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FROM JOSHUA TO JOB
Last week we finished with Moses and the Book of
Exodus. The next 3 Books of the Old Testament are Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy which we won’t look at as they basically deal with details
that don’t concern us at this time. Leviticus deals with the ordinances of
the Levitical priesthood - how they were to receive and make sacrifices
and what atonements and offerings had to be made for every kind of sin.
Numbers is a census of the Israelite people. Its mentions the genealogies
of the heads of each tribe and all the men capable of carrying arms for
war; And Deuteronomy with means secondary law or the law given a second
time deals with all the laws and ordinances in detail. The next Book is
that of Joshua or Jesus the son of Nun. Joshua is the Hebrew version of
Jesus: both mean saviour. Joshua takes the leadership of the Israelites
after Moses dies and leads them over the river Jordon, but has many
battles to win before bringing his people to the Promised Land. The battle
of Jericho is well known. The Israelites went around the city seven times
and blew their horns and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. The
battles don’t concern us, but two figures are of great importance: they
are both mentioned before the taking of Jericho. The first is a woman
called Rachab who was a prostitute and aided two spies sent by Joshua to
view the land. They lodged at her house and when the king of Jericho heard
of them she hid them and lied that they had already left the city. For
this she and all her family were spared when the Israelites entered
Jericho and killed every man woman and child. We have seen this woman’s
name before when we looked at Jesus’ family tree. The genealogy states
that “Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat
Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; And Jesse begat David the king”.
So Rachab is King David’s Great Great Grandmother and is one of Christ’s
ancestors. She was a citizen of Jericho who was saved and taken into
Israel. The other figure worth mentioning is a man who Joshua saw holding
a sword. When he asked him who he was, he replied that he was the Chief
Captain of the Lord’s host, in other words the captain of the Lord’s army
of angels who is none other than the Archangel Michael the Archistratigos.
The next book
in order is the Book of Judges. After Joshua, Israel didn’t have a single
strong government or leader as it had with Moses and Joshua. For three
hundred years until the establishment of the Monarchy, order was
established by certain powerful men and women who were called Judges. They
not only had the power to judge but also had charge of the political and
military administrations. The names of the main Judges are Gothoniel (Othniel),
Deborah, Barak, who St. Paul mentions in his epistle to the Hebrews,
Gideon, Jephthae and Samson. There are other lesser judges also mentioned
and two greater judges Eli and Samuel who are not mentioned in the book of
Judges as they are mentioned in the first book of Kings (1 Samuel).
Next in line
is the book of Ruth. Again we saw her in Christ’s genealogy and is King
David’s Great Grandmother. The Book is only four chapters and tells the
beautiful and sentimental story of Ruth, the daughter in law of Elimelech
and his wife Naomi who went to the land of Moab because of a famine. Their
two sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Shortly after, Elimelech
dies and also his two sons and all three women are left widowed. Naomi
decides to return to her people in Bethlehem and tells her daughters in
law to remain in their own country. Orpah stays, but Ruth is determined to
follow her Mother in law. Ruth utters those well known words of loyalty:
“wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge,
I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where you
die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and
more also, if anything but death parts you and me.” In Bethlehem
Ruth marries Booz who begat Obed, who begat Jesse, who begat David.
Next we have
the four books of Kings. In the King James and other western translations,
which are translated from the Hebrew and not the Greek, these are called
Samuel 1 and 2 and Kings 1 and 2. In the Septuagint the Books are called
Kings 1, 2, 3, 4. Kings 1 or Samuel 1 tells us that Samuel’s mother Hannah
was barren and made a vow with God that if he granted her a son she would
offer him to the Lord. And so after giving birth to Samuel and weaning
him, she took him to Eli the priest who raised him in the temple. While
still a child, God called to him during the night and told him of the
things he was going to do. This was the beginning of his establishment as
a Prophet of the Lord. The book continues telling of the battle between
the Israelites and the Philistines and how the Philistines won and took
the Ark of the Covenant from Israel. They placed it in the house of Dagon
their idol god and in the morning they found the idol face down on the
ground. They set it back to its place and the next morning they found it
again face down with the head and hands cut off. The Philistines realized
that they couldn’t keep the Ark and carried it to a place called Gath. As
they carried it, wherever they passed, the men of the city were smote with
emerods in their secret parts. Emerods is apparently haemorrhoids. The
Philistines decided to return the Ark back to Israel, but felt they had to
make an offering to appease the Lord for their trespass. It was decided to
make 5 golden images of their haemorrhoids and 5 golden mice, which
plagued their city, and place them in a chest next to the Ark. They then
took the Ark to a Hebrew town called Bethshemesh, and gave it to the
Levites. There it seems that they were curious to know if the Philistines
had taken anything from inside so they opened it to see. For looking into
the Ark it says that the Lord smote the men of Bethshemesh, and
slaughtered fifty thousand and seventy men. It reminds me of the film
Raiders of the Lost Ark, which, when the Ark was opened, everyone who
gazed at it was destroyed.
