Life of Job in troublous times ahead

Job, the first written book of the entire Bible and the book the Israelites escaped with across the Red Sea, has always had skeptics and detractors who tell you Job was a fictional character set into a fictional situation.

In Ezekiel 14, a passage about the Day of the Lord and the judgment of Christ when He comes back to destroy His enemies and pour out His wrath, is this verse: “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.”

As Jordan reasons, “If I were going to reference three men, I wouldn’t say, ‘Noah, Daniel and Mr. Magoo.’ I wouldn’t say, ‘Noah, Daniel and Mickey Mouse.’ In other words, if I’m going to use two real people, and the third one isn’t, there’s no reason to believe any of the people are real people, so there’s the assumption built-in of the real identity of Job. Now, I know there are a lot of people who won’t believe that.”

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The author of the Book of Job is Elihu, a young man who kept a first-hand chronicle of all that happened to and was said by Job and his three friends, or the “miserable comforters,” as they’re called.

“When you read in Job the repeated phrase, ‘Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,’ you know that’s the writer putting that in,” reasons Jordan. “Elihu understood that what he was writing was more than just the life story of the man Job. Job’s life and the things that were happening to Job were a parable. Job’s life paralleled something bigger.”

Job fits at the head of the five “poetry” books that deal with the heart of the “believing remnant” in Israel as it endures the plight of satanic captivity.

Just as you’ll find the best physical description of Jesus Christ in the Song of Solomon (the last of the five “poetry” books), the Book of Job gives the best physical description of the Antichrist.

“When you think about the fact Job was written early, that means Israel knew this information all along and could have understood some tremendous things,” says Jordan. “There are places in Moses’ writings where he’s literally using words out of Job to tell Israel what God’s going to do for them.”

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“From the beginning of the book, we know Job was an extremely prominent, powerful figure in the community in his day.

“You read in chapter 1 about the wealth he had and all the stuff but he was not just a wealthy guy sitting off behind a fence somewhere. Job was a wealthy businessman who was involved in the government and judicial system of his community. Everybody knew who Job was and everybody loved him.

“He says, ‘When I went down to the courthouse to work, the young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged men rose and stood up.’ They’re honoring him. The young guys quit playing and got out of the way and the elders respected him—he was an honorable, respectable man.

“Further in Job 29, it says the ‘princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth’ and ‘the nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.’ That’s saying, ‘When E.F. Hutton speaks, everybody listens.’

“Job says, ‘When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
[12] Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
[13] The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.’

“You know what he’s doing? He’s doing exactly what that Believing Remnant in Israel is told to do in the Book of James and I John. Exactly what Isaiah 58 told them they had to be doing in the tribulation. What does James 1 says pure religion is? ‘To visit the fatherless and the widow.’ Job is an example of that little flock.

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Job continues, “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
[15] I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
[16] I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
[17] And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.”

Jordan explains, “He says, ‘When I see a wicked man going over and devouring somebody, I want to sock him right in the chops and bust the teeth out of his mouth.’ He’s upholding justice.

“Job goes on yet, ‘Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
[22] After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.
[23] And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
[24] If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.
[25] I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.’

“He’s saying, ‘They just couldn’t get enough me.’ You ever see somebody out in the rain try to get water like that? You get thirsty. He’s saying, ‘When I talked, people were so hungry to hear what I had to say it was just like that. If I laughed on them they believed it not. The light of my countenance. I dwelt as a king in the army.’

“You remember what the army of Israel said to David? They said, ‘David you can’t go, you’re the king! One of you is worth 10,000 of us! You’re too valuable!’ Job says, ‘That’s the way they looked at me!’

“And then, all of a sudden, it’s gone. And then Job’s sick, hit twice. Can you understand why he says over there, ‘I’m confused?’ . . .  This was not some isolated little fellow; a hermit off on a mountain somewhere who just got head lice and developed boils. This was the ‘big man on campus.’ ”

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“The name Job means ‘persecuted one’; ‘afflicted one’; ‘one who’s caused to suffer.’

“All those acquaintances of Job—you ought to go back to Job 19 and read what they say—

 it was, ‘Job who? Huh, don’t know ya.’ Even his house servants, his butler and his chauffeur wouldn’t acknowledge knowing him. You know, you could expect that of your lawyer, but your chauffeur? Your gardener?

