Our Story Begins
By faith, Abel offered to God, sacrifice
through which he had witness born to
him that he was righteous."
—Heb. 11:4
The story begins so simply, "There was a man in the
There are times in our lives when we wander through a dark valley without seeing the path out. We question why we are suffering, whether God has a redeeming purpose in it all and how we are to respond. Job's friends will try to explain his problems by appealing to the logic of good orthodox theology. However in the end, Job's almost irreverent appeal to God for an explanation leads to his justification and approval by God. While Job's orthodox church-going friends are rejected, he persevered. Job eventually speaks directly to God about his suffering while Job's friends speak about God to Job.
Traditionally theology has wrestled with how a good and all-powerful God could at the same time allow or even cause (as Job claims) suffering and evil in the world. But the usual abstract arguments, spoken smoothly by Job's three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar—are not only rejected by God and his beloved Job, they are not even the point of the book.
This is not a book of rational, systematic theology. This is the story of one human being—one very human and very righteous being—that loses his possessions, his family and his health. It is also a story that takes place within the household of faith. In addition, it is faith that rebels and a God who loves the rebel that is the surprise of the story.
When you get right down to it, though, there is something raw and wild about the book of Job. It is a book that can hold its own anywhere, whether in the university lecture hall or the beer hall. The hero is one who can strike a chord with people who have never felt drawn to any other Biblical story or figure, including Jesus. The world respects Job with a deep natural affection. In the eyes of the world, Job is less a saint than a comrade in arms. He did not found a cult or a religion, and he has never commanded any kind of following. Who would want to follow him? No, he is not even a religious figure at all. Simply a man, and more than that, simply a man who suffered. To be honest, rather than preaching in favor of religion, Job preaches against it, and this is something every sinner understands. Simply by suffering so enormously, and by hanging on for dear life through it all, Job has won the world's heart.
The greatness of Job's faith lies in the greatness of his mere humanity. Like the Apostle Paul, this man's spirituality did not thrive on covering up his weaknesses. On the contrary, he seems to glory in them. His faith stood up to having all his miserable frailty and human failure exposed and dragged out before the entire world. Right from the beginning Job seems somehow to have known in his bones that God's power is made perfect in weakness.
You can sum up not only the book of Job, but also the whole Gospel in the words used to describe Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. In fact, you can reduce it even further with the one word blameless. The central question of religion is "How can human beings get free of guilt?" How can we escape that sense, however vague, of gnawing insecurity that dogs our every step? Jesus asked His disciples, "Why are you afraid?" I don't know about you, but I am sometimes afraid because of my lingering suspicion that it is impossible to please God. Oh, I know that God loves me (maybe)—but how can I be sure He likes me? In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father loved both the rebellious son and his straight-laced elder brother, but in the end, only the younger son pleased him. Only the prodigal delighted his father's heart.
Of course, God loves us. Everybody knows that. But that is precisely the problem we have in relating to God: He loves everybody, indiscriminately, even the people that will suffer Hell. Who needs love like that? The real question is not whether God loves us, but whether He approves of us, whether we are pleasing to Him. One thing is certain, if we are not pleasing to God He will never be pleasing to us. Why should we like someone who is forever condemning us? On the other hand, can we imagine what it would be like to so move and excite the heart of God that He would run to meet us, throw His arms around us and kiss us, dress us in His best robe, and put rings on our fingers? Can we picture the Lord Almighty killing the fattened calf for us and throwing a big party in our honor? Can we imagine having the Creator of the universe say to us, just as He said to Jesus Christ, "You are my son, and you are my delight"?
If we cannot imagine being, as Jesus was and the Scripture claims Job was, beyond reproach in the eyes of God, all our faith is useless. If we cannot get past God's criticism and into His favor—if we cannot be good friends with Him—then what is the point of our religion? On the other hand, if Job really was a living example of blamelessness in his relationship with God, then it must at least be possible. If this is true, we had better pay attention to this man and find out what his secret was.
The secret seems to begin with a solid grasp of the fact that being blameless is not quite the same as being guiltless. If someone is guiltless, it simply means that he has done nothing wrong. If he is accused of wrong, then he is accused falsely and that is all there is to it. But if someone is blameless it means something more mysterious: it means that no matter how horrible his offenses may have been, all the charges against him have been dropped. Absolutely no blame attaches to him, because the very one he offended has exonerated him. In the words of Psalm 32:2, "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him." Once the reality of that sinks in, we will burst out in celebration! God's covenant with us in Christ is not that He will prevent us from ever committing a sin, but rather that He will forgive us our sins. He will be faithful in forgiveness. Our part is to believe this—that is to be blameless not so much in our outward conduct (though obviously we strive for this also), but in our faith, our trust in the Lord's faithfulness. It is with your heart that you believe and are justified. If we are blameless in this respect, then all the credit for our righteousness will very plainly be not ours but the Lord's, who, as Jude assures us, is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault.
