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Job “Yet Will I Trust in Him”

Come Follow Me: Job

img The Judgments of Job, by Joseph Brickey, director of the Beaux-Arts Academy, resides in Lindon, Utah

Theme and Picture

  • Read the statement Yet Will I Trust in Him which is the lesson theme. What does this theme me to you?
  • Focus in on the image of Job talking to friends. Can you make any connections with trials and talking to friends?


Job Part 1: Tragedy of Job

Job is a life known for overcoming trials.

  • Job 1:3… His substance also was 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.
  • Job 1:6-12, according to authors, the Lord and Satan had a chat. Satan was given permission to inflict Job with hardships.
  • Job 1:14-19 the hardships start to happen.
    Theatrical adaptation to these versus in our reading. After each hardship we will have a (reporter) and the save (survivor) who says… “I only am escaped alone to tell thee”.
  • 1st reporter … The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword.

  • survivor … I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

  • 2nd reporter … The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them.

  • survivor … I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

  • 3rd reporter … The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword.

  • survivor … I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

  • 4th reporter … Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead.
  • survivor … I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

That is a lot to deal with, fortune and family in a seemingly short period of time.

Job Part 2: Recovery of Job

  • Job 2-41 is a whole bunch of poetry. More on the lamenting, and praising in the these books of Job is below.
  • Job 42:10,12-13,16 in the end, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Except children seem the same (why not twice as many children?)
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.

Conversation between the Lord and Satan

The conversations between the Lord and Satan in the book of Job are presented in a poetic narrative that emphasizes Satan’s role as our adversary.

The Script

  • Narrator: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

  • Narrator: And the Lord said unto Satan,

  • Lord: Whence comest thou?

  • Narrator: Then Satan answered the Lord, and said,

  • Satan: From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

  • Narrator: And the Lord said unto Satan,

  • Lord: 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?

  • Narrator: Then Satan answered the Lord, and said,
  • Satan: Doth Job fear God for nought?
  • Satan: 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.

  • Satan: But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

  • Narrator: And the Lord said unto Satan,

  • Lord: Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.

  • Narrator: So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

The narrative indicates that Satan goes forward and inflicts trials on Job. Satan is a Hebrew word meaning “adversary”; these verses in Job 1 use the form hassatan, meaning “the adversary,” which describes the satan’s role here.

  • Much of this could be illustrative for us, as the reader.
  • The books theme is eternal problem of unmerited suffering.
  • Any thoughts on this dialog? What do we think about it doctrinally?

Background on the Book of Job

  • More on the Book of Job
    • The book of Job has received much literary acclaim.
    • Why do the righteous suffer?
    • Questions arise, was Job and actual man? In scripture Job was an actual man and is referred to as a great prophet… Noah, Daniel, and Job exhibited great righteousness.
    • Ancient Jewish tradition claims that the book of Job was written by Moses before writing the Pentateuch (five books of Moses). Perhaps as old as 1800 B.C.
    • How old was Job when he died?

Reading Poetry in the Old Testament

I think Old Testament books when you get to Job and beyond are hard to read. The style changes to poetry and the expression of deep feelings. While we are reading we are experiencing and thinking across boundaries ot time. Boundaries of perspectives. Come Follow me has an inserted section stating.. - Repetition of thoughts, parallelism, poetry - Hebrew language, different culture, different thoughts - According to my analytics Worm / Worms has 11 references in Job. Huh, worms!, Job 25:6

Tennyson has been quoted as stating that the book of Job is “the greatest poem of ancient or modern times.” Of course, Tennyson was a poet…

And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, "'Tis the fairy
      Lady of Shalott."

I am not Tennyson, but a Computer Scientist. Thus, I need to slow down with poetry. Fast with Code, but poetry requires cross references for me to see all the BITS of wisdom. You must analyze each word in the STANZA,POEM,DOGGEREL,CODE 😀.

  • Job 14:14-15
    • If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
    • Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
  • Doctrine in Covenants 29:43
    • And thus did I, the Lord God, appoint unto man the days of his probation—that by his natural death he might be raised in immortality unto eternal life, even as many as would believe;
  • Mosiah 16:8
    • But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
    • He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
    • Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the bar of God, to be judged of him according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil—
    • If they be good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation

My Top 4 poetic perspectives from Job

Job as indicated by picture is in dialog with his friends for the majority of the book of Job. For me, over the years I have highlighted a few items. As we have read it again as a family these still resonate with me…