Job 1:1

Even before God gave the law we see Him, in this most remarkable book, guarding against the trap Israel later fell into. Is it not an advance vindication of God? Job was a Gentile; and one who, as far as location goes, seems to have been in anything but a favourable area. The land of Uz is connected by the prophet Jeremiah with the land of Edom. Nothing could be more suspicious to an Israelite.

We regard it as little short of a miracle that the people of Israel accepted this very ancient book as part of "the oracles of God," which God "committed" to their hands (see Romans 3:2). Job may have lived at the same time as Abraham. But he was certainly not from Abraham's line, so he was a Gentile. Yet he is introduced to us with words of praise that we hardly find given to any son of Israel.

It says, "that man was perfect." That does not mean there was no evil in him. That is not what "perfect" means in Scripture at all. In the Old Testament it is the word for a man who is sound all through — a sound man, not just a moralist, but a man who was right with God. And besides being sound in that way, he was "upright" with man. "Perfect and upright" showed relations, one to God, and the other to men. Both ought to go together. The great feature of it was "fearing God." Another great feature fitted the other terms used here — refusing or shunning evil.

"Perfect" here simply means as in Job 1:1, 8, Job 2:3, etc., one of integrity or blameless.

Then, he feared God; this is the "beginning of knowledge," and we must take it at its full value. Job was not, as some have thought, an unregenerate man; there was life in his soul. He was a child of God, not a sinner away from Him. Unless we see this, much of what he went through will lose its meaning. Finally, he "shunned evil"; his outward walk matched the state of his heart.

The opening page of this remarkable book gives us a view of the patriarch Job, surrounded by everything that could make the world agreeable to him, and make him of importance in the world… Thus much as to what he was. Let us now see what he had.

His wealth was very great, for God had blessed him with earthly blessings in earthly places. It is important to notice this before Job goes into the furnace. The genuineness of his character is a settled question, on the testimony of God.

But, with all this, Job had never sounded the depths of his own heart. He did not know himself. He had never grasped the truth of his own utter ruin and total depravity… You must seize this point, or you will not understand the book of Job. Job was called to pass through deep and painful trials. We will not see their specific purpose unless we lay hold of one solemn fact: his conscience had never truly been in the Divine presence. He had never seen himself in the light.

Job had to come to know himself in a way he never could have imagined. Knowing yourself is very different from being converted to God, and it is necessary if we are to be fully blessed.

According to those who study the language, the name Job can carry two meanings. Both of them fit his history well. It may mean "one assailed" or "treated as an enemy." It may mean "one who turns" — by implication the "penitent."