The Book of Samuel continues with Samuel
anointing Saul as the first king of Israel. He was of the tribe of
Benjamin and was the tallest and apparently best looking in all of Israel.
It seems that at the anointing of the Kings of Israel, they were also
bestowed with the gift of prophesying. It says of Saul that
“he prophesied among the prophets, then the people
said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is
Saul also among the prophets?” Saul began his reign with victories
against the Philistines and all was well until one day he disobeyed
Samuel, who told him to wait for him seven days before going to battle.
When the seven days were up and Samuel didn’t turn up, Saul made a burnt
offering by himself which he was not allowed to do, but only the priests.
When Samuel came he told him that he acted foolishly and because of his
stupidity and arrogance his kingdom would not be inherited by his
children, but that God would seek out another to take his kingdom. The
Lord told Samuel to go to a man called Jesse in Bethlehem and anoint his
son David as King. From that day the Spirit of the Lord came upon David,
but departed from Saul who was now troubled with an evil spirit. It was
suggested that Saul find someone to play music when the evil spirit took
hold of him to help him calm down. David was an accomplished harp player
and when Saul heard of him he asked that he be sent to him. And so it came
to pass, when the evil spirit was upon Saul, that David played the harp,
and Saul was refreshed, and the evil spirit departed from him.
King David
is considered by the Orthodox Church a prophet and his Psalms that he
wrote are used in every Orthodox service. But the world remembers him more
for the fight he had with the Giant Goliath. He was according to the
Septuagint version 4 cubits and a span, in other words 4½ cubits, but
according to the King James 6 ½ cubits. The Hebrews had two cubit
measurements, the common cubit which is 0.45m and the royal cubit which is
0.525m. If we assume that we are given the common cubit for Goliath’s
height, he was 2.025m or 6ft 7½ins according to the Septuagint and 2.92m
or 9ft 7ins according to the King James. If we take the Septuagint
measurement as correct then it’s not something that seems too incredible,
there are many men today that are more than 6½ ft and would seem like
giants in comparison to Middle Eastern men. The tallest man ever recorded
was Robert Wadlow of Illinois who at his death in 1940 was 8ft 11ins,
that’s 2.71m and only 8ins shorter than the King James measurement for
Goliath. The tallest person living today according to the Guinness World
Records 2007 is Xi Shun of China (Inner Mongolia) who stands at 7ft
8.95ins. Goliath was from Gath, a city of the Philistines, but most
probably originated from a tribe of giants called the Anakim who fled to
Gath after their people were destroyed by Joshua. It mentions in Joshua
that he destroyed the Anakim and there were none left except only in Gaza,
in Gath, and in Ashdod. The Anakim are also mentioned twice in Deuteronomy
as being tall and very strong. (Deut. 2:10, 9:2) The rest of Samuel 1
tells of the battles David won and how Saul hated David because he saw
that God was with him and tried on many occasions to kill him. It mentions
Samuel’s death and then how Saul was killed in battle with his three sons.
Kings 2 (Samuel 2) describes David’s reign, first as king of Hebron over
the house of Judah which he reigned for seven and a half years and then as
king of all Israel which he reigned for 33 years. It tells of the Ark of
God which had been in the house of a certain Abinadab at Gilbeah ever
since it was returned to the Israelites from the Philistines and how
David, wearing only a loin cloth, accompanied its return to Jerusalem with
music and dancing and how God instructed David to build a temple to place
the ark inside. It also tells us of David’s greatest sin. He slept with
the wife of one of his commanders named Uriah. The woman was Bathsheba and
she fell pregnant with his child. When her husband returned from battle,
David ordered him to go home and wash knowing that at home he would sleep
with his wife and would justify his wife’s pregnancy. But Uriah didn’t go
home, he slept outside David’s door. When David asked him why he didn’t go
home he replied “The Ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my
lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields;
shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my
wife? As thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.”
