THE SECOND ESTABLISHED (5)
[p. 297] THE SECOND ESTABLISHED (5)
JT Chapters 40 and 41 bring out God’s additional service so as to complete His work in one needing recovery. Job makes a statement that might be satisfactory to most of us in such cases, but then it is not satisfactory to Jehovah. Job says, “Behold, I am nought: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, and I will not answer; yea twice, but I will proceed no further”.
Jehovah continues on the same line as previously and continues to speak to Job out of the whirlwind. “Gird up now thy loins like a man: I will demand of thee, and inform thou me. Wilt thou also annul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be righteous?”. It would seem as if the root of self-confidence is not fully removed in Job, so God brings forward these two great creatures. The first is behemoth. “See now the behemoth”, God says. It is thought that this refers to the hippopotamus, but whatever it may be, it is a great creature, and the Spirit calls it “the chief of God’s ways”. He seems to have great strength, but is not ferocious or warlike, and yet is impregnable. It is said, “Lo, the river overfloweth — he startleth not: he is confident though a Jordan break forth against his mouth”. Then Jehovah refers to another creature, called leviathan, which is said to be the crocodile, but this too is uncertain. We have to understand them by the descriptions given. It is said of leviathan, “He beholdeth all high things; he is king over all the proud beasts”. These two great creatures are brought to Job’s attention to complete God’s work in him. Job then says to Jehovah, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”. And he further says, “Who is he that obscureth counsel without knowledge?
[p. 298] therefore have I uttered what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and inform me. I had 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”. He says, “Mine eye seeth thee”. God Himself comes into the view of the speaker.
Of these two great creatures, seemingly one represents somewhat what is good, while the other is fierce and invulnerable; he is named “king over all the proud beasts”. He is marked by pride.
DR Why was Job’s first confession not sufficient, and why does this second confession bring about the end of the Lord?
JT Well, we must compare the two confessions. The first goes a long way and indicates real progress. “Behold, I am nought: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, and I will not answer; yea twice, but I will proceed no further”. Well, he could proceed further, but he decided not to. In the second confession, he repeats what Jehovah had said in chapter 38:2; for now Job says, “Who is he that obscureth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not”. He thus quotes what Jehovah had said as wholly applicable to himself. He is now thoroughly in accord with God. There is full confession and contrition of heart. “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee”. He did not say that in the first confession. Finally, he says, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”; not simply dust, but also ashes, alluding to the necessity of fire — the depth of self-judgment is suggested in ashes.
LES Would what is seen in the two confessions be somewhat analogous to the cleansing of the leper in the first and seventh day? “And it shall come to pass [p. 299] on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair, his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, even all his hair shall he shave, and he shall wash his garments, and shall bathe his flesh in water, and he is clean” (Leviticus 14:9).
JT Yes, there is the progressive idea in the cleansing. There is much to be done after the priest sees the leprosy is healed, before the person is brought into the camp; in principle, brought into fellowship again. Full recovery implies that one is brought into accord with God, and anointed. The priest finally anoints him. So he is set up again, qualified to take part in the service of God.
WFK Job recognises his limitations here. “I uttered what I did not understand”.
JT Quite so. The result of the mere human mind acting in divine things must be ignorance. Job says to God, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”. He is now acquiring true knowledge. He says, God can do everything. He is coming to understand Him. “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” (Jeremiah 9:24).
WFK Would Romans 7 show that I learn to abhor myself?
JT “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (verse 18). Normally the believer condemns himself thus; and he thanks God that He not only condemns what he abhors, but that He has terminated it judicially in the death of Christ.
JD Would experience be set forth in these two creatures?
JT It seems as if the first creature would be serviceable in a way. He stands in relation to Job; he is not adverse to him. God says, “See now the behemoth, which I made with thee: he eateth grass as an ox”; the allusion would fit into Genesis 1:30. It was the [p. 300] learning time and God Himself was completing His work in His servant! He calls Job His servant first and last. There must have been a great deficiency in his service before all this discipline. Here this great creature is brought forward as one from whom Job should learn, for he is “chief of God’s ways”.
