The figurative resurrection of Job, after being nearly killed by Satan, comes not only with a restoration, but with double restoration and very long life. In the end, God refutes Job Himself, something of the chief of wise men (the greatest in all the east country), He refutes Satan also, and Job's companions -- Eliphaz and company. Job's resurrection ends up being the final rebuttal, the answer to the problem of evil with the problem of God's goodness to sinful people.
Acts 7:22 indicatest that Moses, was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and deeds" (Acts 7:22). Doubtless, the Egyptians had incorporated the wisdom of the countries around them, so Moses may have encountered documentation about Job from the early "university of Egypt."
Genesis 25:5-7 indicates that Job was descendant of Abraham by concubinage, saying "And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country."
The "east country" is Job's home, and this is where the Magi of Matthew 2 hail from, and return to, after bringing gifts to the young Lord Jesus (as Abraham had done to them; for the Lord Jesus is the "son [seed] of Abraham" (Gal. 3:10-12). This is a kind of "gift talionis" across the ages, within the same household.
Genesis 46:13 indicates that among "the sons of Issachar" were "Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron," showing that by the time of the birth of Jacob's children, Job already had a reputation in Israel.
Job was said to have lived for 140 years more, after the events recounted in the book which bears his name. Job, at the end, offers both a sacrifice and prayers, which intercession is necessarily priestly. Since the minimum age for priests and ministers is thirty -- this was true both of the Levites and of the Lord Jesus -- for Luke says he was "about thirty" when He began his ministry. So Job died at an age of no less than 170 years, probably more like 180 or 185.
This offers us a helpful time indicator, as the maximum lifespan of persons steadily decreased over time, from the absolute limit of nearly 1,000 years in the time of Adam and Methusaleh, to progressively shorter life spans. By similarity of age spans, between Moses and Job - for Moses died at 150 "in his strength" (meaning he could have lived far longer were it not cut short), we can estimate the Job lived between the generations of Abraham and Moses, probably around 1700 - 1530 B.C. Two generations later, the Exodus took place.
Now Job lived as a rich man, and a wise ruler, who continually offered sacrifices for his children according to the law of Moses, so he had access to the prophetic tradition that came down to Moses, and shows himself well familiar with many of the commandments and prohibitions in the Law of the Lord (as did Abraham, which is likely where he learned it). Job 6:10 suggests that Job was a preacher also (like Solomon and several of the prophets) in the language used by Psalm 40. Job 6:10 reads, "Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One."
In Job 24, consistent with the decalogue and case laws of the Mosaic law, Job condemns "moving boundary stones," theft (robbery), usury by taking essentials of the orphan and widow as collateral, violence against the needy, lying, and the like. Job 30 adds to this list of sins rejoicing in the calamity of the one's own enemy, being secretly enticed to worship other gods (sun and moon), coveting, idolatry generally, and he affirms the principle of lex talionis in judgment. Job (12:2) also shows him well familiar with the Mosiac law, and Job even sarcastically paraphrases Deuteronomy 4:5-8, in saying to his discomforting friends "Surely you are the people and wisdom will die with you." How funny is that.
Job shows himself to keep God's law self-consciously and carefully, as a man who "feared God and shunned evil," as Job 23:11-12 reads "My foot hath held his steps; His way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food."
The final phrase of this verse ends up in the Psalms as a nearly exact parallel.
Job 1:1-4 says he lived in Uz (not far from Sheba and Seba we learn), as the greatest of all the men of the east. Job was a Gentile "son of Abraham," and a priest-king. Job 1:14-17 indicates that it was the "Sabaeans" and "Chaldeans" -- eastern peoples of the north and south in (or just outside of) the Mesopotamian region -- who fell upon Job's servants and camels etc., either killing them or else hauling them off. These were the local gangs, not distant travelers.
