By Justin Borger with assistance from Generous Giving staff
The book of Job tells the true story of a man of impeccable integrity and enormous wealth who lost everything. We are told that God allowed Satan to strip Job of all that he had in order to see whether Job’s obedience was motivated by true love for God or a bottom-line desire to be blessed. The body of the book treats us to a dialogue between Job and his so-called “friends”—Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu—who wrongly supposed that his suffering was caused by his sin. After all, don’t “we reap what we sow”? Job counters that he is blameless, and he holds up his exemplary generosity and ceaseless concern for the poor as the primary proof of his righteousness (29:11-17; 31:16-25). Finally, God answers Job directly and rebukes Job’s friends. The book ends with Job’s twofold restoration of everything he lost after praying for his friends’ forgiveness.
Our study of Job consists of two parts. In the first section, readers will find our stewardship study notes. These notes analyze, in a passage-by-passage fashion, the implications of the book’s teaching for Christian generosity and related issues. The second section consists of short essays describing the book’s major stewardship themes. These notes and essays are not intended to be comprehensive explanations of the author’s goals in writing this book, nor do they exhaust the book’s possible applications in matters related to stewardship and generosity.
While Generous Giving’s Bible study material will aid anyone who is searching the Scriptures for guidance, they may prove especially useful as sermon helps for pastors and as a resource for teachers, advisors and lay leaders interested in obeying and teaching the message of Scripture in matters of generosity and stewardship. We readily acknowledge our fallibility in writing these study notes, for they are the work of humans, not God. Please search the Scriptures (Acts 17:11) as you read this material critically, carefully and prayerfully. May God bless you in your studies.
Passage-by-Passage Study Notes
Job 1:1-3 (Key Passage) — Riches and Righteousness: As a man of enormous wealth and impeccable integrity, Job stands out as one of the relatively few righteous rich people in the Bible. Here, at the outset of the story—the true tale of a man whose life went from one economic extreme to the other and back again—it is especially important for us to appreciate the subtle and nuanced perspective with which the Bible views wealth. On the one hand, God’s word never fails to affirm the goodness of wealth and material abundance which he sometimes bestows as a tangible sign of his favorable approval. This was true for the nation of Israel, which God promised to prosper as a blessing for obedience (Deuteronomy 28:3-14), and it was also true for Job as an individual, whose extraordinary wealth God restored and even doubled (Job 42:10-16; cf. Proverbs 10:22). On the other hand, when we take the Old and New Testaments together as a whole, it is clear that wealth is more often warned about as a real threat to true faith and sometimes even as a curse (cf. Isaiah 53:9; Luke 6:24; James 5:1-6). In the Old Testament the prophets warn against the wealthy wicked at great length. But Jesus’ words and the New Testament’s general perspective on wealth are even clearer on this point: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort” (Luke 6:24). “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25). “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you” (James 5:1). “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). So then, in light of the great dangers of possessing wealth, one of the questions we need to ask is how Job was able to maintain his integrity in the midst of his great wealth? In fact, Job himself answers this very question later in the book, where he explains the way in which he used his wealth before it was lost. Here we find that Job used what he had been given to rescue the poor, fatherless, widow, blind, lame, needy and stranger (Job 29:12-16). In addition to Job’s generous and compassionate use of his resources, Job tells us that he vehemently opposed wicked people who oppressed them (Job 29:17). Then, in one of the most remarkable passages in the entire Bible, Job subjects himself to a host of hypothetical situations in which he may have sinned. But in the end, Job maintains an innocent record of generosity and justice (Job 31:16-23). Of course, such a spotless record does not guarantee a great life. After all, the perfect record of Jesus earned rejection, suffering and a horrible death—such sacrifices he calls us to imitate. See Mark theme essay Sacrificial Discipleship.
