Job, part 2
Job Meets Jesus
Eliphaz
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“Can anyone be righteous in the sight of God or be
pure before his Creator? God does not trust his
heavenly servants; he finds fault even with his
angels. Do you think he will trust a creature of clay, a
thing of dust that can be crushed like a moth?” (Job
4:17-19 – GN).
“Can human beings be really pure? Can anyone be
right with God? Why, God does not trust even his
angels; even they are not pure in his sight. And we
drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we
are worthless.” (Job 15:14,15 – GN)
“God doesn’t trust anyone?”
“We are worthless?”
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“Perfect and upright” (Job 1:8 – KJV).
Abraham: “But you, Israel my servant, you are the
people that I have chosen, the descendants of
Abraham, my friend” (Isaiah 41:8 – GN)
“The LORD would speak with Moses face-to-face, just
as someone speaks with a friend” (Exodus 33:11 – GN)
David is referred to as “a man after his own heart” (1
Samuel 13:14, KJV)
“Daniel, you are very precious to God” (Daniel 10:11,
NLT)
“God doesn’t trust anyone”
“We are worthless”
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Jesus: “I do not call you servants any longer
because servants do not know what their
master is doing. Instead, I call you friends…”
(John 15:15).
Worthless to God?
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Bildad:
 “Then
what about a human being, that worm,
that insect? What is a human life worth in
God’s eyes?” (Job 25:6 – GN)
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Job:
 “Who
inspired you so speak like this?” (Job
26:4 – GN)
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God:
 “For
God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son” (John 3:16 – GN)
Eliphaz again

“Good people are glad and the innocent laugh
when they see the wicked punished” (Job 22:19
– GN).
 “The people I love are doing evil things”
(Jeremiah 11:15 – GN)
 “Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign
LORD, am the living God, I do not enjoy
seeing sinners die. I would rather see them
stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you
are doing. Why do you want to die?” (Ezekiel
33:11 – GN).
Job questions God

“You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as
proof of my guilt. Can’t you see it is God who has done this?
He has set a trap to catch me. I protest his violence, but no
one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice. He has taken
away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation. God has
made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who
knew me; my relatives and friends are gone. Those who were
guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women
treat me like a stranger and a foreigner. When I call a servant,
he doesn't answer— even when I beg him to help me. My wife
can’t stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't
come near me. Children despise me and laugh when they see
me. My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved
most have turned against me. My skin hangs loose on my
bones; I have barely escaped with my life. You are my friends!
Take pity on me! How I wish that someone would remember
my words and record them in a book! Or with a chisel carve my
words in stone and write them so that they would last forever”
(Job 19:5-7,9,13-21 – GN).
 “But
I know there is someone in heaven who will
come at last to my defense. Even after my skin
is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will
see God. I will see him with my own eyes, and
he will not be a stranger” (Job 19:25-27 – GN).
 “I still rebel and complain against God; I cannot
keep from groaning. How I wish I knew where to
find him, and knew how to go where he is. I
would state my case before him and present all
the arguments in my favor. I want to know what
he would say and how he would answer
me. Would God use all his strength against me?
No, he would listen as I spoke. I am honest; I
could reason with God; he would declare me
innocent once and for all” (Job 23:1-7 – GN).
The most painful thing for Job
 “I
have searched in the East, but God is not
there; I have not found him when I searched in
the West. God has been at work in the North
and the South, but still I have not seen him. Yet
God knows every step I take; if he tests me, he
will find me pure” (Job 23:8-10 – GN)
 “If only my life could once again be as it was
when God watched over me. God was always
with me then and gave me light as I walked
through the darkness. Those were the days
when I was prosperous, and the friendship of
God protected my home” (Job 29:1-3 – GN)
 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job
13:15, KJV).
Job’s conclusion
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“Will no one listen to what I am saying? I swear
that every word is true. Let Almighty God answer
me. If the charges my opponent brings against
me were written down so that I could see them, I
would wear them proudly on my shoulder and
place them on my head like a crown. I would tell
God everything I have done, and hold my head
high in his presence” (Job 31:35-37 – GN).