The creature in chapter 41 is different. “Lay thy hand upon him; remember the battle, — do no more!”. Man is not equal to him in strength; he is marked by pride. “He beholdeth all high things; he is king over all the proud beasts”. He is not docile, rather the opposite. We must judge of him by the divine description. Scripture says “every species both of beasts and of birds, both of creeping things and of sea animals, is tamed and has been tamed by the human species” (James 3:7); but there is no evidence of tamability in this creature; he causes dread. “When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid: they are beside themselves with consternation”. Compared with man as a creature, Satan is indicated in this. On earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. God only could overcome him, which He did in Christ. Goliath was unmatched until David came on the scene. As we pursue this subject of apparent invincibility in a creature into the New Testament, we see the Lord Jesus led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil. He overcame the great antagonist of God and men; bound him, and through death He annulled him. We can understand now how Job’s first confession was not enough. The idea of God’s power must enter into the believer’s self-judgment. It had come up in the dialogues between Job and his friends, but only as generally regarded or academically. Now, in the presence of this adverse power as described by Jehovah Himself, Job begins his satisfactory confession by saying, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”. By amplification, this would include the great work of God in [p. 301] redemption; the work of Christ in overcoming leviathan in all his power. God can be hindered in no thought of His. Thus the precious thoughts of His love have all been effected, and are Yea and Amen in Christ. It is an immense thing to know God in this light; to know His power, for it implies the operations of His love; what He had wrought in Christ, and what He is now working in the saints, the power which works in us. We cannot wage the heavenly conflict, nor exercise priestly service, save as we realise the Spirit of God working in us.
JD What do you think of behemoth, as “the chief of God’s ways”, in relation to what is said of him in verse 23, “he is confident though a Jordan break forth against his mouth”? Does God intend to draw attention to the might of this creature?
JT Jordan would typify death. This would be something in the creation that would point to the overthrow of death, or superiority to it. “He is confident though a Jordan break forth against his mouth”. The reference is not just to an ordinary river, but Jordan; not the Nile, or Euphrates, but a river that represents death in its full power. Paul speaks of being delivered from so great a death (2 Corinthians 1:10). This involves power. Believers are superior to death, because of Him who broke its power; through Christ we are delivered from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). Leviathan, as we have seen, is “king over all the proud beasts”. Man cannot cope with him, but God can. Job draws attention to that in the statement, “I know that thou canst do everything”. The knowledge of God in His power which, of course, is in the resurrection of Christ, enables us to overcome. The apostle prayed, “that ye should know ... the surpassing greatness of his [God’s] power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead” (Ephesians 1:18-20). That power works in us. Paul as to himself says,
“[p. 302] I have strength for all things in him that gives me power” (Philippians 4:13).
JD Paul would have the Corinthians restore the man who had been put away lest he be swallowed up with excessive grief. Then he says, “That we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
JT We are taught of God how to contend with the devil. According to the first epistle to the Corinthians, the devil is made to serve God, for Paul says, as to the man who had sinned, “to deliver him, I say, being such, to Satan for destruction of the flesh” (1 Corinthians 5:5). He is viewed there as a servant used for the discipline of man, but in the second epistle Paul says, “we are not ignorant of his thoughts”. He wanted the man restored, but Satan would destroy the man wholly if he could. The Corinthians were not working with the apostle in the matter, they were holding the man in the position of discipline. Unwittingly, they were acting in the interests of the devil. No doubt they were largely ignorant of his devices. “Rather show grace and encourage”, the apostle says, “lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with excessive grief”. The devil would hold him longer, but as under God’s control Satan had done his work, and the man is to be restored. We must be careful not to help the devil. Job’s wife helped the devil. In 2 Corinthians the devil is viewed as antagonistic. The man was in danger of being swallowed up with grief. The wicked man had now become the repentant man, and so must be restored, as forgiven and set up again among the brethren. The devil is defeated.
