CHARLES CAPPS
WHAT ABOUT JOB?
Jesus said to Peter, “. . . satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” The Greek says, “Satan has demanded to have you . . . .” Let’s look at another instance where this happened. Satan demanded to have Job.
It seems like everyone says, “Well, what about Job?” I was going through some trials one time; I sat up all night reading about Job, and wallowing in self-pity. I was so sure I was another Job, that I wanted to see how it all turned out. I was ready for that trial to be over. I guess at some time in life, everyone “has said, “Oh Lord, I must be another Job.” Job got healed and received twice as much as he had before!
Job 1:3 tells us, “His substance was also seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.”
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said
unto satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 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” (Job 1:6-10).
This is the indictment Satan brought against God: “You have put a hedge about Job, his house, and all that he has on every side. You blessed the work of his hand and his substance is increased in the land.”
I can just see God standing there, smiling and saying, “Yes, I’m guilty: I did it” We know it takes faith to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Evidently Job, at one time had his faith working, but faith can fail to produce.
“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 . . .” (Verses 11,12). If you have a center column reference in your Bible, you will have a footnote for the word power that says, “hand.” “All that he hath is in thy hand.”
Some say, “God put Job in Satan’s hand.” No, He didn’t. God said Job was already there. How did he get there? We need to know because many of us have been in the hand of Satan for the same reason. We have put ourselves in his hand. Job 1:4,5 says, “And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”
The Word says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). In the same chapter, verse 4 says, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain . . . .” God received Abel’s sacrifice because it was offered in faith. Faith was one thing that made it stand out. In those days you were supposed to believe in your sacrifices. The Bible says that Job offered his sacrifices continually. He got out of faith and into fear. Evidently, he listened to the voice of the enemy.
When things began to happen to him they happened quickly. In verse 16, it says, “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep . . . .” There is a footnote for the words fire of God. The Hebrew says, “a great fire.” Another translation says, “lightning.” Some say that God did it. No, God didn’t do it. God did not create lightning to kill cattle. God’s purpose was for good. He doesn’t create the storms and the tornadoes to destroy. That is a perversion of nature. It came about after sin entered the earth. Satan perverted that which God created. The atmosphere was to bring rain upon the earth for good, but Satan perverted it and used it
for destruction. We do find in the Old Testament where God used nature to bring judgment, but we have to realize that we are not living under the Old Covenant today. We are under the dispensation of grace.
Let’s look at Job 1:21 to gain greater insight into what happened to Job. Job 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.” If you have ever been to a funeral, you have most likely heard
that quoted. It is true that Job did say it, but it is not a true statement. It is a lie. Did you know there are lies recorded in the Bible? Now stay with me! Don’t throw this book away. It will turn out all right. Ananias and Sapphira told Peter they had sold their land for so much, but they hadn’t. That was a lie and
it is recorded in the Bible. Someone might say, “But the Bible says, `All Scripture is inspired of God.’ ”
It doesn’t say that at all. It says in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Job 1:21 needs to be used for reproof. Job sure was not under the anointing when he made that statement. He could not read chapter 1 of the book of Job. So he had an excuse for saying what he did. But it was not God that took it away; God is the one who gave it” It was Satan that took away everything Job had, and it was God who gave him twice as much as he had before.
“In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Verse 22). Job didn’t charge God foolishly; he really believed what he was saying. He was convinced it was God that took it away. He was trying to be humble by saying in so many words, “The Lord took it away; who am I to fight against God?” His faith failed for lack of knowledge. It took nine months for him to get out from under this trial because it had
neutralized his faith.
FAITH AND FEAR
In Job 3:25, he let the cat out of the bag: “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” Faith and fear are opposite forces. Fear is of the devil, and faith is of God. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is the substance of things desired, and fear is the substance of things not desired. Job said the
thing he greatly feared had come upon him. It always will. When fear comes in, faith goes out. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of a sound mind. Fear is faith in the devil.
On almost every occasion when Jesus approached the disciples, He said, “Fear not.” He told Jairus to fear not, when others said his daughter was already dead. Fear will destroy the operation of faith in the human spirit.
In Luke 21:26 Jesus said in the end time men’s hearts would fail them for fear. Now, there is possibly a two-fold meaning to that; however, I have not found anywhere in the Bible where Jesus talked about the physical heart. I don’t think that He was talking about the physical heart here, but about the
inner man-the human spirit. The, human spirit is designed to put you over in me. He was saying, “When the heart becomes paralyzed with fear, it won’t work for you.”
Job allowed fear to come in and it shut his inner man down, neutralized his faith and the thing that he greatly feared came upon him. Notice it says, “He greatly feared.” He didn’t just fear. He was highly developed in this fear. When you become highly developed in either faith or fear, it will take less time
for the manifestation to come. That’s the reason some of (you say, “When I make a good confession it, takes three months for it to come to pass, but just let me say one negative thing and it happens the very next day.” You are more highly developed in the negative. You’re releasing more fear than you are faith.