Job 1:6-22 (Key Passage) — Naked Come, Naked Go: In Job’s first test we are faced with a difficult question: Why do we serve God? What is our basis and motivation? Do we serve him out of love or simply out of the bottom-line desire to be blessed? As Satan points out, it is easy to serve God when we are fat and happy (Job 1:9). The answer we find here is one of the things that makes Job’s story so special. After Job went from being the richest man in the East (Job 1:3) to the poster-child for pain and suffering, his immediate response was to fall to the ground in absolute adoration before the God who had just allowed his 10 children to die in a violent earthquake. According to Job, God’s name must be praised at all times, regardless of whether he gives or takes away. This present life is a naked-come, naked-go affair. Regardless of how much or how little we have, we can take none of it with us when we die. Even in the present, cars rust, bank accounts dwindle, and things fall apart. As author Randy Alcorn points out, this is why Jesus warned us not to store up treasures on earth, but in heaven. “It’s not just because wealth might be lost; it’s because wealth will always be lost. Either it leaves us while we live, or we leave it when we die. No exceptions” (Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, 13). Finally, we should notice that Job lost all of his wealth in spite of his innocence. While the devil was inciting God against Job, Job himself was left completely in the dark. We need to bear this in mind when we see people who are suffering or unsuccessful. We simply cannot assume that the poor and the oppressed have done something to deserve their difficult situation any more than we have. While it is certainly true that personal sins like laziness can lead to great loss (Proverbs 6:11; 10:4; 14:23), we must not forget that poverty and suffering have many causes—including injustice (Proverbs 13:23). Sadly, we’re often quick to appeal to laziness or lack of motivation of the poor as a reason not to help them. But this is no less than a denial of the gospel. What if Jesus had treated us like that when we were in spiritual bankruptcy? We should recognize that poverty itself (whether deserved or undeserved) can lead to crushed spirits, which decrease motivation and dissuade people from being able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” When we encounter such situations, the Christian’s responsibility is not to withdraw but to follow Jesus Christ’s example: He became poor like us so that we could be rich like him (2 Corinthians 8:9). See Job theme essay Generosity and Justice and Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes theme essay Wisdom for Wealth.
Job 4:7-9 (Key Passage) — Do We Reap What We Sow? Eliphaz’s observation that “those who sow trouble reap it” strikes a low blow with the smug suggestion that Job is getting what he deserves. Since people in Job’s day had no clear revelation from God’s word about judgment or reward in the afterlife, it was often assumed that God’s justice could be accomplished only in this life. Most people believed that for God to maintain his justice, the rewards and punishments that people or their children received in this life had to match the righteousness and wickedness of the individual (The IVP Bible Background Commentary, 497). As Elihu tells Job, “If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity ... . But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword” (Job 36:11-12). While the Bible clearly affirms the general rule that “we reap what we sow,” Job’s friends misapply this principle in destructive ways. Notice, for example, that while Scripture appeals to this retribution principle in order to warn people about the future (Proverbs 22:8; Romans 8:13; 2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:7), Job’s friends go too far by repeatedly trying to use this rule to rationalize what has happened to Job in the past (Job 4:7-8; 5:2-7; 8:3-7; 15:20-35; 20:4-29; 34:10-13; 36:6). They look at Job’s suffering as a sure sign of his sin, just like the Pharisees who asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1-3; cf. Proverbs 13:23). Of course, we often make the same assumptions. When we think of a righteous person, we tend to imagine someone who is well dressed, well spoken and dignified—an attractive and accomplished person, like a doctor with a good job, nice car, comfortable life and upstanding reputation. On the other hand, isn’t it also true that we tend to be skeptical when it comes to people who are poor or unemployed? Consciously or unconsciously, don’t we tend to wonder what they must have done wrong? When we encounter unattractive people who are really hurting, don’t we tend to make the same smug suggestion that Job’s friends made, by assuming that these disadvantaged people probably have done something to deserve their plight? As the proverb says, “Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him” (Proverbs 19:4; cf. 14:20; 19:7). In contrast to our assumptions about what a righteous person looks like, when the prophet Isaiah described our Lord Jesus Christ, he envisioned a poor and sorrowful man who looked very much like Job indeed. Just as Job’s friends “could hardly recognize him” (Job 2:12) after what had happened, Isaiah describes Jesus as a man whose appearance was “disfigured beyond that of any man” (Isaiah 52:14). According to Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus was as poor and pathetic as any panhandler we may come across. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him ... . He was despised and reject by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering ... and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:2-3). Ultimately, those of us who want to be like Jesus will reap what we sow, not in this life but the next. Ironically, godliness is often a means of financial loss rather than gain (1 Timothy 6:5-10). As the apostle Paul notes, those who truly desire to live a godly life always will come under some form of persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). There is a very real chance that we may suffer hardship rather than success as we follow Jesus. Christian virtues such as contentment, sacrifice, discipline and honesty may prove to cost us more than they benefit us in the present. We might be ostracized at work for telling clients the truth or failing to take part in questionable business practices; we might be scorned for living a simple rather than a stylish life with all the ritzy trappings of entertainment, clothing, schools, houses, cars and “stuff” that the world expects. Are we prepared to share in Christ’s sufferings so that we may also take part in his glory (Romans 8:17; cf. Psalm 126:5)? See key passage Job 21:1-34.
