Edited and supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust.
"Behold, we call them blessed that endured; ye have heard of the
patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the
Lord is full of pity, and merciful" (James 5:11).
Turning to the book of Job, not to read any particular passages,
but to have it before us and in mind, we want just to take note
again of what it is exactly that is found taking place in the life
of Job under the hand of the Lord through the instrumentality of
the devil. There are several great features and aspects of this
wonderful story. We shall not take time to even mention them, but
just to put our finger upon one of them now. It is this.
A Righteous Man
Here we have the experience of a righteous man in learning
deliverance from himself, a man attested by God Himself to be
righteous, yet coming into such an experience as to mean his
entire undoing - the undoing of a divinely attested righteous man -
and it is as well that we should straightway recognise that there
is such a thing. Let us write that down in our hearts and in our
minds in precise language. As few words as we can will make it
stand out without any confusion. We thought, imagined, or even
attempted to believe that such a thing is altogether impossible.
Of course, that is what Job's friends argued. Given that a man is
righteous, then that man will never be undone. Well, this whole
book, and more than this book of the Bible, shows to the contrary,
but with an object, as we have said - deliverance from himself.
And when we see the end of the Lord in this, we find that,
although Job may have had a good deal at the beginning, when he
had been undone and delivered from himself, he had twice as much.
That is the end of the Lord, and that means that until we have
been delivered from ourselves, ourselves are the obstacle to the
fulness which is possible, and that is exactly what God is dealing
with.
It is quite clear as the story unfolds and as Job speaks his
mind, that at the first he was very much resting upon what he was.
Yes, as men went in his day and according to the old dispensation
standards, he was righteous and he knew it. And it comes out quite
clearly that he was largely resting upon what he was in that
matter. He would set that over against others and make it
something by which to judge other men. They were not as righteous
as he, they were different.
Then Job also rested very largely upon what he had. He was a very
rich man. He had cattle and houses, he had very much of wealth -
had everything here in this life in abundance - and he was very
largely resting upon what he had.
Then also he was very largely resting upon what he did. He tells
of all that he did, what he did for the poor, the needy, for those
round about him, and how everybody owed a good deal to him. He was
a great benefactor in his day, and so his life was very greatly a
matter of things - righteousness as a thing. By the standards of
that dispensation, it was not righteousness by faith, it was
righteousness by the things that you did and the wrong things
which you did not do; the old legal standard of righteousness, and
righteousness was a thing. The more good things you did, the more
righteous you were. The fewer bad things you did, the more
righteous you were. What he possessed were things here,
and what he did was a matter of things done.
Transition from Earthly Fulness to Heavenly
Fulness
The Lord saw the weakness in all that and (leaving the
supernatural aspect of this out of our consideration for the
moment: the great argument with Satan) the Lord saw quite clearly
that this could never bring Job through to real heavenly fulness,
for, if this story says one thing among others, it says this: that
it was a great transition from earthly things to heavenly fulness.
When at last Job had twice as much as before, that was given from
heaven, that was a miracle, that was done by God in a far more
direct way than in the first place. It says, "God gave..." Well,
there is a true sense in which God gave at the first all that Job
had, but there is another sense, a higher and extra sense, in
which the last statement was made - "God gave to Job".
You might almost think that, seeing that at the beginning of the
story Job's family was a grown-up family, when the story is ended
that naturally that was out of the question, and it required
something of God to come in there and give twice as much at the
end. The point is that the end is heavenly fulness whereas the
beginning was earthly fulness and God took His servant in hand to
pass him through from the one to the other, but in the end it is
not things, so far as Job is concerned. He has the things, if you
like, but what is more to Job than all the things is that he has
found the Lord in a way in which he did not know the Lord before.
It is transition then, in the main, from things to the Lord, and
that is always far greater fulness.
Now, what I want to emphasise is this: that when the Lord really
does get hold of a life and that life may be attested by God
Himself in Christ as righteous (leaving Job's original ground of
righteousness by works, the same thing applies to those who are
righteous by faith), that does not mean that that life is not
going to be taken to pieces, undone, and emptied out. It may only
be the beginning of such things for such a life. To come into
practical knowledge and enjoyment of the greater fulnesses which
are in Christ - not the theoretical or doctrinal fulness that we
have all things the moment we believe, but practical fulness,
experimental fulness - does necessitate that you and I go through
exactly the same thing as Job went through, that is an undoing and
an emptying process in which the main thing, so far as we are
concerned, is deliverance from ourselves.
Now, in that connection, there are two things Job did not
recognise or realise that was happening. He did not know that this
was taking place and you and I do. We have an advantage because
his story has already been written. He did not know. Therefore his
ignorance of the spiritual meaning of his experience became the
very opportunity for Satan, and when Satan as God's instrument for
emptying Job, had laid on with all his might upon his possessions,
upon himself, upon every realm of his life, then a procession of
people called 'friends' begins - the friends of Job. And the
upshot of all this procession of friends is this, that Satan used
those very men to take hold of the work of God to turn it against
God Himself, and this is found when Job from time to time
misinterprets his experience and gets very near to accusing God,
blaming God, complaining against God, taking an attitude towards
God which is one of a big question and a big revolt of heart.
Satan has taken hold of a great work of God which is intended to
lead to a glorious end, and uses the very work of God against God
in the heart of His servant. These friends seek to bring him under
accusation before God. There is no such accusation in reality, but
they, instruments in Satan's hands, seek to bring him under
accusation before God and make him turn in revolt upon God.