Elihu
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“I won’t ask to speak with God; why should
I give him a chance to destroy me? God’s
power is so great that we cannot come
near him…No wonder, then, that everyone
is awed by him, and that he ignores those
who claim to be wise.” (Job 37:20,23 –
GN)
An Enemy
 God allows the Enemy to exist
 God allows the Enemy’s kingdom to
dominate this planet
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“For he makes his sun to shine on bad and
good people alike, and gives rain to those
who do good and to those who do evil”
(Matthew 5:45 – GN).
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"In the work of redemption there is no
compulsion. No external force is employed.
Under the influence of the Spirit of God,
man is left free to choose whom he will
serve. In the change that takes place when
the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the
highest sense of freedom." The Desire of
Ages 466
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“God could have destroyed Satan and his
sympathizers as easily as one can cast a
pebble to the earth; but he did not do this.
Rebellion was not to be overcome by force.
Compelling power is found only under
Satan's government. The Lord's principles
are not of this order. His authority rests
upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the
presentation of these principles is the
means to be used. God's government is
moral, and truth and love are to be the
prevailing power.”
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"The man who attempts to keep the
commandments of God from a sense of obligation
merely–because he is required to do so–will never
enter into the joy of obedience. He does not obey.
When the requirements of God are accounted a
burden because they cut across human
inclination, we may know that the life is not a
Christian life. True obedience is the outworking of
a principle within. It springs from the love of
righteousness, the love of the law of God. The
essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our
Redeemer. This will lead us to do right because it
is right–because right doing is pleasing to God."
Christ’s Object Lessons 97,98
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"A sullen submission to the will of the Father will
develop the character of a rebel. By such a one
service is looked upon as drudgery. It is not
rendered cheerfully, and in the love of God. It is
a mere mechanical performance. [If he dared,
such a one would disobey. His rebellion is
smothered, ready to break out at any time in
bitter murmurings and complaints.] Such service
brings no peace or quietude to the soul." MS 20,
1897
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Omnipotence is not to be understood as
the power of unlimited coercion, but as the
power of infinite persuasion, the invincible
power of self-negating, self-sacrificial
love.
 G.B.
Caird
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“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by
the fear of punishment and the other by
acts of love. Power based on love is a
thousand times more effective and
permanent than the one derived from fear
of punishment.”
 Mahatma
Gandhi
“The Son of God appeared for this very
reason, to destroy what the Devil had
done” (1 John 3:8)
“Jesus himself became like them and shared
their human nature. He did this so that through
his death he might destroy the Devil…”
(Hebrews 2:4)
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"The earth was dark through misapprehension of God.
That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the
world might be brought back to God, Satan’s deceptive
power was to be broken. This could not be done by force.
The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s
government; He desires only the service of love; and love
cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or
authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is
to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast
to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all
the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and
depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the
world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise,
‘with healing in His wings.’ Mal. 4:2." The Desire of Ages
22 (1898)
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“As a deceiver, Satan wins support for his
cause and programme by something other than
what he truly represents. If this is the case,
simple demolition of the deceiver will not suffice
unless or until his true character has become
manifest. Such a perception of the cosmic
conflict depends on [the] presentation of
evidence for its resolution. To the extent that
the deceiver wins support by purporting to be
what he is not, he must be unmasked by
evidence to the contrary, that is by the evidence
of his own actual deeds…
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“The crucial point relates to the fact that a conflict
of this nature cannot be resolved by force.
Inevitably, this requirement exposes at least one
troubling risk that is intrinsic to the non-use of
force: If the deceiver is partly to be unmasked by
the evidence of his own actions, it means that he
will be granted the opportunity to bring his design
to fruition. Satan must be allowed to commit evil for
his evil character to be manifest. The political risk
to the divine government of this projected policy,
not to mention the theological risk, hardly needs to
be elaborated.” (Sigve Tonstad, Saving God’s
Reputation, pages 110,129).
