The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Exposition of JOB 1:1-5 (Part 1 of 4)
A quiet dawn, a faithful father, and a question that won’t let go: what kind of life stands when the storm hits? We open Job with 1:1–5 and trace a portrait that’s both ordinary and profound—a man outside Israel, in the land of Uz, described as blameless and upright, who fears God and turns away from evil. That fourfold description isn’t pious fluff; it’s a living framework for endurance. We unpack why Job’s fear is reverent awe rather than panic, how integrity shows up in daily habits, and why his early-morning sacrifices after his children’s feasts reveal the heart of spiritual leadership.
Together, we explore Uz to widen our sense of who draws near to God and how the book challenges narrow views of grace. We examine the numbers and details many skim past—seven sons, three daughters, abundant herds—not as trivia but as signals of ordered blessing and stewardship. The conversation digs into the difference between slavish terror and holy fear, the kind that makes you hate what harms communion with God and love what keeps your heart clear. Along the way, the panel shares practical reflections on preparing to suffer well: building rhythms of prayer, interceding for others, resisting quiet compromises, and learning to anchor joy without indulgence.
If you’ve ever wondered how to hold peace when life unravels, Job’s opening gives a map: live well before you suffer, so when trials come you draw from deep wells instead of scrambling for a faith you never practiced. Press play to rethink reverence, integrity, and the hidden work that steadies a soul. If this conversation helps you see Job—and your own habits—with fresh clarity, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review telling us the one insight you’ll practice this week.
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Christian. Good evening. Hope you're having a good day today on this Thursday. As we approach the weekend. Last night we began our exposition of the book of Job by giving an introduction. We didn't cover any verses, but basically gave a general overview of what the book is going to be about and what to look forward to in this book. And there's going to be a lot. It is 42 chapters long, and it has much of what will be a blessing to our souls if we read and go through these things with a heart that desires to delve more into the depths of our great and glorious Lord. So today, my aim will be to cover the first chapter of Job and the first five verses. So I trust that as we go through this, we begin to go through these passages, that those of you who get on the panel and who are in the chat will be willing and ready and able to contribute. And those who have a more passive stance will learn a lot from it or at least have much to think about. So that being said, I'm going to begin by reading the first five verses of the book of Job. And then we'll get into the exposition. Job chapter 1, verse 1. There was a man in the land of Lov, in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five thousand yoke of oxen, five thousand she asses, and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men in the east. Verse 4. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And it was so that when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning, and he offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. So now we're going to embark upon the Word of God and begin our first day of the exposition of the verses, of the passages and chapters, excuse me, in the book of Job. But first, before I get started, as is my custom, I'd like to um welcome those who are on the panel and get their initial remarks on this book and where we're about to go with it. And hopefully there will be something to add to what we discussed last evening dealing with the introduction. So that being said, I'll start with my brother Jeffrey, the encouraging servant. Good evening, brother.
SPEAKER_05:Jonathan, can you hear me? I can. Go ahead. I'm driving in the car right now. We're on our way home, and uh I am uh should be home in about 15 minutes. So why don't you go ahead and get someone else's opening statement and uh I'll chime in just a little bit later, okay?
SPEAKER_06:Sounds good, brother. Thank you, man. Jeffy minute, Jeffrey, minute God. Go ahead. How about you? Opening thoughts.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know, it's amazing what these thoughts come to my head. But you know, uh when you were saying about the seven sons and three daughters getting together to have dinner, uh were they weren't they married? I mean, you know, it's like we're not told in scripture, but I'm thinking, you know, it always I always accepted that, but I'm thinking, well, maybe, maybe not. You know, I mean I don't know why I was just thinking that, but you know how it starts out is Job's being a blameless man. Right. I mean, you know, that's that's setting the tone for the whole book. Right. And uh that's what I have to think about that.
SPEAKER_06:I think that's good. I mean, I think I think that there's not enough of us believers who question enough. There's not enough of us believers who question enough. I think that everything in the scriptures we need to question, not in the sense of, is it wrong or is it true, but in the sense of, is there something there that we're missing? And this is what I want to encourage because I think that, just like you just did, the asking these questions allow us to look into a lot of these different things and discover things that possibly have not been discovered. I mean, as we know, as time has progressed since we received the full canon of scriptures, men continually have garnered more clarity on the things that we know to be dear to our faith. So I think that's a good thing to be able to ask these kinds of questions. Sister Candy, your opening thoughts.
SPEAKER_03:Well, considering I just got in, so what did you actually do? Just talking about the chapter, first chapter, or something like that.
