If you want to thrive when life gets hard, you've got to build that foundation before trouble comes. Job didn't just survive his suffering. He thrived because his roots were deep in God before suffering ever came his way. That's right. And that's what we're talking about today, how to live now so that when trials come, we don't just make it through, we thrive through them.
Coming up today on the TV Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis, and we are here in the Clearview Today studio with our host, Dr.
Abadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio. It's good to be here. Great to be here.
That's right. It's going to be a great episode today, great conversation about something that's heavy on a lot of people's hearts. That's right. As we're ending 2025, you know, we're looking back at the year. It's hard to believe that we're already in 2025.
But maybe the year's been good, maybe the year's been bad. Maybe it's been a mix. We're going to talk about how God works all things together. I'm starting to sound like my own dad. Where did the time go?
Where did it go? I'm five. Hey, look, before we dive in, I do want to give a quick shout out to one of our sponsors, Mighty Muscadine. Believe it or not, there are over 136 million Americans right this moment who are struggling with diabetes. And so each and every single one of them are looking for natural ways to.
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You can write into contact at clearviewtodayshow.com or you can text us or call us at 252-582-4525. 5028. Dr. Shaw, we have tentatively, tentatively wrapped our series, walking through the book of Romans. Yes.
It was a long road to get there, but man, coming out the other end, I understand the gospel. I understand Paul's writing so much better. And I know there's always more to learn, but today, our verse of the day is coming to us from the book of Job. Ending the year on the book of Job. In Job 42, 5, Job says, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
Something very beautiful in that. It's a powerful book. It's one that people turn to in the midst of suffering and they quickly turn away from it because they feel like, oh, that's not what I expected because apparently I'm not suffering enough. This guy is really going through it. And then you read dialogue after dialogue from Job's friends and Job's rebuttals.
And you finally throw your hand up in the air and say, I don't know where this is going. But it's definitely not helping me. It's my favorite book, but I don't need the book of Job at this moment. That's the take that many people have when they look at the book of Job, like, okay, well, I guess I can't complain about my problems because look at how bad Job had it.
So I guess I'll just kind of suck it up and deal with it. But listening to your series on the book of Job and then here talking about it now, I'm starting to see the These themes. And one of them is seeing Christ. You know what I mean? We just put out, or we're getting ready to put out a devotional that's focused on seeing Christ in the Old Testament.
And so he has that famous one: you know, at last, I know my Redeemer lives, I'll see him in my flesh, but even here, my eye sees you. There seems to be this theme of seeing Christ. And I feel like with us at Clearview, making Christ visible, you know, that's that's something that I imagine you would latch on to very, very. Vigorously. Yes, absolutely.
I mean, that's exactly what Job is doing, he is seeing Christ visible through the eyes of faith. And that's what you and I need when we're going through a difficult time in life. And it seems like our suffering just keeps going, keeps going. It feels like there is no relief. And we're trying treatments, we're trying.
uh to work three jobs. We're trying every Trick in the book on fixing relationships. We're doing all of those things and we feel like, man, it's just not working out. And that's where It may seem simplistic, but it's not. What you and I need is a vision of Jesus Christ.
You know, we used to say that back in the 70s, but not we, I've heard people say that. Christ is the answer for the world today. That's the song. And people say, what do you mean Christ is the answer? It seemed very simplistic, but it's not.
It's simple. Christ is the answer. Of course, He's the answer for our forgiveness, for our. our sins and all that but More than that, as we're facing trials, Christ is the answer. And I'm hoping as we walk through this series.
People will see that. Absolutely. Absolutely. There's a reason that the book of Job has, you know, had the impact that it has. It's not just like the suffering book, like everybody, when you have a bad day, go read Job.
There's a reason because there's something very profound about what Job says and how Job interacts with God throughout the book. You have these people that come into his life and give him all sorts of advice: some good, some bad, some in the middle. But really, the crowning jewel, I think, of Job is how he then responds to God at the end of the day. That's right. That's right.
You know, we had an entire episode yesterday on how to share the gospel with people, how to evangelize. And I think a lot of times Christians are satisfied with people hearing the gospel. I preached the gospel to you or I shared the gospel with you, and now you've heard. But the goal, like you just said, Dr. Shah, is that they see Christ, not just like Job says, not that they just hear about it, but that they actually see him and respond to it.