David realized that Uriah was not going to go home so he sent him with a
letter to Joab who was leading a battle and told him to set Uriah on the
battle forefront so that he would be killed in battle. And so it was and
David took Bathsheba into his home and she became his wife. But God was
displeased with David and sent the Prophet Nathan to tell him that he had
done a grave sin. David repented and God forgave him his sin, but the
child died soon after birth. Bathsheba again fell pregnant and gave birth
to Solomon who found favour with God and was to be the next King of
Israel.
Before we leave David we should make mention of the Book of Psalms
as we see in them David’s repentance for his sins and many other
revelations of his inner self and also his prophetic vision’s of the
Messiah. Not all the Psalms are David’s but because he is the author of
the majority of the 150 Psalms, the Book is called the Psalms of David.
They are rich in religious sentiments which came forth from the souls of
the holy men that wrote them. The church reads from the Psalms in every
service and are offered as types of prayer because within the psalms
Christians can express their pain, their joy, their gratitude to God,
their repentance and confession, and their hope, while in the Messianic
Psalms which foretell the birth and work of the Saviour, Christians can
find support for faith and at the same time they help us to unite the Old
Testament with the New. For repentance there is nothing better than Psalm
50 (51 in King James) which David wrote after he sinned with Bathsheba and
killed Uriah. The Messianic Psalms are basically 12 and foretell the
coming of Christ or can only be interpreted in Christ. They are the Psalms
2, 8, 15, 19, 20, 44, 67, 71, 88, 109, 117, 131 according to the
Septuagint numbering. We won’t look at all of them but an example is Psalm
109: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make
thine enemies thy footstool.” Jesus himself mentions this verse as
referring to the Messiah when he asked the Pharisees whose son is the
Christ. They replied David’s and then Jesus said “How then doth David in
spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my
right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then calls
him Lord, how is he his son?” From the same Psalm we also have a referral
to Christ’s Priesthood “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art
a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Kings 3 (1) deals with David’s last days and the anointing of Solomon as
King. It tells how Solomon asked of God only for wisdom which he was
granted, but also wealth and honour which he didn’t ask for. The book goes
into great details of the building of the temple and the materials used
and then its consecration. It tells how Solomon had seven hundred wives,
princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his
heart from God and he fell into idolatry. For this evil, God told him that
his son would not reign in all of Israel, but for David’s sake and the
promise he gave David he would divide the Kingdom and his son would only
reign in Jerusalem. The story of Solomon comes to an abrupt end and it
tells as that the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and
his wisdom, are written elsewhere in the book of the acts of Solomon? In
other words in the Book of Chronicles. We are not told if King Solomon
repented of his apostasy, but the Church considers him a saint and prophet
and believes he repented bitterly. For all his wealth and wisdom he didn’t
find happiness and in his book Ecclesiastes he describes his many years of
searching and his continual disappointments. He begins by acknowledging
that everything is in vain: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher,
vanity of vanities; all is vanity:” A theme that he carries throughout the
Book to the very end. Other books of the Old Testament attributed to
Solomon are Proverbs and Song of Songs. There is another book found in the
Septuagint, but not in the King James because it was written in Greek and
is called Wisdom of Solomon. In spite of the title, it’s very doubtful
that Solomon is the author as it is considered that it was written much
later than Solomon by someone in Egypt in 2 century BC, who had perfect
knowledge of the Greek language and philosophy.
Kings 3 does not end with Solomon but mentions some of the kings after him
and also the great prophet Elias (Elijah) and his successor Eliseus
(Elisha). It mentions the reign of Ahab who married the woman Jezebel and
for her sake served the idol god Baal. As punishment, Elias told Ahab that
it would not rain for the next years. It doesn’t tell us how many years,
but we know from St. Luke’s Gospel (4:25) and from the Epistle of St.
James (5:17) that it was for 3½ years. Ahab blamed Elias and not his own
apostasy for all that came upon him and sought to kill him. The Lord told
Elias to hide himself by the brook Cherith. He was to drink of the water
of the brook and the Lord commanded the ravens to bring him bread and
flesh to eat. When the brook dried out God sent him to Zarephath, to a
widow and her son so that they would feed him. When he reached there he
asked her for some water and a piece of bread. She told him she hadn’t
enough for herself and her son. He told her not to worry because the Lord
would make the flour and oil that she had not to run out. Elias stayed
with them many days and then one day the widow’s son died. He took the boy
and laid him on his own bed and as it says in the King James version
“he
stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and
said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him
again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child
came into him again, and he revived.” The Septuagint says that he breathed
on the boy three times. If we take the Kings James version as correct then
this is another pre-figuration of the cross made by Elias’ body stretched
out like a cross on the boy’s body. If the Septuagint is correct then the
breathing is symbolic of the first breath God breathed into Adam. It is
very probable that Elias stretched himself upon the boy and also breathed
on him because we have a similar event with his disciple Eliseus (Elisha)
It says in Kings 4 after telling us that a certain child died that
“Eliseus
went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his
eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and stretched himself
upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned,
and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself
upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his
eyes.” (2) 4 Kings 4:34) There is something similar in the Acts of the
Apostles: When Paul had been preaching for a long time someone fell asleep
and fell from the third loft and died.” Paul went down, and fell on him,
and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.”