SPEAKER_06:Talking about just getting started. So whatever come whatever whatever's on your mind.
SPEAKER_03:All kinds of stuff's on my mind. It's awesome how just this whole this whole book just has the tone for everything that Jesus is teaching us, especially, especially with living in this world and the sufferings that we suffer and what it's for. It's not necessarily because we've sinned or it's bad.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And then it also for the tribulation times, when it gets rougher, we will be here through it. And it goes to scripture, and I finally found it because where I was reading in Job and in Revelation, where it says that we'll be going through it. So it's just beautiful how watching and seeing Job give us the example, just like Jesus gave us an example. It's beautiful. And Brother Jeff was talking about the sisters and the sons, and it's like when I sit when I see that, it's like I see how it's kind of like a symbolic symbol for bringing not just the men, but the women and men into Jesus.
SPEAKER_06:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Jews and Gentiles. Amen. Um it's it's like like you said, Job was blameless and upright as Jesus was. I've listened, I've got notes on it, man. Like how how much it he it just, oh man, it's awesome. But I won't pick up everybody's time.
SPEAKER_06:All right, we're looking to get through it. Um, Sister Tyson, who is sister, what are your opening thoughts on the first five verses of Job or the beginning of the book as a in general? What are your opening thoughts?
SPEAKER_09:Um, Job is such a comforting um book because when I know that um all of my suffering and trials is in the hands of the Almighty, um, when he claims that he causes calamity for our good. Um, I like to trust him. And it's just comforting to me when I'm going through things that it's not out of the hands of God at all. It's actually for my good, and I must bow my knees and submit to that refining by fire. So God is good in all his ways, and I'll stop there.
SPEAKER_06:Amen, sister. Appreciate that. Sister Lisa, your opening remarks.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, everybody. Um, I'm just looking so forward to this study. Um, I've been thinking about it all day. As a matter of fact, when um I got off last night, I posted a few things on my on my Facebook um just from what we were talking about in here. Um, this book is gonna be um really exciting to get everybody's input on. Um and I'm looking forward to basically learning how to suffer better, you know. Um because I know we're gonna go through it, and and I just need to remember to come back to this book and and um I'm I'm excited. So thank you.
SPEAKER_06:Amen, sister. Appreciate it, brother Chris. Your opening thoughts.
SPEAKER_07:Okay, so brother, look, the my thing in the first five chapters is this I'm not a numerology person, right? Right, but the the number of everything matters. How many sons were there?
SPEAKER_06:I know where you're going, brother. That's in my notes, but go. I want you to say it anyways.
SPEAKER_07:How many daughters? There were seven. How many daughters were there? Three. How many sheep? I mean, there was something, it's something to that. That is not just an arbitrary number.
SPEAKER_06:Brother, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. I'm gonna get to that in verse two, and and I want I want to call on you first when we deal with it. You know you're my buddy, man. So anyway, go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead. But you know what? But I'm glad you brought that out because I I want to talk about this for a sec when we get to that in the second verse, but I want to call on you first. I want to get your assessment on it if you haven't done it already. Do you do you have an assessment already on it?
SPEAKER_07:I I I I don't want to even I don't want to I want to allow things to progress because that's the way you know the Holy Spirit worked. In small bits, and I get it. Great. Now, but going back to the first part, and then what did he do? Then he went off. He didn't say, hey, listen, you guys come with me while I give petition to the Lord for sin. He went off by himself, right? Right, and they were still at the feast, right? He said he had concerns about the art. Hold on, he's their dead.
SPEAKER_06:Brother, you guys, you made some great observations, and I can't wait to go through it. And I and I hope that you can be here for many of these discussions because I like where you already started. So we're gonna we're gonna get through this, but I'm gonna come back to you when we get to verse two. Okay, okay. I'm gonna see if you develop your your perspective on that, what you brought up when we get to it. Okay? Okay, that's fair. All right, Sister Joni, your thoughts.
SPEAKER_08:Um so my thoughts are a lot. I have a lot of thoughts about Job. But I think one of the things uh I like to think about is how people don't even realize how much Job is in all of us. Because as Christians, we suffer. And like Lisa said, we need to suffer better.
SPEAKER_10:Yeah.
SPEAKER_08:But um, but yeah, I I think some people just think, oh, poor me, poor me. And they don't realize it's gotta be this way. This is, you know, he said they hated me, they're gonna hate you too. Right. That's right. That's right. Um, that's all I got.
