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: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Job 1:1, footnote 1)
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: (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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). (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
II. The contents of the book of Job—9:15, 24, 10:1, 22:21, 24:21, 9:15, 24, 34:23, 36:17: (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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: (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
1. God creating the universe according to His economy and for His intention—Zech. 12:1, Acts 17:24-28. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
3. It is necessary that God exercise His governmental control over man and judge man according to His righteousness—Rom. 2:5-6. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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: (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
1. The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive—2:13, footnote 1: (Life-study of Job, msg. 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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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: (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 1)
III. Job was a good man, expressing himself in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity—Job 27:5, 31:6: (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
A. Being perfect is related to the inner man; being upright is related to the outer man—1:1, 27:5. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
B. Job was a man of integrity; integrity is the totality of being perfect and upright—2:3, 9, 27:5, 31:6. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
C. Job feared God positively and turned away from evil negatively—1:1, 2:3. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
IV. God’s intention was that Job would become a God-man, expressing God in His attributes—22:24-25, 38:1-3: (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 15)
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: (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 14)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 14)
B. Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God’s economy—4:7-8. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 14)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 14)
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. (2005 FTTA-Spring, msg. 14)
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: (Life-study of Job, msg. 12)
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. (Life-study of Job, msg. 12)
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. (2008 FTTA-Spring, msg. 52)
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. (2008 FTTA-Spring, msg. 52)
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. (2008 FTTA-Spring, msg. 52)