GOD’S ECONOMY
SERIES THIRTEEN
GOD’S ECONOMY IN ALL THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
God’s Economy as Revealed in the Old Testament
Message Sixteen
God’s Economy as Revealed in Job
Scripture Reading: Job 1:1, 9:15, 22, 24, 10:1, 22:21, 24:21, 27:5, 31:6, 32:1,34:23, 36:17, 42:1-6
I. Job is a book of the debates of godly men concerning the purpose of the sufferings of the saints, that is, the purpose of God’s dealing with His people; the book is poetic in form, with the exception of chs. 1 and 2 and the last eleven verses of chs. 42; Job is the first of the five books of poetry in the Scriptures, the other four being Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs—Job 13:6, 9:16-17, 42:5:
A. The subject of the book of Job is the purpose of God’s dealing with His holy one—9:16-17, 42:5, 36:15:
1. Job is a book of the debates of godly men concerning the purpose of the sufferings of the saints, that is, the purpose of God’s dealing with His people—3:20, 36:15.
2. Since Job is such an early book, it does not contain a clear revelation of God’s purpose in dealing with His people—v. 15.
3. This revelation was given not to Job but to Paul; in Paul’s Epistles we see that God’s purpose in dealing with us is to strip us of all things so that we may gain God more and more; this is the subject of the book of Job—Rom. 8:28, Phil. 1:19-21.
B. Job has six sections: the introduction (1:1—2:10); the debates between Job and his three friends (2:11—32:1); Elihu’s answer to Job (32:2—37:24); the dialogue between God and Job (38:1—42:6); Jehovah’s dealing with the three friends of Job (42:7-9); and Job’s end (42:10-17).
II. The contents of the book of Job—9:15, 24, 10:1, 22:21, 24:21, 9:15, 24, 34:23, 36:17:
A. The contents of the book of Job are the expressions of the sentiments of godly men; consists of the expressions of the sentiments of the speakers according to the experiences of their godly life; their sentiments were filled with the principle of good and evil; their logic was according to the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—9:22, 22:21, 24:21.
B. The expression of the sentiments of these godly men are in relation to the judgments of God’s government; the debates between Job and his three friends were mainly concerning judgment—9:15, 24, 34:23, 36:17:
1. God creating the universe according to His economy and for His intention—Zech. 12:1, Acts 17:24-28.
2. It was according to His desire that God created man that He might express Himself through man; in order to be God’s expression, man must be under God’s rule, and this involves God’s judgment—Gen. 1:26.
3. It is necessary that God exercise His governmental control over man and judge man according to His righteousness—Rom. 2:5-6.
4. Some of God’s judgments are temporary, like that on Sodom, and some are ultimate, like that at the great white throne—Rev. 20:11-15.
5. Because some of God’s judgments are temporary and others are ultimate, some people prosper and flourish, even though they are sinful and evil; some suffer natural calamities because of the curse brought in through man’s sin—Gen. 3:17-18.
6. Job and his friends might have had different views in what they insisted on and debated about regarding God’s judgment; much of their debate resulted from different views concerning God’s judgment—Job. 8:3-6.
7. Job and his friends did not see the positive aspect of God’s economy in dealing with His holy people; that is, God wants to strip, not to judge, His holy ones that He might gain them so that they might gain Him more—1:13-19.
8. It is through His stripping that God dispenses Himself to those who love Him and seek after Him; Job lost all that he had, but ultimately he gained God Himself—Rom. 8:29, Job 42:5.
C. Job and his friends did not have the adequate revelation of the divine truths; as godly men, they expressed their sentiments within the limits of the revelation they had received—7:11, 10:1:
1. The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive—2:13, footnote 1:
a. The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive; up to Job’s time the progression of the divine revelation had reached only the level of Abraham’s time, that is, that sinners need God’s redemption with the shedding of the blood of the burnt offering—Gen. 22:3.
b. Nothing had been unveiled regarding regeneration, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification; these things were not a part of the spiritual culture of Job and Abraham—1 Pet. 1:23, Rom. 12:2, 2 Cor. 3:18, Rom. 8:29.