SPEAKER_06:Appreciate that. And I'll I'll add something else to that, Joni. Is that we talked about this last night. But the the book of Job, as I said last night, is not simply and exclusively about suffering. But it's about what it really is about is how we suffer. How we suffer. This book is about how the Christian is supposed to handle those things which cause suffering.
SPEAKER_08:With peace, joy.
SPEAKER_06:That's right. That's right. Um, Sister May, go ahead. What do you think so far?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, I like to look up names, I like to look up land, um, names of cities. So I want to talk about ooze for a second um before we get into ooze. So we can we can gather like what ooze is, um, and like similarly where its geographical location is. So, like in Lamentations, we see Ooze, um, Jeremiah 25, 20, and putting all these together, ooze was likely a region southeast of Canaan or Edom. But what's very interesting is that Ooze was outside of the covenant of the land of Israel. And so it tells us that Job was a non-Israelite, so yet he feared the true God, showing that God's relationship with mankind extends beyond Israel. Now, I want to show you something. So the the symbolic meaning of ooze represents the broader world. So when we read the first chapter, it chapter it opens outside Israel to show that the fear of the Lord is not confined to one nation, and it never was. So I want to show you something else that I saw though. So if we contrast ooze with Eden, okay, we us or ooze, it we we learned something pretty significant. That Eden was the place where innocence was tested, right? Ooze or Ooz, or I don't know, is a place where righteousness was tested. In both scenes, in both um Eden and Uz, or whatever, both scenes show that Satan appears before God and humanity is being tested. But unlike Adam, right, Job endures and remains faithful to the end. So I just wanted to, I got so excited when I started looking up um the location of where Job was. And so I just wanted to share with that before we get started. Pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_06:Yep, I agree with that. I like where you're going with that. And and and I want to deal with that in a second. Uh, brother Jeff, encouraging servant, you you got something yet, or you want me to go on? Brother Jeff, encouraging servant. You got anything or you want me to move on?
SPEAKER_08:He says to go on is we're not quite home yet.
SPEAKER_06:All right, perfect. All right, so we begin in the opening verse, and it begins by presenting Job as a man. There was a man in the land of ooze. It wasn't like there was a particular man from our perspective, because we know that God looks at every one of us as individually special to him. But God, what God does do is make it makes it clear that Job, for all intents and purposes, was a very ordinary man with an extraordinary aptitude for faithfulness in God. He was a man, he wasn't a king, he wasn't a priest, he wasn't a prophet, he wasn't any of these things, he was just a man. And as Meg says and indicated, he was a man from the land of Uz or Uz, whatever you however you want to pronounce it. And there's nothing significant in the Bible about this particular territory. And regardless of where it is, one thing that we do know for sure, and a key takeaway from this, is that this was not a land that was associated with Israel in any way, in any form or shape. In fact, in the entire book of Job, there is no mention, as I said last night, there is absolutely no mention of Israel, no mention of temple worship or ceremonial worship in terms of the Levitical uh ceremonial legal system or that priesthood. So none of these things are spoken of in the book of Job at all. At all. And also, as Meg intimated in her opening remarks, is that for all intents and purposes, Job, since there was no Israel at the time, Job is a foreshadow. Who he is as a person is also a foreshadowing of the fact that God had always had it in his mind to be a blessing to those who are not of the nation of Israel, but to those who are of who are sinners of all nations of people. And this is important to understand. Job was a believer in God before there was a national Israel, and he was a man of faith. And there has never been a time where those who are outside the national Israel where God had not called out a people for himself, and this is important, and it goes on to say, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. So you got four things that that the scriptures tell us about this man, and it's great to hear these things in when you look at the context of this. This is the first book in the Bible that has been written. And it says that Job, and keep in mind, the first book written, it says he was a man who was perfect, who was upright, and he was one that feared God and eschewed evil. Now, forgive me, everybody. I want to, I'm gonna, because Job is such a big book, I'm gonna try to be uh to to call on one or two people as I have questions because this book has is so rich and it's so diverse in the content that I want to be able to get through as much as I can as possible without rushing through it, but trying to really um get some very succinct answers from you guys in terms of the questions that I may ask. If so, if you don't mind, try to be very direct and succinct in your answers. But I want you to get your point across. So if you need more, more time, then take the time. So it's not that I want to put a a limit on what on what you have to say. So that being said, let me start with brother um uh Jeffrey, man of God. What does it mean when it says that Jove was perfect? How do we how are we to look at and interpret perfect in this point?