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“You must have often wondered why the Enemy
does not make more use of His power to be
sensibly present to human souls in any degree
He chooses and at any moment. But you now
see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are
the two weapons which the very nature of His
scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a
human will (as His felt presence in any but the
faintest and most mitigated degree would
certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot
ravish. He can only woo.
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For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it;
the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet
themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate
them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little
overriding at the beginning. He will set them off
with communications of His presence which,
though faint, seem great to them, with emotional
sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation.
But He never allows this state of affairs to last
long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact,
at least from their conscious experience, all those
supports and incentives.
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He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs...It is
during such trough periods, much more than during the
peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature
He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state
of dryness are those which please Him best…He cannot
"tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to
learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand;
and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased
even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived,
Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than
when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do
our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from
which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and
asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” – CS
Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Jesus and Job…
 “Then
the Devil came to him and said,
‘If you are God’s Son, order these
stones to turn into bread.’” (Matthew
4:3)
 But
Jesus answered, ‘The scripture
says, ‘Human beings cannot live on
bread alone, but need every word that
God speaks.’” (Matthew 4:3-4 GNB)
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“Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the
Holy City, set him on the highest point of the
Temple, and said to him, ‘If you are God’s
Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,
'God will give orders to his angels about you;
they will hold you up with their hands, so that not
even your feet will be hurt on the stones.'
Jesus answered, ‘But the scripture also says,
'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
(Matthew 4:5-7 – GNB)
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“Then some teachers of the Law and
some Pharisees spoke up. ‘Teacher,’ they
said, ‘we want to see you perform a
miracle.’ ‘How evil and godless are the
people of this day!’ Jesus exclaimed. ‘You
ask me for a miracle? No! The only
miracle you will be given is the miracle of
the prophet Jonah.’” (Matthew 12:38-39
GNB)
“Some Pharisees and Sadducees who
came to Jesus wanted to trap him, so they
asked him to perform a miracle for them,
to show that God approved of him.”
(Matthew 16:1 – GNB)
 “You were going to tear down the Temple
and build it back up in three days! Save
yourself if you are God’s Son! Come on
down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40
GNB)
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“Just as he arrived at the gate of the town,
a funeral procession was coming out. The
dead man was the only son of a woman
who was a widow, and a large crowd from
the town was with her. When the Lord saw
her, his heart was filled with pity for her,
and he said to her, ‘Don't cry.’” (Luke 7:1213 – GN)
Jairus’ Daughter
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“He took her by the hand and said to her,
‘Talitha, koum,’ which means, ‘Little girl, I
tell you to get up!’ She got up at once and
started walking around. (She was twelve
years old.) When this happened, they
were completely amazed. But Jesus gave
them strict orders not to tell anyone, and
he said, ‘Give her something to eat.’”
(Mark 5:41-43 – GN)
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“A man suffering from a dreaded skin
disease came to Jesus, knelt down, and
begged him for help. ‘If you want to,’ he
said, ‘you can make me clean.’ Jesus was
filled with pity, and reached out and
touched him. ‘I do want to,’ he answered.
‘Be clean!’” (Mark 1:40-41 – GN)
“The prayer of a good person has a
powerful effect.” James 5:16
 “Daniel,
don’t be afraid. God has
heard your prayers ever since the first
day you decided to humble yourself in
order to rain understanding. I have
come in answer to your prayer.”
(Daniel 10:1,11-13)
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“The angel prince of the kingdom of Persia*
opposed me for twenty-one days. Then
Michael, one of the chief angels, came to help
me… Now I have to go back and fight the
guardian angel of Persia. After that the
guardian angel of Greece will appear. There is
no one to help me except Michael, Israel’s
guardian angel. He is responsible for helping
and defending me” (Daniel 10:13,20; 11:1 –
GN).
* “spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia”