In this message I have the burden to say a word regarding God's answer to Job. This answer addresses a crucial question raised by the book of Job.
In their efforts to vindicate the authenticity of the book of Job, many readers of this book, especially among the fundamentalists and the Brethren, have emphasized certain "golden verses." One of these verses is 19:25: "I know that my Redeemer lives,/And at the last He will stand upon the earth." This verse conveys some amount of revelation concerning Christ, the Redeemer. Another golden verse is 42:5: "I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear,/But now my eye has seen You." This surely is an excellent verse. However, in spite of verses such as these, the forty-two chapters in Job leave us with a crucial question of two parts: What was the purpose of God in His creating of man, and what is the purpose of God in His dealing with His chosen people? To answer this question, we need the entire Bible. In particular, the New Testament is a long answer to Job's question.
Job said that he wanted to argue with God and even "litigate" with God in "court," making himself the plaintiff and God the defendant. But Job did not have the opportunity to do this, and his question concerning his suffering remained unanswered. The New Testament is God's answer to Job. We may say that it is a message "faxed" from God to Job. This "fax," this answer, reveals that God was not judging Job or punishing him but was stripping and consuming him so that Job could be rebuilt with the Triune God. Although millions of people have read the New Testament, not many understand the answer that it contains. Thus, it is extremely important that we consider the vital aspects of the answer to Job revealed in the New Testament.
If we read the Old Testament with its prophecies, types, and plain words from Genesis through Malachi, we will see that the Old Testament ends with the promise that One was coming (Mal. 4:5-6). The New Testament begins with God's incarnation (Matt. 1:18-25). The very God who was in eternity, who created the heavens and the earth and billions of items and man, and who did so many things with mankind, came as the promised One. He came in a mysterious way without advertisement and without public notification. He entered into a virgin's womb and, according to Matthew 1:20, was born in that womb. He remained there for nine months, and then He was born out of that womb. From this we see that the incarnation was God's coming out of eternity into time, to enter with His divinity into humanity. Prior to the incarnation, God was in eternity and man was in time. Through incarnation God brought the divine nature and the human nature together to make them one entity, even one wonderful person, named Jesus. Jesus, who is both God and man, is the totality of the result of the incarnation.