A Man of Sorrows
". . . human sorrow works death."
—2 Cor. 7:10
if indeed we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him."
—Rom. 8:17
God is indeed working out His desires for Job, and the extent of this is brought out more clearly in the next several verses and especially in the thirtieth chapter. From Job
The most beautiful allegory of this reality is found in the Song of Solomon. This story is the most graphic illustration of the Lord's desire for intimacy. It speaks of spiritual communion. It is indeed a book for the heart, written in poetic and symbolic terms. It deals with the path of a believer who is actively pursuing the Lord. The Lord intends it for those who desire total transformation.
In the Song, He reveals Himself in many different ways. He first reveals Himself as the "King" as He takes possession of the maiden's heart. Then as the "Risen One," as He brings her through the crucifixion of her "old self" into resurrection glory and union with the Lord of Life. Then He is shown as the "Lover of the Soul" where He rejoices over the fruit that has grown because of the newly created life within her.
Then, in Chapter 5 we are shown a new aspect of our calling with Christ, which is beautifully played out for us in the entire story of Job, as the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Lord wants to bring His loved ones into a deeper experience of the fellowship of His suffering, so that we can know His heart and partake of His glory.
In Song 5:2 the maiden says that she was "asleep," yet her "heart kept vigil." Paul said essentially the same thing when he said, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal.
Through all the wonderful aspects of growth and grooming that God has been doing in her life, the maiden has entered the reality that He is the vine and she is the branch, without Him, she can do nothing. She abides in Him and consequently her entire life is fruitful and fulfilling. She quit all of her own separate activities, but was awake and alert to Him. Her heart was like a "well watered garden and like a spring of water whose water never fails." She has become a place where the Lord could bring His friends and lovers and let them feast on the luscious fruit that He has grown (Song 5:1).
The Calling
In the second verse of the fifth chapter, the King stands knocking at the door of her heart and asks her to open the door, to let Him in. He does not push His way in. He does not force her to follow Him. She must always follow Him by her own consent.
Up to this point, she has always done the will of God (ch. 5:2; Matt.
He addresses her as "My sister," "My darling," "My dove," and "My perfect one." However, He does not call her "My bride" yet, because there is more that she needs to experience. Her answer to this new call will determine whether she will "apprehend that for which she was apprehended."
"Open for my head is drenched with dew and my locks with the drops of the night." This historically refers to the pain of Jesus in
There comes a time when the Holy Spirit reveals the full meaning of conformity to Christ. This is a time when the Lord asks you the same thing he asked His disciples: "Are you willing to drink the cup that I drink and to be baptized with the baptism I am to be baptized with?" (Mark 10:35-38).
Of course when he asked his disciples that same question they said, "Oh yeah! We will never forsake you" (Mark
Answering the Call
This call is completely unexpected to many. Most figure they have already experienced that cross. What more could possibly be needed? Job is the same. He has seen the forgiveness of sins, freedom from the influence of the world and corruption of self.
I am sure many of us are aware that there is a peculiar suffering attached to the cross, but we certainly are not aware of its real depth and breadth. We may have known in the past the application of the cross to our inward life, but are totally in the dark as to how the cross would mold and shape our whole being.
Paul said that we are always carrying about in our flesh the dying of Jesus. We are constantly being delivered over to death. We experience this so that the life of Jesus can be manifested in our mortal flesh.
In failing to comprehend the depth of His call on her life, the maiden in the Song says that she has already experienced the cross in her outward life. She has already seen the effect of the cross in delivering her from the appeal of the world and the corruption of self. It's almost as if she was saying, "Isn't it enough to have had such a deep experience with the cross that my old nature and way of life has been completely put off?" (Song 5:3; Col. 3:9-10; Eph. 4:22-24).
Job's Decision
Going back to Job, we see that he makes the same assumption in chapter 29 when he reverts to reviewing his life before his trial began, in "those months of old." While trying to survive my crisis in
During this time of reflection, Job draws a vivid picture of his inner and outer life as a man who truly walked in fellowship with God. He also unconsciously reveals why the Lord probably placed him in the crucible, in the first place.
His very first words show that there was a little bit more work that had to be done, a further stage of surrender to God that he still had to learn. Without hesitation, he had bowed to the will of God when blow after blow came on him at the beginning of the whole ordeal. However, during his prolonged suffering, when he was in essence being poured from vessel to vessel of pain and suffering, it never occurred to him, or to me during my crisis, that to let our minds dwell on our past experiences, and crave their return, was not a full abandonment to God nor a total acceptance of His character, love and purpose.
It has been said that you need an absolute surrender to the will of God in the heat of battle to never look back with regret on the past, or forward with any wish for the future. It is obvious that those regrets or desires are inconsistent with a true and complete abandonment of our whole being to God.
Satan knows this. That's why he will continually occupy our minds with what we once were, and, apparently are not now, or what we ought to be and seem not to be! If you constantly compare yourself with yourself, it will destroy your present rest in the purpose and perfect plan of God.
That one thing alone almost destroyed me when we moved to
Job says very little about his wealth, loss of property and home, because his heart was not focused on those things. Instead, he dwells mainly on his fellowship with God and his life of service for others.
Experiencing the Cross
It was at this point that I found the answers to my own trial. My complaint, and apparently Job's, was not the loss of things, but the cloud that apparently came over our fellowship with God.
