A Job Experience # 18

"And the Lord Turned the Captivity of Job, When Job Prayed for His Friends"

We have said that chronologically Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible; and the Lord has also shown us that the Holy Spirit inspired the Book of Job to be written in poetic form because the Lord is dealing with the innermost being of man: the Book of Job reveals the depths of the Lord's dealings in the spirit, in the soul, and in the heart of man. And except for the experience of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which absolutely stands alone, for He alone is worthy, Job's experience, Job's suffering, Job's purging, is one of the most detailed experiences of a servant of the Lord recorded in the Word of God by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, since Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, and since the Word of God is an Incorruptible See " ... which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23), we believe that the Holy Spirit uses His account of Job's experience as a "seed" of travail in other parts of the Word of God, a "seed" of travail that grows, that "liveth," until God's full thought is realized. For instance, in Job 5:17 we find these words spoken to Job, by the Holy Spirit, through one of Job's friends: remember, Job's experience is corporate: "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." And what a productive "seed" of travail this is, for we find this correcting and chastening "seed" growing in Psalm 94:3 and 4, as the psalmist cried out of the midst of his adversity what must have been in Job's heart also: "... how long shall the wicked triumph? How long? ..." And the Holy Spirit answers the psalmist's travail by calling into remembrance the living Words that He, the Holy Spirit, had spoken to Job many years before: "Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord ..." (Psalm 94:12).

But let us note that there is a slight but important difference between what was said to Job and what is said through the psalmist, for the same words that the Holy Spirit spoke to Job have now become the psalmist's own. The Living Word has now become a reality, a living expression in and through his innermost being; and in the midst of great adversity he be empowered by the Holy Spirit to pray and commune with his Lord, and what he prays is able to comfort the Lord's people throughout the ages: "Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord ..." If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. If I should say, "My foot has slipped," Thy lovingkindness, O Lord will hold me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Thy consolations, Thy comforts, delight my soul. - Yes! The "seed" is growing.

Then, in Proverbs 3:11 and 12, we find this same "Living Seed" instructing the sons of God, instructing those who are destined for the throne-ministry - the ministry with the greatest responsibility of all - the ministry of intercession.

"My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction; for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."

And in Hebrews 12:5 and 6, we find the full harvest of this living ... abiding ... enduring seed, which is the Word of God, when the Lord Himself speaks directly to everyone of His maturing sons, sons who are being prepared for eternal responsibility with Him, both in their own generation and age, and in the ages to come, and in the eternity of the eternities.

"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."

Beloved, only the Living Word of God has the creative, productive, and enduring power to begin by speaking to one such as Job, and then continue to increase and multiply until the Word of God has become a living reality in all of God's sons.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 19)