The most godly man of his time may also have been the wealthiest, both in material possessions and in family.
"There were born unto him seven sons and three daughters (children so precious to Job that he constantly offered burnt sacrifices for them in case they had incurred God's wrath). His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east" (Job 1:3).
The more we have to lose, the more difficult our experience of loss. Thus, wealthy and blessed Job, when attacked by Satan, knew present portions of grief in direct proportion to previous bestowals of grace. "He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree" (Job 19:9-10).
Another man possessed of great means also felt the loss of them.
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (II Corinthians 8:9).
The Lord Jesus Christ was and is "the possessor of Heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:19). The Apostle Paul affirmed Christ's riches as "unsearchable" (Ephesians 3:8). Thus, when He "became poor" for our sakes, He felt that which Job never experienced. He felt infinite loss. This occurred when He left Heaven to become human. It also happened when He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). Most of all, the Lord Jesus felt loss when His Father and the Holy Spirit forsook Him to die alone on the cross of Calvary for our sins. The eternal riches of loving fellowship in the Godhead were stripped away, along with the Lord's crown of glory as replaced by a crown of thorns. This was loss as known from the basis of a spiritual wealth beyond all imagining. Again, the more we have to lose, the more we feel our losses. How much then did the Lord Jesus feel? We cannot know because our minds do not possess the capacity for measuring infinite things, nor can our hearts know what it would be like to see eternal glories stripped away. All we can know is that we cannot know. And we can, in this moment and forevermore, bow our hearts in loving and grateful worship.
One reason God so blessed Job is that He foreknew that His servant would one day lose all. The richest and most blessed man of his generation would become the poorest and most cursed. All would be lost. This would constitute Job as a vivid type and foreshadowing of the Savior to come, but with a stark exception: the Lord Jesus had infinitely more to lose, and He willingly gave everything away for our sakes. "Therefore doth my Father love Me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:17-18). Job never knew the Heavenly machinations between God and Satan that led to his trial (Job 1:6-12). The Lord Jesus, conversely, well knew of the devil's assaults (John 14:30). In full knowledge of the enemy's plans and attacks, our Savior willingly faced the hour of His sorrow and suffering. He valued our eternal gain as being worth the untold loss He experienced on the cross. Yes, Job's tribulations typified those the Lord Jesus knew. They did not, however, compare with the agonies experienced by our Lord. Nor will anyone's trial ever match the measure and degree of the sufferings of Christ because He knew more than any other the truth that the more we have to lose, the more we feel our losses.
"The redemption of their soul is precious (costly)."
(Psalm 49:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
But this man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
(Hebrews 7:24-25)
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