Acts 20: 10) According to the Church, the widow’s boy that Elias raised
from the dead was the Prophet Jonah. This is mentioned in the Synaxarion
for his nameday 21st September.
We next see Elias making a proposal before King Ahab telling him to gather
all 450 prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel where they could challenge their
god’s power against the power of the one true God. He told the people to
choose and to follow whoever proved to be the more powerful of the two. He
even pointed out that the odds were against him by 450 to 1. Two bullocks
(oxen) were brought - one for a sacrifice to Baal and the other for God.
The test was for each side to pray to their god to send fire and consume
the offering. The Prophets of Baal went first and prayed from morning till
noon, but no fire came. Elias who seems to have a great sense of humour
started to mock them and said: “Cry aloud: for he is a god; for he is
meditating, or else perhaps he is engaged in business, or he is in a
journey, or perhaps he is asleep, and is to be awakened.” When it was time
for Elias to offer his sacrifice, he ordered that it be drenched first
with water. He then prayed and “the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed
the burnt sacrifice.” Other events we see with Elias is the time he was fed by an angel and how
God told him to anoint Eliseus (Elisha) as his successor.
Kings 4 carries on from Kings 3 and narrates the death of Ahab and then
Elias’ Ascension into heaven. After hitting the river Jordan with his
mantle it divided and both he and Eliseus cross over to the other side. On
the other side Elias asked Eliseus what he would like to do for him.
Eliseus answered that he wanted a double portion of his spirit to come
upon him. Elias replied that if he saw him when he was taken away then it
would be done unto him as he requested. As they walked and talked, there
appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire which came between them and
Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. As he went up into heaven his
mantle fell and Eliseus took the mantle and went back to the Jordan. He
smote the waters with the mantle saying “Where is the Lord God of Elias?”
and the waters parted and he crossed over again to the other side. The
rest of Kings 4 deals with other miracles that Eliseus did like curing
Naaman the captain of the host of the king of Syria of leprosy and with
the reigns of various kings of Israel and covers a period of about 300
years.
Elias did not die a natural death, but was taken up to heaven in
the flesh. Another person who is believed to not have died is Enoch of who
it is said “walked with God and was seen no more because God took him."
(Genesis 5:24). It is Jewish tradition and also the Church’s that these
two figures will be sent again by God in the last days. It says in the
Book of Malachi: “Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to
their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Mal. 4:5-6)
The Jews of Jesus’ day certainly understood this about Elias, although
they were confused, and thought that perhaps Christ himself was Elias:
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they
said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” (Matth 16:13-14) Just as St John the
Baptist is called the forerunner of Christ because he came to prepare the
way of the Lord and heralded the first coming of Christ, so also Elias is
called the Second Forerunner and will herald the second coming of Christ,
when He will come in all power and majesty to judge both the quick and the
dead. The church knows that both Enoch and Elias will come back to the
earth in those last days, and preach Christ. They will be slain by the
antichrist, and lay in the streets for three days, after which the Lord
will come and there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth.
Before we leave Kings 4 there is an event that shows how God sanctifies
the relics of the saints and performs miracles through them. Eliseus died
and was buried. The next year as the Jews were about to bury another man,
they were invaded by the Moabites. Because they had to hurry, they cast
the man into the sepulchre where Eliseus was buried. When the dead body
touched the bones of Eliseus, the man revived and stood on his feet. Kings
4 ends with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invading Jerusalem and taking
the king and its citizens captive to Babylon.
The next two books are called Chronicles 1 and 2. The Septuagint calls
them Paraleipomena, in other words all the things that were omitted or
neglected to be mentioned in the four books of Kings. But they also give a
summary of the Old Testament story from Adam to the end of the Israelite’s
captivity in Babylon.
