Week #43 - Job 38-42 Deuteronomy 1-20

Week # 43 Study Page

Job 38-42
Deuteronomy 1-20

About the Book(s)

Job

Date of Authorship: I prefer the tradition of the early Church and rabbinical literature which dates job to the Patriarchal period, sometime between 1900-1500 BC. A note on the date relevant to this week’s reading; the Hebrew term in Job 42:11 for “piece of silver” (qesita) was an ancient unit used primarily in the Patriarchal age. This is one of the pieces of evidence that leads a number of Old Testament commentators to believe that the story of Job pre-dates the authorship of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).

Author: We know nothing of the Author of Job, but we can speculate about the place of origin. The names of the characters would seem to fit well into Edomite culture, and the names Eliphaz and Teman feature in the Chronology of Esau (from whom the lineage of the Edomites is traced) in Genesis 36 (see verses 4 & 11).

Purpose: Job is a book about human suffering, and mankind’s quest for answers and explanations related to its presence. Far from a straight-forward treatise or theological explanation of this problem, Job is a drama, a play where the reader is invited to sit in the seat of the suffer and consider his words along with the words of his friends, as we join them in searching for truth about pain and why we suffer it. Its role in God’s word is to help God’s people explore and consider the problem of pain and begin to understand our suffering as it relates to God’s sovereignty and providence.

Deuteronomy

Date of Authorship: Deuteronomy is a record of the events and words spoken just before the Israelites cross over the Jordan River into the promised land. If you’re a proponent of an early-exodus date then a good guess for this date would be around 1410 BC.

Author: Moses is traditionally considered to be the author of the first five books of the Bible. This is a collection called The Pentateuch and Deuteronomy is the fifth of those five books. The book of Deuteronomy itself does not make this claim (Mosaic authorship), indeed, Deuteronomy reads like the work of a stenographer present for these departing words of Moses. We know that some stenographer or editor’s pen crafted at least some of this book, because (spoiler alert) it records the death of Moses, its traditional author, in the final chapter.

Setting: The book of Deuteronomy takes place just before Israel crosses into the promised land, as the forty-years of Israel’s wandering has been completed. Moses has been leading these people for more than 40 years and he knows that he will soon depart them. Deuteronomy is the dramatic farewell of Israels leader and the person who has served as a mediator between they and God for decades. The promise that God gave to Abraham so many centuries ago is finally about to be fulfilled. What does their departing leader want them to know on the doorstep of the Promised Land?

Purpose: Deuteronomy is a restatement of the Laws that had been given to the Israelites through Moses, and, most importantly, a restatement of and teaching about the covenant between God and the nation of Israel. God, speaking through Moses, is able to see the future of Israel with clarity giving instructions, even now before they enter the promised land, about how to remain faithful in exile, and how an Israelite king should act. Central to Deuteronomy is this double promise: blessings for covenant faithfulness through obedience, and punishment for covenant unfaithfulness through disobedience .

As You Read Notes:

Job’s Conclusion

Chapters 38-42 of Job are decidedly different than the rest of the book. As Job had requested, God speaks, and even gives Job a chance to plead his case before Him. God does not participate in the dialog the way that the other characters of the book do, but he confronts what Job has said throughout - specifically Job’s wish to defend himself before God. Instead of telling Job why he suffered these things, and instead of weighing in on whether or not Job really deserved the tragedies, God scorches Job’s standing to question Him by unleashing a dizzying number of challenging questions which compare His power and knowledge to Job’s. After this has gone on for some time, God invited Job to do what he has previously requested

The Lord said to Job:
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
Let him who accuses God answer him!” (Job 40:1-2)

Job’s response is understandably meek, and when Job finally gets out a few sentences, they comprise a retreat from his challenge of God

“I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1-6)

However, in chapter 42, God declares that Job has spoken the truth of God, while Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had not. Job has to pray for their forgiveness before God so that they can be forgiven of the falsehoods they have spoken. In the end, it becomes clear that Job was right to assert that these calamities did not come from God as punishment for his wickedness, but he was wrong to challenge God so brazenly, and to question God’s justice.

Job’s Usefulness

is Job a treatise on theodicy (the justice of God)? the answer is yes, but it must be stipulated that it is not a complete treatment of this issue. Job clearly establishes two things; that earthly suffering is not necessarily the transactional consequences of God’s approval or disapproval, and that we have no standing to accuse God of injustice or malpractice. However, There are some really important truths revealed in God’s word that must be at the very center of the study of theodicy (the justice of God especially as it relates to suffering and evil). Primary among them are the account of mankind’s fall from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), The unraveling darkness of the human mind and spirit (Romans 1), the suffering of God’s own Son on the cross to redeem the children of God (John 17 et al), and God’s promise to remove the scourge of all of this from the redeemed in Heaven (Revelation 21). Job deals with none of this. In fact, this story takes place before* God reveals the account of Genesis 3 through Moses. Although Job is the account of a faithful man who suffers greatly, it is not the first passage in the Bible that i would recommend to someone who wishes to understand how God could allow evil and suffering in the world. Job is simply a part of that answer in God’s word, a part which addresses the specific questions mentioned above.

