Unlocking the Truth about the Book of Job

By Christopher Michael Holmes and Richard Salcido

God didn't point Job out to Satan and dare him to do something about the man's righteous life. Nor did the Lord commission the devil to afflict and test Job. Neither did the Almighty flippantly make a wager with Satan at Job's expense. Find out the truth behind why Job suffered and how God intervened to protect and bless him. Unlocking the Truth about the Book of Job exposes the misunderstandings of what happened and reveals God's true nature as a loving Father. A must read for every Christian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Aug 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666777871

Christopher Michael Holmes

Christopher Michael Holmes serves as the associate pastor for the River at Portland Church located in Portland, Tennessee. He has earned a ministerial certificate from the Berean School of the Bible, a ministerial degree from Harvest International, a certificate of pastoral care from Nations University, and an AAS in paramedicine from the University of South Carolina. He cohosted the Red River Rising podcast, which presented a fifteen-episode series on the book of Job.

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Unlocking the Truth about the Book of Job

by Christopher Michael Holmes and Richard Salcido

Unlocking the Truth about the Book of Job

Copyright © 2023 Christopher Michael Holmes and Richard Salcido. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-7785-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-7786-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-7787-1

08/07/23

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Lockman.org (https://www.lockman.org/)

Table of Contents

Title Page

Chapter 1: The Man, Job

Chapter 2: First Affliction

Chapter 3: Second Affliction

Chapter 4: A Chat among Friends

Chapter 5: Elihu’s Reproof

Chapter 6: God Corrects Job

Chapter 7: Restoration

Bibliography

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.—Matthew 6:33

1

The Man, Job

Concerning books in the Bible, a majority of people deeply misunderstand the Book of Job, rivaled only by the Book of Revelation. From generation to generation, culture to culture, and era to era, humanity has different perceptions of language. Thus, over the centuries, impacted by translation from one language to another, clarity fades. People misperceive several verses in Job resulting in the wrong idea of what happened. Our modern perception of the English language causes such confusion. Because of this, the Book of Job has bothered many people for decades, causing them to languish over the notion that a good God who loves us more than we could comprehend and who sent his only begotten Son to die for us, would give Satan permission to severely afflict us. These two concepts seem contradictory.

With the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and illumination, a study of the Book of Job clarified much of the misunderstanding. This resulting book shares that enlightenment. During research, the Holy Spirit guided us to four commentaries: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible, Joseph Benson’s Commentary of the Old and New Testaments, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, and John Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible. These four interpretations don’t entirely agree with one another concerning the Book of Job; nor do we completely agree with each of them. However, they did provide insight and clarity concerning the confusing verses of the Book of Job. The Bible verses quoted within this work come from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise stated.

To begin, let’s look at a few key verses in the New Testament that unlock the true overall meaning of the Book of Job. The first is Jas 5:11, "We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful." And have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings means God’s intended outcome for Job’s situation. That the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful means that God is extremely compassionate and merciful. The emphasis lies on this. The Book of Job illustrates God’s compassion and mercy.

However, comprehension through the lens of our modern perception of the English language gives the impression that God threw Job to the wolves. Job 1:6–12 reads,

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But reach out with Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will certainly curse You to Your face. Then the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not reach out and put your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.

This passage gives the idea that God pointed out Job to Satan and subsequently gave the devil permission to torment and torture Job. How could this be compassionate and merciful? Our perception of what happened creates conflict and confusion. Therefore, we need to use Jas 5:11 to guide us through what’s actually unfolding. God is compassionate and merciful. If God appears to be otherwise, then we misunderstand the text.

Another important verse that clarifies the Book of Job is John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly." Thus, in the Book of Job, wherever the giving of life and abundance occurs, we know that it happens by the hand of God. Whenever stealing, killing, and destroying take place, the hand of Satan does it. When we use these two verses as a key to unlock the mystery of Job, the book becomes much clearer. We must give great consideration to the idea of perception. Depending on how we look at something, we can draw different conclusions. To illustrate, consider an ambiguous picture. Looking at it from one perspective, we may see an old woman’s face and from another perspective, a young princess. Using the insight from Jas 5:11 and John 10:10, we clearly see the Book of Job for what it truly says.

The first English translations of the Bible were written over four hundred years ago when English words and phrases had different meanings than they do today. That particular society perceived the English language differently than we do in contemporary English-speaking countries. When we apply our current perception of the English language to the Book of Job, we encounter confusion. Loss of clarity from interpreting the original Hebrew text into old English may have also occurred. This explains the many translations of the Bible in English today. Because language continually changes, modern translations use a more up-to-date perception of the English language to clarify the Bible for average readers. An example of changing perception is the word cherry. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, cherry was a piece of fruit that we put on top of a banana split. However, in the 1990s, it came to mean cool or neat. For instance, That car is cherry!

With this in mind, let’s look at Job 1:1, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. This begs the question of how Job could be blameless when Rom 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Here is an example of different perceptions for words by different societies, time periods, and languages. In modern English, blameless means innocent, guiltless, or without fault. Yet Rom 3:23 states that Job sinned so he wasn’t innocent, guiltless, or without fault. In the context of Job, chapter 1, the meaning of blameless conveys that Job strove his best to please God, and when he sinned, he