So there are two features in the service of God, in these chapters. The first one represented in behemoth being chief of God’s ways, used to serve God. The second one, leviathan, Satan himself in type, who was made before man. This first creature is the chief of the ways of God, who says to Job, “which I made with thee”.
JD As regards the man disciplined at Corinth, we cannot deliver one to Satan; that is apostolic, but the principle of the thing is there. We need priestly feelings on the side of watching over such to see the signs of repentance.
JT The law of the leper’s cleansing shows that great exercise is involved in his being brought into the camp, and anointed. When he is anointed, he is himself in power. Paul says, “He that ... has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:21,22). As thus adjusted, the restored believer can confront the enemy with confidence. One great feature of the priest is sympathy. The true priest is the Lord Jesus as seen in type in the bondman in Exodus 21, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. He said plainly, I love — whether it is in relation to God, or the assembly, or the saints as children. In the book of Exodus later (chapter 28), that man is clothed, so to speak, in the garments of the high priest. The saints are brought into all that. “Brethren, if even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual” (that is real priests) “restore such a one” (Galatians 6:1). Notice it is not said, If you can do it, but you are to do it.
These two beasts in Job 40 and 41 stand in relation to a man under the discipline of God. Behemoth suggests kindliness, even sympathy. “His strength is in his loins, and his force is in the muscles of his belly”. The apostle says, “if any bowels and compassions” (Philippians 2:1); these are the powerful inward feelings needed for the restoration of an erring one. The Corinthians were straitened in their own bowels (2 Corinthians 6:12), and so not usable for the restoration of the erring one. The apostle would soften them and make them priestly, having “bowels of compassion”. Satan is employed to do the rough work, needed at the outset in some cases of sin, but destructive if allowed to go beyond a certain [p. 304] point.
JD The first beast not being wild as the second, would be to assure us that God is for us.
JT “He is the chief of God’s ways”. The ways of God are unsearchable, past finding out, but they work in our favour.
LES God made Nebuchadnezzar to eat grass like an ox, until he learned to bless the Most High and praise and honour Him that liveth for ever and ever.
JT He was with the beasts of the field; they would do him no harm. In the dream, the stump of the tree was left. The root, the work of God in Nebuchadnezzar, was not destroyed. He was in the state of an ox until seven times had passed over him; the result was that he worshipped God. God did not let Satan into His discipline of Nebuchadnezzar. His ways with him were in accord with behemoth. Daniel was cast to the lions, but God sent His angel who stopped their mouths. The lions were of the character of the second beast, who would destroy us. The Lord Jesus was with the wild beasts in the wilderness, and clearly suffered no harm; at the end of that experience He bound Satan.
WFK The first beast as related to discipline, might be connected with the word of God.
JT Yes; Daniel was able to help Nebuchadnezzar through the prophetic word. There was recovery after the “seven times” (Daniel 4:34-37). Job reaches the end in these two chapters. In cases of discipline we must not be too easily satisfied. God would help us to discern when complete self-judgment has taken place.
JC Job came to know how vile he was — he had completely judged himself.
JT Well, that is seen more fully in the dust and ashes. “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” That is one of Abraham’s phrases. “I, who am dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). As far as we know he was the first to use it. It shows that he had accepted the judgment of God through sacrifice. Abel’s testimony implied sacrifice, and this must be linked with Abraham’s [p. 305] confession. If there is no sacrifice, the ashes would refer to the lake of fire. It is only through the sacrifice of Christ that there is any recovery at all. Chapter 42 says, “And it came to pass after Jehovah had spoken these words to Job, that Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite, Mine anger is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends; for ye have not spoken rightly of me, like my servant Job. And now, take for yourselves seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept; lest I deal with you after your folly, for ye have not spoken of me rightly, like my servant Job”. It is clear that Job’s last statements satisfied Jehovah and led to what He says in favour of Job. Job is now accepted. God owned him as His servant, and said that he has spoken rightly of Him. It is when a man has been all this way through discipline he can speak rightly of God.