And so it's kind of funny because I started doing Job as a devotional. Three or four weeks before you started preaching on it, before we started talking about doing it on the show. And I remember going through it, and it's crazy because you know that Job's friends are wrong. You know that all the people who talk to him are like, hey, Job, you must have done something wrong. And I know because the Bible says he didn't do anything wrong.
But sometimes you end up siding with Job's friends. I don't know what it is, but it's so real. And being the oldest book in the Old Testament, it's so crazy how it still applies to my life today in 2025. Absolutely. Before we dive into Job's situation and his friends and their speeches and all the other information, there's a lot of amazing things that are found in the book of Job.
I want us to at least set the foundation, deal with the context. context, the background of the book of Job, because then we'll be able to appreciate the message so much more. We'll understand what Job is saying, his friends are saying. And Elihu, this mysterious person who shows up towards the latter part of the book, we'll understand what they're really talking about and why they're wrong and what Job keeps insisting, his innocence, his righteousness, why he is right, but for a very different reason. Let's spend some time.
Maybe it'll take us like a show or two just getting the context of the book. Let's do it. And you just mentioned, John, that this is the oldest book in the Bible, does not mean that it is the oldest account in history Because oldest account would be Genesis. Genesis, it'd be the creation. Right.
But all this book, in the sense of which one was penned. Which one is penned first?
Now we can always make a case that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, but somewhere in the 15th, 16th century B C Mm-hmm.
So where did you get the information about? The days of creation. Or all the various nations that developed and all of that, or Noah's flood and all that. Where did Moses get that information? We can always make the case that there were sources that he had, that he.
Had um uh Pre-Torah sources or pre-Genesis sources that he turned to, maybe some oral. Tradition that was passed down among the Hebrews, maybe some. Traditions that were passed down among other peoples, like Jethro, his father-in-law, that he. Took all that together and put the book of Genesis together, right? And that was in the 16th century and and you're correct.
maybe those sources do go much older. But as to the first book, that was penned based on The content of the book, based on some of the mentions and the references in the book, has to be the book of Job. Because some of the things he talks about, like dinosaurs and the ice age. happened right after the flood. And where does the flood fall?
Somewhere about 2350 BC.
So do you think Job is living around Noah's time? Like, do you think they might have overlapped? Oh, definitely. I think see, Noah lived about 350 years after the flood. He was six hundred when the flood came.
And he lived about 350 after the flood.
So 350 after the flood would put him just about two thousand BC, Noah. Abraham is somewhere about two thousand to two thousand one BC.
So even Abraham and Noah are overlapping. Very well could be. Yeah. Maybe they even met. That's wild to think about.
You know, we have this idea of history in our heads, but when you really look at the dates and the timeline, that overlap between Noah and Abraham. That's kind of wild to think about. Yeah. That they could have known about one another.
Well, we're so used to history, like generations being not 350 years. Like, say there's 350 years. It's like, oh, cool. Yeah, that's like three or four generations. You don't think one man's lifetime.
Right. Yeah. And I believe they must have interacted because their stories are found in one book.
So, it's not like they live next door to each other or in the same town or the same city. I I still feel like they were part of this This common story about God being the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God being holy. God making man in his image, and that's where the Trinity comes in. The Spirit of the Lord hovering over the face of the deep, all these things.
Not everybody believed that. Uh, because when you read some of the parallel literature after the flood coming from Mesopotamia or Egypt, they already are worshiping false gods. Which means There were people who were already walking away from God, but then there were people who were still holding on to the truth. Of how creation came to be and how God judged the world. Because of sin, it had crossed the limit, and God destroyed the world with water.
And so, to answer your question, I'm gonna be kind of digressing here. I truly believe Noah and Abraham must have known each other because they're found in the same book. Mm-hmm. And then Also Job. Uh could Job have known Noah And Abraham Well In the book of Genesis.
There are certain names mentioned. We can look at that later on. Sure. that are very similar To the names of Job's friends. And there's also a Jobab that's mentioned.
Who could very well be Dijo? Wow. Jabob? Yeah. Oh, wow.
