Job and Jesus

The story of Job is twice as old as the Gospel accounts of Jesus. What's the same?

produced by static force llc sometimes things don't change.

Transcript

Job and Jesus

by Eric Engelmann

All content © 2024 Static Force, LLC

When are we?

Before 2100 BC. This is in the time of the Old Testament. After Noah and before Moses. About two thousand years before Jesus.

Where are we?

The land of Uz. According to Wikipedia, the land of Uz can refer to one of two regions – Aram or Edom. Areas south of Jerusalem in present day Saudi Arabia-- or east of Jerusalem, maybe in present day Jordan or as far north as Syria.

Have we been here and now in a previous episode?

We sure have. Two episodes were recorded in February of 2023 discussing the book of Job.

Why are we here now?

We're going to compare Job's Suffering in the Old Testament with Jesus' suffering in the New Testament on multiple topics.

Author’s Disclosure

I don't quickly understand some portions of Scripture. For instance, the accounts of Jesus' crucifixion are about two thousand years old. There are four of them, written in a time before English existed and paved roads were made without concrete. I can't say I completely understand them, but I feel fairly at home reading them since they’re only two thousand years old and there are actually four of them.

When it comes to talking about the book of Job, the time gap is about doubled. Any differences in how people thought, taught or talked are all doubled, making understanding even more remote. 

But even from my view looking back on Job, I can see some similarities between Job's suffering and Jesus'.

Both Jesus and Job -- I'll call them the heroes -- went through similar ordeals. Job's three companions appear first as friends, but I'm going to use the word 'opposition' to refer to them. They were functionally opposed to what God had planned as shown in the end of the book of Job. That's when God had Job pray for his opposition.

Here are some similarities between the stories of Job and Jesus: Their allies fled; their opposition stuck around for a while; their opposition accused our heroes of incompetence; the opposition did not initially come to our heroes for any kind of prayer.

By Way of Comparison

Did the opposition flee from the heroes?

During the ordeals, no. The opposition was in the face of the heroes.

Job's opposition stayed around him for days before giving their form of ancient conversation with him. Apparently Job could talk, but really didn't want to very much.

Jesus' opposition ran a court procedure that was clearly illegal. Jesus didn't say much to defend Himself, but the opposition's errors were still obvious. For instance, 

the proceeding was held at night and used contradictory witnesses. A judgment was pronounced by a priest who had just torn his clothes, disqualifying himself as a functioning priest. Jesus did have at least one member on the court who disagreed with the majority, but it wasn't enough.

After the judgments of the Roman government, Jesus' opposition stayed at the cross and taunted Him. Unlike Job, Jesus didn’t say much. It took a lot of work to breathe.

Did allies flee from the heroes?

Yes. Both heroes looked like they were on God's hit list.

Job's servants wouldn't come near him, possibly because he was so sick they thought he might be contagious. Not to mention the news that bandits and fire from heaven had killed some of his servants already.

Most of Jesus' disciples fled. They hid and didn't want to face charges from the Jerusalem authorities.

Did the opposition come to the heroes to ask for prayer?

Not during the ordeals.

I mentioned in another episode that near the end of Job’s ordeal, God commanded Job's opposition to ask for prayer.

In Jesus’ case, there was a fellow victim on a separate cross who asked Jesus for prayer. He probably first taunted Jesus, but later said "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Did the opposition try to instruct the heroes?

Yes.

Job's opposition told him to confess his sin. Put  another way, I guess to say he “had no sin left to confess” was itself a sin.

Jesus' opposition said, "Come down from the cross and we'll believe you."

There's one similarity I see between Job and Jesus that I"ve saved for last. Some might consider this a big stretch, but here's one way I make sense of how Jesus and Job are alike: how the number “three” appears.

Jesus told his disciples he would die and rise three days later. I think He also foretold His death and resurrection at critical times when He made sure he brought only three disciples with Him. They include raising Jairus' daughter from the dead, ascending the mount of transfiguration and praying with Jesus at the garden of Gesthemane. I think taking three men with Him underlined these are all foreshadows of how Jesus would deal with death three days and three nights.

That said, Job had his own ordeal with three men two thousand years earlier, possibly foreshadowing Jesus' same conflict about being innocent but rejected anyway.

In the Future

In the future, Jesus’ followers will see how their own struggles are a little bit similar to Jesus’. His presence will act as an anchor to the soul for many who are overcoming this world to enjoy life with Jesus and His Heavenly Father.

All content © 2024 Static Force, LLC