Something I’ve always found fascinating about the Scriptures is how often they cross-reference each other. Things in the Old Testament are revealed on a deeper level in the New Testament. Writers in the New Testament do callbacks to multiple things in the Old Testament.
I think there’s a tendency to overlook a lot of the middle chapters in Job, seeing them as a long waste of time. But as I was going through Job this time, I noticed a large number of prophecies and/or predictions that come true later within the book of Job. Other times, Job and his friends will say something in their dialogue, which then comes to pass later in other Scriptures.
Here’s a list of a few of them:
- Job 11:4-6: Job’s friend, Zophar, wishes that God would give Job a piece of his mind. Obviously, this happens in Job 38.
- Job 13:3, 20-27: Job said he desires to speak to the Almighty and argue his case before God. He doesn’t realize that he’s about to get that chance. Plus, God will answer Job’s two requests to essentially stop the onslaught of pain.
- Job 15:1-16: A lot of what Eliphaz says here actually sounds like God’s response later in the book.
- Job 16:18-22: He’s appealing to Jesus before Jesus was actually on the scene. Crazy!
- Job 19:21-25: He wishes that this would all be written in a book. Tada! It is.
- Job 28:12-28: These words on wisdom resemble the wisdom of God in Proverbs or even in early Genesis.
- Job 29:12-20: Hints of Messianic language, aka Jesus phrases.
Isn’t it crazy?
In the midst of the vain discussions between Job and his three friends, it turns out they actually spoke a few truths. Imagine!
Omer Redden 