SPEAKER_04:Well, in other places in the scripture, uh, when God speaks of being perfect, like he's uh he means being complete. It's not perfection in the sense there's no flaw whatsoever. It's in the in the sense of uh a complete person. And when you think of it that way, it totally fits. I mean, he was upright, he was blameless, he you know, he uh represented, served God. He was the complete man of God. Complete he's he's my hero, Job, man of God, complete, sister Audrey.
SPEAKER_06:Let me ask you a question. When this says that he was upright, how do you interpret that? He was an upright man.
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think that God calls him that because he he sees him as that or he wants to.
SPEAKER_06:But how do you interpret upright?
SPEAKER_02:Um, upright.
SPEAKER_10:Um it's just I don't see him as perfect or upright from what I read.
SPEAKER_06:He's called upright and perfect. And so Jeff just talked about perfection being basically not that he's not sinless, not that he's not that he's sinless, but that he's complete in terms of God's perspective. He's complete in God. So when we talk about uprightness, what does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_10:And it's okay to be wrong or close to the whatever, but just I just see it as the fact that God wants to deem you righteous.
SPEAKER_06:Right. He's upright, he's righteous, he's righteous, and he and he's level and he's even in his dealings. In other words, he's not an unjust man, he's a man of equity. He's fair, he's a fair-minded person. Lisa got it right, he's fair. And so this is what it this is what it means. And so it's important to understand that this is part of what it means to you know, to be up, what it upright means, and you tie this closely with his perfection because this is what links him to God, and this is the evidence of his godliness, it's evidence of him being a part of God. And then it says next that he feared God. So, brother Chris, let me ask you the question. And you can say what you want to say as well. What does it mean when it says that he feared God? What does it mean?
SPEAKER_07:Oh man, golly, brother. You know I've been itching, man. I've been so patient, man. No. Look, see, because look, the only way you can learn the Job lesson is that you live it, right? Look, let me tell you something about Job. Job was an upright man, he didn't sin. Job did what was right before the Lord. He feared the Lord. He had wisdom to fear the Lord. I guarantee you, I promise you he did. Oh, he did. But let me ask you this though.
SPEAKER_06:What does it mean? What does it mean when it says he feared God? What does the fear mean? What does it mean he feared God?
SPEAKER_07:The fear was in reference to his strong desire not to do anything displeasing to God. Look, everything that was good, everything that was loving, everything that was kind, everything that was holy, everything that was helpful, everything that was a benefit. That was Job's mind. That was his heart, that was what he wanted. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06:Sister Joni, you want to add to that? The fear of God. What did Job does? He had this fear of God. What is what does it mean to you?
SPEAKER_07:I want to go further, but oh go no, good.
SPEAKER_06:Go ahead. I know you're finished. Go ahead. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_07:Look, okay, first five chapters, because I I don't want to circumvent, I don't want to go beyond that. Look, hold on, let me let me say we're in the first five verses. The first, I'm sorry, first five verses. Okay, right. And so look, Job went off to himself, and he went to God on behalf of his children. Okay, so what possibly could Job have been thinking to go to have the heart to go to God, but not to bring his children with him.
SPEAKER_06:Right.
SPEAKER_07:Okay, he knew, he knew what kind of he said, I don't participate in that. I don't like that. I'm not, I'm, I don't go along with the ways that and so it was, look, his children were not upright. And that's what the first five verses were saying. That's what he was highlighting. That they didn't have the same heart that he had. All right, we'll we're gonna get to his kids in a little bit. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But that's within the first chapters, though. That's within the first verses. I mean, first five verses. You're right. Because he went away from them to petition God on their behalf.
SPEAKER_06:Right, we're gonna get to it for sure, brother. Appreciate it. Sister Joni, anything else you want to add to the fear of God? What does it mean?
SPEAKER_08:Well, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, correct?
SPEAKER_06:Right. And um But what is the fear?
SPEAKER_08:The fear is knowing that God is all powerful and that God will take you out if he wants to.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_08:And so that fear of God means that you're gonna walk the way he wants you to walk.
SPEAKER_10:Right.
SPEAKER_08:Or try your attempt or whatever. Which and he told Satan that, hey, try my boy Job, because he is not gonna turn his back on him. I mean, you can yes, he did curse him. I saw somebody put that there at one point, but he he really didn't. He stood uh knowing God was gonna come through, and it was that was hard, man. That would have been really hard what he went through.
SPEAKER_06:Absolutely. Most people wouldn't have made it, Sister Meg, let me ask you a question. Is there a difference between how would you distinguish the fear of God in this context from the slavish fear of God, which frightens people? Is there a difference?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I think the verse that comes up to my head is like that we have to understand the kindness and the severity of God at the same time. So in when it says fear the Lord, he was in reverent awe of God.