DR God enlarges on what Elihu says and gets this result.
JT Yes; He continues on from Elihu. Is your ministry such that God can identify Himself with it? There are ten thousand instructors in christendom and it is certain that God can link Himself with but very few of them. Elihu plainly says, by his name; ‘ God is He ‘. He is not putting himself forward; he is letting no one despise his youth. No matter how young I am, no man can despise me if I speak like Elihu, or Timothy or Titus. “Rebuke not an elder sharply”, Paul says to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:1). Where rebuke of an elder was needed, Timothy, governed by this balancing word in administering it, would fortify himself against any despisal of his youth.
DR Why would he not be despised?
JT Because of moral power and wisdom in the way he acted. God has given us a spirit “of power, and of love, and of wise discretion” (2 Timothy 1:7), and in maintaining this, a young brother can serve [p. 306] God and men as acceptably and effectively as those who are older. It is clear that Timothy and Titus represented the apostle Paul even in the appointment of elders.
JD “Let no one despise thy youth, but be a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). If a young man is a model in this way, you are bound to admit his moral power.
JT Exactly; as we have already noted with Elihu; although he was a young man, Job and his three friends did not question his moral right to speak.
FR Job says, “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee”. How would that come about?
JT Evidently by what Job saw in the great creatures of God; in what God called attention to in them. If we take what is going on in the world at the present time, God has much to say in it. He is effecting something which we should see. It may stand in relation to behemoth or leviathan or both. He may at first have used the leviathan element to do the rough or scourging work, and this being accomplished, cast it off as an enemy. Then God may have recourse to the elements friendly to men, compassionate as made with him; that is, behemoth. This word is said to be the plural of excellence, or intensity, of the Hebrew word for domestic cattle as in Genesis 1:25 and 2:20, and hence suggests an extensive element in God’s creation having a special link of sympathy with man. Being “the chief of God’s ways”, there would be the working out of good in the creation toward men in the awful trial that has come upon us all. Thus we see God in all that is transpiring and we say it is among the “all things” that work for good to those who love Him.
Leviathan is a creature of God, too, as we have seen. We are not told that he was made with man as behemoth was. God uses him for certain purposes. But great as [p. 307] this creature is, what is he compared with God? (chapter 41:10). Job says God is greater — He can do everything.
JC God created both the beasts.
JT Yes. He created Satan, of course, but not with man. The lake of fire is made for Satan — “For the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
LES Creation in that way would help us to understand the ways of God.
JT Well, it would all contribute; especially he who is the chief of those ways, as said already. Abstractly, creation is good and ministers to God’s praise. “Thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created” (Revelation 4:11).
DR God goes into detail regarding the creation in these chapters to reach, as James says, “the end of the Lord”. The Lord is very faithful in leaving undone nothing needed to reach His end in Job.
JT Quite so. In the first chapters Job maintained his integrity, defeating Satan’s efforts, but here he says, I have “uttered what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not”. He is not now seeking to establish his own righteousness, but God’s; so he reaches the end of the Lord, as James alludes to it. It is most encouraging to look into the final chapter; chapters 40 and 41 lead up to this. The Lord Jesus had to do with this last creature; that is, Satan as depicted in this way. The result is that the believer is recovered, as seen in Job in the last chapter. The creature mentioned in chapter 40 would, as we have seen, speak of something favourable; this is seen in some respects in government. The governments in this empire are favourable to the christian. We must not carry the application too far, but that much is there. The adverse government would be seen in the second beast; it is against us. Government in these countries is not acting against us, and God is using them. We are, nevertheless, to remember that Pilate justified the Lord, and yet, under adverse influence, crucified Him.