Then we have the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. In the Septuagint we have
Ezra 1 and 2 and Nehemiah. Ezra 1 actually contains pages from the last
chapters of Chronicles 2. All three books talk of the destruction of
Jerusalem, the captivity of the Israelites, events during the last kings
of Judah, the return of the captives to Jerusalem, and the rebuilding of
the Temple. They also give a catalogue of the names of those who returned
and rules for mixed marriages.
Our next book according to the Septuagint is the book of Tobit which is
not found in the King James Version. This is one of the nicest books of
the Old Testament. It tells of how Tobit was taken captive with others to
Nineveh by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, and how during those years he
remained a faithful and pious Israelite doing good works of charity and
always walking in uprightness and in fear of God. He used to bury the dead
that the king had murdered and thrown behind the Nineveh walls. This was
forbidden and when the king heard of it he sought to have him killed.
Tobit escaped but all his belongings were confiscated and all that he had
left was his wife and son Tobias. One day after burying someone he slept
outside by the wall because it was considered a defilement to bury the
dead. Sparrow droppings fell on his eyes and he became blind. So now blind
and not able to work and support his family he became despondent and
prayed to God to let him die. On the very day of Tobit's prayer, Sarah, a
young relative of Tobit living in the Median capital, Ecbatana, also prays
for death. She has been married seven times, and every one of her husbands
has been killed on their wedding night by the jealous demon Asmodeus. The
prayers of both are heard, and the archangel Raphael is sent to help them.
At this point, Tobit decides to send his son Tobias to the Median city of
Rages to recover money left there in trust with a friend. Raphael
(disguised as Azarias, another of Tobit's relatives) appears, to accompany
and guide Tobias. En route, Tobias catches a large fish in the Tigris
River and is advised by his heavenly guide to keep its heart, liver, and
gall because of their healing properties. When they reach Ecbatana, the
archangel persuades Tobias to marry Sarah. On the wedding night, Tobias,
as instructed by the archangel, takes live ashes of incense and puts the
heart and liver of the fish upon them and makes a smoke. When the demon
smelled the odour he fled to the remotest parts of Egypt, and the angel
bound him. So Tobias slept with his wife and was saved from the demon. His
father in law makes him promise to stay with him for fourteen days of
festivities so he asked Raphael to journey to Rages, to recover the money
held in trust. After this Tobias, Sarah, and Raphael return to Nineveh,
where Tobias uses the gall of the fish to restore his father's sight.
Raphael then reveals his identity saying “I am Raphael, one of the seven
holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the
presence of the glory of the Holy One.” He then tells them that “All these
days I merely appeared to you and did not eat or drink, but you were
seeing a vision. Write in a book everything that has happened.” And then
disappears.
We next have The Book of Judith again not found in the King James and the
Book of Esther. These are historical books, but show how women can use
their beauty and wisdom to bring down the greatest of enemies. Judith was
a widow and used her beauty and charm against Holofernes, the chief
captain of the army of Assur. She got him drunk then cut of his head which
she then proudly showed off to the Israelite elders. Esther used her charm
and wisdom to save the Jewish people after the king of Persia was tricked
by his prime minister into making a decree that all the Jews in the
Persian Empire were to be put to death. She revealed to the King that his
prime minister called for the ruling because Mordecai, Esther’s cousin,
refused to bow down to him. The King realized he was to kill an innocent
people and hanged his prime minister and gave protection to the Jews. An
annual feast, the feast of Purim was set up in memory of the deliverance
of the Jews which is still celebrated to this day.
Next we have the three books of the Maccabees which again are only found
in the Septuagint. As they are historical books and deal mostly with the
battles of the Jewish nation, we won’t look at their content except the
very beginning of Maccabees 1 which is of special interests to Greeks and
Greek history as a whole. It says that “After Alexander son of Philip, the
Macedonian, who came from the land of Kittim, (which is Cyprus) had
defeated a King Darius of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as
king. (He had previously become king of Greece.) He fought many battles,
conquered strongholds, and put to death the kings of the earth. He
advanced to the ends of the earth, and plundered many nations. When the
earth became quiet before him, he was exalted, and his heart was lifted
up. He gathered a very strong army and ruled over countries, nations, and
princes, and they became tributary to him. After this he fell sick and
perceived that he was dying. So he summoned his most honoured officers,
who had been brought up with him from youth, and divided his kingdom among
them while he was still alive. And after Alexander had reigned twelve
years, he died.” (Maccabees 1: 1-7)
Our last stop for today is the Book of Job. It says of Job that he was
true, blameless, righteous, and godly, abstaining from everything evil. He
had seven sons and three daughters and was the wealthiest man in his
country with several thousands of sheep, camels, oxen and asses. It says
that one day the angels of God came to stand before the Lord and the devil
came with them. The Lord asked the devil, where did you come from? And the
devil replied “I am come from compassing the earth and walking up and down
in the earth under heaven”. And the Lord said to the devil,
“hast thou
considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a man
blameless, true, godly, abstaining from everything evil.” The devil
answered: “Does Job worship the Lord for nothing? Hast not thou made an
hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is
increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he
hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” “And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth
thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.”
