Power With God # 6

Power With God # 6 

Exemplified In Job

The Fellowship Of His Sufferings

Read: Job 1:6-11; 2:9, 10; 42:7, 8, 10

Job's Spiritual History

Job is introduced to us as a man in great fullness: fullness of possessions and of wealth, fullness of good works and of personal righteousness, and standing before God in acceptance. Then there begins a course in his experience, the meaning and the secret occasion of which is altogether hidden from him. He knows not the why nor the wherefore, but he finds himself suddenly in the course of being stripped of everything. One thing after another is stripped from him - all his possessions, all his relations, all his friends and all his righteousness which is of works - and with it all come the investing, the encompassing, the onrushing of those hostile forces with their suggestions of accusation, condemnation, judgment. There is an encompassing of spiritual antagonism and of a spirit of death, with God hidden, withdrawn behind the clouds, and Job is left stark, bare, apparently alone, a stripped and afflicted man, oppressed in spirit, bewildered in soul and in anguish of body. The circle of all his relationships narrows to the closest, the nearest - his own wife - who bide him renounce God and, in so doing, surrender his life, for that is what is meant. The man has come right down from a great height and a great fullness to a very deep depth of utter emptiness, weakness, helplessness, and is as good as dead.

In the course of that history a transition takes place. You can hardly perceive it, but it does take place. It is a transaction from a righteousness which is of works to the righteousness which is of faith. Whereas earlier he pleads his own cause on the basis of his own righteousness and his own works, you find him being stripped of all that and at the end of it all he is saying, "Wherefore I abhor myself" (Job. 42:6). And yet he is still holding on to God, but this is a righteousness which has no foundation in his own goodness and works now. It is a righteousness which is by faith in the mercy of God. With that transition, that change from one basis to another, something else has happened. satan has gradually been edged out of court. At the beginning satan is there in full power - or almost so - with a great deal of liberty, doing pretty much as he likes. Then there is an almost imperceptible point at which satan has stepped out of the scene and Job is left alone with God. satan has had all his ground taken away, he has had to withdraw and give up the fight, he is completely worsted. Then comes resurrection from the dead into a place of new spiritual power, opening the door for God to come in in a new way, investing Job with a new fullness which is not now the fullness of his own works, but the fullness of Divine grace; not the fruit of his own labors, but the gift of God; not what he himself has brought about, but what God has given him. That is Job's spiritual history in a few words.

Christ's Humiliation and Exaltation

In saying that, we are able to look further and discern Another, a greater than Job, standing in His own fullness and in all His own rights, accepted with God, of whom God could say "There is not another - not only in the earth, but in the universe - like Him." And then, because there is something in the universe that is evil, something that has to be undone, to be robbed of its power and put out of court, that One in all His fullness is steadily stripped and laid bare in the vortex of this terrible controversy. Picturesque words are used to describe these forces of evil. "They compassed me about  like bees" (Psalm 118:12). The whole scene is set in a spiritual realm where the forces of evil are rampant, accusing, condemning, judging, appraising. It is an atmosphere of terrible antagonism and terrible spiritual death. He is brought right down, "crucified through weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4), stripped stark naked, emptied, with God's face hidden behind the cloud. "Thou hast forsaken Me!" You can almost hear that in Job from time to time, "Thou hast forsaken me!" How much more real was that in the case of this greater One. "Having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:15). They are ruled out of court, the great spiritual opposition has been brought low. And up from the grave He arose, back to a place of new power, opening the door for God to come in in a new way and make Him a minister to His own brethren with a new significance, investing Him with all the heavenly fullness. It is in principle the same as Job's experience.

Paul's Stripping and Filling

The principle is repeated in limited, much more limited, ways. Read that little Letter to the Philippians and hear the Apostle speaking about the fullness which was his, the righteousness of works. He could speak about being full, about the time when he had all things, things which were gain to him. And then this man was stripped of it all. There is no man in the New Testament who speaks more of his own unrighteousness and unworthiness and of the worthlessness of the righteousness by works than does Paul. He was stripped of it all, everything in this life, everything natural, his own ability to accomplish  anything, to achieve anything. And yet, with all the suffering and all the terrific assaults of evil powers upon that man, we see him living in the power of a resurrection, of an ascension union with Christ which says, "I have all" (Phil. 4:18); "All things are yours" (1 Cor. 3:21). All things are ours. You see, this is the same principle.

Through Suffering To Glory

In saying that, you have got to the heart of this whole matter of what is power with God, what is the ground upon which God comes in. It is just contained in that phrase, through suffering to glory. Job suffered for the rights of God, that is the point. He did not know it, but that is what it meant.

What was all this about in heaven? satan had come to God and God had indicated His servant Job. "Hast thou considered My servant Job?" 'Oh, yes, I have considered him all right, I know all about Job!' - You can see the sneer, the leer - 'Yes, I know Job. There is not another like him in all the earth! H'm! Does Job serve God for nought? I have so spoiled all your work, God, that even the best among men have an ulterior motive. Even the best of men, as you would call them, on the earth are time-servers. You think that Job serves you because he is devoted to you? He is only serving you for what he gets out of you! You have not a man after all, even Job, who is so disinterested and selfless as to trust you and serve you without the idea of reward. I have spoiled the whole lot for you and your best are like that!' This is what is implied, this is the sneer of the devil, that he has spoiled God's work to the very last man, even to the best. 'All right,' says God, 'you claim to have wrecked and ruined all My creation, you claim that there is nothing whatever in the whole creation that will satisfy Me, that will provide Me with ground for My pleasure? I accept your challenge. I take away the hedge that you talk about. You go and touch him. Touch all that he has first of all.' You know the story. One thing rushes upon another. Read that first chapter again and see the repetition, "While he was yet speaking, there came another ..." Someone else came with another terrible tale of woe,one thing on another. Before one thing is through, there is another. All that he has is taken - sons, daughters, cattle, camels, sheep, everything - yet, in all this, Job sinned NOT with his lips.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 7)