Job 6:22-23 — Job never asked his friends for material support. He only asked them to recognize that he was suffering in spite of his innocence. When we give to others who have fallen into difficult financial straits, we must be careful not to become subtly condemning in our “compassion.” Of course, sometimes people’s difficult financial situations result from their sin, but not always. Often hard times result from misfortunes that they did not bring upon themselves (Proverbs 13:23). Even when the poverty of the poor is their own fault, however, “we cannot look at the poor and the oppressed and callously call them to pull themselves out of their own difficulty. Jesus did not treat us that way. The gospel replaces superiority toward the poor with mercy and compassion” (The Gospel Coalition, 12).
Job 19:1-29 — Job’s words in this passage eloquently anticipate the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:25-26). Job is sure that a day is coming when he will be vindicated and restored, not only spiritually but also physically. This appreciation for the physical (in addition to the spiritual) dimension of salvation is crucial for understanding the biblical message of generosity. “God created both soul and body, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both the spiritual and the material. Therefore God is concerned not only for the salvation of souls but also for the relief of poverty, hunger, and injustice. The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust. Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power through weakness and service and comes to wealth through giving all away. Those who receive his salvation are not the strong and accomplished but those who admit they are weak and lost. We cannot look at the poor and the oppressed and callously call them to pull themselves out of their own difficulty. Jesus did not treat us that away. The gospel replaces superiority toward the poor with mercy and compassion. ... Indifference to the poor and disadvantaged means there has not been a true grasp of our salvation by sheer grace” (The Gospel Coalition, 12). See Job theme essay Generosity and Justice.
Job 21:1-34 (Key Passage) — Why Do the Wicked Prosper? The fact that we will “reap what we sow” is certain (2 Corinthians 9:6). But reaping for our sins and good works primarily comes at the end of time, not necessarily in this life. God sometimes allows us to experience the terrible impact of our sin in this life, but he reserves much of his judgment for the end. Therefore, in this life we sometimes see righteous people suffer and wicked people prosper. While we don’t know all the reasons for this, the Bible does tell us that God shows mercy even to the wicked (Psalms 145:9), giving sinners like us opportunities to turn from our sin and follow Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Because of God’s mercy he does not settle all his accounts in this life, nor does he always repay us as we deserve. Additionally, God gives us over to the things we love. Many have chosen to love money, comfort and the things of this world more than they love God and others. As a result, they may prosper—but only for a season (Psalm 37; 73; Jeremiah 12:1-17; Habakkuk 3:1-19; Romans 8:28). See also key passage Job 4:7-9.
Job 24:1-25 — In the first half of this passage, Job asks God why he won’t do something about all the injustice and suffering that he sees in the world (Job 24: 1-17). Why won’t God enforce his justice and protect the poor and powerless from being so ruthlessly exploited? But then, in a drastic shift, Job reaffirms his faith in God’s ultimate justice by recognizing that those who oppress the poor and powerless eventually will be destroyed (Job 24:18-25). While he cannot comprehend why God is taking so long to do this, he nevertheless remains confident that such a day is coming. In the end, the wisdom of the book of Job lies in this contrast between Job’s ability to ask honest questions while maintaining faith in God’s ultimate justice—even when it seems incomprehensible.
Job 27:13-23 (Key Passage) — Justice for the Wicked: Here Job agrees that the wicked ultimately will receive justice from God’s hand. On this point, Job never disagrees with his friends. Job and his friends are simply at odds about how God’s justice is actually applied in particular cases, especially in Job’s present situation (for commentary on their disagreement see key passage Job 4:7-9). We should note that Job specifically describes the wicked as those who hoard and accumulate wealth for themselves (“he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay”)—wealth that ultimately will be enjoyed by the righteous (Job 27:16-17; see other passages on the wealth of the wicked: Isaiah 5:8; 53:9; Hosea 12:8; Amos 3:14-4:1; Luke 6:24-25; James 5:1-6; Revelation 3:17). Job says that the wicked lie down with wealth but wake up without anything (Job 27:19; Luke 16:19-31). This present life is a naked-come, naked-go affair. Regardless of how much money we hoard for ourselves, we can’t take it with us when we die. Even in the present, cars rust, bank accounts dwindle, and things fall apart. As author Randy Alcorn points out, this is why Jesus warned us not to store up treasures on earth, but in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). “It’s not just because wealth might be lost; it’s because wealth will always be lost. Either it leaves us while we live, or we leave it when we die. No exceptions” (Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, 13). See Job theme essay Generosity and Justice and Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes theme essay Wisdom for Wealth.
