Calvary Foregleams in Job
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The story of Calvary is the story of the whole Bible. The Cross is not a message relegated to the Four Gospels and brought out therein merely because history forced its unfolding. The Cross was known to God and to Christ from before the foundation of the world. It was toward the Cross that Jesus Christ steadfastly moved during the whole course of man's history.
Since Calvary and its redemptive work was the only basis by which sinners of old could be saved, we expect to find the story of the Cross, in testimony and in type, all through the Old Testament Scriptures.
No one will doubt that the Cross is seen in Genesis. Even before man sinned, God opened Adam's side, and took out a rib. "And, the rib He made a woman." In this Divine act there was the foregleam of Christ's open side, and of the Bride, the Lamb's Wife.
The Cross is seen in Genesis in the particular "sorrow" that befell the woman. Christ was the "Man of Sorrows." The sweat that marked Adam's brow anticipated the sweat, as of blood, that fell from the brow of Christ. The thorns and the thistles which became a part of the curse anticipated the thorns that pressed the Saviour's brow. The skins of the slain beasts that clothed the Edenic pair, looked forward to the Blood-bought robes which clothes the saints. Thus, we might go on through Genesis and Exodus and the Old Testament writings the Cross is everywhere.
If the Cross is everywhere throughout the Old Testament, we certainly ought to be able to find it in the Book of Job. That is just what we do find, and we find it in terms so positive and plain that even the fool need not err therein.
2. Job's experiences convey no accidental similarity to the Calvary experiences of Christ. The Book of Job carries far more than a historical message; it carries a message of deeper meaning than God's vindication of His servant Job; it carries more than a Divine explanation of the causes of suffering and sickness.
The Book of Job is speaking of Christ. It speaks of Christ as the Righteous and Sinless One; it speaks of Christ as the One beset by His foes; it speaks of Christ in the. unswerving and indomitable visions of His faith; it particularly speaks of Christ in the bitterness of His Calvary sufferings.
I. JOB A TYPE IN HIS PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh" (Job 19:20). "I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me" (Psalms 22:17). "My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest." "They pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalms 22:16, l.c). We know that the Psalmist was referring to Christ, as the Spirit gave him words quoted above. We wonder if the Spirit was not also speaking of Christ and His passion in the words of Job?
There is a supreme lesson for us in all of this. God does not place upon one of His servants more than He would place upon His own Son, Job's lot was indeed almost unbearable, but Job's lot was not comparable to that of Christ.
For a moment let us leave the pains of Job, and think of those which racked the body of our Lord. Our Scripture speaks of His pierced hands and feet. The nails, however, that passed through His hands and His feet did not tell the half of His physical sufferings. There was the unnatural position, the inflamed wounds from the whipping post, and the carried cross; there was the thorn-pierced brow, the unquenchable thirst, and the exposed nerves.
II. JOB A TYPE IN THE TREATMENT OF HIS BRETHREN
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook" (Job 6:15). "All the disciples forsook him, and fled" (Matthew 26:56). "Miserable comforters are ye all" (Job 16:2). "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none" (Psalms 69:20, l.c). "He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me" (Job 19:13). "Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (Zechariah 13:7). "My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me * * I am an alien in their sight" (Job 19:14). "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children" (Psalms 69:8). "All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me" (Job 19:19). "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me" (Psalms 41:9). The men who came from afar to comfort Job proved no more than a disappointment. Of them Job said, "Miserable comforters are ye."
Of the disciples, we read, "And they all forsook Him, and fled." When Job needed comfort he found none; when Christ needed His disciples to watch and pray, they slept. When the mob came to arrest the Lord, His sheep were scattered. Peter still followed, but he followed afar off.
Let each of us take a double warning. First, that we nev-er prove a Job's comforter to any one in the hour of his trial. Secondly, let us beware lest we also fail our Lord, and refuse to go outside the camp with Him, bearing His reproach.
There was another great grief to Job. We read that his own brethren and acquaintance were estranged from him, and that his kinsfolk failed him. Along the same line, it was prophesied concerning Christ. "I am become a stranger to My brethren, and an alien unto My mother's children."
There was a third sorrow that fell upon Job, and likewise upon Christ. Of Job it was said, "My inward friends abhorred me." Of Christ it was said, "Mine own familiar friend, * * hath lifted up his heel against Me."
