JOB’S DAUGHERS, JOB’S SONS, AND JOB’S FAMILY

KEY VERSES: “Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, and like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages, So I have been allotted months of futility, And wearisome nights have been appointed to me.” (Job 7”1-2; NKJV)

  Job was faithful to God, and was blessed. However, was Job only faithful to God because he was blessed? The Adversary, Satan, questioned God as to whose allegiance was Job; was his allegiance to God or mammon (Mat 6:24). “Mammon” is not specifically avarice but generally the things of the world. Satan wanted God to demonstrate that Job would fail God when he revealed whereon Job’s confidence and comfort lied.
  The prosperity gospel is that God does not take-away from those who are His, but provides not only nourishment but material comfort and wealth. Job was quite wealthy and comfortable. God did, in fact, provide for and protect Job, his family, and his wealth because Job knew from whom it came. Using Hebrew logic and reasoning, as Eliphaz did in his council with Job, if I can show that the faith of Job was not indicative of material wealth, then it should demonstrate that neither should it be to Christians in general.
  The destiny of mankind, because sin is harbored in us all, is hard service (Gen 3:17-19). Although God had grace on Adam, he still suffered the consequences of sin. That should be argument enough against the prosperity gospel, but the story of Job provided additional confirmation. Therefore, because we have faith, God does not promise prosperity in this life. In the Abrahamic Covenant, God seemed to have promised the Hebrews prosperity in Israel, but Abraham understood it not to be the land of that country, but the promise of eternal life with Heaven on Earth at the end-of-time.  Christians, to this day, continue to misunderstand where prosperity lies!
  The Book of Job begins with a happy family: father, mother, seven sons, and three daughters; all of which were of one accord. As head-of-the-household, Job was a righteous and upright man. Satan saw that and was jealous because the family belonged to God. Family is a divine institution. The family system consisted of the titular head – Job – the family itself, and God. We find in the New Testament that there is spiritual unity when God has the father and the entire household (e.g., John 4:53). A more specific example is with the Gentile Cornelius:

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. (Acts 10:1-3). 

  For the household to love and fear God, the head-of-the-household must first. Parents are responsible for bringing up children in the Way of the Lord (Prov 22:6). Of course, they still have their own free will, but their training increases their knowledge. Wise children will remain in the Lord if they are brought up to love and honor God. Job did his parental duty. Most of us fail in that!

Satan started out by trying to put God in a hard place; Job is only faithful because you keep in safe from the perils of the world. With Adam, it seemed that he was alone in the wilderness and had to provide for himself and his family. With Job, his life was much like that as Adam’s had been in the Garden of Eden, which by the way, surely had its own “hedge” (Gen 3:24) with cherubim keeping the hedge intact for some future use. Job seemed to have easy Christianity, and Satan wanted to see of Job would still be faithful when faith came at great expense! (Cheap grace versus costly grace.)
  I have often wondered, When the Antichrist comes, places a sword to my throat, and gives me a choice, would I lose my head or take the number of the Beast! For those Christians alive at the Great Tribulation, God will not prevent Satan from taking lives as he did with Job. End-time Christians will have a test of faith greater than what Job had! Job could have taken the mark of the Beast, but he did not because his faith was sincere and trusting. Sometimes I think, I will tell the Beast’s dark angels that I will take the mark, but still remain faithful. That is not how faith works! We must trust God, and not ourselves. The advice given by Job by his three friends was to essentially weasel his way using his own devices rather than depend on God. Peter tried that when he denied Jesus three times, but they all knew he was lying. In the end, Peter was required to do more than Job; he gave up his life for his faith!
  God allowed Satan to do as he may with Job, but he could not kill him. Job not only wanted to die to escape the calamities, but wondered why he was ever born! Of course, Satan commenced with destroying mere property, but that was expendable as Job still had his family, his health, and God. Then God allowed Satan to take his family. The family was one of God’s first institutions, following only the Church.  “Church” is an institution in that it is the family of God, commencing with Adam, Eve, and God all alone in the “Church house” - the canopy of the Garden and the first tabernacle of God!
  Satan cares little about the family. His focus is on the very idea of the Church – the relationship between God and men. God intent was to love man and mankind love Him back. Satan is jealous and seeks that adoration; so much that he will destroy the family to destroy the family of God.
  The family, as always, is under attack. It is so easy! Those who should love one another because they are of the same blood, are often those who hate each other because they have their own minds. Each family member is born with the same needs and allegiance to their parents, but at an early age, Satan begins to erode familial relationships. His first blood is drawn when family members are at odds with each other. Then, all he needs to do thereafter is to focus on individuals as he did with Job. With the family support system gone, Job was all alone with God and the Devil. His friends were with him, but the questions remain; Were they friends that Job needed, and were they God’s true emissaries? Job needed his family, but they were gone. Satan knew that, and destroyed them before he focused on Job.

Job was given a hard life. His life became much as Adam’s outside the Garden, and more like ours. In all that, God kept Job safe from death, until his faith returned his prosperity, and finally death became his gain as he had hoped for in his struggle with the Devil. That’s what Jesus does for his disciples. He keeps Christians safe from death until death comes. Then their death is the true gain. When Job died, Satan no longer had any type of control over Job. You might think that Job was saved when he demonstrated his faith, and indeed, he was as well as saved! He had endured to the end to the frustration and dismay of his Adversary. Indeed, the story of Job and his encounters with Satan is the prototypical experience of exercising enduring faith. It is the faith that Christians must maintain to the end, hopefully with not that degree of physical and emotional pain!
  Job was tested by taking away things which should have been important to him as a test of How important? With Adam and Jesus, Satan offered to give them things that they already had. The Garden already belonged to Adam as God’s heir, and the World already belonged to Jesus as he Is the Creator. Satan offers what is already ours as well as threatens to take away the peace that we have. Family disruption is an example of taking away the peace of Christian fathers and mothers. Dissenting members of the family are unaware, but they are doing what the Adversary wills for them to do as the first step in attacking individuals.
  Just as with Job, parents of lost sons and daughters have the same “wearisome nights” that Job had. Job surely thought often: My encounter with obstacles would be much easier with my family intact. With his children gone, and his wife soon to be deposed, Job was on his own. That is a lonesome feeling and many abandoned parents know the loss of their children even when they are merely elsewhere. My neighbor died, and his son thought so little about him, that he was apathetic to the loss of his creator. I mourned for my fine neighbor for the lack of respect his son had for him. Imagine that; an honorable man dying and his only son not even caring about his demise. I can’t fathom that as I still mourn the loss of my Dad and Mom after all these years. If only I could go back and undo the times that I caused them trouble! Mom and Dad laid awake many worrisome nights over my siblings and my safety.
  Do you dishonor your father? If so, know that they laid awake worrying about you. Do you dishonor your mother? If so, live with the guilt of not understanding her love and worry for you! Do you not honor God by honoring the Fifth Word of Jesus? He wept for you!

William Blake Painting: (Image released under Creative Commons)