FORMULA FOR DEFEAT
Now, look in Job 3:26; “I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.” Now isn’t that amazing? He did everything that brings defeat and it worked. There is the formula for defeat. If you follow that formula you will be defeated. The Word will guarantee it” (Proverbs 3:12; 3:21-26.)
LEARN FROM JOB
Job did several things the Bible says not to do. This account was given by inspiration of God. It was put in the Bible so that it would be instruction to us, so we wouldn’t follow the same pattern as Job. I thank God that He inspired the men who wrote the Bible to put these things in it, so that we can see where they missed it. It is profitable for instruction. All Scripture is profitable. It is a lot better to read that the
way of the transgressor is hard than to go out and experience it. It has been said that experience is the best teacher. That is not always true. You can get a million dollars worth of experience for half price and it’s still not a bargain.
Job said in verse 26, “I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.” Satan even admitted that Job was in safety: “Hath not thou made a hedge about him . . . (Job 1:10). Yes sir, God had done it! He had put a hedge about his house and about all he had on every side, and He blessed the works of his hands.
There is no doubt that Satan told Job he was going to lose it all, some day. In Job 1:21, you see how Job reasoned with the enemy’s help: (Paraphrased) “It’s too good to be true. God has really prospered me, but I’ll probably lose it all before I die.” When he got into trouble that was the first, thing that came out. You can’t hide what is in your heart; it will get in your mouth every time (Matthew 12:34).
You may think that I am being a little hard on Job, but I’m just pointing out some things that are profitable to you. God inspired the men of God to tell it like it was so we could understand and learn from it.”
Job was in safety, but he worried; he fretted; he complained; he had a bad case of the “What if’s?” Have you ever had those? “Well, we are trusting God, but what if it doesn’t work?” If you get a bad case of the “What if’s?” your faith will fail to produce.
It didn’t take Job long to get some insight into what was happening. Job 6:23 says “Deliver me from the enemy’s hand?”. . . Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?” He had already figured out that he was in the enemy’s hand. You will notice also that Job saw the devil as being “the mighty one.” “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue . . . ” (v.24a). He realized that his words had something to do with it. “. . . and cause me to understand wherein I have erred” (v. 24b). He wasn’t as perfect as he thought he was. When God said he was perfect (Job 1:8), the Hebrew means sincere.
A man once told me that God allowed all this to happen to Job because he knew Job was perfect and could stand it. You know very well who authored that thinking: satan. The Bible tells us to be perfect as God is perfect. I don’t believe that God wants you to attain maturity and lose all you have. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He said, “He that abideth under the shadow of the almighty would be under the shadow of His wing.” He said, “A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee” (Psalm 91:7). Choose to believe God. He also said that, “The angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him, and delivereth them” (Psalm 34:7).
Job said he wasn’t in safety. You see how Satan can come in with his smoke screen and blur our image of God. Just little things like getting you to worry; be over concerned.
Worry is a sin as much as some of these other things that we would never think of doing. A certain person was worrying over a problem. Someone told him, “It is a sin to worry.”
He replied, “God gave me sense enough to worry, and I’m going to worry.” No, God gave us sense not to worry.
Job said, “Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.” We need to frame that phrase and hang it on the wall. “Be’ careful for nothing; but in every thing by, prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests by made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).
We are beginning to see that the story of Job is quite different than most religious teaching. In Job 40:4,5, Job said, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once I have spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” To paraphrase it,
he said, “I am going to have to get this mouth shut up until I can find out what to say. In Job 42:3, we find, “Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” And we find in verse 7, “. . . My wrath is kindled against
thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” In other words, Job had his speech straightened out. “. . . and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job” (v. 8).
It would be good for us to see an example of what Job’s comforters were saying: “l remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off! Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed” (Job 4:7-9).
“And the Lord turned the captivity of Job . . .” (Job 42:10). If the Lord turned Job’s captivity, who had him captive? It must have been Satan. When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord also gave him twice as much as he had before. In my Bible I wrote by that verse, “Who did it? God did it” Most people,
that I have heard, try to make God the one that took Job’s possessions. God didn’t do it: Satan did.
Then they come up with this: “Yes, but God allowed it.” God will allow anything you will allow. He will allow fear to come in. He’ll allow Satan to steal your of peace of mind if you don’t resist him with the Word. If you begin to worry and fret, saying you’re not in safety, the same thing that happened to Job
can happen to you. Your faith can fail to work for lack of knowledge. Faith won’t work unless you work it. You can’t believe any further than you have knowledge.
I have a plaque on my wall that says, “Fear knocked at the door, Faith answered and no one was there.” When fear comes in, faith goes out. When faith is inside, fear cannot penetrate. Fear will defeat you every time. Fear is a design of Satan and God will allow any thing that you will allow. God will allow a
man to take his own life, or He will give him eternal life for the asking.