The Work of God in a Believer
What does this mean for us? Well, it just means this - that we
have got to have a very clear cut between what is the work of
Divine mercy in a believer and what is the work of Divine judgment
upon an unbeliever. That is where we begin: the end of the Lord;
He is very gracious and merciful! Oh, that is rather difficult to
believe when the first messenger comes and tells of what has
happened: disaster! And another one follows hard on him and tells
of further disasters, and then another, narrowing the circle until
Job in his very person is smitten. There is all the difference
between the merciful and gracious works in the life of one of His
own, and the judgments of God upon those who are not His. And
Satan, through these friends, tried to wipe out that difference
and bring Job onto the ground of being one who was being judged of
God as a sinner, whereas in fact he was dealt with by God unto
glorious ends. Beloved, let us seek to understand the difference
between those two things, as wide as God has put it, and to keep
that gap without any bridge at all and never allow Satan to wipe
out that difference. We are done if Satan succeeds, and that is
what he is trying to do all the time. He is the accuser of the
brethren.
The Peril of Self-Occupation
In a word, it is this: not judgment, but capacity as the Lord's
objective in His dealings with His own through suffering. Have you
got that? - not judgment, but capacity, the enlargement of
capacity for God, the things of God, for spiritual, Divine things.
That is what God is working at in His people through suffering,
delivering from that limitation which is always present when self
in any form has a place. Oh, I do hope that you see this, that
when the Lord takes one of His own redeemed and justified ones in
hand with His own beneficent intention of bringing them through to
enlarged capacity, the infinite peril which is always right near
at hand is that Satan should make us more self-occupied by our
sufferings than we were before. There is nothing more calculated,
or as calculated, to make us self-occupied as suffering. It is a
great thing to find a suffering saint not taken up with
themselves.
Many years ago a servant of God (well-known all over the world) and
I were speaking at a convention in Wales. He was a man who was
regarded by everybody to be more than half dead. No one would have
taken out an insurance policy on his life. His heart was supposed
to be gone and I knew this. I met him on the way to the meeting
and said to him, "How are you today?" "Oh", he said, quite brightly
and cheerfully, "I don't matter at all!", and yet I knew exactly
how he was and what an effort it was for him to get to that
meeting. But here was a wonderful detachment from himself, "I
don't matter at all!" - this impressed me, as you see; it was many
years ago. This brother lived until last year, I believe carried
on by a Life not his own.
But I am saying that the great peril under suffering and in
trial, not necessarily physical, but any kind of suffering in the
ways of God, is to be more self-occupied - and let us remember
that that is exactly what Satan is after. Instead of being
occupied with what the Lord is after, we become occupied,
engrossed, with ourselves, because of what the Lord is doing with
us and how He is doing it - the difficulty and the suffering, just
living in our own little world which becomes a very miserable
little world for ourselves and for everyone else. I know the
difficulty here and I know the battle of this matter. But what I
feel the Lord wants me to say to you and to myself is this: that
you and I can never be delivered from Satan in this matter until
we get focused upon what the Lord is after and not upon what we
are going through or upon any suggestion of Satan that the Lord is
dealing with us as He deals with ungodly people in judgment. No,
not at all!
You see, there is this heavenly side. Satan is in this matter.
Satan is making a terrific assault. What is the ground of Satan's
strength? What, after all, proves to be the ground of Satan's
strength in Job's life? Why, it is Job falling into the trap of
self-justification, self-vindication. He fell into Satan's trap,
and, poor fellow, he wallowed in that mire for a long time. He
fell right in. Oh, may the Lord deliver us from that slough into
which we can fall and wallow, Satan's trap for us that, when the
Lord brings us into trial and suffering, whatever it may be, that
it is because the Lord has a controversy with us and is against
us, when all the time what the Lord is after is not lessening,
narrowing and curtailing, but capacity. If you and I would take
hold of our adversities and our afflictions and say before the
Lord, "The Lord's intention in this is that I shall have enlarged
spiritual capacity, the end of this is going to be greater
usefulness and value to the Lord!" If we keep on that line, we
shall be delivered from the devil. Satan's power over us would be
so largely broken, for Satan's strength with Job was not in
Satan's ability to afflict, but it was on the ground of Job's
occupation with himself under discipline. Have you got the
significance of this?
I am not saying that the Lord never does judge His own people.
There are sins into which the people of God may fall such as the
sinner in the Corinthian assembly, and God does judge in the
matter of specific iniquity even His own children - not unto
destruction, even so. "Delivered unto Satan for the destruction of
the flesh, that the spirit may be saved" (1 Cor. 5:5); not unto
final destruction but unto salvation. But we are not speaking of
the specific case of the Divine judgment of the child of God. We
are speaking of the general case of so many of His people being
brought into affliction and trial and being emptied out. What for?
To be all the more filled. Keep your eye focused upon this. You
have seen the end of the Lord - keep your eye on that, the end of
the Lord, what the Lord is after - enlargement. That will
certainly be the outcome of every Divine work in His own people
along the line of suffering.
You can resolve this meditation into just this one thing - the
end of the Lord is not destruction or judgment, but capacity,
enlargement, fulness and of course, going with that, is being
brought into a place where Satan's power can no longer operate.