And
so begins
Job’s many painful trials and temptations to test his loyalty and faith in
God. As his son and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their
eldest brother’s house, a messenger came and told him his servants had
been slain and his oxen and asses were stolen. Before he could finish
another messenger came and told him that fire came from heaven and
consumed his sheep and the servants that were with them. Then another came
and told him his camels were taken away. And then another came and told
him that while his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in
their eldest brother’s house, there came a great wind from the wilderness,
and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon them, and they
are dead. In just a few moments Job went from being the richest and
happiest man in the land to the poorest and unhappiest. Torn my his grief
at the loss of his children, servants and wealth, he didn’t blame God, but
fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said,
“Naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Again the angels of
God stood before the Lord and the devil came also. God said to him:
“Hast thou then observed my servant Job, that there
is none like him on the earth, a harmless, true, blameless, godly man,
abstaining from everything evil, and he still cleaves to innocence
although you have told me to destroy his substance without cause. And the
devil said: Skin for skin, yea, all that a man has will he give as a
ransom for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and
his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said to the
devil, Behold, I deliver him up to you only save his life. So the devil
smote Job with sore boils from his feet to his head.” The sores caused his body to stink that he was forced to
sit on a dung-heap outside the city. After being in this state for some
time, the devil seeing that he remained firm with patience and faith in
God, decided to use his wife to stir him up. She said to him:
“how long
will you hold out expecting hope of deliverance, your memorial is
abolished from the earth, even your sons and daughters which I bore with
pangs and pains, and you spend the nights in the open air among the
corruption of worms, say some word against God and die.”
“But he looked at
her and said: Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have
received good things of the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil
things? In all the things that happened to him, Job sinned not at all with
his lips before the Lord.”
What was painful for Job more than losing his
children, his wealth and then his health, was the fact that he thought all
his sufferings came from God. In his mind he could not explain how a
righteous and just God could punish him who lived blamelessly and
righteously. But his trials were not only these. His friends come to
comfort him but instead of comforting him they grieved him even more by
continually repeating that tribulations are punishment from God cast upon
him because of his sins. His friends must have thought that he had
committed grave sins to receive such a punishment, but his own conscious
didn’t accuse him of any transgressions worthy of such a punishment from
God. This causes him to curse the day he was born and wished that that day
and night never existed. At first glance this can be seen as his fall but
in reality it was his salvation. Job was in a dilemma: A righteous God
punishes a righteous person with such a frightful punishment, which
surpasses any kind of justification. Faced with the thought to curse God
of to deny the existence of God, he preferred to deny himself and wished
he never existed, that he was never born so that he would not be found in
this unpleasant and disagreeable predicament. He cursed the day he was
born and in that way did not lose his faith in God. After this another
friend appears who condemns all the other friends for the things they told
Job and also Job for his despondency. He tells him that only God knows the
reason for all his suffering, but man is always obliged to have hope and
trust in God and suffer without complaining every trial that comes his
way. In the end God reproaches Job for thinking that he could ever
understand God’s righteousness and judgement. He forgives him and in
appreciation for his complete faith, humility and patience during the
trials, he rewards his virtue with more joy and happiness, with children
and wealth, more than he had before his trials and temptations.
Job is seen by the fathers of the Church as a type of Christ and his story
is read in Church during Holy Week in anticipation of Christ’s sufferings.
They are not completely alike, but have many common elements. Job was
wealthy as a king before his trials – Christ was God before becoming man,
the whole world which he created was his. As Job became poor without even
a roof over his head, so also Christ became a poor man without a roof, for
as he himself said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” (Matth. 8: 20)
God gave Job to be tempted by the devil, he did the same with Christ: both
overcame the temptations. As Job was naked outside the city sitting like
rubbish on a dung-heap, so also Christ was crucified naked on the Cross
outside the city walls. Both suffered their trials with the greatest of
patience and humility.
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