James 5 - The Gospel of Job

James 5
¹⁰ For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

Patience in suffering - James says that patience and suffering are two primary characteristics linked to “prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”

Do a quick inventory of the OT prophets and you can quickly ascertain the need for patience in suffering in their lives:

Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micaiah, Hosea, and more. Be careful that you know their whole story and grow to maturity past the Sunday School coloring page.

T-shirts and bumper stickers are often the coloring pages of the immature Christian’s world. —RM

James tells us Job is a prophet. This means that contrary to some liberal theologians and bad theology, Job was a real guy, not simply a created archetype, analogy, or anecdotal invention for all people of all time about being ‘patient’ in trouble or affliction. He is specifically called a prophet, meaning that his life message was a declaration of God’s truth.

You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. —James 5.11b

The only reason Job gets to the end is because of God.

Job As Prophet - Finding the Gospel in Job

Three Prophetic (Declaring and Preparing) Questions from Job 14

1. Job 14.4 - Who can bring purity out of an impure person?

one!

Jesus says in Mark 10
¹⁷ As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. ¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’”
²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed

these commandments since I was young.”
²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine

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for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away

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, for he had many possessions.

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!” ²⁴ This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear children, it is very hard to enter the Kingdom of God. ²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
²⁶ The disciples were astounded. “Then

in the world can be saved?” they asked.
²⁷ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with

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.”
²⁸ Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said.
²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, ³⁰ will receive now in return a

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times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. ³¹ But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.”

2. Job 14.10 - “But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they?”

TLB: When a man dies and is buried, where does his spirit go? CEV: Humans die and that’s it??

Jesus says in John 3
³ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born

, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
⁴ “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
⁵ Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to

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life. ⁷ So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

⁹ “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.
¹⁰ Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? ¹¹ I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. ¹² But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about

things? ¹³ No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal

.

3. Job 14.14 - Can the dead live again?
If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle,
and I would eagerly await the release of death.

This is a powerful question, and in his response to Bildad, Job will ‘remember’ what he really believes:
Job 19.25 - “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. ²⁶ And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will

God!
²⁷ I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!

Recent big question from the deconstructionist / exvangelical / skeptic, critic, moralist: So what if Jesus did not die and resurrect? What impact does that have? Feeding the hungry and healing the sick is more important than some resurrected heavenly afterlife. A resurrection promise is just a cop out for ignoring people now in this life.

1 Timothy 3.16
Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:
Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit.
He was seen by angels and announced to the nations.
He was believed in throughout the world
and taken to heaven in glory.

What about Jesus, just Jesus, apart from Resurrection.

Jesus says in John 11.25
²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the

. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. ²⁶ Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do

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believe this, Martha?” (Insert YOUR name after that comma. That’s faith.)

Jesus said everything He did was so that we would believe.
John 6.29
Jesus told them, “This is the

work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

The critic of the deity of Christ says all that matters is what we do here; Jesus says the only thing that matters of all that we could do here is believe Him. Believing Him means believing how and why He did all that He did.

John 20
²⁴ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. ²⁵ They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I

believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
²⁶ Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be

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any longer. Believe!”
²⁸ “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

³⁰ The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. ³¹ But

are written so that you may

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to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have

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by the power of his name.