Job: acknowledging our riches are poverty and thence receiving real gold

Today there will be a brief lesson on the book of Job, which is essentially a book from the Bible before the Bible. The first few chapters of Genesis, the book of Jasher, the book of Job, the Wars of Jehovah, and the Pronouncements of Jehovah were all a part of this Word before the Word or Bible before the Bible; and some of it is contained in our Testaments, as we know.

In a nutshell, the book of Job contains correspondences which are not, however, arranged in a perfect series. They are correspondences which are isolated from one another. And the meaning of Job involves a dramatization of the following concept described in this extract from Revelation: 

"17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see" (Revelation 3:17-18). 

As anyone who has read the book of Job knows, the story begins with Job as a very rich man whom the Lord allows the devil to essentially impoverish and otherwise oppress; even to the point of killing off his children and giving him diseases.

But was this real wealth, spiritually speaking? Let us take a look. After his rather unfortunate 'friends' had stopped 'comforting' him, this is what is said about him and their ceasing to speak:

"32 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

2 Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.

3 Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job" (Job 32:1-3). 

As the Lord says in Ezekiel, it is our ways which are unjust -- "not equal" and not his! But we think it is the other way around.

And in Job also there is fairly frequent mention of this theme of God being right-side up and we twisted, not the other way around. As the Lord says there:

"Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" (Job 39:8).

Job, in response to his experiences and the Lord's rebuke, admits that he is "vile" (Job 40:4) and that he "abhor[s] himself" and "repent[s] in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6); whereupon the Lord does the following:

"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as before" (Job 42:10). 

One began by explaining Job as a dramatization of what the Lord said to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation, and what we see here about His giving Job twice as much as before -- real righteousness and real wisdom concerning righteousness and not fool's gold and foolishness -- is the equivalent of His promise to Laodicea to give to them gold tried in the fire that they may be rich and white raiment that they may be clothed. 

It's notable that the description of Job's riches in the beginning of the book does not even mention gold; and yet that his latter end, when it is said that he was blessed by the Lord more than before, contains very obvious mention of gold. This is because the gold is the righteousness which proceeds from love; and this was absent from the apparent riches with which the book began.

Much more may be said about this book, and we will be returning to it when investigating how angels are not perfect and do not know everything -- thus are improving forever as we if willing also will -- but one wanted to make the basic rubric by which it may be understood clear to the spiritual sight. 

We all tend to start out thinking we are 'good people'. How many times have we thought about our being decent, unlike those not so decent people over there, long before we ever took real religion seriously? How many times have we heard unregenerate people insisting that they are good? And this is the worldly riches which have to be taken away from us, spiritually speaking; so that God can give us real riches, the good of love, and real clothes, the wisdom which understands love and its practice. May this be of assistance in appreciating that beautifully poetic book. Godspeed.

Appendix:

*The reason why Satan is allowed to do dreadful things to Job is that evil spirits' temptations are an essential part of our acknowledging evils latent in what we thought was our good nature; in other words, all of that stuff about Satan afflicting Job is a dramatization of our being tempted to dislodge sin and error so that true riches of love and wisdom can be implanted. Before this dislodging or purification, love and wisdom can no more be implanted than we can serve food and drink on filthy plates and in filthy cups. After temptation by evil spirits, however, we may be brought to acknowledgement of our evils so that true healing can take place. See the following for good context:

""For evil spirits are made use of to arouse evils in man, and in this way the evils are not only recognized, but also acknowledged. Before this, they are not taken away. But it is evil or damned spirits who then take these evils into themselves, or swallow them up, and so the person is freed of them. This, of course, is what also occurs during struggles and temptations, but the person is then not at all aware that it is happening.

Through the Divine mercy of God the Messiah, I am able to bear witness of this phenomenon, from long experience; for I have frequently spoken with certain spirits about it, whenever it occurred. And often I was driven to great indignation that such unclean spirits were stirring up so many evils that lay hidden within my nature. But I learned that without them, there was no medicine; for this is the way the wounds must be opened up, and healed" (Divine Providence 183).