LES Paul says he “fought with beasts at Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:32).
JT They were wild. The second one here is mentioned in that way. “Lay thy hand upon him; remember the battle, — do no more”. What can you do? But then God can do something. Job learned that God could do everything. These two confessions show the purpose of discipline. The first, “I am nought”, may be found with us; but then there are further discoveries to be made, as we come up against these two creatures, which are used in God’s disciplinary ways. The end of the Lord is reached and we are not overcome by adverse elements, but we overcome them. Paul says, “For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us” (Romans 8:36,37). That is the idea, we are supported through the sufferings by Him that loved us. He is greater than them all. “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38,39).
JD What do you think is meant by, “When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid: they are beside themselves with consternation”. That power was roused up in full force against the Lord Jesus Christ.
JT Yes, but it had to go. The Lord said, “Get thee away, Satan, ... Then the devil leaves him” (Matthew 4:10,11).
TK Would you get the two characters of government you alluded to in Herod?
JT That is right. Herod did not intend to kill John the baptist, but rather than break his word before his friends he did so. The same is seen in Felix; he listened to Paul, but he, “desirous to oblige the Jews,
[p. 309] to acquire their favour, left Paul bound” (Acts 25:27). A politician has to obtain favour of the people.
JD It is a serious thing to come under the power of leviathan. It needs the full armour of God to withstand him. One going out from the fellowship is exposed to his power.
JT Satan goes about, 1 Peter 5:8 says, “as a roaring lion ... seeking whom he may devour”. If one is withdrawn from by the saints, he is deprived of the protection which the assembly affords, he is exposed to the devil. You cannot expect God to keep you, if you turn your back upon the light and go into darkness. I think that is the point with Job. Being instructed by God as to these two beasts leads to complete recovery. If I have the second one to contend with, what can I do? I must have God, and for this I must abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.
SJ Do you consider that Job understood the import of what God was bringing him to here?
JT His confession shows that he did. Do we understand it? The Holy Scriptures were written to be understood. 1 Peter 1:11,12 says the prophets were “searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these. To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves but to you they ministered those things”. Hence the importance of reading the Scriptures so that we may understand. I do not suppose that Job would understand all that is written in this book, but as we read, allowing the Holy Spirit of God to affect our minds, the full import of the Scriptures comes to us. How great the position is! It is the day of the ministry of the Spirit of God, who understands everything, searching for us even “the depths of God”. The whole import and meaning of the Old Testament is thus brought to us.
[p. 310] Chapter 42 goes on to show how thorough is the recovery that has taken place in Job. He quotes what God said to him at the outset. Sometimes, in dealing with a brother who has failed, we find that he goes so far, like Job in chapter 40, and then there is a big but. That is why these two chapters are brought in. There is now no excuse offered, but a thorough bowing to the will of God.
DR There was no but in David’s confession.
JT What occasions it is usually silenced through discipline. Sometimes we have to wait long for full confession.
WFK After Job’s confession he is found praying for his friends.
JT It is a question of the second being established in the testimony of God — in christianity; praying for his enemies. “If therefore thine enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him drink; for, so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20,21). Fire brings down his head — he bows. You do not do it to destroy, but simply to make him bow before God. Job was brought down and now the three friends are brought down. God secures all.
JD God says to Eliphaz, “Take for yourselves seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, for ye have not spoken of me rightly, like my servant Job”. They are to see what God has arrived at in Job.
JT Yes. Job is made, we may say, a high priest. They are directed to take for themselves offerings and go to Job and offer them up, and Job would pray for them. They act as priests, bringing their burnt offering, and offering it, but Job serves as high priest, and is accepted, and they are accepted through him. The high priestly position is reached, through which God can be approached. “Jehovah accepted Job”. We are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).
JD It is not a sin-offering, but a burnt-offering.