Genesis 5:4 says that a book had already been written in the lifetime of Adam. They also had musicians, metalurgists and tentmakers. And Moses certainly could write -- he had a proper education in the wisdom of Egypt (as Daniel and company did in Babylon from the Chaldeans). Nothing prevents the Mosaic authorship of the book of Job, yet this cannot (so far as I know) be proven. I regard it as likely, especially given the marriage of Moses in his lifetime to a Midianitess and an Ethiopian.
The Bible throughout associates Ethiopia with Havilah and Ophir, nations known to be near Sheba and Seba, which means the present "Ethiopia" may not be the biblical referent. Ethiopia existed before the Flood, and in mentioned in the very earliest chapters of Genesis. One could hardly expect post-diluvian peoples to know where the earlier Ethiopia had existed. Sometimes duplicate names of places occurs, as with Jericho (archaeologists were astonished to find two different Jerichos, just as today one might find more than one "Kansas City," since Kansas and Missouri both have one).
Job 29:12 shows Job a tribal chief and civil judge -- "I chose out their way [the way of the young men], and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners." Assuming that he knows what his "friends" know (as Job says he does), Job knows a great deal about the behavior of animals and of biblical theology, including the fall of Lucifer and his angels, whom God "charged with folly." Where did they learn this, if not from biblical tradition passed down to them from Abraham, which includes the earlier history of Genesis, including the fall of angels?
Job 28:12-20 asks regarding the source and nature of wisdom, comparing it to gemstones, gold and silver, and features numerous reference to wisdom and knowledge throughout. This indicates that the Job and his companions were wise men, not that much different in kind from the later Magi, and not that different in kind, though to a much lesser degree than Solomon the wise, son of David, king of Israel.
It reads,
"But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?"
Job is a wise man, and a rigtheous son of Abraham, but he soon learns that his wisdom is insufficient to judge the doings of the Almighty. God, who by wisdom laid the foundations of the earth, challenges the adequacy of Job's standing -- he is not an eyewitness ("were you there?") to the deeds of creation, and is unable to understand the inner workings and deep mysteries of the way God created all things. Therefore, if not the creation, then not God's providence either. This is nature of God's opening (and closing) argument. When God reasons out a verdict, this is called "the final answer."
Job wisely acknowledges the soundness of God's point, repenting with all his heart at the foolish words he spoke, which implied that he had a right to judge in such matters, matters to wonderful for him (and all the other sons of Abraham for that matter, excepting One only).
By way of a philosophical note, Job precedes the famed 5th and 4th century Athenian philosopher, "Socrates" in this dialectic teaching method by some 1300 to 1500 years, and yet receives no place in history of philosophy texts of the public school system, showing the anti-biblical bias of of secular texts and courses. Any course in college named "the love of wisdom" (Grk. "philos" + "sophia") which makes no reference to either Job or Solomon, has dice that aren't just loaded, they are utterly defective from a biblical standpoint.
The overall literary structure of Job's narrative highlights the goodness of God toward His people, even when appearances suggest the contrary. God governs providentially with exceedingly great wisdom, and throughout all its mysterious details, God is good. Job repents and believes what he had forgotten. We can always trust God because God is always -- immutably -- good. God had brought upon Job "just the thing that I feared" to show him that the fear was needless to begin with. And in the end, Job died old and full of years (meaning very happy with the way everything went, or satisfied with life).
Yet at the nadir of his misery, Job the priest, king and preacher still clung to the source of his righteousness, the knowledge that God is good, and that his resurrection was, therefore, inevitable. Job 19:25-27 recounts this dramatically:
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."
This was the same reason Abraham properly employed in the situation with Isaac, in which God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, just as Hebrews says.
Now this goodness of God is not restricted to Job, or to times past. And the Goodness of God toward Job shows up later both in the life and deeds of Solomon the king, and in the New Testament, with One greater than Solomon.
Now Solomon was wiser than Job, and all Job's friends, for God had promised him wisdom greater than all that had gone before him, and Solomon (1 Kings 4 says) was "wiser than all men. 1 kings 4:29-34 say that "God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
The grandiose suffix contains a choice of words -- even as the sand on the seashore,which deliberate mimicks God's promise to Abraham, showing that the granting of Solomon's requrest fulfills the promise (n part at least) Solomon, like Job, is an heir according to the promise of God to Abraham.
