noah (Genesis 10:23). In addition,
God speaks of Job to His prophet Ezekiel, when He includes Job with two other
righteous prophets of God, Noah and Daniel.
(Ezekiel 14:14). Had he been a
fictional character, it is doubtful that he would be listed with these two
men.
Before
we attempt to discuss the star message in Job, we need understanding concerning
Job and the ways of God; the stars as a creation are the works of God that
speak of His ways. The works of God and the ways of God are different. The works declare His acts of power and
authority, His ways reveal His glory, His personal being.
The
works of God are much more straightforward and familiar to man than God’s ways.
The ways of God require a change of
thinking for man, because man has a way of thinking that is contrary to God.
The
prophets of old, as forth-tellers of God’s truth, had understanding of the ways
of God; they were “seers” of His message concerning the righteous covenant Son
proclaimed in God’s Eternal Covenant in the heavens.
The
prophets of old were ordinary men and women, who lived in the world with its
filthy wicked conversation; yet, understanding and seeing the righteousness of
God in the Son of the covenant, they publicly and faithfully declared the truth
of God’s Eternal Covenant.
Each of
the three prophets, Noah, Job and Daniel, had a particular task in displaying
the ways of God. God chose each man as His instrument for a
specific time and place, for His specific purpose of preserving the message of
the Eternal Covenant in the luminaires.
The memorial
work of the Son of the covenant is displayed in each prophet of God and each is
a testament to the hope of life everlasting and a holy calling in the covenant
Son, despite the horrific circumstances in each man’s life.
Three
very different men lived in three different ages of history. Noah lived another three hundred years after
the flood and was dead by Job’s day. Job
is definitely dead by Daniel’s day. Yet,
what connects them is their obedience to protect and preserve the truth in the
Eternal Covenant. The time-period of the
three men covers the creation to the flood (Noah, Genesis 1-10), after the
flood to the dispersion of the nations (Job, Genesis 11) to the establishment of
the kingdom (Daniel, Genesis 12ff), and captivity of the nation Israel under
Gentile rule.
Moved
of God by the Spirit, these holy men of God spoke; God preserved His covenant by
the faithful obedience of His servants when it was in danger because men did
not and would not believe.
Therefore,
let’s look at each prophet/preacher of the righteousness of God in the covenant
Son in the order of his listing in the book of Ezekiel, Noah, Job and Daniel.
Noah was
the antediluvian prophet/preacher of righteousness. From generation to generation from Adam to
Noah, God gave man the opportunity to believe into His Eternal Covenant before He
destroyed them in the flood. An ordinary
man, Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was a just man and perfect in his
generations; Noah walked with God. Walking
with God, going the same direction and at the same pace, Noah knew the earth
was corrupt before God and that it was filled
with violence. He knew that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.
Noah
knew that the end of all flesh had come and that the LORD was going to destroy
man whom He had created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and
creeping thing and the fowl of the air (Genesis 6:5-7). God told Noah that “I, even I, do bring a
flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all
flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything
that is in the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:17).
These
are horrific circumstances. Destruction upon
destruction! On the one hand, mankind is
destroying himself; on the other hand, God is going to destroy the whole earth.
Consider the ramifications of such a knowing
and consider being “alone” in faith preaching the righteousness of God for one
hundred or so years while building an ark, knowing that “all flesh wherein is
the breath of life,…shall die.”
Consider
the way of Love, consider the Love of God. Would it be considered loving of God to wipe
out that which is corrupt and start over? God must do that, or the covenant is lost. What God did in bringing a flood of waters
upon the earth was a severe mercy. Mankind
was destroying himself; God must preserve the covenant. He must be faithful to the glory that the
heavens declare; He must be faithful to His Word.
Consider
the faithfulness and the obedience of Noah. Noah knew that it grieved God in His heart and
made Him sorry that He made man. Noah in
the spirit of his being had understanding of the Love of God. Not love that is imagined as feeling, but Love
that has substance, Love that is true and just and righteous in being. Noah’s faithfulness and obedience show the
strength of his walk of faith; the substance of that faith is Love. Noah walked with God.
God
must preserve mankind in order that He might have sons of God. Noah must build an ark. Noah is the heir of salvation (Hebrews
11:7). Who is Salvation? Jesus Christ the covenant Son is
salvation. His life is a testament to
the hope of life everlasting and holy calling in the covenant Son.
If one
is not in the family, he is not an heir. Therefore, one has no claim to the inheritance
of the kingdom. Faith works by Love. Noah believed God to the saving of his
household and His household, sons of God.
