Read Job 1:1–5
Questions from the Scripture text: Who was where (Job 1:1)? What sort of man was he? What did he do with God? What did he do with evil? Whom did God give him (Job 1:2)? What did he possess (Job 1:3)? What did these possessions make him? What would his sons do (Job 1:4)? When? With whom? What would Job do (Job 1:5)? When? In what manner? Why?
Who is Job? Job 1:1–5 prepares us for the opening portion of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Job is a man whose life shows that God’s grace really works.
As we begin the book of Job, we are reminded that the gospel has been present in the world since the garden, the promise that there would be a seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head (cf. Gen 3:15), and that we are all descended from the gospel family, not only from Adam, but also from the family of Noah at the time of the flood. Thus, there is the promise of the God who conquers Satan and death through a promised Redeemer. As we move through the book of Job, we will discover that this was Job's hope. Even in our passage today, as he offers the burnt offering, we see that he is hoping in the promised Redeemer.
An upright man. God’s grace has made Job a blameless man with unimpeachable conduct and upright character. This is genuine, both because God Himself is the One Who says it, and because it is joined to true religion. There are men who appear to others to be blameless and upright, but they are not worshipers of God from the heart. They do not fear the Lord in constant interaction with Him throughout their life, day by day. But Job feared God. He maintained a continual heart conversation of worship toward God throughout his entire life. Job 1:1 also tells us that he shunned evil. He hated evil, and thus his religion was genuine. It was genuine spiritual life, produced by God’s grace, which resulted in blamelessness and uprightness in him.
This is very important for us to remember. He will spend much of the book defending himself against those who accused his blamelessness and uprightness of being merely appearances, and who were certain that there must be some secret sin for which Job was being punished. Yet the Lord presents him, from the very beginning, as an example of what genuine heart religion looks like when expressed in life.
A wealthy man. He was a very wealthy man, not only because of the possessions and servants mentioned in Job 1:3, but especially because of his children—seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:2). And these children were also godly. Their feasting was of the sort to which they could invite their sisters (Job 1:4), and so upright that the stated purpose of the sacrifice was just in case something in their heart life was inconsistent with their outward, godly conduct (Job 1:5).
A spiritually wise man. Job knew—and we too should know, if we wish to fear God and shun evil as this blameless and upright man did—that there is a particular danger of forgetting God precisely when we are wealthy, when we are feasting, and when we are celebrating. It is not that feasting is wrong, but that feasting can become an occasion for indulging in worldliness and neglecting the Lord.
Job waited for each son’s feast to end. Apparently, they followed a regular sequence, with each son hosting in turn. First, Job would send and sanctify them. He was a man who had trained his extended family well in spiritual matters, ensuring they did not approach the worship of God without thought or preparation—by meditating on what God has revealed of Himself, by putting their affairs in order so that they might not be distracted during worship, by reflection: on what they need to repent of, on God’s grace, on the promised salvation, and on how love, obedience, and service to God should appear in their lives. We did not grow up in Job’s house, but we would do well to learn from him to sanctify ourselves for worship.
With the family consecrated, he would rise early in the morning and offer the ascension (“burnt offering”) according to the number of them all. He would lead them all in worship to God, teaching them that whenever we come to God through sacrifice, and especially we who come not through the blood of bulls and goats, but through the promised sacrifice of the serpent-crusher (what would be the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ!). This sobering reality reminds us of the seriousness of sin and reveals God’s goodness, kindness, and grace. His goodness to us in Christ is the great incentive to love, obedience, and righteousness in our lives. Genuine worship, coming through Christ, is the best means of helping us live in the fear of the Lord.
This spiritual provision was much more of an inheritance and a heritage for his children than 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 oxen, and so on. The children are about to lose all of these things, and their very lives, but they will still have the Redeemer.
Job himself is a testimony that God's grace to sinful man has been effective and successful. This will be the great theme, not just of the contest with Satan that we are going to hear about in the following passages, but of the whole book as Job agonizes. Is God's grace real? Am I really forgiven? Am I really redeemed? Or is God treating me as an enemy? And what we discover in the book as a whole is that this is how God treats His friends in this world—with a view to the next.
How do you watch against the spiritual dangers of prosperity? How do you consecrate yourself for worship?
Sample prayer: Lord, we see here how great Your grace was to this very rich man, and we ask that You would be gracious to us too. Make us spiritually genuine, fearing You and hating evil. Make us spiritually wise, aware of those occasions and circumstances that are a danger to our soul. And make us quick to come to You through Christ, preparing ourselves for Your worship and worshiping You through Him, we ask in His name. Amen!
Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH405 “I Love Thy Kingdom Lord”
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