Deuteronomy 3-4: Moses’s Punishment

Moses had been barred from entering the promised land as a punishment for his actions in Numbers 20 when he struck a rock to bring forth water instead of speaking to it as God had commanded. His transgression was one of disobedience, and one of self-importance/promotion. However, as Moses is speaking to the Israelites in this week’s reading, you get the sense that he is a little incensed at his fellow Israelites for the punishment he bears from that moment

“I pleaded with the lord: Sovereign Lord… Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan… But because of you the lord was angry with me and would not listen to me” (Deuteronomy 3:23-26)
“The Lord was angry with me because of you and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance” (Deuteronomy 4:21)

Moses is faulting the the anger that God felt at the Israelites for the penalty that he was receiving. I guess it could be truly said that if the Israelites had not grumbled against God and Moses for lack of water, then Moses would have never been in that position, but Moses seems to be inappropriately pointing the finger here. This should serve as a lesson to us, that we are responsible to act justly, and in a way that honors and obeys God, even when we are provoked to anger or goaded on by those who are sinning. God delivered the punishment that he had promised to Moses, and this was probably a good thing for the nation of Israel. By this time Moses was very old (120) and likely in no shape to lead their campaign into the promised land. Also the nation of Israel had been dependent on Moses for so long that it was likely helpful for them to witness a succession of leadership and learn to trust God’s providence rather than Moses’s staff.

Deuteronomy 5:22: Two Stone Tablets

This is the Geza Calendar mentioned in the IVP Commentary, it is a 10th century stone tablet found near Jerusalem. it is less than 3 inches wide

This picture from the movie “The Ten Commandments” is what you imagine when you think of Moses’ two stone tablets, right? Tablets of this size and with such a large font would be a rarity in the Ancient Near East. Typically stone texts had a much smaller font-size and were smaller than the ones that Charlton Heston was holding in this picture - just imagine the weight of the stones in this picture from the movie if the tablets were thick enough to be sturdy. see this note from the IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament:

The use of two tablets probably indicates that Moses was given two copies, not that some of the commandments were on one tablet and some on the other. The fact that they were stone suggests a larger size than clay tablets would have been, though inscribed stone tablets such as the Geezer calendar (pictured here) were small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. The Egyptian practice of this period was to use flakes of stone chipped from rocks. Inscription on front and back was not unusual. When the writing reached the bottom of one side, the scribe would often continue around the bottom edge and move onto the second side. Even flakes that fit in the palm of the hand could contain fifteen to twenty lines.

Deuteronomy 6:4: The Shema

This special verse is the centerpiece of Moses’s teaching about God in this speech. It is called the Shema because that is the transliteration of the Hebrew word that is translated “hear” in your Bible. If you’re reading the study notes online you can watch the adjacent video about this verse and this word, made by the same people at the Bible Project who make our book-of-the-Bible cartoons.
The Jewish religion stands alone in the Ancient Near East as the only major religious construction to consistently assert monotheism - the belief that there is one God. The radical difference between the theological construction of the Israelites / Old Testament and the rest of the religious systems in the Ancient Near East is a powerful apologetic for the real revelation of God to Abraham and Moses. It seems very improbable that, left to their own devises or logic, any ancient person would concoct a religious system like what we find in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 17:14-20: An Israelite King

This passage is amazing. First, Moses gives instructions for how an Israelite king should act, at a time when there seems to have been no plans for such an office. Many years would pass in between Moses speaking these words, and the dramatic account of Saul being made king in 1st Samuel 8-10. Another amazing aspect of this passage is the fact that an Israelite King was described as being subject to the Law. This dynamic (Lex Rex) is one that we are familiar with in the 21st century western world, but one that was foreign to the Ancient Near East consider this from the IVP Bible Background Commentary:

In Egypt and Mesopotamia the king was the fountainhead of law. It was his task to perceive and maintain the order that was built into the universe. The King could not be “brought to justice,” except by the gods. He was not above the law, but there was no mechanism by which he could be tried in a human court…. In Israel, the prophets, as spokesmen for the deity, could call the king to account (and hold them to the obedience of the law which they were obligated to obey).

Joel NielsenOctober 20, 2018Madison Church of Christ