2. The divine truths regarding such matters as regeneration, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification were not explicitly revealed to man in God’s Old Testament economy; they were not revealed in completion until the apostle Paul’s time—Phil. 3:8:
a. In Job 42:5 Job said, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear,/But now my eye has seen You.” We may interpret Job’s seeing God as his gaining God, but in Job there is no further revelation concerning this.
b. In Job there is no further revelation concerning this, for the revelation in this book is not clear, complete, or perfect. The clear, complete, and perfect revelation is found in Paul’s writings, especially in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the four books that make up the heart of the New Testament; if we read these books, we will have a clear view of what it means to gain God—Gal. 2:20, Eph. 1:23, Phil. 1:20, Col. 1:27.
III. Job was a good man, expressing himself in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity—Job 27:5, 31:6:
A. Being perfect is related to the inner man; being upright is related to the outer man—1:1, 27:5.
B. Job was a man of integrity; integrity is the totality of being perfect and upright—2:3, 9, 27:5, 31:6.
C. Job feared God positively and turned away from evil negatively—1:1, 2:3.
D. Only God knew that Job had a need—he did not have God within him; therefore, God wanted Job to gain Him in order to express Him for the fulfillment of His purpose—42:5-6.
IV. God’s intention was that Job would become a God-man, expressing God in His attributes—22:24-25, 38:1-3:
A. God ushered Job into another realm, the realm of God, hat Job might gain God instead of his attainments in his perfection, righteousness, and integrity—42:5-6.
B. God’s intention with Job was to consume him and to strip him of his attainments, his achievements, in the highest standard of ethics in perfection and uprightness—1:1,31:6.
C. God’s intention was to tear down the natural Job in his perfection and uprightness that He might build up a renewed Job in God’s nature and attributes—1:6-8, 2:3-6.
D. God’s intention was to make Job a man of God, filled with Christ, the embodiment of God, to be the fullness of God for the expression of God in Christ—1 Tim. 6:11, 2 Tim. 3:17.
E. God’s stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear him down that God might have a base and a way to rebuild him with God Himself so that he might become a God-man, the same as god in His life and nature but not in His Godhead, in order to express God—Eph. 3:16-21.
V. God’s intention was not to have a Job in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but a Job in the line of the tree of life—Job 1:1, 2:3, 19:10, 42:1-6:
A. The logic of Job and his friends was according to the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—2:11-32:1.
B. Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God’s economy—4:7-8.
C. Job and his friends were in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; God was trying to rescue them from that realm and put them into the realm of the tree of life—1:1, 2:3, 19:10.
D. God’s purpose in dealing with Job was to turn him from the way of good and evil to the way of life so that he might gain God to the fullest extent—42:1-6.
VI. The forty-two chapters of the book of Job leave us with a twofold question concerning the purpose of God in creating man and the purpose of God in dealing with His chosen people; the answer to this question is found not in the Old Testament but in the New Testament; this answer is the eternal economy of God for His dispensing of Himself into His chosen people—10:13; 42:1-9:
A. The book of Job contains many vain words, words of accusation and vindication; as we read this book we need to be mindful of God’s economy; we need to see that God’s eternal economy, which is the answer to the question raised by Job, is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity — in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit — through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension with the outpouring of the Spirit to produce the church, the Body of Christ, the new man, and the organism of the Triune God, which will issue in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
B. The hidden mystery is that God in His Divine Trinity desires to be dispensed and wrought into His creation, man, to make man His duplication, to make man His expression—10:13, Eph. 3:8-11.
C. God was not judging or punishing Job but as stripping and consuming him so that he could be rebuilt with God to become a God-man, the same as God in life and nature but not in His Godhead, in order that he might express God—Job 42:5, Rom. 8:29.
D. God’s purpose in dealing with His people is that He wants His people to gain Him, to partake of Him, to possess Him, and to enjoy Him, rather than all things, until their enjoyment reaches the fullest extent that His people may ultimately become the New Jerusalem—Phil. 3:7-14, 2 Cor. 4:16-18, Rev. 21:2-22:5.
Ministry Excerpts:
JOB BEING NAMED AFTER ITS WRITER JOB
The book of Job is named after its writer, Job, whose name means “hated” or “persecuted,” signifying what Job suffered of Satan, the enemy of God. Job surely suffered Satan’s hatred and persecution.