SPEAKER_06:Yes. So this is this is the key word that I'm looking for. But go ahead. I interrupted you. Go ahead, sister.
SPEAKER_00:You said you you said kind of like a two-part question, but then like when you're when you're when the the fear of the Lord, you have reverence for him, you have awe, you see him, and you see that he is holy and that he is righteous and that he is sovereign, and all of these things make you it's a it's a bowing. That's how that's the only thing that I can think. It just makes you just want to drop and worship. But on the other hand, like what you mentioned, when people say the fear of the Lord, there's a literal fear, and it's for those people that don't see the fear of the reverence and the awe. Because if you don't see that, then you then you will have the other fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_06:See, there there is something that I want to point out here because people that believe, much like most of us here do believe, I believe all of us do, there are others outside of those who understand things the way we here do, and they will say that we preach that we preach about a God who men should be afraid of, should should fear. We preach fear. And what they mean is that we preach this this this this slavish fear. Does anybody know of the term hybridophilia? Does anybody here know what that term means? To be in a hybrid or to be subject to hybridia. This is what it means when you see these, you ever seen these crime stories or whatever, and you hear about a person who's been kidnapped and the captor takes these per these people and they and they have so much control over them that their obedience, that the person who's been captured, their obedience is this controlled fear of the person who subjects them to this other environment. These people don't worship, they don't they don't obey them out of love and desire and trust. They obey them purely out of a slavish fear. This is the difference. So the relationship between the Christian and God Almighty, if it is a true relationship, it is not one that resembles an hybrid rest of relationship where we feel that he's someone who kidnapped us, subdued us, and then brainwashed us into following him to make him love us, love him. That is not what we're talking about. But this is a different kind of fear, which is based on the fact that he is our father. And when you hear your father's voice, for those of you, you know, all of us have fathers, and especially those who've been around and have been good fathers, when they say something, when their voice thunders, even when a father speaks in a gentle tone, it musters and arouses this reverential fear that we have. And this is the difference between that slavish fear, that slavish obedience, and the reverence that we are to have toward God. And this is a very important distinction to be made. And this is something that I hope that that many of us will remember when it comes to people when they say things like the way we present the gospel is one that makes God this awful being. Now don't get me wrong. If you don't know Christ, if you don't trust and love the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you are his enemy, then there's a whole different type of fear that you should have. And that fear that you should have should resemble. What a tyrannical fear musters. But for those who are the elect of God, who are called according to his grace, who are chosen to be his from the before the foundation of the world, you know something different. You love the Lord because he has made you aware of his love for you. And that is what is being reciprocated when you turn to him for your salvation. There is no part of this book where you're not going to see salvation here. And this is what we have to keep in our minds all the time. Brother Chris, go ahead.
SPEAKER_07:Look, that is a major, major point. You know something? Look, that's why we, that's why we have these Bible studies. It's so important. You know, I never really thought about that aspect of it. And the aspect that you brought up was the fear without relationship. That's really, that's what really, that's a critical, that's critical. Very critical. Very critical.
SPEAKER_06:It's profound because when you think about it, we have all types of relationships in our lives. Some of them are good ones, some of them are bad ones. But the demeanor and the disposition that we have toward the good ones and versus the bad ones are very different. But it's a relationship nonetheless. And so this is this is very important to be understood. And I'm glad you brought that up, Brother Chris, because this is something that we need to understand throughout our Christian life, and we need to be observant of this and to be aware. Now, the next thing that he says here is that Job is one who eschewed evil. He eschewed evil. Sister Lisa, what do you think he means when it says he eschewed evil?
SPEAKER_01:He he turns away from it.
SPEAKER_06:He turns away from it.
SPEAKER_01:He does what we're supposed to do. Have nothing to do with it.
SPEAKER_06:Yep. Somebody else said shunned, another good word. He turns away from it. Anything else you want to add? No, I'm he turned away from it. You're right. Sister Candy, you want to help out here? What else would you add to that? He shunned it. He turned away from evil. What else do you want to add to it? And these are both, these are right, by the way.
SPEAKER_03:He resisted. He resisted.
SPEAKER_06:Absolutely. Absolutely. Job was a man, like all of us should be. Let me go ahead before I go ahead. Go ahead, May. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:I think when also when it says that he eschewed evil, if we look previously to the fear of the Lord, it's because he feared God. You know, going back to Proverbs 8 13, right? When he said when it says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. So because he feared the Lord, he hated what God hated. And it also shows his active obedience. He didn't just refrain from