LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Expressing Christ
"...there is none like him on earth..." (Job 1:8).
All that was recorded in the Scriptures is for our learning (Rom. 15:4), and we can never forget that they testify of Jesus Christ, so that by going to him we may have life (Jn. 5:39-40).
It is interesting how at first we always see man, and then the Spirit leads us to see Christ. The book of Job was placed in the Scriptures because of something very important for the Christian life. Job was a special man, a child of God, upright, upright, God-fearing and separate from evil (v. 8). A man protected by God from all sides; blessed in everything he laid his hands on and his goods were multiplied upon the earth (v. 10).
Job was a believer with an untouchable testimony, beloved by his friends, a man who stood at the entrance of the city, where the elders gathered, and the princes heard his words. A believer who delivered the wretched who cried out and the orphan who had none to succor him. A believer who was a channel of God's blessings to others and who gave joy to the widow's heart (Job 29).
Why was a man with such a testimony given over to Satan? Let us remember that it was God who caught Satan's attention and allowed him to touch him in everything but Job's life (Job 2:6). In chapter 42 Job acknowledges that God had a blessed purpose in all that he allowed to befall him; that he spoke of what he did not know, and thereby concealed God's counsel from others; that God's purpose could not be hindered, and he proclaimed genuine repentance. But where is the key to it all? What is God's purpose that cannot be hindered?
God gave Job to Satan to destroy his testimony. Everyone admired Job, looked up to him and reflected on him. Job was the referent and not Christ. Job could not make vain the whole purpose of God for man: to reflect Christ. The Lord does not want from us the testimony of a super Christian or a super believer, but of Christ Himself. He does not want us to be seen and recognized on earth, but Christ. If we are expressing ourselves as excellent Christians, we are ready to be given over to Satan. The apostle Paul recognized this when he was sent a sting in the flesh.
From his repentance, Job began to express Christ by becoming an intercessor for his friends. Later he was able to express the kingdom of Christ, when God doubled for him what he possessed before, as Jesus teaches in the parable of the talents. Everything after repentance expresses Christ, bears witness to Christ and no longer to Job. The testimony of that great man ended in dust and ashes, and ours must also end in this way.
Anything for the testimony and for the edification of the Christian life must come from Christ himself. For from him, and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever.