ESV Chronological Plan, Day 17 | Job 1-3

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Read Job 1:1-3:26

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

(A) No one knows when the Book of Job takes place, so in chronological plans this book is sometimes placed after The Fall in Genesis 3, or just before the story of Abraham after Genesis 11. Here, by placing it after the Book of Genesis entirely, Steinmann seems to agree with an interesting idea that Job was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, and possibly a King of Edom to be identified with "Jobab" (Genesis 36:33). There's actually a lot of merit to this suggestion.

(B) In my reading, I felt like Job presented a helpful example of what it means to be upright before God. (1) He reverently "feared God and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1). (2) He was a faithful steward of his possessions (1:2-3). (3) He was both a patriarchal family man who took spiritual responsibility for his family, while also allowing space for his adult children to form their own family life and traditions (1:4-5); (4) He rose early to dedicate himself and his family to God and practice spiritual disciplines--in his case, early morning sacrifices (1:5). (5) He was attentive not just towards guarding against outward sin, but he also placed importance on the inward attitudes of the heart as well -- i.e. "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts" (1:5). (6) Though he had great possessions, Job's relationship with God was not dependent on outward blessing (1:22-23). (7) Job was willing to receive whatever God brought his way--though as we see later, that doesn't mean that he wasn't also deeply suffering and in distress (2:10; 3:1-26).

(C) The work of Satan in these chapters is brutal to read about. We see that besides his role as our accuser (1:8-11, 2:3-5), Satan has some degree of influence over wicked people (1:15, 1:17), over natural disasters like lightning and hurricanes (1:16, 1:19), over disease (2:7), and even over those who are wrongly well-intentioned (2:9, 2:11). And he can bring all these things together at one time to overwhelm us and bring us into desperation. Sometimes a telltale sign of spiritual attack is not any one individual issue that comes up, but the combination of many things all together that suddenly (and improbably) arise simultaneously in our health, relationships, wellbeing, finances, family life, and interactions all at one time. As a pastor, I sometimes see this in predictable ways such as when a large variety of problems arise all at once right as we are preparing to take some kind of important move forward, or to bring the Gospel out to those around us, or even when I am preparing to preach on a particularly important subject. When it becomes clear that this is happening, the first and most important thing to do is pray, because while these things individually appear natural and need to be addressed through taking action on them, their combined occurrence all at one time likely has an origin in the spiritual realm.

(D) It's important to see the Gospel even in these difficult chapters. And Job gives us one easy way to be reminded of what God has done for us. See, whenever you see sacrifices in the Old Testament, you should think of Jesus. When Job is worried that his children may have sinned in their hearts, he "consecrated them... and offered burnt offerings according to their number" (1:5). Like Job consecrates his children and makes offerings for them, God as our Father consecrates us, which means that he makes us holy. And he does this by providing the only sacrificial offering that can truly take away our sins and make us righteous--the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, in our place, for our sins. See the parallels here? They're right on the surface. Job as a father provided a sacrifice to save his children from their sins and to make them holy (which is what the word "consecrated" means). That's exactly what our Heavenly Father does for us through sending Jesus. On the cross, Jesus took on our guilt so that we could share in His righteousness. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament point to Him.

RESPOND | WHAT IS OUR PART?

We could respond to this reading in a number of ways. We could imitate Job's example of righteousness. We could be moved to pray more intently for things in the spiritual realm. We could be filled with thankfulness that God, as a loving father, would provide for us and consecrate us as Job provided for his children. Or maybe something else stuck out to you--and you could respond by sharing that with the rest of the group.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US CLOSER TO GOD?

Here is a suggested prayer prompt: "God, help me to trust in you, especially when things do not go well. Help me to trust that you are good and that you are in control. Help me to live for you no matter what. Grant me the spiritual insight to see my trials for what they are also, that whatever happens, it can draw me closer to you. Today, help me to serve you faithfully and with humility. Amen."