Job 29:1-25 (Key Passage) — Job’s Righteousness: The book of Job opens with one of the most remarkable descriptions of any human being contained in the Bible: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). Similarly, the book of Ezekiel tells us that Job was one of the godliest men ever to have lived (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). It almost sounds too good to be true! What was it about this man that made him deserving of such inestimable praise from God? The passage before us is particularly important because in it Job himself provides a full description of what his “blameless and upright” life was actually like. Above all, we find that Job’s righteousness was characterized by a ceaseless concern for the needs of the poor and oppressed. Job tells us that he rescued the needy and assisted the fatherless (Job 29:12). As one “who comfort[ed] mourners” (29:25), Job gave men reason to bless him with their dying breath and even made the hearts of widows sing for joy (29:13). According to Job, this is what it meant to “put on righteousness as [his] clothing” and justice as his “robe” (29:14). Job was like eyes to the blind and uneducated (29:15) and transportation for the disabled (29:16). He was a father to the poor and an advocate for the stranger (29:16). And finally, to top it all off, Job vehemently opposed those who oppressed the people (29:17). Job’s life provides us with a full-orbed picture of what generosity that spills over into all of life looks like. His compassion was not limited to check writing; his hospitality was not about social maneuvering. Instead, Job used all of his resources, time and energy to pursue the interests of those who where least able to help themselves or repay him for his kindness (Luke 14:12-14). In this sense, Job’s life was like Jesus’. After all, “Compassion that knew no bounds is what characterized the life of the one who was truly the righteousness of God incarnate, who ‘took up our infirmities and carried our diseases’ (Matt 8:17)” (Elmer B. Smick, Job, 982). See Job theme essay Generosity and Justice.
Job 31:1-40 (Key Passage) — Job’s Final Defense: In his last defense Job maintains his innocence of a host of different sins, the majority of which involve economic issues like social injustice, neglect of the poor, financial unfaithfulness and the love of money.
Job 31:1-12 — Here we should note the close connection that Scripture draws between sexual sins like lust and economic sins like greed. The tenth commandment itself connects the two when it says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Deuteronomy 5:21). Another striking connection can be seen in Nathan’s description of David’s adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:1-10). Rather than describing David’s adultery in terms of sexual immorality as we might expect, Nathan describes David’s sin with Bathsheba in a way that specifically focuses on greed and economic exploitation. Because there is no more intimate belonging than a spouse, committing adultery is, perhaps, the most extreme form economic injustice imaginable. Similarly, we should note the close connection between adultery and theft in Proverbs. For example, Lady Folly’s invitation to commit adultery is presented in the metaphorical language of drinking “stolen water” (Proverbs 9:17). Finally, we should note that when God says he “abhors” dishonest scales (Proverbs 11:1), the actual Hebrew word means that God views deceptive business practices as an “abomination”—a word typically used to describe sexual sins.
Job 31:13-15 — We can compare Job’s description to a White House janitor being allowed to complain that he felt mistreated by the president himself! In spite of the fact that Job was the greatest man in the East (Job 1:3), Job recognized that his slaves had a God-given right to complain to him or even about him whenever they felt unfairly treated. Even though Job was at the very top of the totem pole, he was far more concerned about breaking the chains of oppression than about keeping the chain of command intact. When push comes to shove, which do we care more about? In the gospel we find that God’s purposes are accomplished when the people on top—even the very Son of God himself—become nothing so that they can give themselves in absolute service to the people on the bottom (Philippians 2:7; Colossians 1:24). As Jesus said, the first shall be last and the last shall be first (Mark 10:31).
Job 31:16 — The Bible clearly teaches that it is a terrible sin to ignore the needs of the poor (Matthew 25:41-46; 1 John 3:16-17; Luke 16:19-31). Apparently, however, Job’s love for the poor went beyond this basic concern for their necessities. He actually invested himself in their personal desires as well. As commentator Elmer Smick points out, the word translated “desires” in this verse never refers to “needs” since the root of the word means “take delight in” (Elmer B. Smick, Job, 994). Truly, Job understood what it meant to love his neighbor as he loved himself.
Job 31:17 — Job considers keeping his possessions to himself to be a sin that is worthy of God’s judgment. Indeed, tightfistedness is no better than burglary if we resist giving in the face of need. We commit robbery not only in what we take from others but also in what we keep for ourselves. “The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust” (The Gospel Coalition, 12). See Job theme essay Generosity and Justice.
Job 31:18 — See key passage Job 29:1-25.
Job 31:19-20 — See notes on Job 31:16 and 31:17.
