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A Study on the Book of Job (part 1)




Why is the Book of Job so important?

2 main reasons:

1)  Jesus references it nearly directly.

Luke 17:37 - Then they asked him, "Where, Lord, will this take place?" He told them, "Wherever there's a corpse, there the eagles will gather." Many translations have "vultures" BUT THAT'S A WRONG TRANSLATION. In the book of Revelation even the same Greek word aetoi means "eagle".

Job 39:27,30 - Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?...His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.

That last part sounds a lot like what Jesus said: "wherever there's a corpse, there the eagles will gather"


2) It contains by far the longest or one of the longest uninterrupted monologues by the maker of the universe in all of the bible! Seems like Jesus definitely wanted his disciples to know the book he was referring to.

Jesus answered them, "Aren't you mistaken because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power? - Mark 12:24

In the monologue at the end of the book, God may have been congratulating Job on surviving the trials that were given to him. He seemed to be congratulating Job for not sinning.

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. - Job 1:22

And God commends Job twice at the end of the book for Job saying things that are confirmed. (Job 42:7-8). So it doesn't make sense that God would be mad at Job, because Job survived the trials and didn't sin in the process. Just the opposite, He seemed proud of Job.

Then the LORD said to Satan, “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 to ruin him without any reason.” - Job 2:3

So instead, I believe that God was rewarding Job by giving him keys to doing miracles, and associating Job with the keys, even if they're difficult to understand. And this doesn't mean that Job knew what he was receiving either. He could have thought that God was mad at him, like some modern readers did. He may not have known the way to understand what was being said to him.



Notice that Job says:

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know - Job 42:3

The word wonderful here is translated from the Hebrew stem P-L-A which is often used in the bible to mean 'miracle' or 'miraculous'. This verse could have been translated:

Therefore I have told and not discerned,
things miraculous from me, and I wasn't knowing it - Job 42:3

So Job talked with his friends about miraculous things without knowing it. So Job (and his friends) brought the topics of discussion, which were about the miraculous (although Job didn't realize this), and then God replied with the knowledge keys needed for Job to understand what topics Job (and his friends) had brought up.

And replied the LORD to Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? - Job 38:1-2

What did God reply about? When somebody replies to another, they talk about what has been done/said before. Job said things that were confirmed (Job 42:7-8) and also without sinning with his lips (Job 2:10), and told about things that were miraculous, so God would have replied about the topic of the miraculous.

"Without knowledge": Job would have been bringing up the topics, and what was confirmed, but without the correct details. This could be like if somebody was saying that there is a restaurant in this town, and they would be correct. They would bring up that topic for conversation, but when asked they might not know what its name is, or what street it's on, or when it's open etc. So, it's not useful unless more details are known.

And the action of replying makes sense, especially with more details because He is God and would know those sorts of things, when you consider that many of the concepts that God talks about are brought up before His monologue. Both Job (and his friends) and then later God talk about: Leviathan (Job 3:8, 41:1), and lions (Job 4:10, Job 38:39-40), and stars, and eagles (Job 9:26, Job 39:27-30). So it's not like the replying was about general things, but replying about specific concepts that Job (and in Job's replies to his friends) brought up. And because Job talked about miraculous things, the reply would have been about the miraculous. So, I believe that the Book of Job contains useful keys of a mysterious method of how to do miracles.

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