III. JOB A TYPE IN THE MOCKERS THAT SURROUNDED HIM
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "They have gaped upon me with their mouth; * * they have gathered themselves together against me" (Job 16:10). "They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion" (Psalms 22:13). "Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round" (Psalms 22:12). "His archers compassed me around about (Job 16:13). "Are there not mockers with me?" (Job 17:2). "In mine adversity they rejoiced * * they did tear me, and cease not: with hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth" (Psalms 35:15-16). "He hath made me also a byword of the people" (Job 17:6). "Children of base men: * * viler than the earth. * * now am I their song, yea, I am their byword" (Job 30:8-9). "I am a * * reproach of men, and despised of the people" (Psalms 22:6). "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip" (Psalms 22:7). The physical anguish which befell Job was by no means the acme of his trial. Satan had been given the right to touch Job's body, but God had never granted him the privilege to poison all of his erstwhile friends against him. There is no pity with Satan. He will go to any length to destroy one of God's chosen ones. He is a heartless tyrant, a pitiless demigod.
Job, in bitterness of soul, saw the people whom he had so often sought to bless with his bounties and to comfort with his words, turning their heel upon him.
As we mark the words which Job spoke concerning these false people, we are struck with the similarity between what he said, and what was said of Christ. Follow the parallel readings carefully and you cannot fail to wonder at this. Both Job and Christ saw the ones whom they had blessed gaping upon them with their mouths. Both were compassed round about; both were mocked; both were a byword, that is, a reproach of the people.
If you want to understand what Job had done for the people, read the twenty-ninth chapter of the Book of Job. If you want to see the villainy of what they did toward him, remember how those who had been his honored and trusted servants; how those who had eaten the bounty of his table, and who had sat under the spell of his counsel, forsook him, and derided him.
IV. JOB A TYPE IN GOD'S DELIVERANCE OF HIM TO THE UNGODLY
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked" (Job 16:11). "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief (Isaiah 53:10). "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). "He hath kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies" (Job 19:11). "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). "He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head" (Job 19:9). "Christ * * suffered * * the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "Not for any injustice in mine hands" (Job 16:17). We now come to that part of the message which is most difficult to understand. Knowing the heart of man and its utter depravity, we can, perhaps, grasp something of the import of the madness of friend and comrade, both against Job and against our Lord. We have another vision now.
Job's false friends would have had no power against him, nor would the foes of Christ have been able to have prevailed against Him, had God not delivered them both into the power of Satan's hand.
What did Job say? "God hath delivered me to the ungodly." He knew that God had turned him over into the hands of the wicked. Job quailed under the wrath of the Almighty.
What did the Prophet say of Christ? He said, "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief." It was God who, in His determinate counsel and foreknowledge, delivered Christ into the hands of wicked men.
Why did God deliver Job to the ungodly? It was because Satan had slandered Job's integrity, and God was proving the true value of his worth. Why did God deliver Christ to the ungodly? It was because He would make Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
There is yet another thing in our Scripture. Job complained that God had stripped him of his glory, and that, not for any injustice which lay in his own hands. Was not Christ also stripped of His glory? Did He not make Himself of no reputation as He took upon Himself the form of a man, and as He made His way steadfastly toward the Cross, and that, as the spotless and innocent Lamb of God?
V. JOB A TYPE IN BEING FORSAKEN OF GOD
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment" (Job 19:7). "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring"? (Psalms 22:1). "I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not" (Job 30:20). "O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not" (Ps, Job 22:2). "I waited for light, there came darkness * * I went mourning without the sun" (Job 30:26-28). "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour" (Matthew 27:45). Job, in the hour of his anguish, felt that God had forsaken him. He said, "I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard." Again he said, "I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not hear me." The truth was that God had not forsaken Job. He was watching over him every moment. Had God forsaken Job Satan would have slain him. The same God who had hedged Job in of old, still hedged him in. By permission Satan was allowed to do many things against Job, but not all things.
Jesus Christ cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He felt that God was far away from helping Him, and from the words of His roaring. He cried, but God seemed to hear Him not. In the case of our Lord, His sense of being forsaken was far more keen than that of Job. Christ had been forever one with the Father; now, as He died upon the tree, He was, in reality, left alone.
Christ was forsaken of God, because He was the bearer of our sins. He was dying in our stead; suffering, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Let the unsaved, who has rejected the Christ of Calvary, ponder the lot which shall befall him when God shall cast him into outer darkness there, shall be wailing and weeping; there, shall be gnashing of teeth.
When Job waited for light, darkness came about him. He went mourning, without the sun. Thus, also, do we read of the hour of travail that fell upon Christ, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour."
The darkness that shrouded the Cross was so dense that men beat upon their breasts and groped their way homeward. The darkness that shall fall upon the wicked will strike dismay to their hearts. The Bible says, "To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever."