The story of Job shows a remarkable man who somehow intuitively grasped and accepted this astounding message. So much so, that even when he was tempted to the very uttermost to let go of it, he still held to it firmly against all odds. Under attack Job groaned, he wailed, he doubted and fell into deep depression, he lashed out like an infuriated animal—and yes, he even sinned. Yet, when it came to this one point regarding the settled fact of his status of irreproachable blamelessness before the Lord, he refused to give an inch. Having placed his trust totally in God, he violently resisted the notion that there might still be some other step he should take. Something else he must "do," to gain God's favor under adverse circumstances.
All of us fall into the same trap. We constantly look at our lives and count ourselves unworthy of the Lord's attention. Or, worse yet, ignore His presence and invitation for relationship. We simply do the "church thing" and never seek anything more of the Father. Consequently, we live empty, lonely, unsatisfied lives. We are never satisfied to sit back and enjoy the love and favor of our Father.
In my own pursuit of Christ, I have seen times when as Brennan Manning has described, “there have been times pockmarked by disastrous victories and magnificent defeats, soul-diminishing successes and life-enhancing failures. I have known seasons of fidelity and betrayal, periods of consolation and desolation, zeal and apathy.
“There have also been times . . .
“when the felt presence of God was more real to me than the chair I am sitting on;
“when the Word ricocheted like broken-backed lightning in every corner of my soul;
“when a storm of desire carried me to places I have never visited.
“Then again, there have been other times . . .
"when I identified with the words of Mae West: “I used to be Snow White—but I drifted”;
“when the Word was as stale as old ice cream and as bland as tame sausage;
“when the fire in my belly flickered and died;
“when I mistook dried-up enthusiasm for gray-haired wisdom;
“when I dismissed cheap slivers of glass tot the pearl of great price;”
The first five verses of this story introduce us to this man named Job and provide a very brief description of his personal character, wealth, position, and size of his family. The passages carry a strong patriarchal flavor. Job was a man like Abraham, a kind of yahwistic sheik so rich and influential that his private estate would have been virtually a self-contained town. In the case of Abraham we know that his traveling tent-city consisted of at least 318 trained men born in his household. This implies a community, including women and children, of a thousand at the very least, and Job's domain appears to have been even larger than that.
Massive wealth is such a common phenomenon in modern civilization that we may easily miss the significance of this inventory of Job's estate. His household possessed ten children: seven sons and three daughters. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys and a large number of servants. In fact, he was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
In the Western world today even those who are among the top 5 percent of the world’s wealthy are called "middle-class," and most of us who are in this bracket have (not surprisingly) a somewhat schizophrenic attitude toward our affluence. On one level we take it for granted, thinking of it as something to which we have a right or even as a sign of God's approval. Yet, at a deeper level we know that we are only kidding ourselves. We know we live in a fool's paradise.
It is not that there is anything inherently bad about being rich. If God had been an ascetic, He would never have created the world. Asceticism is a simplistic answer to a complex problem. Paul exposes the folly of the "Do not taste! Do not touch" approach when he cautions, Such regulations have an appearance of wisdom . . . but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. There is no spiritual value in poverty, per se, but there is great worth indeed in the godly management of a large number of possessions and affairs.
Perhaps our problem today is that not many of us have the attitude toward our riches that Job had. Later in the story, we catch a glimpse of what Job actually did with his money and with his time and energy. We will see how he rescued the needy; cared personally for the handicapped and the dying; brought orphans into his home; he even took the power barons of his day to court and argued the case for the underprivileged (see Job 29:12-17; 31:16-21). On top of that, all of this was done without any government programs or assistance and without any tax benefits or receipts for charitable donations. If Job did not follow the letter of Jesus' command to "sell everything you have and give to the poor," he did follow its spirit by administering all his resources not for his own good but for the good of society. When Jesus warned how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, he was pointing to the tendency of lucre first to bury itself in a man's pocket, and then to bury the man. However, Job's wealth did not cling to him—it flowed through him. He was not so much a collector of wealth as a distributor of it, not an owner but a steward. That is why he could say so easily, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away." Job was that rarest of millionaires—one who is not "filthy rich" but rather "clean rich," not "rich as sin" but "rich as righteousness."
With great wealth comes great responsibility, and like the other Biblical patriarchs, Job must have led a tremendously busy life, filled with hard work and practical cares. No hut-dwelling hermit or introverted pietist, he was an active man of the world, continually rubbing shoulders with other people and meeting the challenges and stresses of ordinary life. These will be important facts to remember as we come to reflect on his approaching ordeal.