Job 31:24 — When it comes to sources of safety and security, money always has been God’s chief contender for our trust. This competition should come as no surprise. Material resources appear to have the capacity to insulate us from many of life’s dangers and difficulties. Proverbs goes so far as to tell us that wealth is like a “fortified city” (Proverbs 10:15; cf. 18:11). After all, isn’t it better to be rich than to be poor? When the car breaks down or the septic tank overflows, isn’t it easy to feel safe and secure when we have the money needed to get things fixed? On the other hand, isn’t it just as easy to feel dangerously exposed when we don’t have the money we need—stranded alongside the road or living with the smell of sewage? Nevertheless, Job denies that he has placed his own trust or security in material resources. See Psalms theme essay Safety and Security.
Job 31:25 — People tend to look to money for one of two reasons, either for safety or for satisfaction (and sometimes both). In the previous verse Job denies finding his security in material resources. In this verse he maintains that he is innocent of looking to material resources as his source of satisfaction. Ultimately, true joy and contentment only come when God’s Holy Spirit teaches us that satisfaction springs not from what is ours but from whose we are (Leviticus 26:12; Deuteronomy 7:6; Psalm 24:1; Jeremiah 3:22; Zechariah 2:8-10, 12; 8:2; 13:9; Romans 14:7, 8; 1 Corinthians 3:23; 6:19-20; Titus 2:14; Revelation 21:2-3).
Job 41:11 (Key Passage) — God’s Absolute Ownership: God reminds Job that he is the absolute owner of everything. Accordingly, it is impossible to exaggerate the claim that God has on “our” possessions and lives. Nothing we have belongs to us, not even ourselves. Strictly speaking, we do not even own our own private feelings and thoughts, never mind the more tangible goods we possess. As Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper put it, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is mine!’ ” The fact that God asserts his absolute ownership at this point in the book of Job is also significant for the way we understand personal loss. We must all recognize that God owes us nothing. Whether he gives or takes away, his name must be praised and adored at all times. What would it mean for us to live in light of God’s absolute ownership of everything (cf. Psalm 24:1; 50:10)? What would it mean for us truly to understand that we are not our own but were “bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23)? Certainly, the fact that everything we are and possess belongs to God should utterly transform the way we use our resources and possessions and the way we respond to loss or gain. These glorious truths should be reflected even in our daily spending habits. After all, if the reality of God’s absolute ownership doesn’t find its way into the way we live our daily lives and use our resources, how can we say that we really understand the fact that we belong to God in the first place? See related passages on belonging to God: Leviticus 26:12; Psalm 24:1; Jeremiah 3:22; Zechariah 2:8-10, 12; 8:2; 13:9; Romans 14:7, 8; 1 Corinthians 3:23; 6:19-20; Titus 2:14; Revelation 21:2-3. See Genesis theme essay ,a href=http://library.generousgiving.org/articles/display.asp?id=227>God’s Ownership
Job 42:10-17 (Key Passage) — Job’s Restoration: The spectacular turnaround that Job experienced after losing everything should not be understood as a reward for righteousness but a free and joyous act of God’s boundless generosity. When the Lord spoke out of the whirlwind, it became clear that God owed Job nothing. No one has a claim against God that he must pay. Everything under heaven belongs to him (Job 41:11). But this fact has not kept God from giving us all things freely and graciously. God never gives reluctantly or under compulsion, for he is the most cheerful giver of all (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:7).
Job 42:10 — Job’s restoration comes after he forgives his friends and prays for them. This provides a remarkable illustration of the truth of Jesus’ words: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:37-38). God used Job’s kindness and generosity in praying for his friends as an occasion to bless this righteous man with “twice as much as he had before.”
Job 42:11 — Remarkably, Job’s family and friends learned to be more generous as an indirect result of Job’s great loss. They may appear to have been fair-weather friends, but at least they come around in the end. Certainly, Job appreciated their comfort, consolation and generosity. It takes time to heal, and Job had suffered severely, not the least of which was his experience of being abandoned and outcast by others. Poverty is not merely a matter of broken bank accounts but of broken relationships as well. Here we see that both are being restored together. We must see disaster and trial in the world around us, especially within the body of Christ, as an opportunity for generosity and growth in Christian maturity (see especially the Macedonian response to the poverty of Judea, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5).
Job 42:14-15 — Commentator Norman Habel observes, “By giving his daughters an inheritance with their brothers Job demonstrates that he continued a policy of justice and equity in his life which went beyond the normal practice of the ancient world (cf. ch. 31). In Israel, for example, a daughter would only inherit the property of her father if there was no male heir (cf. Num. 27:1-8)” (Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job, 585). This is not surprising, since above all, this blameless man’s righteousness was characterized by a generous concern for the needs of the poor and oppressed. See also key passages Job 29:1-25 and 31:1-40. See Job theme essay Generosity and Justice.