JT Public christendom fails to come to this. The high-priestly place is assumed, but there is only one true High Priest. We come in under Him, all christians being priests. God accepted Job, not only himself, but in relation to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar.
Rem Job is mentioned in Ezekiel 14:12-14, “And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Son of man, when a land sinneth against me by working unfaithfulness, and I stretch out my hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off man and beast from it; though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, should be in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness”.
JT That is a remarkable testimony to Job. What we have been considering in this chapter shows that in this book God had in mind the whole testimony of Scripture and the whole divine system typified in Israel, and now set up in Christ, our great Priest in heaven.
LES Abraham, who was contemporary with Job, also had to do with God’s priest.
JT Yes; the great priest, Melchisedec. Abraham, great as he was, had to pay the tithe to him; this brings out that Christ as Priest was there in type. Noah, Daniel and Job placed together in the prophetic testimony, all serving outside the land of Israel, point to God’s sovereign universal activities in all dispensations.
JD Many christians do not see much in Genesis, but in following it through in this way, we see what God gives us from it.
JT Genesis is a great book to us. Much of what is current is hidden in it; hence the enemy has sought to discredit it. The priest of the most High God is a millennial thought.
LES The divine family is brought [p. 312] in through Abraham.
JT Yes, through Isaac. “In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee” (Genesis 21:12). In the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the sovereignty of God is seen in family eliminations and adjustments. Ishmael is excluded from Abraham’s family; Esau from Isaac’s, and Joseph is placed before Reuben in Jacob’s. The double portion is Joseph’s. The general features of the family of faith are seen in Genesis. Joseph is a type of Christ rejected by Israel and afterwards made known to them as His brethren. “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). In connection with Joseph we have the remarkable feature of the family conveyed in the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 37:9). Christ is thus seen exalted in the house of Jacob. “He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever” (Luke 1:33). In Job the idea of the family of faith has a great place, as we have seen. The first family is taken away that the second might be established.
Rem Job was not told to offer these sacrifices.
JT No. The three were to take the offerings and go to him and offer for themselves. He would pray for them; “for him will I accept”, Jehovah says. His position is high-priestly. Then we have the whole position that is recovered; the second family is established. “And Job lived after this a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days”. There is complete change in Job, and in his circumstances. God has effected this. Jehovah turned the captivity of Job when he had prayed for his three friends. All is refreshingly changed. It is a foreshadowing of the Jews in the last days and their recovery from their long captivity. It will be “life from among the dead” (Romans 11:15).
DR Why does God enlarge on the three daughters, and give their names?
JT To bring out the subjective side in the new order of things. For us, pointing to the assembly, also suggesting [p. 313] the Israel of the future, the feminine qualities which are for Christ, as seen in Song of Songs.
DR Beautiful women set out the thought of the assembly as constituted for Christ.
JT Eve, Rebecca and Abigail. As Eve is brought to Adam, he implies in what he says that she is like him. Abigail and Rebecca are beautiful women, and outstanding as types of the assembly.
LES It is through discipline we are brought to name things. In chapter 1 the daughters are not named.
JT Discipline tends to clear the vision. We can understand, in view of the history of the first family, how Job’s experience would enter into the names he gave the daughters of the second. According to the information available, they all convey attractive feminine qualities. The sons’ names are not given. The attention directed by the Spirit to the beauty of Job’s daughters and their names, indicates that the feminine or subjective result of the discipline is stressed rather than the governing side.
JD I was noticing how it is put here, “And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he had prayed for his friends”. Not only was Job’s recovery in view, but that of his three friends, too.
JT Yes. As he prayed for them, he would typify Christ as Priest. You have the thought of the high priest brought in there. God accepted Job, and he is interested in others. The whole position is now changed, including that of the three friends. They are in favour with God, and blessing generally marks the position through one man who is accepted by God.
JF Why is everything that he has doubled except the sons and the daughters?
