Like Christ, Job was a prophet shown no honor by those closest to him (cf. Mark 6:4), a priest who made mediation for his three friends who offered no help in his anguish (cf. Mark 14:47), and was a kingly figure mocked by the rabble of society amid his greatest trial (cf. Mark 15:16–32). Like Christ, also, Job arrived at his greatest expressions of those offices through becoming God’s suffering servant. Yet Job is not the Christ, but Job sheds light on who Christ is and the depths of the anguish he experienced as the truly innocent one suffered, body and soul, as if he were guilty in the stead of sinners.

He alone is known to all men throughout the entire world as Christ; that He is acknowledged and witnessed to by all men under this title . . . and that to this day He is honored by His devotees throughout the world as King, revered more than a prophet, and glorified as the true and only High Priest of God, and in addition to all this as the Word of God, pre-existent, having His being before all ages and having received from His Father the right to be worshipped; and that He is adored as God.1

Three offices in the Old Testament were signified via anointing/chrism:2 prophets, priests, and kings. As evidenced by the quote from Eusebius above, from its earliest days, the church confessed Jesus to be the fulfillment of all three. As the Christ or anointed one, Jesus is the Prophet greater than Moses, the High Priest greater than Aaron, and the King greater than David. He alone fulfills each of these offices perfectly so that we might be saved. As Ian McFarland reports John Calvin’s view on the munus triplex:

Christ’s saving work incorporates all three offices: he is prophet as the definitive teacher of sacred doctrine (Inst. 2.15.1; cf. Heb. 1:1–2); he is king as the sole, eternal ruler of the Church (Inst. 2.15.3; cf. John 18:36); and he is priest as the one whose death made expiation for human sin, and who continues to intercede with God on our behalf (Inst. 2.15.6; cf. Heb. 9:22).3

However, thousands of years before the events of the incarnation, there was another who occupied all three of those offices: Job. In the unlikely land of Uz, I contend that we find a type of the threefold office of the Messiah.

Although typological connections between Job and Christ, generally speaking, remain a contested point,4 it is not novel to see Job as foreshadowing Christ despite the New Testament not making such a connection explicit.5 For instance, many, such as Christopher Ash, see Job foreshadowing Christ’s role as the suffering servant of the Lord.6 Additionally, it’s not uncommon to see each of themes appear in discussions on Job.7 Nevertheless, I’ve yet to come across an explicit connection to the concept of the munus triplex. This connection is important, however, for in Job we see how his experience of suffering elevates his exercise of the three offices in such a way that would not have occurred had he not suffered. Through his suffering, Job is vindicated as a true prophet, his priestly function extends beyond his family to his friends, and his kingly authority is restored and increased as the peoples flock to him for a banquet in his home. In this, Job foreshadows the glories of Christ’s threefold office that were achieved through, not apart from, his suffering: his vindication as a true prophet in the resurrection, his once and for all sacrifice for sins, and his ascension to the throne of David to which all nations will flock to take part in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. In what follows, I make the case for each of these connections, hopefully shedding light on the Christological beauty to be discovered in the Book of Job.

Job as Prophet

Prophets, as Philip Ryken noted, “gave God’s Word to God’s people, boldly speaking truth to power in contemporary situations and perceptively foretelling the future.”8 Such prophets did not speak on their own authority but spoke from God—often receiving revelation via dreams (i.e. Joseph, Daniel) or personal interactions with manifestations of God’s presence (Moses, Elijah). Prophets in the Old Testament had distinct encounters with the Living God not common to all, and they were tasked with speaking accurately about God. Job fits this description in a few ways.

First, Job had a direct and revelatory encounter with God. As Eleonore Stump highlights:

While God has been talking to him, Job has been, somehow, seeing God. The communication between God and Job is thus, in some sense, face-to-face communication. I am not claiming here that Job’s visual system, either functioning normally or in some non-normal way, is actually giving information about an embodied face. Rather, I mean that, in the course of the divine speeches, God has been somehow directly present to Job, where the presence at issue produces the kind of cognition that would require the literal sight of a human face if the cognition in question were of a human being.9

Whatever the nature of Job’s vision of God, his experience was unique. Not only did it set him apart from most of the faithful saints of old, but it even set him apart from most of the prophets. Job had lengthy, face-to-face communication with God who revealed his character and the nature of his benevolent care for his creation—truths that were ultimately shared in some shape, form, or fashion.10

Second, Job accurately predicted the future on a few occasions. I will briefly highlight two of those. First, in the short term, Job insisted upon his innocence—a truth we knew from chapters one and two but was not known to his friends. Job predicted that the Lord would not dismiss him coldly but vindicate him in the presence of his friends. For Job says, Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would pay attention to me. There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. (Job 23:6-7 ESV) By the end of the book, both realities come to fruition when Job’s friends are rebuked for not speaking rightly about God as Job had done (cf. Job 42:7).

In the long term, Job prophesied of Christ and the bodily resurrection of the just. In chapter nineteen, Job proclaims: For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27 ESV) I believe John Gill accurately captures the meaning of this text when he comments:

By my Redeemer, he means not any mere man that should rise up and vindicate him; for the account of his then living, and of his standing on the earth in the latter day, will not agree with such an one; nor God the Father, to whom the character of a Redeemer is seldom or ever given, nor did he ever appear or stand on earth, nor was his shape seen at any time, John 5:37. but the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Goel, the word here used, our near kinsman, and so our Redeemer, to whom the right of redemption belonged; and who was spoken of by all the holy prophets, from the beginning of the world, as the Redeemer of his people, who should redeem them from all their sins; from the law, its curses and condemnation; from Satan, and his principalities and powers; from death and hell, and everlasting destruction; and that by giving himself a ransom for them; all which was known in the times of Job, ch. 33:24 and known by him, who speaks of him as living. . . . God of his grace gives both interest and knowledge: and such a knowledge as here expressed is a peculiar favour; it is owing to . . . to the spirit of wisdom and revelation.11

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