Job's Great Mistake
From
Dakes Annotated Reference Bible
Job's Great Mistake
Job made the big mistake, like most Christians today, in blaming God for his suffering and trouble. This is very clear from the following statements made by Job while he went through his trouble. He said:
"The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).
"What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil" (Job 2:10),
"Why is light given to the man whose way is hid, and in whom God hath hedged in" (Job 3:23).
"The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me" (Job 6:4),
"I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul . . . thou [God] scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: so that my soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life. I loathe it.... What is man, that thou shouldst magnify him . . . and try him every moment? . . . Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?" (Job 7:11-21),
"For he breaketh me with tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause. He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.... He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.... Yet thou shalt plunge me into the ditch" (Job 9:17, 18, 22),
"I will say unto God, do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me. Is it good for thee that thou shouldst oppress, that thou shouldst despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the council of the wicked . . . thou dost destroy me . . . Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? . . . Thou huntest me as a fierce lion. . . Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increaseth thine indignation upon me . . . cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little" (Job 10:2, 3, 8, 10, 16, 17),
"The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly" (Job 12:6),
"Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid . . . wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy" (Job 13:21-24),
"Thou destroyest the hope of man" (Job 14:19),
"God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me bad the neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and he doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant . . . Not for any injustice in my hands" (Job 16:11-17),
"He hath made me also a byword of the people" (Job 17:6),
"Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.... He hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown of my head. He hath destroyed me on every side.... He hath kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. He hath put my brethren far from me . . . the hand of God hath touched me" (Job 19:6-13, 21),
"The Almighty troubleth me" (Job 23:16),
"As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul" (Job 27:2),
"He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me . . . He hath cast me into the mire" (Job 30:11, 19).
The statements above are of Job during his sufferings. They do not speak the truth any more than modern statements of men who accuse God of being the cause of their sicknesses, calamities, and failures. God did not do even one of the above-mentioned things to a child of His and He never will. It was the devil who had afflicted Job, as is plainly stated in Job 2:7.
Not one of Job's statements mentioned above should be taken as true of the dealings of God with His children. They were uttered by a man in great distress and by a man who had the wrong conception of God and His dealings with man. It is no wonder when God came to Job and rebuked him for the above accusations that Job said,
"Who is he that hideth council without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.... Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:1-6).
To consider God as the cause of Job's miseries is to make Him the most unjust, inhuman, and unmerciful being that one could conceive of. God's main purpose in recording the experiences of Job is to show men of all ages that He is not this kind of God, as the devil and men in general constantly refer to Him as being. Unfortunately men have missed this all important truth about Job. They have used his experience to magnify sickness as the will of God, as caused by God, and as necessary for children of God to undergo in order to learn patience. They have completely missed the mark.
God did not take away Job's riches, kill his children, take away his health and position, or cause his wife and friends to become estranged from him. Job did not receive evil from God. God did not hedge him in, shoot him with His arrows, poison him, send him terrors, scare him with dreams and visions, cause him to choose death rather than life, set him up for a mark to shoot at, break him with tempest, multiply his wounds without cause, take his breath, fill him with bitterness, plunge him in the ditch, condemn him without cause, oppress him, despise him, destroy him, hunt him as a lion, witness against him, increase his wrath upon him, torment him, count him as an enemy, destroy his hope, deliver him to the ungodly, be unmerciful to him, refuse to hear him, or afflict him with suffering. God did not destroy the perfect, prosper the wicked, make the ungodly secure, and oppress the godly. These are false lies of the devil that he got Job to utter. God is not this kind of evil being. The devil is the cause of all these misfortunes and this is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Anyone who accuses God of doing these things is falsely accusing Him of wrongdoing.
These are the kinds of doctrines expressed constantly in modern churches by preachers who know infinitely less about God after studying the sixty-six books of the Bible than Job knew without the Bible. These false doctrines are the ones taught by most of the modern religious teachers; that is, about God and His dealings with men. Therefore when men come along contradicting such teachings they are classed as fanatical and heretical in the extreme. The truth is they are the heretics.