Job’s legendary suffering hints at the spiritual realities that Christ proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount. Let’s start with a recap of Job’s heroic faith.
- He lost everything in the world - his possessions, his children, his health.
- Then his wife told him to curse God and die. (Job 2:9)
- Then his three ‘comforters’ spent 29 chapters telling him that he was a terrible sinner and he should repent, because obviously God would not inflict this punishment on him otherwise. (Job 3-31)
- In the midst of this Job made some strong statements of faith.
- That even if God were to kill him, he would hope and trust in Him. (Job 13:15)
- That his redeemer lives and that he would see Him in the flesh - the resurrection of the just. (Job 19:25-27)
- Job ends with a plea for God to answer him. Then Elihu spoke up to point up that there are some things about God that we don’t understand, because He transcends our limited understanding. (Job 32-37)
- God then answers Job’s plea to hear from Him, but doesn’t really answer the question Job asked. Instead, He points to the power and glory of nature, and asks Job if he can do, or even understand these things. (Job 38-41)
- Job repents of thinking that he could understand God or contest with Him in court, and God blesses Job.
- God tells Job’s ‘comforters’ to ask him to pray for them, because their legalistic understanding of God completely misrepresented Him, and He was angry. (Job 42:7-9)
The real reason Job was tested (that God approved of him, and Satan accused him of mercenary faith, and that Satan was the destroyer) was never mentioned by God to Job.
Turning to the beatitudes, Jesus’ statement of how He would live out His life through the lives of His followers (Matthew 5:3-12):
- Job’s spiritual poverty was exemplified through the other traits. (Job 1:20-21; 2:10)
- Job mourned for those who suffered, long before he mourned the loss of his family. (Job 29:12,16)
- Job was meek enough to pray for His ‘comforters’ when they had so badly accused him and judged him without evidence. (Job 42:9-10)
- Job sought to honor God with His life. (Job 31:1-32)
- Job showed mercy to his ‘comforters’ as per the above.
- Job’s heart-devotion to God led him to want to see God face-to-face. (Job 31:35-37)
- Job ultimately made peace with his ‘comforters’, but through a correct honoring of God, and not through surrender to Pharisaical legalism. (Job 26:2-4; 42:10-11)
- Job did not rejoice when he was accused of being a horrendous sinner and they said all manner of evil about him, but he did retain his faith in God. He knew that a redeemer would come. His wife did not believe it. (Job 19:25-27; 2:9)
Another interesting note is that he did not choose, at the point of deepest suffering, to say he would rather go to his eternal reward. Instead, he wanted to see God’s redemptive work revealed on earth.
When we are confronted with the outpouring of evil, it seems as though a portal has been opened between the spiritual and natural realms, that allows Satan and his minions access to rain evil on the earth. In Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus took His disciples to the region of Caesarea Philippi to talk about His power and reign over evil. When Peter correctly named Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus explained the authority that the church has over evil. “… on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19) He then went on to describe His upcoming death, and the ultimate victory over sin and evil that He would thereby accomplish. Peter did not understand this at the time, but in retrospect we have a much clearer picture.
The point of all this should be clear: when we see evil rampant on the earth and empowered by Satanic forces that have emerged from the spiritual realm into the earth, we know that Jesus has already defeated them through His death and resurrection. (Matthew 16:21) The victory is real in our lives through following His footsteps. (Matthew 16:24-26) As a New Testament fulfillment of the revelation Job received from God in a whirlwind, Jesus then took the disciples up to a high mountain and was transformed before them, revealing His glory. (Matthew 17:1-8) This type of the rapture of the church stands as a promise for the ultimate outcome for Jesus’ followers who exercise the power of His death and resurrection to overcome evil. Job had only a dim revelation of this, but the church has now been fully empowered to oppose and defeat Satan and his cronies when they are on the earth.
Beyond that, the church can take the offensive, since this portal exists, to attack Satan’s spiritual strongholds, with the promise of Christ that the gates of hell cannot overcome the power of the rock of Jesus Himself. This power is released through the keys of the kingdom of God: the confession of His name and sovereignty, and obedience to Him in taking on His armor. (Ephesians 6:12) The beatitudes describe the life of Christ as lived out in His people - what this victory looks like. That current culture reflects the opposite indicates that we must take the offensive to the gates of hell. Victory is promised when the Great Commission is completed. (Matthew 28: 28-20, Mark 13:10) Could that be God’s intention when He created the portal?
