3-3-3 Job and Israel

There are a number of passages which associate Job with Israel in general terms. We will first consider these and then proceed to analyse how the reasoning of Job showed the same characteristics as the Jewish system in the first century. It has been suggested by J.W.Thirtle in " Old Testament Problems" (worth a read by every serious student) that the book of Job was re-written and compiled by Hezekiah's men who at the same time produced the Psalter (all under inspiration, of course). The copious connections between the suffering servant prophecies of Isaiah and the book of Job (take a glance down the A.V. margins of Job) are therefore more easily understandable- the account of Job's sufferings and vindication amidst opposition was framed in language that pointed forward to the similar suffering (through the same disease?) and vindication of Hezekiah. The suffering servant of Isaiah refers to both Israel and the Lord Jesus, exactly as the parable of Job also does. The connections between Isaiah 40 and the book of Job are especially marked. The more obvious are tabulated here: 

The link between Is.40:27 and Job 3:23 is most significant: " Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgement is passed over from my God?" . These are the words of Job in 3:23: " Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?" . Thus Job represents Israel; and because " Israel" in Isaiah also refers to our Lord, we can make the equation Job=Israel=Jesus. The distancing between himself and God which Christ felt on the cross (Mt.27:46) is thus foreshadowed by Job feeling the same- and like Christ, it was a trial from God, not a specific punishment for sin. 

Another telling point of contact with Isaiah is found in 4:3-5. Job had " strengthened the weak hands..and..the feeble knees. But now it (the weakness and feeble knees) is come upon thee, and thou faintest" . This is picked up in Is.35:3,4: " Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful (Heb.'hasty'- both are relevant to Job) heart, Be strong...behold, your God will come" . Thus Job is a type of the weak-hearted Jews, and his final deliverance thus points forward to the coming of the Lord. The return of the prodigal son foreshadowed the final repentance of the Jews (note how that parable is based on Gen.43:16;45:14,15). But Job's decision to say " I have sinned...and it profited me not" (33:27) also connects with the prodigal son (Lk.15:21), thus again associating him with the Jews in their suffering and repentance.  Isaiah's earlier description of Israel as " from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness...but wounds, and bruises and putrifying sores" (1:6) is couched in the picture of Job " with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown" (Job 2:7). Note too that the description of Miriam in Num.12:12 LXX is quoting from Job 3:16 LXX; as if both Job and Miriam represented apostate Israel. 

There are also links between Job and Deuteronomy 28, again connecting Job with a faithless Israel: 

Again, these are only the more evident connections. In similar vein God (in the Angel of the presence) " was turned to be (Israel's) enemy" because of their sin. Job complains that his satan-Angel has " turned to be cruel to me" (30:21 AVmg.). Job comments that  if the children of the wicked " be multiplied, it is for the sword" (27:14). Seeing his own children had been destroyed, Job presumably was accepting that he was among the " wicked" , as he does elsewhere (e.g. 9:2). Hos.9:13,16 repeats such language regarding the punishment of sinful Israel: " Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer" . Dt.28:41 has the same idea. Eliphaz reminds Job that the wicked of Noah's time were destroyed by a flood, implying that the sudden calamities of Job's life were like the flood, thus equating him with the world at Noah's time. Jude, Daniel, Peter and the Lord Jesus all interpret that world as representing apostate Jewry in the first century, destroyed by the " flood" of AD70. It is also interesting that 1 Pet.5:8,9, concerning the Jewish devil walking around seeking to draw away Christians, is quoting the Septuagint of Job 1:7, suggesting Job's satan is also to be linked with the Jewish satan. 

There are several allusions to Job in Romans, all of which confirm what we have so far suggested. A simple example is Elihu's description of Job as a hypocrite heaping up wrath, which connects with Paul's description of the Jews as treasuring up unto themselves " wrath against  the day of wrath" (Rom.2:5). 

There are several  illuminating links between Romans 9 (about Israel) and Job: 

Paul extends his association of Job and Israel in Romans 11: 

Most fascinating are the clear connections between Rev.9 and Job: 

Thus Job is being shown to represent " those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" (Rev.9:4). The idea of sealing is associated with being justified by faith rather than by the Law in Rom.4:11. If " the earth" in Rev.9 is read as " the land" and the chapter given a Jewish interpretation, the allusions to Job as representative of unsealed Jewry still depending on the Law become even more relevant. There are many allusions to Job in the early chapters of Genesis- understandably, bearing in mind the early date of the book of Job. Cain is used by Jesus as a prototype of the apostate Jewish system- he was the first murderer and the first human liar, and thus symbolized the Jewish devil in Christ's time (Jn.8:44). Adam being a sinner is also a type of the Jews, inadequately covered by the fig leaves which represented the Jewish way of covering sin. Their glossy appearance which soon faded well represented the inadequacy of this method. Hos.6:7 confirms the equation of Adam with Israel: " They (Israel) like Adam have transgressed the covenant" (AVmg.). Note how like Job, Adam represents both the Jewish system and Christ (1 Cor.15:45). Bearing these things in mind, it is significant that Adam and Cain are both connected with Job.