JT What appears in the family is that it was new, different from the first, not in quantity, but in quality. It is the second established, as we have seen. The double quantity of cattle, I think, points to what Christ has in the millennium. As to the family, there is a link [p. 314] with Numbers 27:6,7. The daughters of Zelophehad were given “a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren”.
DR The spiritual family in the seven sons and three daughters far exceeds in quality the natural or first family.
JT Yes. It is not said now that they were feasting in the house of the firstborn”; but it is said that Job saw his sons, and his son’s sons”. He is not now seen acting at a distance — the children meeting by themselves in each other’s houses. “He sent and hallowed them” at the beginning (chapter 1:5). In the closing chapter Job in seeing “his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations” becomes a patriarch like Joseph, who “saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation; the sons also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born on Joseph’s knees” (Genesis 50:23).
JD The passage says, “And Job died, old and full of days”. This reminds us of David’s death: “And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour” (1 Chronicles 29:28).
TK There is a great difference also in the way his friends come to see him in this chapter from the beginning of the book. “And all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they condoled with him, and comforted him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him; and every one gave him a piece of money, and every one a golden ring”. There is real sympathy now.
JT It is most beautiful — I suppose pointing to the recovery of the Jews in the millennial day. The whole history comes up, and the work of God is manifest in the activity of love. It marks all those who had known him — “all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been his acquaintance before”. The rings would show the abiding interest of love. And then, “Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. And he had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren”. As we have said, we are reminded of the book of Numbers in what is said of the daughters. In both Numbers and Joshua, the daughters of Zelophehad find an inheritance “among their brethren”.
LES There is a wonderful touch in Genesis 50:19-21, as to God’s end in discipline, corresponding with what is before us; “Joseph said to them, Fear not: am I then in the place of God? Ye indeed meant evil against me: God meant it for good, in order that he might do as it is this day, to save a great people alive. And now, fear not: I will maintain you and your little ones. And he ... spoke consolingly to them”. Would that fit in here? Also Paul says in Ephesians 3:13,14, “Wherefore I beseech you not to faint through my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father”.
JT There are remarkable links there, indicating that the work of God is really the same throughout. God co-ordinates His work universally. That is what will appear in the end, when it will be said, “What hath God wrought!” (Numbers 23:23).
DR These brethren and acquaintances would be brought fully into sympathy with Job.
JT Yes. That marks his recovery. It is not simply that one is allowed to break bread again, but all your brethren are with you; you want that. So it is said, “they ate bread with him in his house”. And further, “they condoled with him, and comforted him ... and every one gave him a piece of money, and every one a golden ring”. We do not know how many were there, but there is the evidence of love in the ring — eternal love. The millennium is just a foretaste of eternity; but love goes right through. Love pervades all. They are all together vitally; as in christianity we are together in a living way. Anticipatively, we are seated together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. A very wonderful position!
WFK Unity in love marks the position.
JT Yes. There is true priesthood now; and sons and daughters set up in a living way in relation to their father; not doing what they like. Job saw four generations of his family. Our Father watches over us — “The Father himself loveth you” (John 16:27). The father’s place in Job 42 is very significant. In John’s gospel, in chapters 14 to 17, the Lord urges the truth as to the Father; that He should be known, and have His place in the minds and hearts of the disciples. Here Job gave his daughters an inheritance among their brethren; Job as their father has his place now.
All this is to be reflected among the saints today. There may be ten thousand instructors, but only one father, Paul says, and he was that, for he represented God in fatherly qualities amongst the Corinthians. There is a great need amongst us of fatherhood; the representation of God in this sense, especially towards young people. “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God” (1 John 3:1).
WFK Job is like Jacob at the end. He has a good finish.
JT That is a most important point. We want to get in at the finish. “The end of the Lord” is in mind. The present time is the finishing time. God is going to establish the second publicly, and surely we all wish to be in it.