Possibly my favorite book of the Holy Bible, the experience of Jöb (Iyov – ee-öhv) is truly staggering to the mind. Losing his hard-earned fortune, being the most righteous human on earth, acknowledged by Yahuah as such a man, losing all of his children from the collapse of his first-born sons’ home, being covered with boils, scraping them with broken pottery as he lay in the ashes of a sacrificial fire.
Let’s look at the first two chapters, shall we?
Satan asks for permission to strike Job in his effort to break Job’s faith. He is incited against Job because Yahuah specifically brings Ojb up in a conversation. Satan, being a pride-mad cauldron of hatred, takes the bait and pounces on the opportunity to accuse Yahuah of protecting Job. Obviously, Satan has been probing Jobs’ defenses for some time.
When Yahuah gives permission to Satan to strike Job, it is with only one caveat – Satan cannot touch Job. There are no prohibitions against harming Job’s wife, and we will see Satan’s influence on her shortly.
Satan leads off with rewarding his servants, a tribe of pagans called the “Sheva’iym”. Sounds like the Hindu “Shiva”, the god of destruction. So these demon worshipers were rewarded with the cattle and the donkeys, which was a huge reward, making them rich.
The next two strikes were with fire and wind, both coming from the sky, both from the shatan. Does this mean that Satan can do these things himself? He does it again during the last part of the seven years. Fire was used to burn the sheep. I find the burning sheep interesting, but do not gain much insight though I search my spirit. The sheep might represent those who walk in the way, and maybe this is the point – Remember that the beast brings fire from the sky during the tribulation, and it is possible that he will gather the faithful together in prison camps and call this fire down upon us.
The adversary first struck the Oxen and the donkeys, giving them to the wicked, then the sheep and last struck the home of Iyovs’ first born son, killing seven sons and three daughters. This in spite of Iyovs’ constant, consistent daily prayers to Yahuah for the sake of Iyov’s children. They did party a bit and Jöb was concerned about that. Maybe too much wine, and too often.
Job 1:5 “And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Iyov sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered ascending smoke offerings according to the number of them all: for Iyov said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed Elohiym in their hearts. Thus did Iyov continually. “
The adversary, or the “shatan”, walks into the presence of Yahuah along with some other “sons of Yahuah”. When asked by Yahuah, the enemy leader states that he has been walking up and down in the earth:
” Then Satan answered Yahuah, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. This implies that our opponent has business within the earth, under the surface at many levels and across significant distance, because the word “upon” is used to describe the collapsed roof, which fell on the children. A distinction is made between “in” and “on”.
As an aside, the flat-earth model accommodates the “bottomless pit” and Tarturus and the “foundations” and hell and hades and Abrahams bosom and the firmament much more precisely than the globe-earth model.
So the wind of ha shatan comes from the cardinal directions (assumed by me N,S,E,W), lifts the roof, the walls are blown in onto the seven sons and three daughters, then the roof is dropped upon them as well. Crushed they are, and they had to be dug out by Job. He certainly would have led the recovery effort. And in all of this, Job remained the devoted son of Yahuah.
Job 1:22 In all this Iyov sinned not, nor charged Elohiym foolishly.
Chapter 2
Same scene as before, some time later when the sons of Elohyim (Elohyim is plural -the “im” makes it so), therefore Yahusha is present with Yahuah. https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/kjv/elohiym.html
Job 2:3 And Yahuah said unto Satan, Have you considered my servant Iyov, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears Elohiym, and eschews evil? And still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him, to destroy him without cause.”
Yahuah knows full well that His praise of Job will incite ha shatan to even greater hatred of the still Righteous human, in spite of the already catastrophic actions incited against Job. Bear in mind that Job’s wife is also experiencing these profound losses. Her children were killed, too. Her husbands hard work was destroyed, too. She is under attack just as much as Job, so far.
“And Satan answered Yahuah, and said “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face. And Yahuah said unto Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of Yahuah, and smote (only with Yahuah’s permission) Iyov with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.”
In the exchange between the satan and Yahuah we see that satan’s pride is provoked again by Yahuah. Yahuah is setting the adversary up for a major fail later, and using the weakness of the adversary to prove a point. In this case at this time in the tempting of Job, the point might be that a righteous human is more faithful than the satan was, and satan was created in heaven, served in heaven and never knew the first hardship.
Yahuah proves that human faith is greater than satanic wrath.
