Hi Mike,

What is the significance of Job’s statement: “The thing I feared most has come upon me”?
Thanks,

M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question. Here is that statement by Job:

Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

What Job is confessing is that He has never in his life known “the peace that passes understanding”.

Php 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Job is confessing that he worried all the time about whether he was pleasing God and his children and his friends and neighbors. Look at what we are told about Job’s state of mind before his trials even came upon him:

Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

Job worried “continually” that his sons had done something to offend God. Being anxious about the unknown is as natural as breathing. It takes faith in the Word of God to overcome that anxiety.
Here is one verse of scripture about which Job knew nothing.

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Remember Job is the Old Testament type of each of us in our own order.
Job’s confession is what we all must confess before we will be granted to know and accept that every trial of every day is actually nothing less than a gift from God to perfect us. When we know that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and when we know that He has complete control of the good and the evil, then all we need is for Him to give us the faith that He is a God of love who will redeem all of His creation in His time and in His way. When we know God to that extent, and when He grants us to have faith in His love, then we will know and have the peace that we did not have when God had a hedge up that kept the adversary from trying our faith.
These verses should give us the peace which we, like Job, do not have before we become aware of these truths:

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Ecc 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
Ecc 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

We deny it while we are in Babylon, nevertheless the Truth is that we are as self- righteous as Job, and we believe that if we just attend church, pay our tithes, and do good works that we can avoid the chastening and scourging of the seven last plagues of God’s wrath, when in reality we are doing nothing less than making certain that His wrath will be poured out upon us:

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

In time every man will know that fiery trial and all in Adam will come to Christ and His Father:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Job is the Old Testament figure of us when we know nothing of the total sovereignty of God and while we are anxious about the future and we work to be wealthy in this world. Like Job we, too, must lose everything, especially our own righteousness, before we will be given Christ’s righteousness and before we come to understand that all things are ours and are all for our sakes:

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Mar 10:30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

We do not receive a hundredfold mothers, sisters, and brothers “now in this time” physically, but we do receive all those things spiritually “now in this time”:

Mat 12:48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
Mat 12:49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Mat 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

I hope this has answered your question “What is the significance of Job saying ‘The thing I greatly feared is come upon me”. Our old man greatly fears his demise, yet it is as certain as the rising of the Sun, because:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The wonderful truth sounds so hollow to our old man, and so full of promise to our new man:

2Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Your brother who knows that “peace of God” which is Christ.

Mike