지혜의 고통 3
Job was righteous(Job 1:1; 32:1) and a wisdom seeker(28:12,20). His trial was for his wisdom seeking. Only the fire can make believers pure.
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. (1 Cor. 3:13)
His three wise friends Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite symbolize Job's another aspects of self righteousness. His reasonable power, natural good personality, and spiritual old man. In the time of Job, they were real people. But their existence and persons make a role of Job's other personalities for us.
After Job's trial and repentance(Job 41:6), they were needed to offer a burnt offering for themselves(Job 42:8). And he received blessing from God twice as much as he had before.
And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
He had also seven sons and three daughters.
And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. (Job 42:10-14)
In the New Testaments we can find the same promise.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)
God turned(shub in Hebrew) the trial(the captivity in KJV, shebuth in Hebrew) of Job(Job 42:10). We find the same expressions in Psalm 126:1 and 4.
When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. (Psalm 126:1,4)
The captivity is the Judean people who are captive in Babylon and Persia for seventy years. They also show that their lives and history mean the trials.
After we are crushed by the wrath of God on our old man and carnal person, we are made to a pure gold.
The behemoth(Job 40:15) and the leviathan(41:1) are the other aspects of the old man of Job and us. We are the beast, the old snake and even the strange great whore.
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. (Ecc. 3:18)
To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; (Prov. 2:16)
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: (Rev. 17:1)
No more righteousness in me. I am wretched one. This is the pain of the wisdom seeker.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24)
The word is easy but reality is not. That's the fiery test almost to death. No money and bankruptcy. Physical sickness and family breaking down. Shame and misunderstood. Job has passed them. Can we get through them?
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11)
The only one hope among the trials is that the Lord is pitiful(James 5:11), so those days should be shortened(Matt. 24:22).