The Book of Job

Word Study

"secret," Hebrew sod (סוֹד), intimate counsel, close fellowship, confidential friendship. As Job remembers his former blessedness, the deepest thing he mourns is not the loss of his wealth or honor but the loss of intimacy with God: "when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle... when the Almighty was yet with me" (v4-5). The word sod is rich: it means the private counsel of close friends, the confidential intimacy shared between those who trust each other. Job is saying that in his former days he enjoyed the intimate friendship of God. "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him" (Psalm 25:14).

"tabernacle," ohel (אֹהֶל), tent, dwelling. The place where that fellowship rested was Job's own tent, his household and daily life, not a shrine or a mountaintop. This is a beautiful description of what the godly most treasure and most miss in times of trial: not the gifts of God, but the felt nearness of God Himself over the ordinary home. Job's great grief is not that his fortune is gone but that God seems to have withdrawn His conscious presence, the sweet fellowship he once knew. This reveals the heart of a truly godly man: what he prizes above all is closeness to God. And it presses the tender question on us: when we look back with longing, is it God's blessings we miss, or God Himself?

Explanation

As Job remembers his golden years, what he mourns most is not lost wealth or honor but lost intimacy with God: "when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle." The word sod means the confidential friendship of those who trust each other; Job once enjoyed God's intimate fellowship resting on his home (Psalm 25:14). This reveals the heart of a truly godly man: what he treasures and misses most is not the gifts of God but the felt nearness of God Himself. It presses a tender question on us: when we look back with longing, is it God's blessings we miss, or God?

Gospel Focus

"When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle", Job longed for the intimate presence of God, and the Gospel is the good news that in Jesus Christ that presence has come to dwell with us and in us for ever. The Word "was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14), literally "tabernacled" among us; the secret of God has come to our tabernacle in person. And Jesus makes His people the very dwelling of God: "if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). What Job feared he had lost, and what he could only enjoy for a season, the believer has as a settled possession: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5); "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). Christ even calls us into the intimacy of sod, the secret counsel of friends: "Henceforth I call you not servants... but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John 15:15). The intimacy Job mourned is opened wide in the Gospel: through the blood of Christ we draw near to God, the Spirit dwells within us, and we are given the friendship of God that no trial can finally take away. When the felt presence of God seems withdrawn, the believer clings to the promise that in Christ, God has made His abode with us for ever, and will never leave.

Word Study

"eyes," Hebrew einayim (עֵינַיִם). Job's fellowship with God was not a private, inward thing only; it overflowed into practical mercy. "I was eyes to the blind." He does not say he helped the blind; he says he was their eyes, becoming the very faculty they lacked and seeing for those who could not see.

"the blind," iwwer (עִוֵּר). The sightless man had no way to make his own case or find his own way in the ancient world; he depended entirely on whoever would lend him their eyes. Job made himself that man's sight.

"feet," raglayim (רַגְלַיִם). The same self-giving in the second line: "feet was I to the lame," walking for those who could not walk. This vivid image captures the essence of true religion: it is not merely feeling close to God but becoming, to those in need, the hands and heart of God.

"the lame," pisseach (פִּסֵּחַ). The crippled man, another of the most vulnerable, and Job gave himself to meet his deepest needs. He surrounds this verse with more of the same: "I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless" (v12); "I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy" (v13); "the cause which I knew not I searched out" (v16). This is what genuine godliness looks like: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" (James 1:27). And it powerfully refutes the friends' accusations. Eliphaz had falsely charged Job with stripping the poor and sending widows away empty (Job 22:6-9); here Job shows the truth, he was a champion of the very people Eliphaz claimed he oppressed. His life of mercy is the silent, eloquent answer to their slander.

Explanation

Job's fellowship with God overflowed into practical mercy: "I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame." He became the very faculties the helpless lacked, seeing and walking for those who could not, giving himself to the most vulnerable. This is the essence of true religion, not merely feeling close to God but becoming, to those in need, His hands and heart (James 1:27). And it refutes the friends: Eliphaz falsely charged Job with oppressing the poor and widows (Job 22:6-9), but Job was their champion. His life of mercy is the eloquent answer to their slander.

Gospel Focus

"I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame", Job's ministry of mercy is a beautiful shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to be, in the fullest sense, eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. When John the Baptist asked whether He was the Christ, Jesus pointed to His works: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk... and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:5). He opened the eyes of the blind and made the lame to leap, both physically, in His miracles, and spiritually, giving sight to those blind in sin and strength to those who could not walk in God's ways. "Whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25). Job cared for the poor and fatherless out of his abundance; Christ became poor for us, "that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), and gathers the fatherless into the family of God, "I will not leave you comfortless" (John 14:18). And what Christ has done for us, He now calls us to do for others. Job's example, fulfilled and empowered by Christ, is the pattern for every believer: to be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, to visit the fatherless and widows, to pour ourselves out for the needy as those who have first been shown mercy. "Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). The mercy Job showed, and Christ perfected, is the mercy the Gospel makes flow through His people to a hurting world.

Word Study

"father," Hebrew av (אָב). Job describes the depth of his care: "I was a father to the poor." He did not merely toss coins to beggars; he took responsibility for the destitute as a father cares for his children. It reflects the very heart of God, who is "a father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows" (Psalm 68:5).

"the poor," evyonim (אֶבְיוֹנִים), the needy, the destitute. Not merely those of modest means but those in real want, the people God repeatedly commands His own to defend: "defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy" (Psalm 82:3). Job's greatness was not that he was rich and honored, but that he used his wealth and honor to be a father to those who had no one.

"the cause," riv (רִיב), the legal case, dispute. The word moves the scene to the courtroom at the gate. When a poor man had a legal cause, a dispute where he might be cheated because he had no power or advocate, Job took it up. He plucked the spoil from the wicked's teeth (v17), rescuing the exploited.

"searched out," echqerehu (אֶחְקְרֵהוּ), investigated thoroughly. Job would search out even cases he knew nothing about, digging into the facts to ensure justice was done for those who could not defend themselves. This is costly, active righteousness: the strong using their strength for the weak, the powerful becoming the advocate of the powerless. Here is a portrait of true nobility, and a rebuke to any who have much yet do nothing for the needy at their gate.

Explanation

Job describes the depth of his care: "I was a father to the poor." He did not merely toss coins to beggars but became a father to the destitute, and when a poor man had a legal cause where he might be cheated, Job would "search it out" to secure justice for those who could not defend themselves. This is costly, active righteousness, the strong using their strength for the weak, reflecting the heart of God, "a father of the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5). Job's greatness was using his wealth and honor to be a father to those who had no one, a rebuke to any who have much yet do nothing for the needy.

Gospel Focus

"I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out", Job's fatherly care for the destitute mirrors the God who is "a father of the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5), and points to the Lord Jesus, who took up our hopeless cause when we had no one to help. We were the poor and helpless, unable to plead our own case before God, and Christ became our Advocate, searching out our cause and taking it as His own: "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). More than that, He made the poor and fatherless into sons of God: "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12), and through Him we cry, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). The One who was rich became poor for our sakes, took up the cause we could never win, and adopted us into His family. And having been so loved, we are called to Job's ministry: to be fathers to the poor, to search out the cause of the voiceless, to "plead the cause of the poor and needy" (Proverbs 31:9), to "visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" (James 1:27). The Gospel makes us both the recipients of God's fatherly mercy and the channels of it. As God has been a Father to us in Christ, so we become fathers to the poor, extending the mercy we ourselves have received to those who, like us once, have no one to help them.