Job is the only person the Bible calls “perfect,” he was a good man who loved God and His commandments. He was a millionaire and had ten children, and many animals. God allowed his faith to be tested by experiencing very difficult things.
Job is one of the best-known characters in the Bible and his story is recorded in the Old Testament, in the book of Job. In which we can find his experiences and difficulties throughout the maturity of his life, which generate questions within the Christian people.
Some questions about Job’s life cause a lot of curiosity in people, especially regarding the date he lived and the city where he lived. Therefore, in this article, we will learn what the Bible tells us about Job’s biography and his teachings.
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Who was Job?
Job was a millionaire man who lived in the land of Uz. Although the location of the city is uncertain, it is accepted among scholars that Uz was in a region to the east of Judah and perhaps bordering on the desert, the lands of the region being very good for cattle raising and agriculture (Job 1:3, 14).
The Bible tells us some unique characteristics in Job, he was upright, fearful and perfect before God. In fact, we can see that Job was completely faithful to the Lord “…and lived apart from evil.” (Job 1:1). Therefore the Lord declared that Job was the most pious man of that generation.
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The Bible shows that Job had seven sons and three daughters before being subjected to the different tests that he went through in his life, but in total he had twenty children, since the first ten children died during that period of suffering and pain to which he was subjected. However, later God restored Job and allowed him to father ten other children.
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Job had a wife, although the Bible does not reveal his wife’s name. When reading the first chapter of the book, it is observed that Job’s family was very close, because his children constantly met in their different homes and celebrated great banquets sharing together (Job 1:4).
Job was a very pious man and he was constantly concerned about the welfare of his family, so he continually I sought and prayed to God at dawnasking forgiveness for the sins of his children and offering sacrifices in their name (Job 1:5).
See also: What is sin in the Bible?
When did the story of Job happen?
Determining with certainty the exact moment in which Job lived is not an easy task, in fact it is not easy to determine who was the author of the book that bears his name, and the date it was written. Although there is a reference to Job in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, where he mentions him along with noah.
It is widely accepted by Bible scholars that Job lived in the patriarchal age.at least this is what various biographical details about him seem to suggest, such as the fact that he lived for two centuries (Job 42:16) and the role he played in his family as a priest, being very similar to Abraham and where mentions the law of Moses (Job 1:5; Genesis 15:9,10).
Related: What are the 10 commandments of God’s law?
Job’s wealth
Job possessed great wealth and enjoyed high social status. Some suggest that Job was a king, but there is no basis for such a suggestion and we must reject it. Furthermore, if Job had been but one king, the Word of God would have declared it, therefore Job did not live in the time of kings, yet the Bible gives details of the extraordinary wealth that he possessed.
The Bible tells us that Job had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen, and five hundred donkeys. Such a large number of cattle at the time Job lived that it certainly represented impressive power.
To take care of so much property, Job had a large number of servants at his service, so that, in general, Job was the richest man in the east (Job 1:3).
Job’s suffering and patience
According to the Word of God, one day there was a meeting in the heavenly realms, and the sons of God went to present themselves before the Lord. The best interpretation of the expression “sons of God” in this text is that it is about the Angels.
However, among them was also Satan, who had come “…I come from prowling the earth, and from going from one end to the other” (Job 1:7). Then God asked if Satan had seen Job. It is important to see that it was God who started the conversation about Job, that is to say, it was not Satan who chose Job for the test of the suffering to which he was subjected, but God himself.
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In view of God’s testimony of Job’s faithfulness, Satan suggests that all of his integrity was due to the fact that Job was blessed by God and possessed as many possessions as he desired.
In other words, Satan was accusing Job of being a self-serving person, so his faithfulness was conditional on the goods God had given him, and that if all he had were taken away, Job would certainly blaspheme God.
So the Lord allowed Satan to test Jobbeing able to touch everything he owned except his life (Job 1:12).
Satan’s Work in the Life of Job
With God’s permission, Job lost all his cattle and his servants were killed (Job 1:13-17). As if all this were not enough, his children who were all gathered in the house of his eldest son also died, due to a great wind that blew so hard on the house that it fell on them.
Faced with such suffering, Job tore his clothes, shaved his head, threw himself on the ground and worshiped . It is at this moment that she says the well-known words «Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked I have to leave. The Lord has given; the Lord has removed. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Job’s disease
Again the children of God were before God, and in the midst of them was Satan. Again the Lord asked him about Job, and this time he stated that Job had not blasphemed God, because he was still in good health. So, God allowed Satan to touch Job’s healthbut it did not allow him to kill him (Job 2:1-6).
So Job suffered a terrible disease. It is not possible to know what kind of disease struck Job.
In any case, what we do know is that Job was stricken with “…sore sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” (Job 2:7), although this description may represent only one stage of the disease. The Bible also tells us that Job used shards to scrape himself.
The behavior of Job’s wife
Seeing her husband immersed in so much suffering, Job’s wife advised him to hasten the inevitable end and curse God. Obviously she did not know that Job’s life was spared by God, and she fatally shared the common opinion that it was all divine punishment.
Job’s response to his wife was that she was speaking like “a fool.” That is, Job told her that she was speaking as an unfaithful person before a God, because God in his sovereigntycould pour out good on them or also evil, without being unfair.
Job’s friends
The Bible shows that Job was visited by three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. These friends were also wise and wealthy, and belonged to a similar social position to Job’s. The three men went to Job to comfort him.
Job’s situation was so complicated that at first his friends did not recognize him from afar. Then they took pity and wept, each tore his cloak and sprinkled dust on his head. They stayed with Job seven days and seven nights without saying a single word, such was the suffering.
After Job broke his silence (Job 3), a long formal discussion began between him and his friends. Based on this discussion, we can see that Job’s friends began to establish a sequence of speeches with cause and effect reasoning, where they basically accused Job of being the culprit of all that suffering.
So, in a nutshell, we can say that Job’s friends accused him of being a adulterer, a thief, someone without hospitality and a madman. Finally, they urged him to repent. In the speeches of Job’s friends we can see all the folly of human wisdom (Job 4-31).
After accusations from Job’s friends and his attempt to justify himself, a young man named Elihu, a common name for the Hebrews, drew attention to the disciplinary role of suffering (Job 32-37), so the man is not able to understand. everything that God does.
God responds to Job
After Job’s great discussion with his friends, the Lord, in the midst of a whirlwind, spoke to Job. God did not answer Job’s questions while debating with his friends, on the contrary, God asked him a large number of questions, where all His wisdom and sovereignty made Job realize his ignorance.
Job then understood that it was enough for him to trust in God, because He can do anything and “it is not possible to thwart any of your plans.” (Job 42:2). God is the Lord of everything, he rules the universe and does not need anyone to advise him on anything. Everything he does is by his sovereign will.
God also rebuked Job’s three friends, saying that they had acted foolishly and that what they had said during their discussion with Job had not been correct. Then the Lord commanded them to go to Job and offer a burnt offering, and for the sentence of Job would not be punished for the foolishness they demonstrated (Job 42:7-9).
God’s restoration in Job’s life
The Bible says that when Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his life and gave him double what he had previously possessed. Job came to have fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.
Job also had ten other children, seven men and three women, who are mentioned as the most beautiful in all the East.
After all that happened, Job lived another 140 years and “got to see his sons, and his sons’ sons, to the fourth generation.” (Job 42:16). Very blessed by God, Job died at a very old age.
The epistle of James referred to Job as an example of patience in enduring the different afflictions that befell him (James 5:11).