Satan also indicates to us that he has no power nor authority other than what Yahuah directly allows. Satan asks Yahuah to extend His hand against Job. Yahuah consents, admonishng that Satan not kill Job. So Yahuah allows satan to strike. Satan cannot do so without permission. Nor can satan strike you without the expressed permission of Yahuah.
The dialogue of Job and wife…
Job 2:8 ויקח־לו חרשׂ להתגרד בו והוא ישׁב בתוך־האפר׃
Job 2:9 ותאמר לו אשׁתו עדך מחזיק בתמתך ברך אלהים ומת׃
Job 2:10 ויאמר אליה כדבר אחת הנבלות תדברי גם את־הטוב נקבל מאת האלהים ואת־הרע לא נקבל בכל־זאת לא־חטא איוב בשׂפתיו׃
Job 2:8 And he took a clay pot to scratch in it and he sat in the ashes.
Job 2:9 I hold on to you, God bless you Job
Job 2:10 And he said to her, as one thing, the harlots speak, even the good we will receive from God, and the bad we will not receive, nevertheless, Job did not sin on his lips.
The Hebrew and the direct to English translation is above. The Hebrew is translated from the Hebrew Old Testament, and in Job 2:9 – Jobs’ wife does not say “curse god and die” but that she holds on to Job and says (per this translation) ‘God bless you Job’.
Most translations say that wife said “Curse God and die”.
Here is what happened in this translation – the word ‘bless’ and ‘curse’ are from the same Hebrew word:
בָּרַךְ
bârak
baw-rak’
A primitive root; to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration), and (vice-versa) man (as a benefit); also (by euphemism) to curse (God or the king, as treason): – X abundantly, X altogether, X at all, blaspheme, bless, congratulate, curse, X greatly, X indeed, kneel (down), praise, salute, X still, thank.
So depending on the context, the word can be “bless” or “curse”.
In this case, she used it in the “curse” context because Job’s response to her suggestion is this:
Job 2:10 “But he said unto her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of Elohiym, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Iyov sin with his lips.”
Because Job is held in esteem for not sinning with his lips, we can reliably understand that his wife did in fact mean “curse”, because blessing Yahuah is no sin. Cursing Him is sin.
She is the weaker vessel, she has lost her children and her husband lays dying in the ashes, scraping boils off himself with a piece of broken clay pot. She knows that Yahuah has in fact cursed Job, because what he has experienced is no blessing. Job will wonder why Yahuah did such a thing, and he will justifiably whine about it. His friends will offer some good advice and some bad advice, but Yahuah has the best advice, which will come later.
Jerry, I have a request. I love the materials you blog about. You write very well. However, reading is not my major skill set, and I have a ton of marriage repair books I am reading to repair my damage marriage. My request. If you could voice record these lessons and place them onto your jerrywdavis.com website that would be AMAZING, and then I could listen to them while at work and learn more of Yahuah’s Word from you, a trusted and loved brother in our Messiah Yahusha.
OK, I’ll do more. I hold back because I rarely get any feedback from them, other than “keep ’em coming’ and things like that. No discussion. No real input from my readers, and if they don’t want to comment yay or nay, then I don’t really want to be the creator of a series of one-way monologues. To me, the silence is apathetic and expresses disinterest in things that I know are very important. I’m warning people of the pending nightmare, and its crickets. In that vein, perhaps the World Economic Forum hears from Yahuah when they propose a diet of crickets for mankind, because when I listen for feedback, of the very large number of world-wide readers I have on a regular basis – its “crickets”. I sometimes think about doing something a lot more fun with my time.
I completely understand your points made. Do what the Lord Most High wants you to do with your time given. But may I clarify my request? I wasn’t asking for more or additional written/voice content from you to be posted. You provide a lot of content that I really enjoy. Instead, I was asking if you can put voice recordings to your written content such that I could listen (instead of reading) to what you write from the postings you already provide. No additional or more content is being requested by me. This is merely just a request on your existing content, and more than anything I want you to do what you enjoy most with the time Yahuah has given you. Thank you for all that you provide.
Job 2:9 I hold on to you, God bless you Job
Truthful love (particularily male-female bonding) begins exactly upon that springsteen where the worldly reasons for such ”romantic (or oftentimes satanic) love” are perishing.
This aforementioned citation I adapted freely from Mister Martin Uhlemann (he has got an excellent YouTube channel with some English subtitles here and there!).
Hope you’re well Jerry. I am praying for you & your kids.
May G*d bless you brave Sir!
With pride and self- sufficiency where is room for God? Suffering breaks it. Learned this from Orthodox.