The ark
is a memorial of the work of the Son of the covenant. The ark is a coffin and memorializes the death
and burial of the Son of the covenant. If
man will not unite himself in death with the Son of the covenant to be raised a
son of God, he has no claim of an inheritance; he is not a son of God. The way of life everlasting is through the
union of death in Jesus, the Love of God.
Likewise,
let’s now consider the way of Love in the life of Job.
Job was
a “Gentile” and an ordinary man. He was
the prophet/preacher of righteousness after the flood. Historical records speak of Job as a
contemporary to Abram who became the father of the nation Israel. The introduction to the book of Job tells that
Job was a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and avoided evil. He sounds like Noah in his singular purpose of
knowing God.
Everything
that pertained to Job was hedged about by God (Job 1:10). God’s blessing was on every side, the work of
Job’s hands, his affluence in the land and his family. He had seven sons and three daughters. However, in a matter of a few moments, the
circumstances of Job’s life became extremely painful. Everything that Job held dear was wiped out –
family, home and substance. Material
blessings, everything and everyone loved were no more, all vanished! Consider the ramifications of such a
loss.
Would
such a loss be considered the loving chastisement of the LORD − a child
training in righteousness? No, of course
not, yet it was. The scriptures say “For
whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives”
(Hebrews 12:6).
The
LORD [had] said to Satan “Have you considered my servant Job, there is none
like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and
avoids evil?” (Job 2:3).
God has
a purpose in mind for the child training of His servant Job and a purpose in
mind for Satan. God never does anything
without design or purpose, and He is never unjust in what He does; it is
contrary to His being.
Read Job
1:9-22.
Yet what
was Job’s response to all that befell him? Job knows what he knows; all that is given man
is a gift from God. “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 1:21, 22).
So much
for Satan’s accusation of Job cursing God. Consider the LORD saying to Satan a second
time “Have you considered my servant Job, there is none like him in the earth,
a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and avoids evil?” and still he
holds fast his integrity, although you moved Me against him, to destroy him
without cause” (Job 2:3).
Read Job
2:4-8.
Job is
afflicted in his body, covered from sole of his foot to the crown of his head
with boils, and his wife says, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). These are horrific circumstances. Yet what was Job’s response to all that befell
him? He knows what he knows.
He said
to his wife “You speak as one of the foolish women speak. What? Shall
we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips”
(Job 2:10). So much for Satan’s
accusation of Job cursing God.
One
more “suffering,” the surmising accusations and questions of three
unsympathetic “friends” accompany Job’s losses and bodily ailments.
This is
the crux of the matter for Job.
Job
knows what he knows. He knows each friend
is at enmity in his mind; each friend has his own religious way of thinking
about the God of glory. One friend is a
traditionalist − very orthodox and conventional. Another friend is a dogmatist − a diehard and rigid
in his doctrine, and the third is a spiritualist − a mystic. The three ways of thinking, which each friend
believed and taught, falsify the truth of the Son of God; they change the
message of the Eternal Covenant in the covenant Son; they conceal the glory of
God the heavens declare.
Job was
exactly the way the LORD says he was when He addresses the question to
Satan. The problem is the confusion of the
position of righteousness with behavior. The heart of the matter for Job is that
righteous Job is also at enmity in his
mind. Really? Is it possible to be righteous and be at
enmity in our mind with God? Yes, it is.
This was Job’s problem. Did he know that he was at enmity or had that
thinking? No. He is righteous and has done everything he
believes necessary to ensure all is covered. Even to the point of offering sacrifice for
his children lest one of them should sin (Job 1:5).
However
it is in the conversation between Job’s friends and Job’s own defense of
himself and the LORD’S response to Job’s questions that the discovery of Job’s
thinking about himself and his
thinking about God and what he has done for God is made known. Unknown to Job, God has become his adversary
in his thinking, rather than seeing he is adversarial in his thinking
towards God, which is the thinking of Satan.
God
never does anything without purpose or design. Nor is He ever unkind or unjust in what He
does. What the LORD did in the
chastisement of Job was a severe mercy of God because Job was doing himself in
with his own thinking. Until the
chastisement of the LORD, Job was unaware of his incorrect thinking - he missed
what God was doing. What Job missed
concerning the Eternal Covenant in the covenant Son is that all is God’s doing. The way of God’s kingdom is on the basis of
the work of the covenant Son and none other.
“Blessed
is the man whom thou chasten, O LORD, and teaches him out of thy law; that thou
may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the
wicked” (Psalm 94:12, 13).