“And then it says his wife . . . it’s a strange verse over there. He says, ‘My breath was a stranger to my wife.’ You got to get close to somebody to know what their breath smells like.

“But you know what happened? His wife left him. You remember the old bat back in chapter 2, don’t you? The verse reads, ‘Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.’

“Well, he’s probably better off that she left him. She sure was no comfort to him. She took up the devil’s line. She literally said to Job what Satan was saying to God Job would say.

“Notice that when Job got back everything double (at the end of the Book), it didn’t include his wife. Now that may have been a blessing in and of itself, considering the kind of wife she turned out to be.

“She was a source of the working of the satanic policy of evil in Job’s home. You go over and study I John and he tells the Believing Remnant how to know whether they’re in the true fellowship or not. He tells them how to spot the real Israel of God and how they could know for themselves whether they really had the Spirit of God working in them or whether they were phonies.

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“II John says this issue of being able to discern the seducing policy of the Adversary has to be carefully practiced in the home. III John says it has to be practiced in the ministry in the local church. And the two things that he adds on to I John as appendixes—

II and III—don’t tell them how to do it; it tells them where to do it.

“People like to quote II John in regards to ecclesiastical separation, but it’s about separation in a home—in a house, among a family. That’s what’s happening in Job’s house.

“When Job’s seven sons and three daughters died, he knew he didn’t really lose them because he believed in resurrection.

“In Job 19, he says, ‘For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.’

“Job’s supposed friend Bildad actually accuses Job of being at fault for the death of his children. He reasons in Job 8, ‘Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice? If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression.’

“Oh, it’s a cruel shock—a terrible thing. Bildad says to him about his kids being dead, ‘If they had been living for the Lord, they wouldn’t be dead now.’

“Man, wouldn’t that be a cruel thing to say when you just lost 10 kids?! ‘God’s just and if your kids hadn’t been living in sin, they’d still be with us.’ Oooh. Can you understand why Job wouldn’t consider these people a great comfort? They were ‘miserable comforters,’ as he called them. ‘Forgers of lies,’ he calls them. That’s why it’s so remarkable he later has this change of heart about them.

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“Job didn’t suffer because of anything he did; he suffered because of something God was doing—he suffered according to the will of God.

“God has allowed Job to be in satanic captivity because of something bigger than what’s going on with Job. It had nothing to do with anything Job was doing wrong. In fact, if you look at chapter 1, when Satan comes on the scene here, it says:

‘Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
[7] And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
[8] And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
[9] Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?’

“When you go to and fro in something, and you walk up and down in it in the Bible, that’s a gesture, a posture of ownership. God told Abraham in Genesis 13 to, ‘Go over into that land and walk up and down in it because it’s yours.’ It’s an exercise that speaks of possession; ownership.

“When you have free access to something it’s because you’re at home; you possess it; you own it, and that’s what Satan’s doing. ‘As a roaring lion he walks to and fro on the earth, seeking whom he may desire.’ He’s going around in the earth looking for anybody arguing with him on the earth, and if they are, he’s going to eat ’em up, chew ’em up and take them captive and spit them out.

“He says to God, ‘Hey, I’m down there possessing the earth! It’s mine!’ You see, the issue between God and Satan immediately is the possession of the Planet Earth. And in the context of that contest between God and Satan—in connection with his contention with God over the earth—the Lord said unto Satan, ‘Whence comest thou.’ Then the Lord said unto Satan, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job?’

“Notice Satan didn’t answer saying, ‘If you knew Job like I know Job, you’d know he was a dirty rotten rascal.’ You read down through there and you’ll never find Satan say anything bad about Job.

“Job’s a good guy, and the issue isn’t going to be Job’s conduct in the sense of ‘he’s doing something wrong; we’re going to get even with him.’ The reason Job’s going to suffer is there’s this conflict between God and the Adversary in the angelic realm, and involved in that conflict . . .  in order for God to bring Satan, the proud one, low, as Job 40 says He’s going to do, Job’s suffering has to do with the fact God’s doing something in the earth.”