My memory went back to when I knew the Lord was watching over me, guarding and guiding every step of my life. It was almost as if a lamp was shining on my head and it did not matter if deep darkness was all around me because the Lord would "light my path," and I would walk right through that darkness.
"Oh that those blessed days were mine again." It seemed as though everything I put my hand to prospered. Then, when we moved to
I never realized how much I had relied on the "light" of God, instead of on God Himself. All this time I was walking by sight when the path was lit and not by faith alone.
Just like Job, I knew what I had lost, but it is not until you are put in a situation of total loss that you finally get a glimpse of the depth and width of the "way of the cross." It then becomes more than theory or doctrine, it becomes your life. It is like graduating from college. You spent all that time learning the theories and studying the principles, now it is time to experience the real world.
Job's own language plainly shows his position. God was watching over him. The lamp of God was shining upon him. His light shone upon his path. Job was to lose all this for a deeper and more intimate knowledge of God Himself and gain a deeper understanding of His ways, a knowledge which is only possible to a faith that rests on the character of God alone. It is a faith that says, "I don't know all the whys and wherefores, but I know my Lord's desire is for good, not for evil."
The Truth About the Cross
Job, the maiden, and I were only looking at the negative side of the cross. We failed to comprehend what Paul speaks of as "always carrying the liability and exposure to the same death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the Resurrection Life of Jesus also may be shown forth by our lives" (II Cor.
When Jesus humbled Himself to the cross, he received dominion (Phil. 2:7-11). That is the positive side of the cross! Dominion, the possession of our inheritance! Yet, it will never be experienced without the cross!
When Jesus saw what faced Him, he simply asked the question: "The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11).
The "Dark Night"
This deep time of testing that Jesus was about to partake of is what one writer calls the "dark night of the spirit." Job describes it very well in thirtieth chapter when he speaks of his soul being poured out within him, when it seemed almost as if God had left him. He talked about the feeling of being bound or tied up. It was so difficult to accomplish anything and there certainly was no inner joy. He was constantly crying out to God for help, but there was no answer from Him. It was as if God had become cruel and Job's mind was in a heap of ruins, making it very difficult to worship or have any communion with the Father.
"When I was expecting good, evil came. When I was expecting light, darkness came," Job complained. Job was anxious and seething inside. There was no peace. There was a horrible sense of being deserted and empty, constantly crying out for understanding but ending up more perplexed.
In this section Job describes his suffering in such detail that it would depress even an Apostle . . . and perhaps even a rock! But it's the type of thing that if you have never gone through it, you will have no idea what he is talking about, and if you have experienced even a little of it, you surely don't want to read about it. Here it is nonetheless for our study and admonition.
The "White Night"
A point that should be made here, which Elihu will explain later, is that most of this is not necessary. Job compounds his misery and expands his sorrows by all his complaining. King David gave us hope in this hour of trial when he points out that the darkness is not dark to God. It only appears that way to us when we lose our view from heaven. Looking from God's perspective, it is as bright as day. There is nowhere we can flee from His Spirit or His presence (Ps. 139:7-12).
Whether we sense God's presence or not, we can have the same assurance. There is no way to escape God's presence, because He is everywhere at one time, filling every particle of the atmosphere with His energy. Like Paul said, the God whom we seek is not far from each of us because it is in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts
Job said in Chapter 23 that "whether I go forward or backward, I cannot perceive Him, to the left or to the right, I cannot see Him, But . . . He knows the way I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold!"
Jesus felt deserted at the culmination of His dark hour when he cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46).
During David’s time of testing and sifting, he believed that "perhaps the Lord will look upon my affliction and return good to me instead of cursing this day" (II Samuel 16:12).
During these times, the powers of darkness will aim their attacks on you as you follow the Lord through "the valley of the shadow of death." The powers will try to beat you back from your position in Him. That is exactly why Job was brought to this point. The powers of darkness want you to admit that God has laid on you more than is right, that you must retreat to an easier path. They will shout at you: "Curse God and die!" Those dark powers will taunt you with the silence of the Lord and tell you that if He really did delight in you, if you were right with Him, He would have spared you from all this sorrow. They will present to you some compromise that will appear to be a way of escape. Your flesh and heart may very well fail you as it almost did the maiden, Job, and David.
David stood strong during his hour of trial with his testimony that "there is no one I have or nothing I desire besides thee, O God, though my heart and my flesh fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!" (Ps. 73:25-26).
When Jesus was suffering, he did not revile in return (I Peter
"Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor will rivers overflow it.
For love is as strong as death . . .
Love bears all things,
Hopes all things
Endures all things.
Love never fails."
—Portions of Song 8 and I Cor. 13
The Word of God tells us that David was cursed by his people and rejected. Job became a curse and a byword to his wife and friends. Everyone that once respected him now despised him. Satan had devised a plan to show God that two of the men who were the most dedicated to Him did not truly love Him—but his plan failed! Job boldly proclaimed "though He slay me yet will I trust Him." The maiden said, "tell Him whom my soul loves that I am sick with love."
After the struggle in Gethsemane, Satan had devised to totally crush the Living God and wipe Him from the universe forever—but this plan also failed! What Satan sent Job, David, the maiden, and even Jesus, was for their destruction. What was meant for evil became Satan's own trap, because after the crucifixion inevitably came the resurrection! Our God reigns!