In this book Satan as the enemy of God is a mystery to us. We cannot understand in full why Satan still has not only the freedom but also the “civil right” to go to God’s place and attend one of the councils held by God with His angels. Of course, what is described in Job 1 and 2 took place two thousand years before Christ died on the cross to destroy the devil, who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14). Since Christ destroyed Satan on the cross, we may think that Satan no longer has the “civil right” to go into the presence of God. However, according to Revelation 12:10, Satan still accuses us in the presence of God day and night. This right will be taken away from Satan at the beginning of the great tribulation. When the overcomers arrive in the heavens, Satan will be cast down from the heavens to the earth. From that time onward, Satan will no longer have the right to come into the presence of God.
THE WRITER OF JOB
The writer of the book of Job was Job. This is confirmed by Ezekiel 14:12, 14, 20 and James 5:11. These verses are a proof of the authenticity of this book.
THE TIME
According to the way of Job’s nomadic living (Job 1:3) and the way he offered the burnt offering for his children, this book should have been written at the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (v. 5; Gen. 22:13; 31:54), about 2000 B.C. This means that Job was written five hundred years before Moses wrote the Pentateuch.
THE PLACE
The book of Job tells us that Job lived in Uz, a city in Edom (Lam. 4:21), west of the Arabian desert.
THE FORM OF WRITING
The book of Job is poetic in form, with the exception of chapters one and two and the last eleven verses of chapter forty-two. Job is the first of the five poetic books in the Scriptures; the other four are the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.
THE CONTENTS
The Expressions of the Sentiments of Godly Men
The contents of the book of Job are the expressions of the sentiments of godly men, including Job, his three friends, and the young man Elihu. This book is the record of the speaking of these five parties plus the speaking of God.
According to the Experiences of Their Godly Life
The book of Job, like the Psalms, consists of the expressions of the sentiments of the speakers according to the experiences of their godly life.
Being Filled with the Principle of Good and Evil
Their expressions were uttered before the law was given, yet their sentiments were filled with the principle of good and evil. This is the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Their Logic Being according to the Line
of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Their logic was according to the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and, based on this, they considered very much God’s justice and righteous judgment.
In Relation to the Judgments of God’s Government
The expression of the sentiments of these godly men are in relation to the judgments of God’s government. The debates between Job and his three friends were mainly concerning judgment. They reasoned that Job must have been wrong in some regard or aspect and that the things which happened to him were a judgment from God. They may also have thought that Job’s children were wrong and died because of God’s judgment. Thus, the contents of this book involve the matter of God’s judgment.
God Creating the Universe according to His Economy and for His Intention
It was according to His economy and for His intention that God created the universe.
God Creating Man according to His Desire
Furthermore, it was according to His desire that God created man that He might express Himself through man. In order to be God’s expression, man must be under God’s rule, and this involves God’s judgment.
God Exercising His Governmental Control over Man
It is necessary that God exercise His governmental control over man and judge man according to His righteousness. No one will escape God’s judgment. Romans 2:5 and 6 say, “According to your hardness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works.” In Acts 17:31 we are told that God “has set a day in which He is to judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has designated.” This man is Jesus Christ, who has been charged by God to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Sooner or later, all will be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of His Judgements Being Temporary, and Some Being Ultimate
Some of God’s judgments are temporary, like that on Sodom, and some are ultimate, like that at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Concerning this, 1 Timothy 5:24 says, “The sins of some men are openly manifest, going before to judgment; and for others, they also follow after.” The sins of certain persons come to God’s judgment earlier, and the sins of others come later. God’s judgment, whether earlier or later, depends on His timing.
Some People Prospering and Flourishing for Awhile,
Even though They are Sinful and Evil
Because some of God’s judgments are temporary and others are ultimate, some people prosper and flourish, even though they are sinful and evil. Some suffer natural calamities because of the curse brought in through man’s sin (Gen. 3:17-18). What they suffer may not be due to their sinful deeds. Because Adam fell, committing sin, the curse came in as a kind of judgment. According to Romans 8:20 through 22, “the creation was made subject to vanity” and, subject to the slavery of corruption, “groans together and travails in pain together.” This also is a kind of judgment. Because of this judgment, people sometimes suffer natural calamities, even though they may not commit sin. Not all those who suffer a calamity such as a devastating hurricane suffer because they are sinful.