1 Kings 4 adds: "And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country ..." [i.e. Job's country and that of the neighboring Queen of Sheba] "
Job was chief of the wise men of the east. The book of Job shows the dialectical process of cross-examination they employed as part of the culture to learn the wisdom they so highly prized. The text also mentions the Chaldaeans -- probably naming that culture (neo-Babylonian) which also prized wisdom but sought it in the sciences - mixing astrology and astronomy -- which gave us the magi from the east, who came to visit the young Messiah in the gospel of Matthew.]
So the writer of 1 Kings intends to show that this well-known group of wisdom seekers -- including Job and the Queen of Sheba -- had been excelled in wisdom by King Solomon. Solomon is thus presented as one greater than Job in wisdom by direct reference to Job's homeland -- the east country.
This also explains WHY the Queen of Sheba came to hear Solomon's wisdom - she grew up in a culture where wisdom was highly valued, and public debates (after a very specific fashion) formed part of the accepted cultural method for finding it. This situation stemmed from the fact that -- as with Solomon -- their canon was limited to some written revelation, and some in the form of oral traditions passed down accurately to their descendants.
1 Kings then goes onto show that Solomon's wisdom excels all men of all times to that point in these words: "and all the wisdom of Egypt." According to Acts, the wisdom of Egypt was already reknowned in the time of Moses, who received its best education as a son of pharaoh. This means the Egyptian empire had reigned as the cultural elite for millenia, at times alongside Babylon (the later Babylonian Empire or Neo-Babylonian state is where we get the "wise men" known as "Chaldeans." Earliest Babylon was simply "Shinar.")
The two cultures here noted for their wisdom -- or else the comparison of Solomon's wisdom with theirs is useless to the point -- "Seba-Sheba" and Egypt, name cultures known for such BEFORE the time of solomon with long histories and reputations associated with different kinds of wisdom, or "wisdom traditions."
Egypt was notorious for its wisdom primarily because of the math and sciences that flourished there early, and as is seen in the construction of pyramids whose dimensions and structure still fascinate mathematicians and scientists even today. In contrast to these monuments to death, Solomon built the greatest monument to life -- the Temple of Glory -- in Israel, which unfortunately did not survive.
1 Kings adds, "and his fame was in all nations round about." This had also been true of the two cultures previously mentioned, and which is why the Bible names them particularly. Solomon's reputation for wisdom grew JUST because he excelled the best the cultures had ever yielded.
This would include the wisdom of Job, the greatest man in the east country just prior to Moses. The structure and manner of obtaining wisdom found in the book of Job, as well as the numerous references to knowledge and wisdom, show that this work does in fact properly belong in the wisdom literature genre. 1 Kings 4 confirms this, adding:
"And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom."
Many of the proverbs concern kings and their duties. Solomon interacted (possibly) with hundreds of them. Since they came to hear his wisdom, and dined with him at his table, one can imagine that the matters discussed included "matters kings searched out" (for it is the glory of a king to search out a matter) - what we would today call "sciences" -- and points of ruling and law -- difficult cases and juridical matters needing exposition from one who knew the better law code. Doubtless, they had some of their own wisdom to offer, and you can bet that Solomon listened and interacted with them. Several of Solomon's proverbs have precursors in Egyptian proverbs and some speculate "borrowing" occured. But this is unprovable. If Solomon learned from other visiting kings, this would hardly contradict anything in the Bible in any case.
When we come to the New Testament, we find wise men from the east country -- Job's homeland and the area of ancient Seba and Sheba -- coming to visit the Messiah, one greater in wisdom even than Solomon. In fact, Matthew's primary point is that Jesus is the New Covenant Solomon, the source and treasure-house of all wisdom (Cf. 1 Cor. 1:31; Col. 3:2, etc.) and Israel's great preacher and teacher. Matthew thus presents Jesus as king of the Jews, but the anti-thesis of Herod, "king of the Jews" and of Augustus and Tiberias, who as Roman Emperors, sat as kings over all kings in all the Roman Empire.
