I used to think that the book of Job was about trusting God during suffering regardless; and never sinning against Him with one’s mouth regardless. The lesson I saw was that “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:22). But as I listened through the book of Job again recently, I was struck by a verse in chapter 16 that says, “O that one might plead for a man with God…” (Job 16:21a). It had not occurred to me before that Job sought an intercessor. This foreshadows Christ who pleads for a man with God as we see in Zechariah 3:

          And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire. (Zechariah 3:1-2)

In the very next chapter Job cries out for one who will “put me in a surety with thee” and seeks one who will “strike hands with [him]” (Job 17:3). This foreshadows the work of the Holy Spirit who seals us in the New Testament; this flows out of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I began to see Job as a book that points to Christ. My eyes opened to Job as a type of Christ. When you hear Job say of his enemies that “They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves against me” (Job 16:10) then one cannot help but recall what Jesus went through. Prophecy that he would be smitten with a rod upon his cheek (Micah 5:1) was fulfilled when “they smote him with the palm of their hands” (Matt. 26:67). Job was delivered to the ungodly (Job 16:11) and Jesus was delivered to be crucified (Matt. 27:26). The crucifixion was foreshadowed by Job. The “gnashing upon Job” (Job 16:9) and the furrows on Jesus’ back (Psalm 129:3); the scorning of Job (Job 16:20) and the forsaking of Christ as they wagged their heads at him (Matt. 26:56; 27:39); the gathering against Job (Job 16:10) and the false witness against Christ (Matt. 26:59) all point to Job as a type of Christ. Job suffered despite his innocence even as Jesus suffered despite his sinlessness; Job was declared to be perfect and upright (Job 1:1) even as Pilate declared there to be no fault in Jesus (Luke 23:4). I no longer see Job as a book about human suffering. I now see it as a book about Christ’s suffering. When Job speaks about his face being foul (Job 16:16) we recall the marred face of Jesus (Isaiah 52:14).

Yet Job had hope, and Christ too endured the cross for the hope set before him (Heb. 12:2); the famous verse from Job shining forth with hope: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the last day upon the earth” (Job 19:25). Therein lies our hope and therein lies the hope of all humanity. Our Saviour suffered and died that we might live (2 Cor. 5:15). Just as Satan could not destroy Job, so too Christ was not destroyed but rose again – the first fruit of our resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20). As a little girl on the farm in Rhodesia I recall driving past the fields and seeing row upon row being planted by hand, painstakingly day after day, until the full length of the field had seeds in every row. By the time the last rows were planted, the first rows had begun sprouting. It used to fascinate me as I drove past these fields with my mother on the way to town, and I would stare out the window at the beautiful green growing carpet and notice that the first rows were already quite tall while the rows towards the end had only just started sprouting and the very last rows showed no growth yet. When I learned about first fruits as an adult it made sense to me because then I could understand that those first rows bore their fruit first. They were called the first fruits by the Jews, and the harvest of the first fruits was all given to the Lord out of gratefulness for the rest of the harvest that would also come in. Jesus is the first fruit of our resurrection. He is the assurance that we too will be resurrected. We are the rest of the harvest that will come in. Job believed this. He knew that he would be resurrected and see His Saviour on this earth at the last.

It is astounding that Job understood this but when we recall that all people on the planet came from Noah and his sons, then it makes sense that the truths that had been taught to Adam and Eve and Enoch and others were also known to Noah and his sons and obviously understood by even Job. Job had a good grasp of God and even of his eschatological plan. It still amazes me though, that God used a Gentile to be a type of Christ, long before Abraham, or possibly contemporaneously with Abraham. It highlights for me that God has always been reaching out to all of mankind. The sliver that he took through Abraham which we hear so much about in the bible was relevant enough to be recorded because it teaches us about the Messiah who came through that bloodline. We have perhaps wrongly assumed that that is all that God was doing. But the book of Job is proof and evidence that God has always been revealing Himself to mankind, whilst all the while bringing about His plans of a Saviour since He is not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved (2 Peter 3:9). Let us respond to this God of love. Choose ye this day whom you will serve, the gods which your fathers served, or the Lord (Josh. 24:15). Let us stand with Job who had confidence that our witness is in heaven and that our record is on high (Job 16:19). We have a high priest in heaven (Heb. 4:14) who intercedes for us even as he interceded for Joshua in the book of Zechariah. His filthy garments were removed, and a fair mitre was set upon his head (Zech. 3:5). Our filthy garments can be removed too. His iniquity was made to pass from him, and he was given a change of raiment (Zech. 3:4b). Through faith in Christ our iniquity is removed from us too and we are given a change of raiment, even the righteousness of Christ, that is fit for the wedding when the bride of Christ, which is the Church, will meet the bridegroom who is Christ.

Satan was told that Jerusalem is a brand plucked out of the fire (Zech 3:2), so too Jude speaks of saved ones as those who have been pulled out of the fire (Jude 1:23). Even we ourselves who have turned to Christ are like brands plucked out of the fire. Let us do as Job did; trust God and do not charge Him with evil when we suffer. Job foreshadowed Christ’s suffering, but we walk in the wake of His suffering. We too will suffer. Jesus said we will have tribulation in this world (John 16:33) for the servant is not greater than the master (John 13:16), but take heart; Jesus has promised to never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5) so let us prepare to stand firm and be strong in the Lord for “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).