Different Views concerning God’s Judgment
Job and his friends might have had different views in what they insisted on and debated about regarding God’s judgment. Much of their debate resulted from different views concerning God’s judgment.
Job and His Friends Not Seeing the Positive Aspect of God’s Economy
in Dealing with His Holy People
It is evident that Job and his friends did not see the positive aspect of God’s economy in dealing with His holy people. That is, God wants to strip, not to judge, His holy ones that He might gain them so that they might gain Him more.
Job’s friends thought that what he was suffering was a matter of God’s judgment. However, Job’s sufferings were not God’s judgment but God’s stripping. The Sabeans took away Job’s oxen and donkeys, the “fire of God” devoured his sheep, the Chaldeans took his camels, and a great wind caused the death of his sons and daughters (Job 1:13-19). All these things were God’s stripping, but Job and his friends regarded them as God’s judgment. Throughout the centuries, many readers of the book of Job have had the same concept, thinking that Job suffered because of God’s judgment.
Have you ever had the thought that quite often God does something to strip you? Even though you may not be wrong, suddenly certain things happen to you, and God uses these things to strip you. Before I came into the Lord’s recovery, the word stripping was not in my spiritual dictionary. I had heard about judgment, punishment, and chastisement but not about stripping. It was from Brother Nee that I learned about God’s stripping.
Today in our spiritual dictionary the first word should be Christ, and the second word should be stripping. How much of Christ have you gained? How much of Christ we have gained is according to how much stripping we have suffered. The more we suffer God’s stripping, the more we gain Christ.
Through His Stripping God Dispensing Himself to Those Who Love Him
and Seek After Him
It is through His stripping that God dispenses Himself to those who love Him and seek after Him. Job lost all that he had, but ultimately he gained God Himself. God stripped his all in order that He could be his all for his full transformation and conformation to the glorious image of God in His Son (Rom. 8:29).
Under the Inadequate Revelation of the Divine Truths
Job and his friends did not have the adequate revelation of the divine truths. As godly men, they expressed their sentiments within the limits of the revelation they had received.
The Divine Revelation in the Bible Being Progressive
The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive. Up to Job’s time the progression of the divine revelation had reached only the level of Abraham’s time, that is, that sinners need God’s redemption with the shedding of the blood of the burnt offering. Nothing had been unveiled regarding regeneration, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification. These things were not a part of the spiritual culture of Job and Abraham.
Many of today’s Christians do not know about such matters as transformation, conformation, and glorification. They may know a little about regeneration and renewing, but most do not know anything about transformation, conformation, and glorification. Did you know about these things before you came into the Lord’s recovery? Among today’s Christians, the teaching concerning such matters is lacking because the revelation regarding them is lacking. In the recovery, on the contrary, we strongly emphasize transformation. Since the beginning of my ministry in this country, I have been speaking about the exercise of the spirit for the experience and enjoyment of Christ and about transformation. However, for many of the saints transformation is merely a doctrine, not a practical experience in the spirit. The Christian life is a matter of Christ living in us. As Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is the Christian life, and this is the practical, daily experience of transformation in our spirit.
The Divine Truths Not Being Revealed in Completion
until the Apostle Paul’s Time
The divine truths regarding such matters as regeneration, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification were not explicitly revealed to man in God’s Old Testament economy. They were not revealed in completion until the apostle Paul’s time (Phil. 3:8). Paul received a full and explicit revelation of things concerning which Abraham, Job, and his friends had no understanding due to the shortage of the necessary spiritual culture. We should not blame or despise Job and his friends for their lack of understanding.
In Job 42:5 Job said, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear,/But now my eye has seen You.” We may interpret Job’s seeing God as his gaining God. But what does it mean to gain God? In Job there is no further revelation concerning this, for the revelation in this book is not clear, complete, or perfect. The clear, complete, and perfect revelation is found in Paul’s writings, especially in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the four books that make up the heart of the New Testament. If we read these books, we will have a clear view of what it means to gain God. Unfortunately, many of today’s Christians remain in Job’s age. I hope, therefore, that this message will help to open your eyes.