Magi were ordinarily understood as "wise men," men concerned with understanding both the world around them -- to help kings rule well -- and (sometimes, but not always) the future. Kings relied on them as counsellors to help them manage their kingdoms well -- as we can see obviously in the book of Daniel (in which Daniel rescued them by his wisdom from God to interpret a very scary and royal dream).
Matthew 2:1-15 reads:
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel."
"....and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was ... And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way."
Then, we are told, that the family of Jesus "departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son."
These wise men from the east country brought gifts to Christ from Seba and Sheba, just as the Pslamic prophecy says. Psalm 72:8-11 reads:
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish [far west] and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba [the far east] shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings [from the eastern horizon to the western] shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him."
Then Christ left for, and returned from, Egypt. These two locales form exactly those reputed lands of wisdom over which Solomon is said to have excelled. Seeing that Matthew's Gospel presents the Lord Jesus as the superior teacher of Israel, we conclude that Matthew intends to show, even from His birth, that Christ was given to Israel, not only "he who is born king of the Jews," but as One Greater than Solomon, who was wiser than all men, even than those wise men of the east country -- Seba and Sheba -- and than all the wisdom of Egypt.
By the first century B.C. Alexandria had come to be noted for major advances in science, and for its library at Alexandria, and also for the Septuagint, which Christ and the apostles would most often quote.
The the gold, frankincense and myrrh carried a point both practical and symbolic. The provided liquid assets for a family with a new baby. The symbolic point is that Seba and Sheba bring gifts to Christ as the King of Kings, acknowledging Him as the rightful heir of God's promise to Abraham [for Abraham also gave gifts to his children and sent them to the east country], and just as the Queen of Sheba had brought gifts to Solomon, so also her descendants to the Greater than Solomon.
These wise men were emissaries of a king. We know this from the parallel Luke draws bewteen them and the Pharisees and Saducees summoned as "wise men" by Herod the king to tell the place of the birth of Christ.
Herod the king has HIS wise men, and the other (Gentile) wise men were therefore sent by THEIR king. We also know that it says "they returned to their own country," showing the each comes from the same country as the others. Seba and Sheba may simply have merged by this time. But these are not three kings of the orient, but three wise men (royal counsellors) sent from the one king then ruling over the territory of what was Seba and Sheba in more ancient times. In other words, these are desendants of Job and/or the Queen of Sheba.
The Queen of Sheba is also called the "queen of the south" even though were are told here than Sheba is east. This means either that Sheba is due southeast of Jerusalem, or else that at the time the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, the South country had gained control of the eastern regions of Seba and Sheba. Either option could make her ruler of both the south and east.
The Gold frankincense and myrrh came from this region, and show one king giving gifts to another, and wise men to the wisest of men, though no yet a man. This sharing of the good things God, which He had imparted to the descendants of Abraham, Job and the Queen of Sheba, show that in Christ, Lord of the nations, that in the time to come all kings will bring Him gifts, according to a priesthood, a sacrifice and kingship not for Jews alone.
Wisdom is transcendent, and forms the foundation of the earth from the beginning; we find it in the creation of Adam and Eve even more particularly than the lower creation. Thus, the second Adam would necessarily be Solomon's superior in wisdom, and His priesthood not of that tied to Jewish tribes, but to the order of the "cosmic temple" described in Genesis 1, the new creation. Here, God makes no distinction among priests and kings between Jew and Gentile, as the book of Job makes very clear. And the wisdom literature makes abundantly clear that special revelation of the Gospel of Christ will in the end bear the same scope as the light of nature does now.
As the light of nature shines upon all men, so "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Kyrios), to the Glory of God the Father."
Just as it is written in the prophet Isaiah:
Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. .... To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
.....Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
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