Now let’s
consider the Love of God. Would the
suffering of Job be considered the loving chastisement of God or a severe mercy
of God to protect Job from continuing on the path he is on? If we are honest, the answer is no; yet it
was. Job was doing everything in his own
power for God and he must not think
he has a part in God’s doing. The work
of Job’s hands – the work done in the flesh defiles. That thinking defiles the ways of God.
The
chastening Love of the LORD, although severe, prepared Job for his three
friends, which prepared Job to have his crooked thinking corrected and made
straight. Job’s faith now has substance,
Love.
Consider
therefore the faithfulness and the obedience of Job in his own words “I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust
and ashes” (Job 42:5, 6).
I heard
of thee by the ear; faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Job believed to receive the life everlasting
offered in the Son of the covenant. But
now, my eye sees – my understanding sees you. In the very being of me, I see you; I see the
ways of God. I see that the work of my
hands, they are nothing − dust and ashes.
Therefore, I repent – change my mind.
Job’s
confession is a living memorial of the work of the resurrection of life in the
Son of the covenant. Once the enmity is
exposed, which is the result of the pride of self-will, Job is free of himself
to follow God’s leading and learn of Him. With his thinking made straight, the faithfulness
of the Word, the glory of the
righteousness of the Son of the covenant is preserved - all is God’s doing.
As we
have considered Love’s way with Noah and Love’s way with Job, let’s now
consider Love’s way with Daniel.
In
Daniel’s day the nation of Israel was a divided kingdom. The ten northern tribes of Israel had been
taken into captivity by Assyria as a result of their idolatry. The remaining two tribes of Judah and Benjamin
had been warned of God not to be like Israel; for a while, they remained true
to God. Eventually the tribes of Judah
and Benjamin did not continue to harken to the exhortation and were taken into
captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar who had conquered Assyria. The nation of Israel was captive and under Gentile
dominion.
Daniel an
ordinary young man was from the royal line of Judah. Most commentators think he was about seventeen
when taken captive. The custom of the conquering
king when he took captives was to take captive the royal line of that nation
and make the young men eunuchs; this ensured the ruling authority of the
conquering king and the end of the conquered nation’s kingdom. Unable to produce seed – heirs, the kingdom
would cease.
Not
only is Daniel parted from his family, his nation has been taken captive and he
has been made a eunuch. Here is a young
man, devoted to His God, in a strange land, under the constraint of a pagan
king to do his bidding. The people of
the land at the beginning of Daniel’s captivity are enemies of Israel and
consider Daniel their enemy. These are
horrific circumstances. Now consider the
Love of God. God had plans for Daniel
and the nation Israel and those Gentiles within Daniel’s influence. A captive of Love, Daniel is without fear and
at perfect peace in his circumstances.
Daniel was the prophet/preacher of righteousness raised of God not only
for the nation Israel but also for the Gentiles. Most commentators believe Daniel lived to be
90 years old, Nebuchadnezzar alone reigned forty years.
Like
Noah, Daniel preached the way of life everlasting is in the Son of the covenant
and like Job, Daniel preached the faithfulness of the Word, the glory of the righteousness of the Son of
the covenant - all is God’s doing. The memorial work of the Son of the covenant
is seen in the preservation of the nation Israel and the promise of the
establishment of God’s kingdom on earth at the end of Gentile rule (Daniel 7
and 9).
Although
the nation in her disobedience was taken captive, God preserved a remnant. “God is not a man that he should lie; neither
the son of man that He should repent [change His mind]: hath He said, and shall He not do? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it
good” (Numbers 23:19)?
The
tribulation will serve as a loving chastisement of God on the nation and a
severe mercy to correct their thinking and prepare them for their Messiah. During the tribulation God will once again
save a remnant and end the Gentile dominion establishing the work of His hands
declared in the luminaries, a kingdom of sons of God on earth.
The
three prophets of God, Noah, Job and Daniel are linked in Ezekiel for a
specific purpose. Israel at that time in
her history had set up idols in her heart, putting the stumbling block of her
iniquity before the face of her prophets – the foretellers of God’s ways. In so doing the people of Israel were
estranged in their heart from the Lord God because of their idols.
God
encourages his people to repent and put away the stumbling block of their
iniquity – put away the idols of the imagination of the heart – the enmity of
the pride of the self-will, the enmity of their own thinking and know that “I
am the LORD.”
In
mentioning the three prophets – the Lord God reminds the people of His Eternal Covenant
and reminds them that they are responsible to God for the way they think. No man can change another man’s mind; the only
mind we can change is our own; even God cannot change someone’s mind and He
cannot protect someone’s mind.
As a
man thinks, so is he. We must be willing
to consider God’s ways.
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No
Glossary for the Stars of Job
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