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Through his eight times of speaking to his three friends, Job exposed himself as a person with the following characteristics:
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Job was self-righteous (Job 6:30; 9:20; 27:5-6; 32:1); he was darkened by the success and attainments of his natural being, contented with what he had become, yet he was unaware of his miserable situation before God (cf. Phil. 3:9; Rev. 3:17-18).
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Job acknowledged God in name but not in reality; he was not saturated by God, filled with God, and mingled with God to become one with God—Psa. 92:10; Lev. 2:4-5; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 3:19; 5:18, 26; Heb. 2:10-11.
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Job did not possess any element that indicated some aspect and some feature of the New Jerusalem as God’s organism to live God and to express God for eternity; in contrast to this, the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord are written upon the overcomer, indicating that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the person of the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer—Rev. 3:12.
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Neither Job nor his friends knew the purpose of God’s dealing with him, as the apostle Paul did in declaring to the New Testament believers that the affliction the believers are suffering works out for them an eternal weight of glory, which is the God of glory to be their glorious portion for them to gain and enjoy unto eternity—2 Cor. 4:17.
Morning Nourishment
Phil. 3:9 And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.2 Cor. 4:17 For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.
Through his eight times of speaking to his three friends, Job exposed… many negative things concerning himself…. [He] exposed himself as being self-righteous (Job 6:30; 9:20; 27:5-6; 32:1)… [and] as a person…full of reasons. A self-righteous person is always ready to give many reasons regarding his situation.
Job was unaware of his miserable situation before God. He acknowledged God in name but not in reality. He had not been saturated by God and filled with God. He had not been mingled with God and had not become one with God. Furthermore, Job did not possess any element that indicated some aspect and some feature of the New Jerusalem as God’s organism to live God and to express God for eternity. Job did not know his situation, and he did not know the New Jerusalem. (Life-study of Job, pp. 126, 128)
Today’s Reading
In his experience of God’s consuming and stripping, Paul did not lose heart. Though his outer man was being consumed, yet his inner man was being renewed day by day. He said that his momentary lightness of affliction worked out for him an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:16-17).[Paul] was such a man [who expected to be consumed every day] because he wanted to be renewed. Renewing can be consummated only by consuming….This kind of renewing by consuming adds to the weight of glory that you will share in the coming ages. We will all share the Lord’s glory, but the weight of glory will differ among the believers. Through God’s consuming, the glory that we will share will become an eternal weight. Job considered his suffering of affliction something very heavy, but Paul considered his affliction momentary and light. Instead of caring about our affliction, we need to care for the increase of the weight of glory. How much weight of glory we will have depends on how much we suffer in our present affliction for the Lord’s sake. Paul…knew that the more he suffered, the more weight of glory he would share in eternity.
Paul magnified Christ by living Him, whether through life or through death, by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21a). This is the Christian life. When God created man, this is the kind of life He wanted man to live.
God’s intention with Job was to consume this “perfect and upright” person and to strip his attainments, his achievements, in the highest standard of ethics in perfection and uprightness (Job 1:1). God’s intention was also to tear down the natural Job in his perfection and uprightness that He might build up a renewed Job in God’s nature and attributes. Eventually, God’s intention was to make Job a man of God (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:17), filled with Christ, the embodiment of God, to be the fullness of God for the expression of God in Christ, not a man of the high standard of ethics in Job’s natural perfection, natural uprightness, and natural integrity…. Such a person, constituted with God according to His economy, would never be entangled by any troubles and problems so that he would curse his birth and prefer to die rather than to live. (Life-study of Job, pp. 28-29)
In [Hebrews Christ] is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our Minister (Heb. 8:2) and our High Priest (4:14-15; 7:26), ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth. He is the Christ now, the Christ today, and the Christ on the throne in the heavens, who is our daily salvation and moment-by-moment supply. (Heb. 1:3, footnote 4)
Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 21, 23, 27-28