Wow. So there's a lot of overlap here. And so I guess the question is, how do we then, how do we avoid the temptation of putting Job alongside other writings that we might be tempted to say these are, you know what I mean? Like when you go, the further and further back you go, the more tempted you are to say that's more mythic literature. That's more, you know, stories and how do you, how do you say, just myths.
Yeah. How do we avoid putting Job? Because Job doesn't read like a myth. And yet it's got elements like dinosaurs, like the Ice Age that people struggle with. Right.
Well, so let's back up for a moment and talk about.
Some of the things that you find in Job that tell us that it's a very old book. Not pre-flood, of course. But post-flood, but very early. Right. Well, one thing is the way Job's wealth.
is measured. In Job chapter 1 and verse 2, it says, And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep. three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people Of the East. Job's a big deal.
It's a big deal. But The idea or the measurement of your wealth based on your livestock count. Was something that happened in that time period after the flood. And sort of into that second millennium. B C.
Gotcha. Describing his wealth, not just that he was a wealthy person, but he's wealthy because he has flocks, because he has servants, because he has a large household. That shows us that it is an older. Yeah, it's somewhere. Post-2350 BC.
Okay. And prior to maybe 181900 BC. Whereas later on, they would have said he just had this amount of money. He had this kind of currency. Right.
Gotcha. Because you hear a lot of that.
Now, in some places, like in Africa and other places, you still measure wealth by your cows or your goats, you know, things like that. Wow. Something else you find is that. And The idea that the father of the family, the patriarch of the family, is the priest. Of the family.
This is also a very early concept. In the history of the post-flood world, is it that it goes away later? Unfortunately, I don't think we hear that as much anymore. Gotcha. Because human beings become sinful.
You know, I want to address that because you know, people think that the whole idea of family, care about your family, take care of your children, be the leader in your home. People think that this is something like the fundamentalists or the evangelicals have sort of conjured up in this you know, eighties, nineties world with a lot of pop psychology mixed into Christianity. That's not true. Job, it says right here. In Job chapter 1, verse 4, and his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day.
And I love this. and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. You know, if you are a parent with multiple children. You know How awesome it is to sit back and watch your children getting along. Especially when they're young.
Uh I mean definitely when they're young, but especially when they're older. It's a great feeling to know, hey, they're getting along, they love each other. Because, you know, siblings growing up, they fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they do.
So, that's though. This is evidence that Job performed his task as the priest of the family well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because they were inviting their sisters to come over. I'm sure with their husbands. Yeah.
Because I think by this time, according to some estimates, Job is about maybe 60 years old. Yeah. So his children are married. And he's a grandfather by the children married, have their families, but the siblings are still, you know, coming in out of each other's houses. The brothers are inviting the sisters and their families over to eat, spend time together.
That brings you pride as a dad. That brings you, you know, not pride in the sense of like, look at me, how great I am. We did well. Yeah, we did well in teaching them to love one another. And why sisters, why is that mentioned?
Because sisters, once they're married, now they belong to a different family. They carry a different name.
So it's rarer for them to be able to come back. Yeah, because now you are in that family. You hold the banner of that family or the crest of that family. You're no longer. you know, part of Job family.
But here, they're still coming back together. Right. So it says a lot about Job's character and leadership.
Something else it says, and again, I'm digressing because there's so much, so much wonderful truth there for our present day, is The idea of family connecting with each other. was very special to them. We think that this is something that came later, but no, the idea of family members interacting with one another and still coming together. If you go by the evolutionary idea, We all came from Cave people grunting. And walking around with bigger over the head and taking advantage of each other and stabbing each other in the back and and men raping whoever they want to because that's what they're want to do.
They have this need to propagate. That's not what you find here. It's completely opposite. You find a very beautiful, very civilized, very together family unit. And you find Job as the dad kind of superseding all of this.
I love what it says about Job, too, that he's praying on behalf of his kids. Yes. It says that family priest. Beautiful. It says, So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them.
I mean, this was a dad who cared about His children's salvation. He cared about their spiritual growth. He cared when they made mistakes. He didn't sit back and say, Well, you know, I mean, you can only do so much with them. You know, I can't stand that in today's world.
