The faithfulness of Job (a type of Christ)

 

As many were astonished at you--with appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--so shall he sprinkle many nations.  Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.  Who has believed what he has heard from us?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God, and afflicted.  --Isaiah 52:13-53:4

 Have you ever heard anyone spoken of as having "the patience of Job"?  This was a phrase more in use several generations ago that now.  I think it comes from a passage in the New Testament book of James, where the writer is encouraging Christians to hold fast to their faith.  "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord," he says in James 5:7.  He gives the example of a farmer, who waits for the fruit of the earth, knowing that in time the seed he planted will bring forth abundance.

He goes on to say, "You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." (James 5:3).  Our hope is in Jesus, who will come and take away our suffering, and will give us rest and comfort.  Using the prophets as examples, he says in verses 10 and 11: "As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.  You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."  The NKJV translates the word "steadfastness" as "perseverance."  The Amplified Bible calls it "patient endurance."

The Greek word used here is hypomonē which means steadfastness, constancy, and endurance, all words used to describe Job.  The prophets were patient, according to James, because they knew the end from the beginning; they knew by faith that things would get better, either in this life or the next.  Job was not a prophet, but he did speak prophetically in Job 19:25 when he said, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth."  In the end, I believe that James was using the prophets as an example of patience, but Job is used as an example of faithfulness.

Ezekiel 14: 13-14 says, "Son of man, when a land sins against Me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God."  Here, Ezekiel listed Job along with Daniel and Noah, men who were faithful in all things.  All three, I believe, can be called types of, or men who foreshadow, Christ.  Perhaps future blog posts will feature Noah and Daniel as types of Christ, but in this particular one I want to focus solely on Job. 

The Righteous Brought Low

Job is described as a righteous man.  The very first verse of the first chapter of Job describes him as "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil."  Job was a wealthy man with 10 children, whom he loved dearly.  In fact, whenever the children would gather together, probably on their birthdays (verse 4), there would be eating and drinking and much merriment.  After the party was over, "Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.  For Job said, 'It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did continually." (verse 5).

Unbeknownst to Job, he was a topic of discussion in the spiritual realm.  God bragged on him (verse 8), and Satan challenged God to remove his wealth and his family to see if his faith would be shaken.  When that didn't work, Satan doubled down, demanding that God take away Job's good health.  After having lost his possessions, his family, and his health, surely Job would turn away from God.  As it turns out, even when Job suffered all this loss, he was still faithful.

In similar fashion, Jesus was sinless and without blame.  He had all the riches of heaven at His disposal, yet He gave all that up so that He could be clothed in flesh as a man--not a wealthy man, but rather one born of humble means (laid in a manger, for goodness sake).  Jesus withstood spiritual oppression, facing Satan himself, who tempted Him in the wilderness when Jesus was fasting (see Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13, and Mark 1:12).

Just as Job had unsightly sores all over his body, so Jesus had open wounds from scourging and beatings.  Jesus went even further--He offered His life as a sacrifice for sinners, suffering death on a cross.  Philippians 2:7-11 says, "But (Jesus) emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

The Restoration and Exaltation

Each Christmas we watch the movie "It's a Wonderful Life."  George Bailey was an influential member of the community who fell on hard times, but when his friends and all the folks he had help heard about it, they all brought money and gifts to help him stay out of trouble.  The value of the money and gifts more than made up for his deficit, but the realization that his community supported him and his friends would sacrifice for him made him feel accepted and affirmed.

After having endured the loss of his possessions, his family, and his health, as well as being berated by three so-called "friends", Job remained faithful.  As a reward, God "restored the fortunes of Job" and "gave him twice as much as he had before." (see Job 42:10).  "And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning." (verse 12).  All Job's relatives and all who had known him before and who had eaten at his table came to comfort him and show him sympathy, and each of them gave him a piece of silver and a ring of gold (verse 11).  Not only were his fortunes restored, God gave him ten more children, each of them more beautiful than the last.  We are not told how Job felt after all this, but we do know that "after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. (verse 16).

When Jesus was crucified, He was resurrected.  After this, He ascended back into heaven, having completed the work that God the Father had given Him to do.  And now, according to 1 Peter 3:22, Jesus, "who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him."  Jesus has been restored to His former place in glory.  In addition, He has opened a pathway for those of us who had been outcast to gain access to God through Christ.  Hebrews 10:19-22 says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the news and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us drawn near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from and our bodies washed with pure water."  Jesus's sacrifice opened heaven for Gentiles and penitent sinners, of which I am one.

The Reconciliation Through Intercession

God gave Job a job to do.  Just as Job had sacrificed for his ten children to cover for their sins, God required a sacrifice from Job's friends to atone for the sins they had committed against Job.  "Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and to to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offerings for yourselves.  And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly.  For you have no spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:8).  When Job was obedient, the Lord accepted Job's prayer (verse 9) on their behalf.

Romans 8:34 says, "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised---who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."  1 John 2:1 says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."  And Hebrews 7:25 says, "Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."  Jesus performs the job of intercessor much better than Job ever could.

Matthew Henry, in his Introduction to the commentary on Job, says this:

In general, Job was a great sufferer, was emptied and humbled, but in order to his greater glory. So Christ abased himself, that we might be exalted. The learned bishop Patrick quotes St. Jerome more than once speaking of Job as a type of Christ, who for the job that was set before him endured the cross, who was persecuted, for a time, by men and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised to be an intercessor even for his friends and had added affliction to his misery. When the apostle speaks of the patience of Job he immediately takes notice of the end of the Lord, that is, of the Lord Jesus (as some understand it), typified by Job, James 5:11.

What can we take from this comparison?  The whole point of typology is not to venerate Job (or any other Old Testament character) as our savior, but to show how the life and work of Jesus was foretold by Scripture.  The entire Bible narrative centers around the Christ, using the stories of sinful men who foretold the coming of the sinless Savior.  Job teaches us patience, yes, but also faithfulness, perseverance, and steadfastness.  Most of all, however, Job point us to Jesus.