I never saw a miracle happen through my hands until I became convinced that healing is always God’s will. I thought God’s will was usually healing, but there must be some exceptions. Job and Paul’s thorn in the flesh were the stumbling blocks for me. When I got these stumbling blocks out of the way, a life of miracles began.

Bill Johnson made a powerful statement when he said “Job was the question. Jesus is the answer.”  It was Bill’s teaching on Job that encouraged me to reconsider my perspective. It changed my life forever. Scripture says Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and nobody can see God except through Jesus. (John 1:18) These scriptures make it clear that we can’t see a perfect picture of God through Job or through anyone else but Christ. Until Jesus, all revelation was partial. John G. Lake said he thought of Jesus’ life as the supreme court of scripture. In other words, if something seems unclear, let’s look to Jesus’ life to settle the question. Jesus healed everyone who came to him, and he never said to anybody “I’m not going to heal you, because God is using this sickness to build your character.”

These are powerful truths. I’d like to add a few more observations which put things in simple terms for me so that I’ve never again thought of the book of Job as confusing. Here they are.

We Have The Means Job Needed To Overcome The Accuser!

We see in Job chapters one and two that Satan attacked Job by accusing him before God. He attacked Job the same way he attacks us—with accusation!

Revelation 12:10-11 (NIV) Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

What’s the point? We have what we need to overcome the accuser! We have the blood of the Lamb! Job didn’t have a revelation of the gospel. Job shows us that even the best of men need a savior. Even the best of men were under the power of Satan and in the dominion of darkness until Jesus rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. (Colossians 1:13 NIV) Job was no exception. The Old Testament statement that a man was “blameless” does not mean a person was without sin. The Old Testament also says that King David was blameless, but it records several times when David sinned.

Romans 3:9-12 (NIV) For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Job needed to overcome the accuser just as we do, but he didn’t yet see the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The book of Job shows us why we need Jesus’ blood.

We Have The Mediator Job Needed!

Listen to the words of Job in chapter nine. It brings tears to my eyes when I realize how Jesus is the answer to the cry of Job’s heart.

Job 9:32-35 (NKJV) “For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together.  Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both. Let Him take His rod away from me, And do not let dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear Him, But it is not so with me.

Job wanted to meet God face to face, as to a man. God answered Job’s plea by sending Jesus as a man. God became one of us, like us in every way! Because Jesus came in the flesh, we can approach God face to face. God is no longer a mystery. We can see him as is.

Job needed a mediator between himself and God. Jesus is the mediator that Job needed! 

1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV) For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus

Jesus came as a man. We have a mediator! Just as in Job’s plea, Jesus removed the rod from us and reconciled us to God so that we might no longer be terrified by the dread of Him and so we can come boldly into His presence. Thank you Jesus!

We Have The Atonement Job Needed!

We see in the book of Job that Job’s three friends didn’t speak what was right, and Job justified himself rather than God. (Job 32:3) But there was a younger man, Elihu, who spoke wisdom. Consider the words of Elihu in Job chapter 33:

Job 33:21-26 (NKJV) His flesh wastes away from sight, And his bones stick out which once were not seen. Yes, his soul draws near the Pit, And his life to the executioners. “If there is a messenger for him, A mediator, one among a thousand, To show man His uprightness, Then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom’; His flesh shall be young like a child’s, He shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, He shall see His face with joy, For He restores to man His righteousness.

Elihu says that if there were a mediator and a ransom, the flesh of the sick man would become like that of a child’s, and he would return to the days of his youth. We’ve already seen that we have a mediator in Jesus. The word “ransom” here means atonement, which is how the Young’s Literal version translates it. Not only do we have the mediator that Job needed, but we have the atonement that Job needed. He is Jesus! 

1 John 2:2 (NIV) He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

The book of Job says if there was an atonement, this sick man’s  flesh would become like the flesh of a child and his youth would be restored. We have that atonement in Jesus, who carried not only our sins and iniquity but our pains and sicknessess in his body! (Isaiah 53:3-5, 10-11 YLT) Thank God that because of Jesus’ atonement, the promises of healing and youth renewed are for us!

Psalm 103:2-5 (NIV) Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,  who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,  who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

My friends, how could it be any clearer? We have exactly what Job needed. We can approach God face to face as to a man, we have a mediator, and we have a perfect atonement. May this settle the issue once and for all, and may you never again find yourself confused by the book of Job.

The book of Job contains such a marvelous revelation of Jesus and of redemption! After showing us the need for Jesus and correcting the faulty thinking of Job and his friends, it ends with twice as much being restored to Job than all that he lost. It’s so sad that many wrongly interpret this book of scripture in order to obscure the New Covenant revelation of Jesus that it leads us to!

If you liked this post, you may want to check out my Heaven Now book trilogy. It contains many similar insights into understanding simple gospel truths and exercising heaven’s dominion on earth. It’s also filled with testimonies of what happened when I put these truths into practice. I’m sure these books will encourage you and help you learn to walk as a heavenly person. Not only that, but your purchase supports our missionary work in Brazil and in every other place we go!