It's like, well, you know, they're grown, they're going to make their choices and decisions. Yes. And you don't have to be an interfering parent, but you can. Step in and say Hey, I know you're married and you have your family, and I'm not here to tell you how to spend your money or how to buy and what not to buy and where y'all take your vacations. No, I'm not, but I do want to tell you, you've been raised better.
You need to go to church. If especially if you know your children are not going to church. Yeah. You have the right to say that, and you can say it with grace. You can say it with love.
Hey, this is important. And it's not for us as much as it's for you and your spouse.
Well, you know, I feel like growing up, we were made to go. I understand, but trust me, when you face difficult times in your life, you'll appreciate the fact. that you're in church hearing God's word. Don't walk away from your adult children and be like, I don't know. No, speak into their lives.
Yeah, I think people need to hear that too, because a lot of times as kids get older, just like you were saying, Dr. Shah, people take their hands off the reins. Right. They're like you, you know, they're going to make their own choices, they got to make their own mistakes, or they will get their hand in all the wrong things in the children's lives, right? Always interfering and meddling with their decisions.
That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about spiritual life. Job did not say, well, now, I guess my question is, like, where are y'all investing your money? Because you need to talk to me about that. He is talking about, hey, maybe y'all sinned.
And it says in verse 5, so it was, you know, all this is going on. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned. and curse God in their hearts. In drinking and whatnot, they may have done something dumb. Thus, Job did regularly.
Amen. Amen. He made this a spiritual habit, it's a discipline. And that's one of the things I think that's missing from Christian life today: that discipline, that making sure to do these things regularly. We're so afraid of falling into, and I think it's like a false.
kind of kind of twisted perverted fear that's not real but we're so afraid of if i do this as a habit then it doesn't mean anything i have to mean it every single time but you see that job has made a practice of this and that's why he's able to thrive under pressure because he has that discipline already built up i think parents also don't want to have that pressure that i don't want to pressure my kids i don't want to force them to make a decision they need to decide to follow god on their own you make them go to school you make them you make especially if they're living in at home yes right you make you make them brush their teeth you make them clean their room like let's let's build good habits especially where religion and where god is concerned let's let's build good spiritual habits for them when they're young that way when they're older they'll maintain those habits absolutely and again we're for those who are just joining in or you've been listening and wondering where are we going with this thing we're simply laying down the foundation we're laying down the background the context of the book of job so that we can appreciate the message so much more when we get into uh further into the book of job that's right because all of this i mean Jub's a great guy. He's a fantastic dad. He's wealthy. He's a model of a spiritual husband and father. I mean, he's clearly going to have a.
Easy sailing, smooth time the rest of his life and encounter no issues and suffer no heartache at all. Right, and if he doesn't, man, that really says a lot about God: that God would punish such an good kid. Yeah, I thought you were supposed to do right so that God wouldn't punish you. And you know what's funny? We grow up in church our entire lives, we still struggle with that.
Yeah, yeah, still, even me just like reading Job, I know the point, I've heard this preach, but still, you something about that sinful nature comes back and says, Man, what is God doing? Yeah, what is He doing? Um, I think about your little boy as we were in the sand dunes. Oh, yeah, it was in the Great Sand Dunes National Park, south of Colorado, yeah, southern part of uh the state of Colorado, yeah, oh, yes, that's right by the border of New Mexico. And we went to see the Sand Dunes National Park, and it was great.
We are having a great time. All of a sudden, rain started, like from nowhere, yeah. It was like it was like bright blue skies. I think it got like One cloud in the sky out of nowhere, just darkness. It's that time where you're like, oh, it's starting to cloud up a little bit.
Maybe we should rain. Boom! Like, like a movie, like a storm of like and not just rain. Like, we're talking a rain storm, like wind, yeah, whipping sand in your face. It's raining sideways, yeah.
And the rain has like sand in it. Sand. I mean, you're getting pelted with sand and water. I remember my wife saying, Nicole saying, My ears, my ears are hurting. I was like, Honey, take your hand, put it on your ears.
Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh. Because she had it in her pocket because my hands were cold. I was like, cold.
You have to. He said, but my hands are cold. I said, pull your jacket sleeves out. Yeah, I'm going to drop it. Cover your hands and then cover your hands.
I'm going to drop some pictures in this video so you guys can see it. But man, it was one of the craziest times. But tell us about what your son did.