THE SUBJECT OF JOB
The subject of the book of Job is the purpose of God’s dealing with His holy one. Job is a book of the debates of godly men concerning the purpose of the sufferings of the saints, that is, the purpose of God’s dealing with His people. Since Job is such an early book, it does not contain a clear revelation of God’s purpose in dealing with His people. This revelation was given not to Job but to Paul. In Paul’s Epistles we see that God’s purpose in dealing with us is to strip us of all things so that we may gain God more and more. This is the subject of the book of Job.
THE SECTIONS
Job has six sections: the introduction (1:1—2:10); the debates between Job and his three friends (2:11—32:1); Elihu’s answer to Job (32:2—37:24); the dialogue between God and Job (38:1—42:6); Jehovah’s dealing with the three friends of Job (42:7-9); and Job’s end (42:10-17). (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
JOB ON THE LINE OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
In the book of Job God asked Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (1:8). Was God pleased with Job’s fearing Him and turning away from evil? This is a profound question. If God had wanted Job to fear Him and to turn away from evil, Job would not have needed to suffer many blows. This shows that Job’s fearing God and turning away from evil were not what God wanted.
The Bible is one book, and Job is a part of this one book. At the beginning of the Bible God put man in front of two trees (Gen. 2:8-9). Man is faced with a choice involving only these two trees; there is no third tree. In other words, there are only two paths before man. One path is of life, and the other path is of the knowledge of good and evil. The path of life leads to the eternal life, but the path of the knowledge of good and evil leads to death. This principle is consistent from Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, Job is not an exception in relation to these two paths. By fearing God and turning away from evil, was Job on the path of life or on the path of the knowledge of good and evil? Undoubtedly, he was on the path of the knowledge of good and evil. There is no third path, because there is no third tree. There are only two trees and two paths. Man either partakes of the fruit of the tree of life and thereby takes the path of life, or he partakes of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thereby takes the path of the knowledge of good and evil. Job’s fearing God and turning away from evil were not his partaking of the fruit of the tree of life, nor were they his taking the path of life. Rather, they were his partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and hence taking the path of the knowledge of good and evil.
The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is of Satan. Hence, for Job to eat of the fruit of this tree was for him to receive something of Satan. Why would God boast in what Job had eaten? Why would Satan ask God to deal with something of himself that Job had eaten? Was God pleased with Job’s fearing Him and turning away from evil? Some may be confused by these questions. The human concept is that God boasted in and praised Job for fearing Him and turning away from evil. However, this may not necessarily be the case. If we read Job in the light of the vision in Genesis 2, we will realize that Job’s fearing God and turning away from evil did not please God, for they were something injected by Satan. We must realize that God will tear down even the best things that Satan injects into man.
GOD WORKING THROUGHOUT THE AGES TO TEAR DOWN
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL IN MAN IN ODER TO BRING MAN INTO LIFE
The Bible contains a record of the evil side of Satan as well as the good side of Satan. In the Old Testament the books of history contain accounts related to the side of evil, and the books of poetry contain accounts related to the side of good. God has been working throughout the ages to tear down the good and the evil in man in order to bring man into life.
In both Job and the Psalms God comes in to tear down again and again. He wants to tear down man’s good conduct. Job is a classic example. The result of God’s tearing down is that man touches God, meets God, and enters into God. Job said, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; / Therefore I abhor myself” (Job 42:5-6). This principle also occurs in Psalms. God’s tearing down and breaking are for the holy people who wrote the psalms to come out of good and to contact God directly. The psalmists had the concept of the law, but God wanted them to see Him in Christ as their life, light, power, and everything (27:1; 36:9).
The Old Testament books of history are about two groups of people. One group of people developed on the evil side of the tree of knowledge and were judged by God. The other group of people were led by God and learned to contact God and live by the tree of life. The books of poetry show a group of holy God-fearing people who, because of ignorance, developed on the good side of the tree of knowledge. We dare not say that these people were judged by God, but God broke down and tore down what they developed and achieved on the good side of the tree of knowledge. This forced them to contact Him, that is, to contact the tree of life.
Hence, God was not boasting in Job, nor was He praising Job. God seemed to tell Satan that He would even tear down a person who developed on the good side of the tree of knowledge and that He would use Satan to do it. This is a profound matter. Eventually, God forced the God-fearing Job to turn away from good and evil and to touch the tree of life, that is, to touch God Himself. (CWWL, 1958, vol. 1, “The Vision of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”, ch. 3)