220 Who Done It? By Job

Listen to this episode BEFORE you read the Old Testament! It is essential to understand what was added to the book of Job to realize that there is a God that protects and a devil that brings strife. This is critical to understand as we read the Old Testament where they simply attribute everything that happened supernaturally to God. There was very little understanding of the devil until they came back from captivity in Babylon. The book of Job should probably have been put at the very beginning of the Bible.

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Who done it? by Job

The right place to start a book is at the beginning if you want to follow the author's plot

unfold. If you cannot wait to know "who done it," better read the last chapter first. The

Bible, being amongst other things great literature, is full of surprises. One of these

surprises is that in the first written of the sixty-six books, the villain is unmasked for the

discerning reader. Once this is noticed by the reader, the understanding of the rest of

the Bible is dramatically and radically different.

Certainly, the book of Job is about three misguided comforters; the ignorance of Job; his

sour wife; the creative power of God; and is a tragic story of misfortune followed by

redemption and restoration; but the most important part of the book lies elsewhere.

Here it comes then. Right in chapter one Satan says the following to God:

Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will

surely curse you to your face.

There it is. continues, If God will strike Job then Job's attitude will change. The next verse

Job 1:12 The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your

hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."

So, God is going to strike Job, and this means Job is in Satan's hands. Are God and Satan

in cahoots in the misfortunes that fall on Job? Do they both actively plan and execute

the tragedies that strike him? When verse sixteen states that the "fire of God" destroyed

the sheep and herders, is this a literal statement? Definitely not. We know what is going

on. God’s protection must be removed before Satan can touch this obedient child of

God. It is all there for us to understand. God is the protector and Satan the destroyer.

When God commands Satan not to touch the man himself (1:12) we again have

confirmation of who destroys and who protects.

The roles of protector and destroyer are confirmed in chapter two so clearly that only

those who choose to be blind cannot see it. God challenges Satan in verse three:

Job 2:3 “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him;

he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still

maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him without any reason.” 4

“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But

stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you

to your face.” 5 The Lord said to Satan. “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must

spare his life.”

There it is again “You (Satan) must spare his life.” If that is not enough to identify the villain, read the next verse.

Job 2:6-8 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and aClicted Job with

painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

One cannot miss it. Satan is the destroyer and God is the protector. All at once we have

identified the source of trauma and tragedy, doubt and discouragement, pain and

persecution. But we have also discovered much more, we have identified the Hebrew

mindset that permeates all of the Bible. In the writer's mind, the all-powerful God is the

source of all these misfortunes because He allows them at the horrible hand of the

deceiving serpent, Satan, who deceives the whole world. (Revelation 12:9)

Satan certainly deceived Job. While we can read the first two chapters and understand

what is going on behind the scenes Job was ignorant of this back story. Throughout the

narrative he demonstrates his belief that all his misfortune comes from God. Here are

some examples:

Job 2:10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good

from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job 6:4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison;

God’s terrors are marshalled against me. (Cf 10:2-3; 13:21; 16:7-9; 17:6; 19:6-

22)

That is the key that unlocks the whole drama that will unfold in the following sixty-five

books. Get it in your head, cherish it and the God who loved us unto death emerges

from the pages that have been smudged and dusted with misapprehension about the

character and the government of the Creator, Maintainer, Redeemer God. Will you be

led astray by the Deceiver as you read the Scriptures? It has happened before.

John 5:39-40 You diligently study the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you

refuse to come to me to have life.

Take courage, it requires a great deal of eCort to change the way we have thought for

years or decades, but it is worth the eCort since "truth" is the pearl of great price.

There is much more from this story. In this dialogue between God and Satan we have

illustrated, the conflict between good and evil, between right and wrong, between love

and selfishness, between light and darkness. God was challenged from all sides by

Satan. He accuses Job of serving God for the protection he gets out of it. How shall the

question be answered? For what reason or reasons does Job serve God? There is only

one way to answer the accusation. God is forced to allow trouble to come to Job. It is a

risk He must take, and it is the cost of freedom.In taking this risk on Job, God opens Himself to possible blame for responsible for all the evil or misfortune that comes upon Job.

The first two chapters and chapter 42:7-17 are written in prose while the rest of the book

is poetry indicating that the original narrative was added to probably at the time of Ezra

and Nehemiah. The acknowledgement of the existence of Satan is a late addition in the

Old Testament as it occurs in Chronicles and Zechariah both dated after the return from

the Babylonian captivity.

The great news from the story of Job is, however, that he comes through with flying

colours on this central issue. While Job has many misunderstandings about God his

loyalty is unsullied. He does not turn on God because of his misfortunes. He is not

God's friend for what he can get out of Him. Here is a man who operates on the

principles of heaven.

But then God has, and continues to be accused of evil in the creation of every being who

started out good and turned bad. Since God knew the future, He is responsible for all

evil beings even though they started out good. He knew it would end up being bad,

therefore He is party to the cause of evil. Some would argue that God went ahead and

created evil because His rightness would be even more visible and prominent as a

result of the contrast between good and evil.

This is where the cross of Calvary finds its centrality in Christian thinking. At the cross,

God in Christ was faced with the supreme test of His being: Is there any selfishness in

God? To Christ it appears that He is dying forever at the hands of His creation. Shall He

die forever or shall He go back to life in Heaven? When Christ cries out,

Matthew 27:46 My God why hast Thou forsaken me?

He expresses a blackness of depression that prevented His seeing through the gates of

the grave. At that moment Jesus believed He was dying forever. That is part of the

triumph of the Cross. Jesus, who is God, would rather die than have His creation lose

hope and life. That is the magnificent answer of love to the “selfishness” of God.

Perhaps it would have been better to place the book of Job right at the beginning of the

Old Testament. In that way many of the misconceptions created by the first five books

could have been prevented. But then again possibly not. Most readers seem to have

missed the implications of what the book teaches in essence. The right perspective is

not easy to gain and to maintain because the evil one has sowed weeds in the wheat. It

takes a lot of mental weeding to keep the wheat clean in our minds, but it can be done

and must be done by God's friends. So do it!

Ian Hartley, October 2025