So we had hiked all the way out to the sand dunes.
So it's not, it's not an easy walk back. If you're going, if you've ever been on sand dunes before, especially these ones, it ain't like, okay, now let's just make a quick five-minute walk back. Did you do like a mile and a half or two? Maybe two miles. It was a trek.
I think it was easily too. It was a trek out there. If we had thought it was going to storm, we probably wouldn't have gone so far, but I'm glad we did. We started going back, and the sheer chaos of the moment just coming back, we got all the kids together. We're wrapping them up.
I had Holden, I think, in my arms wrapped up, and Gavin was walking beside me. And I don't know what in the world made him say this, but he just was like, Why is God doing this? And Dr. Shush said, Man, people have been asking that question for thousands of years. Same question.
Why is God doing this? Why is God doing it? I don't know what came over. I was like, oh man, at that point, that was a valid question. I was thinking the same thing, but I didn't want to say it.
But my arms were burning so bad, her holding, holding, and trying to just put my head down, have my hood over. He was just like, why is God doing this? He's three at the time. He's three years old. That's funny.
Yeah. But that's what we do. That's right. Now, going back to the book of Job for maybe in a minute or two.
Something else we find out that tells us it's an older book is um. The Job or older account post-flood.
Well, Job was probably 200 years old when he died.
Now Prior to the flood, people lived Hundreds of years. Right. Like we just mentioned Noah a few moments ago, 950 when he died.
So he was one of those who crossed the boundary of the pre-flood, post-flood world. Of course, his three sons as well, and their wives, and Noah's wife as well. But Post-flood, people began to live Shorter lifespan. For example. Abraham 175 years old when he died.
Sarah, a little earlier, one twenty seven, when she passed away. Jacob 147 Um Isaac 180. I guess we've we're backtracking here.
So, Job being 200, again, this is not hard and fast, but I think it tells us that Job was right there with Abraham, or maybe a little bit earlier. And people wonder, it's like, why did people's lifespan drop like that? Think about it. Flood is over.
Now you have Standing water And what's going to happen with standing water? You're going to have mosquitoes, you're going to have microbes that are going to develop, and they're going to fly around and bite people. There's going to be disease and diseases are coming, virus is coming, bacteria is growing.
So, these are the reasons why I believe that the age of human beings begins to drop. But Job right there, two hundred, which means he's right there Post-flood, but not further in. Because if it was further in, then Joe would have died at 147 or 130 or 120. Like Moses was 120, right? If I'm not wrong.
Yeah. What is the, wrapping up this, these kind of thoughts, what is the, what is the relevance for our listeners to say, okay, Job is an old book. I get it. What does that do for me? Because I'm struggling right now.
Yeah. And so I want to know kind of like what is why does it matter that Job is an old book? Right, right. A couple of things very quickly, and we'll need to pick this up next show. Just because it's an old book.
Does not mean that it's an irrelevant book. In today's world, especially if you're an academic, you know, or for that matter, if you are in technology, if you are in medicine, if you are in. Any of those fields, you know that. Things are constantly developing. Today's Innovations will be antique by tomorrow.
But when it comes to the book of Job, we have to rethink that. And that's one of the reasons why I'm going to go through over some of these details: that the things he talks about are not just primitive, backside of the desert, old. Desert Wisdom No, this book has things mentioned in it. That definitely proved that it's an old book. But is that it's a timeless book?
It speaks to you like Job was written just today or last night. It is so relevant. The way it talks, the way it describes life, it is. Unbelievable, it has a great way of making you realize that you're thinking these same thoughts all these thousands of years later without even knowing it. Absolutely, yeah.
Humanity is humanity. We the setting has changed, but we have we have struggled with the same things since since we began. That's right as a species. That's right, guys. Make sure you join us next time, same time, same station.
We're going to be diving into this further discussion about the book of Job and how relevant it is for our lives today. Thanks again to our sponsors for supporting today's episode. And if today was your first time listening to us, hey, we just want to tell you we love you. We want to talk to you again tomorrow or the next time that whenever you're listening to this, uh, so make sure that you are subscribed on all those various platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pray.com, TBN. Make sure you're listening and following along with Dr.
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