3-3-4 Job as Adam

Job 13:20-22 subtly alludes to Adam's fall: 

" Then will I [Job] not hide myself from Thee"   Adam hiding in Eden from God.
" Withdraw Thine hand far from me: and let not Thy dread make me afraid"   Adam's fear and dread as he heard the Lord's voice walking in the garden.
" Then call Thou, and I will answer" God calling Adam and  his answering God with his confession of sin.

It would appear that Job was recognizing that he had sinned, that he knew that the sense of spiritual limbo he was in parallelled Adam's hiding from God in Eden, but that he would only respond to God's call and come out of hiding to confess his sin as he knew God wanted him to, if God withdrew His hand- i.e. relieved him of the immediate trials he was then experiencing. Thus Job was trying to barter with God- wanting Him to withdraw the trials in return for Job making the confession which he knew God wanted. 

Another connection making Job as Adam is in Job's words of 10:9: " Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt Thou bring  me  into dust again?" . This is Gen.3:19- the curse upon sinful Adam that he would return to the dust. Job seems to be admitting that he is like Adam in that it appeared God was going to end his life as a result of his sin- return him to the dust. But he reasons that this is unfair, seeing he has not sinned (10:7,14,15). Thus he oscillates between saying he has sinned and is like Adam, and then claiming that although he is being treated like Adam this is unfair. Similarly Job complains " He breaketh me...without cause" (9:17); " breaketh" is the same word translated " bruise" in Gen.3:15, thus implying that he is receiving the result of the covenant in Eden for no reason. Jesus must have been sorely tempted to adopt the same false reasoning of his great type. The references earlier in Job 9 to God spreading out the Heavens and creating the stars show Job's mind at this time was set early in Genesis (v.8-10). Job 27:2-4 again associates Job's likening of himself to Adam with his false blaming of God for wrongly dealing with him: " God...who hath taken away my judgement; and the Almighty, who hath made my soul bitter (AVmg.); all the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils" . This is obviously referring to the record of God's creation of Adam in Gen.2:7. In 31:33 Job denies that he is like Adam in that unlike him, he has no sin to hide: " If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity..." . And yet like Adam he was humiliated by God's questioning at the end of the book. 

However, in his humbler moments Job recognized that he was a sinner and deserved Adam's punishment: " Thou changest his (man's) countenance, and sendeth him away" (14:20)- referring to Adam being sent out of Eden, or also to Cain's countenance falling and then being sent away from God. Job recognized that there would come a time when " My change come (when) Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: (I know) Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands" (when I respond to Your call to confess my sin)- 14:14,15. It would appear from this that Job feels that there will be a call to resurrection corresponding to God's call of Adam out of hiding (v.13 " Oh that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave" ), after which he would confess his sins- i.e. at the judgement. God's calling to Job out of the whirlwind and Job's subsequent confession at the end of the book again encourages us to see " the end of the Lord" with Job as pointing forward to our justification at the day of judgement and  the  Kingdom.  James 5:8 cp. v.11 seems to connect " the coming of the Lord" and " the end of the Lord" with Job in Job 42. The fact that the Lord was " very pitiful, and of tender mercy" with Job thus reminds us of how He will be in our day of judgement. The friends ridiculed Job's evident comparison of himself with Adam: " Art thou (the emphasis is on that phrase) the first man (Adam; 1 Cor.15:45 alludes here) that was born?" (15:7). 


previous chapter previous page table of contents next page next chapter