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Job, part 2: God's Non-Use of Power

Omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. God has all the power, right at His fingertips, which is why human suffering is such a dilemma. In this Bible study we attempted to introduce Job to Jesus as a way of understanding why an all-powerful God allows suffering, pain and injustice to people that love and trust Him.

 

God's non-use of power may be confusing to us at times yet if we think through perhaps this is one of the most incredible things about our God. In fact, perhaps we have a wrong conception of what real power is all about:


"Omnipotence is not to be understood as the power of unlimited coercion, but as the power of infinite persuasion, the invincible power of self-negating, self-sacrificial love." - G.B. Caird





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Job, part 1: Evidence for Conviction

Satan is veiled in the Old Testament. He is directly referred to only three times and all of those examples occured in books that were either written or canonized very late. We don't clearly learn that the snake in the Garden of Eden is Satan until the book of Revelation. The references to Satan in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are also veiled as the King of Babylon and the King of Tyre. By contrast, Satan comes out of the woodwork again and again in the New Testament. As Sigve Tonstad has pointed out, the book of Revelation is not only a revelation of Jesus, it is also the Dragon's story.


For the reader of the book of Job, Satan is the clear villain, but not for Job. He was never told about the conversation between God and Satan that was the cause of his suffering. Job was only told about a mighty beast, Leviathon:


"His pride is invincible; nothing can make a dent in that pride. Nothing can get through that proud skin - - impervious to weapons and weather. (41:15,16) When it raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves (41:25) Nothing on earth is his equal - - a creature without fear. He looks down on all that are haughty: he is king over all that are proud." (Job 41:33,34)

 

Elsewhere Leviathon is refered to as a "slippery" and "twisting snake" that God will destroy. (Isaiah 27:1)


The book of Job is the clearest example in the Old Testament that focuses the blame for all suffering on Satan. It provides us with the DNA, the drivers license, and the finger prints at the scene of the crime - - overwhelming evidence that, "An enemy has done this - not God!" (Matthew 13:28)


Taking Satan out of the equation for the problem of human suffering is like trying to explain the Holocaust to someone while denying the existence of Hitler. It is Star Wars minus Darth Vader and the Emperor. Did Hitler personally pull the trigger for the millions of people killed in war? No. Did Hitler personally turn the valve the for people killed in the gas chambers? No. But yet, the Holocaust reveals the nature of Hitler's kingdom. It is the outworking of Hitler's principles. In the same way, while we don't need to put Satan in the fault lines of every earthquake and bomb, we can still say that all of the violence and suffering on planet earth reveals the nature of Satan's kingdom for he is "the prince of this world." (John 12:31, 14:30) Our earth is dominated by Satan, "the god of this age", and "the ruler of the kingdom of the air" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2). Unless we consciously recognize that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19) we will not have a satisfactory message to the world about how a good and all powerful God can allow the countless injustices on our planet. 





 

 

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Job and the Great Controversy

The book of Job is one of the most fascinating and challenging books in the Bible. Job went from having everything: a large family, wealth, health and great influence in the world to a position of nothing -- living in a garbage dump and picking his sores. 

This book reveals that the central issue in the great controversy is over the character of God. In the end, Job said of God what was right! Specifically, what did Job of say of God that was right?


This article will address the following questions:

 

 

  • What did the friends say of Job that was wrong?
  • Why did God come to Job with power and and rebuke, rather than with words of love and encouragement?
  • Did Elihu speak for God or Satan?
  • Why did God spend so much time talking about Leviathan?

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Job Video 2007

 
 
Video recording of the January 14, 2008 Bible study for the Loma Linda University School of Allied and Public Health.
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Job Audio, 2007



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The book of Job is one profound book with many different interpretations. What's the main point? Did Job offend God with his complaints? Was Elihu right in what he said? Many claim that he was a mouthpiece for God. Why did God come to Job in a storm and not with words of love and tenderness?