Thank God, the darkness which fell upon Job and also upon Christ was but for a little while. The darkness, however, which shall fall upon the wicked will be forevermore.
VI. JOB A TYPE IN HIS IGNOMINY AND SHAME
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death" (Job 16:16). "I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God" (Psalms 69:3). "They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face" (Job 30:10). "And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head" (Matthew 27:30). "Upright men shall be astonied at this" (Job 17:8). "As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men" (Isaiah 52:14). When Job's friends first came to see him, "They lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not." The sickness of Job was one that made his face and form unsightly. His skin was thick upon him; his face was foul with weeping; and his eyebrows carried the shadow of death. Those who saw Job would flee from him. He said that they spared not to spit in his face.
The analogy of all this with the Lord Jesus Christ is plain. The Prophet spoke of Christ as being weary with His crying, with His throat dry and His eyes failing. We know that they spit upon Him. The visage of Christ was more marred than that of any man, and His form more than the sons of men. Let us picture Him in our mind's eye with the long hair that fell to His shoulders, clotted with the blood from the thorn-pierced head. Let us behold the beaten back, with its inflamed wounds and exposed nerves; let us catch the picture of the blood, dripping from hands and feet.
The truth is that our Lord was covered with shame and spitting. He was a man from whom men turned their faces. There was no beauty that any should desire Him.
Job spoke of the fact that the upright would be astonished at his plight. The Prophet said of Christ, "As many were astonied at Thee." Thus, both Job and Christ caused a startled astonishment as they were looked upon.
Let us think deeply that all of this shame and ignominy came upon Christ as a matter of His own choice. He went like a Lamb to the slaughter. He went, foretelling the shame and the spitting. He knew it all before hand, and yet, "having loved His own * *, He loved them unto the end."
As we think of how He suffered for us, are we not willing to go outside the camp with Him bearing His reproach? Others may be ashamed to take His Name, and walk with Him, but we count it "all joy."
VII. JOB A TYPE IN HIS TRANSCENDENT HOPE
Job said: Of Christ it was said: "He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: but he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:9-10). "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand" (Isaiah 53:10). "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; but I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation" (Job 13:15-16). "I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high" (Psalms 69:29). "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy" (Psalms 16:10-11). "Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:26). In our closing consideration, we are linking our message on to the chapter which will follow. We could not close the typology of Job without bringing this last thought upon the triumph of his faith. It was not fitting to leave Job under the shadow, when Job himself pierced through it, and, at times, saw the glimmerings of the glory that lay beyond. Job said, "He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him; but He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
And what was it that Christ saw? He saw beyond the anguish of His passion the glorious results that His sufferings would bring. He saw the travail of His soul, and was satisfied. He saw the redeemed of all ages presented unto Him as the trophy of His Cross, It was this glory that led Him to despise the shame and endure the Cross.
Job, in the deepest hour of his physical suffering, cried, that in his flesh he would see God. Jesus Christ knew also that His soul would not be left in hell, neither would His body see corruption. He knew also that He would be exalted to the Father's right hand as a Prince and a Saviour. Even as Christ approached the Cross, He prayed, "Father, glorify Thou Me * * with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."
Who is he who is not willing to pass, as far as he is able, into the sufferings of Christ, when he knows that suffering is the pathway to glory? The way to get up is to get down; the way to be enriched is to become poor; the way to live is to die. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone."
AN ILLUSTRATION
"I was deeply interested in hearing of an incident that took place at a soldier's grave in one of the Southern States of America. A person was seen decking it with flowers; and a stranger, observing him, asked, with a tone of sympathy, 'If his son were buried there?' 'No,' was the reply. 'A brother?' 'No.' 'Same other relation?' 'No.' 'Whose memory, then, may I venture to ask, do you thus so sacredly and tenderly cherish?' Pausing a moment from emotion, he replied 'When the war broke out, I was drafted for the army; and as I was unable to procure a substitute, I prepared to go. Just as I was leaving home to report myself for duty, a young man whom I knew came to me, and said: 'You have a large family, whom your wife cannot support when you are gone. I am a single man, and have no one depending upon me I will go for you.' He went. In the battle of Chickamauga the poor fellow was dangerously wounded, and was taken to the hospital. After a lingering illness, he died, and was buried here. Ever since his death I have wished to visit this place, and having saved sufficient funds, I arrived yesterday, and today have found his grave.'
"The touching story concluded, he planted the rest of the flowers. Then taking a rude board, he inserted it at the foot of the grave. On it were written these simple words and no more
'He died for me.'