God’s Celestial Word: The Book of Job

We have seen in “God’s Word: Celestial, Written, and Living” that God declared His Word in the great celestial dome above us, in the written words of those who spoke for Him on earth, and in the one sinless person who walked among us. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the great subject of God’s celestial and written Word.

God, in His foreknowledge of all things, new that man would need a redeemer. Even before Adam fell, God had the story of this redeemer written in the stars above. Adam and his descendants learned of the “promised seed,” the Branch that was to come, the Messiah, and his victorious life as declared in the stars.

Later, Moses received the revelation of Genesis to Deuteronomy, the foundation of God’s law to help His people. The law was like a “schoolmaster,” until Christ should come and make available the gift of holy spirit and have direct access to the Father (Galatians 3:24,25). But there is no mention of this “heavenly story” in the Pentateuch, these first five books of the Bible. Could there have been anything written down as a “transition” between the celestial and written Word of God?

Job: The First Written Revelation to Mankind

Many Bible scholars believe that Moses wrote the Book of Job before writing the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Book of Job was the first written revelation given to mankind. E. W. Bullinger, in a “Note on the Date and Authorship of the Book of Job,” in The Companion Bible gives evidence for this.

“When Job died (1516 B.C.) Moses was fifty-five, and had been in Midian fifteen years (twenty-five years before the Exodus). This would account for Job being a worshipper of the God of Abraham, and explains how Moses could have been the author of the book, and perhaps an eye- and ear-witness of the events it records in Midian.”

Since God’s Word had been written in the stars, it was the basis for knowing God’s will regarding the promised seed until the Book of Job was written. God instructed Adam as to the meaning of the “signs” in the sky and how they related to the coming redeemer. But is there anything in the Book of Job that would serve as a “transition” from the celestial Word that God taught Adam, to the written Word that God gave Moses on “tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10)?

The answer is Yes! The Book of Job shows a man who is attacked by his adversary, the Devil. Yet Job refuses to denounce God’s goodness or attribute evil to his Creator. The Book of Job shows that God answered Job’s heart cry for knowledge about his enemy (the adversary), and of the coming redeemer, the promised seed.

In one amazing section of this Book (Job 38:1–41:34), God tells His servant Job about the twelve signs of the zodiac, also called the Mazzoroth, and their meaning regarding the coming Messiah and his bruising the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). If Job was the first book of the Bible written by Moses, then these scriptures are a bridge between God’s Word written in the heavens, and God’s Word written by holy men and women of God.

What is the Book of Job All About?

In order to understand the context of God describing the significance of these twelve star constellations to Job, it is good to get a scope of the entire book. The story begins by telling us that “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Job had “seven sons and three daughters,” and “was the greatest of all the men of the east.”

After describing Job’s many blessings from God, it mentions the fear and dread that Job had in his daily prayers for his children: “It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.” Thus, Satan enters the picture and demands the right to take away all the good things that God had given to Job. Jesus Christ said that the Devil only comes “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10).

The Devil steals, kills, and destroys Job’s wealth and children, by means of people (Sabeans and Chaldeans) and by “natural disasters” (lightning fires and tornado-like winds). Not stopping there, the adversary brings a horrible and loathsome skin disease to Job, so that even his wife despairs for Job’s life.

At this point, Job’s three “friends” (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) come to mourn with Job in his great affliction. After a customary time of silent respect, Job opens his heart to his friends and laments the evil that is come upon him. Then, over an extended time, this trio begins to give their best “advice” as to why Job is in such terrible straits–and that Job should repent of his evil ways. Unknown to them, Job had already gone to God and recognized his fear and its consequences (Job 3:25,26). And Job knew he was righteous in his heart before God (Job 32:1).

Since the Devil could not persuade Job to give up on God by the words of his three friends, Job’s adversary took another tack. He sent a young man named Elihu to pester, ridicule, and blame Job for the evil that was upon him. So much like today, the Devil tries to blame others for his evil deeds. He masquerades as an “angel of light,” and his messengers as “ministers of righteousness” (II Corinthians 11:14,15).

Elihu may have actually been of his “father the devil” (John 8:44) and a “child of the devil…enemy of all righteousness” (Acts 13:10). Jesus Christ taught his disciples about those who speak or blaspheme “against the Holy Ghost” who “shall not be forgiven” (Matthew 12:31,32; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10). This may be what God was referring to when he warned Adam and Eve of the serpent’s “seed” in Genesis 3:15. Yet, in that very declaration, God promised to send the redeemer, the “seed” of the woman, who would with his own heel, bruise the serpent’s head.

This is the great story written in the stars, and seen so vividly in constellations like Orion in victory; Hercules with the great serpent Draco under his heel; Ophiuchus with the deadly stinger Scorpio under his heel; and the great lion, Leo (Jesus Christ is “the Lion of the tribe of Juda” in Revelation 5:5), with the giant serpent Hydra under his heel.

Immediately after Elihu, Satan’s messenger, viciously attacks Job, God teaches Job about the Messiah, the coming mediator, and also about his adversary, the Devil. This great story, written in the twelve signs of the zodiac and their accompanying constellations, was God’s answer to Job’s need. Job had longed for a “daysman,” a mediator between him and God to set things right.

Job 9:32,33:
For he [God] is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.
Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.

In Bible culture, a “daysman” was an honored and respected elder who could act as arbiter or umpire between two contesting sides. Much like a modern judge in our court system, the daysman would have both parties “come together in judgment.” Once the daysman pronounced a verdict, he would bring the parties together and “lay his hand upon” them both. That meant that they were now one and at peace.

That is what Jesus Christ did for mankind. He brought us back together in fellowship with the Father. We can believe on Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9) and receive God’s gift of holy spirit. We are “saved” through Christ, the mediator.

I Timothy 2:3-5:
…God our Saviour;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God, and one mediator [mesitēs, the same word used in the Greek Old Testament and translated “daysman” in Job 9:33] between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

In the final chapter of the Book of Job, we see Job reconciled to his three friends by God’s goodness, Job’s captivity turned, and his wealth restored with new children born to him. “After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days” (Job 42:16,17).

An Overall Structure of the Book of Job

To better see how these elements of the story fit together, let’s look at the overall structure of the Book of Job. Elements are color-coded to show corresponding sections.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

A. God’s good life for Job (1:1)

B. Job’s children (1:2)

C. Job’s substance (1:3)

D. Job’s captivity – fearful prayer and Satan’s attacks (1:4-2:10)

E. Job’s friends grieve (2:11-13)

F. Job’s lament (3:1-26)

G. H. Job’s friends attack (4:1-32:1) / I. Job found righteous (32:1)

G. H. Elihu – serpent’s “seed” — attacks (32:2-37:24) / I. God teaches Job about the mediator and the adversary (38:1-41:34)

F. Job’s declaration of God’s goodness (42:1-6)

E. Job’s friends reconciled (42:7-9a)

D. Job’s captivity turned – godly prayer (42:9b-10a)

C. Job’s substance restored (42:10b-12)

B. Job’s children born (42:13-15)

A. Job’s full life (42:16,17)

In upcoming studies, we will look at the structure of the central section (Job 4:1–41:34) that includes attacks by Job’s three friends and Elihu. (See God’s Celestial Word: An Overview of Job.)  And we will focus on the section (Job 38:1-41:34) where God tells Job of the great redeemer declared in the celestial Word.

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