It is great to see the sketchy details of Job's daily life before his terrible trial. From this point on, every thing we learn about Job will come by the way of conversations. The opinions of others and the stress of his suffering will color our view of him. However, in these early verses we can see Job from a purely objective point of view. We are told how his sons would take turns holding parties in their homes. They even invited their three sisters to eat and drink with them. After the partying had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, 'Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their heart.' This was Job's regular custom.
Earlier we saw Job as a practical man immersed in the whirl of business and management; but in these verses we learn something of his spiritual life in the midst of that whirl. In particular, we see him on his knees praying for his family. Job knew that family gatherings could be hotbeds of vice. Childhood wounds reopen, in-laws are treated like outlaws, and sibling rivalry has not changed since the days of Cain and Abel. Then you have the families get together and try so hard, so frantically, so pathetically, so naively to have a good time when there is anger and resentment in there midst. When you add alcohol to the mix, you can have even worse problems. I cannot think of any sin that is more shameful and scandalous. On the other hand, if a person is able to be sincerely loving toward their siblings and parents or cousins, then you can rightfully call that person loving. If you can get along with the closest people to you, then you can do it with anyone.
In addition, nothing says more about a person than the way he prays. The details about Job's regular early morning sacrifices and praying suggest several important facts about his faith.
First, Job believed in the importance and effectiveness of mediation with God. He had implicit faith in repentance, sacrifice, and forgiveness. He knew that those kinds of things worked. His God was not distant and unresponsive, but compassionate and gracious . . . slow to anger, abounding in love.
Secondly, like other heroes in the Bible, Job apparently served as his own priest. This takes us back to the original idea regarding the priesthood of all believers. Back to the time before the law when all the followers of God set up their own altars and got their own hands bloody and somehow found direct access to the throne of God, just like Christians do today.
Thirdly, Job practiced his prayer and sacrifice not only on his own behalf but also for the benefit of others. Job had a deep and sincere concern for other souls. This shows how joyously confident he must have been in his own salvation. Only when you are secure and happy in the Lord yourself, can you pray effectively for others. Job's devotions were looking outward and for the benefit of others. He took it on faith that his intercession had a practical effect on the lives of those he loved.
Finally, and most remarkably, Job's prayers extended in the murky realm of inadvertent or unconscious sin. Job's faith in forgiveness was big enough that it completely covered not just individual acts of sin, but sin itself and this shows a fundamental grasp of the gospel.
This last point is essential to a proper understanding of all that follows. You see, in the gospel according to Job a person is either righteous or not. You cannot be a little bit righteous any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. Your sin is completely forgiven (including not just sinful behavior but the innate sinfulness of the heart) or it is not. If God accepts us at all, He accepts us wholeheartedly and he covers us completely with the spotless robe of righteousness. This robe of divine acceptance does not come in gray, but only in dazzling white, and you either have the robe or not. You are either righteous or wicked. Anyone who is wicked can have that status quickly amended by a trip to the cross.
Suddenly, without warning or introduction, we see into the very throne room of God. It is as if a veil was drawn aside for us and we are allowed to see into the world of the spirit. We see the Lord seated on His throne and surrounding His throne is His council of Holy Ones. It is evidently some sort of audience day where all of the angels come in to report on their various duties.
Satan comes in along with everyone else. He is known as the Adversary and Accuser. He enters in his capacity as the Prince of the power of the air, who accuses us before our God day and night.
When he enters, he comes in boldly and unchallenged. The Lord asks him, "Where have you come from?" Satan answers, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth." You can almost hear the arrogance and disrespect in his words. Unlike Job, Satan has no responsibilities. All he has to do all day long is go gadding about in the world. He is a restless, shiftless, roving hoodlum. Like the delinquent kid who comes slinking home in the wee hours of the morning. When asked by his father what he has been up to, he answers evasively, "Just cruisin' around Pop. What's it to ya?"
The adversary describes his occupation as going back and forth; walking up and down. The original idea is in the heat of haste. This illustrates Satan's usual intense cunning and planning. He has been hurrying through the inhabited earth, as a roaring lion looking for someone to devour or as an unclean spirit seeking rest and finding none.
You will find this same feverish spirit within everyone under Satan's dominion because the scripture tells us the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest . . . there is no peace . . . for the wicked.
Do not miss Satan's own admission of his character, and note the difference between his feverish heat of haste and the peace that Jesus possessed during his work here on earth. The devil rushes around with restless energy through the realms he has betrayed, causing chaos and unrest wherever he goes. Jesus walked in calm peace through the world he came to save. With it, he brought rest, blessing and life wherever he went.
No feverish heat of haste ever comes from God, and the more you become a partaker of the Divine Nature, the more you will experience the calm restful power that so strikingly manifested itself in Christ Jesus. On the other hand, if you are experiencing unrest and wander in a feverish heat of haste, realize that your confidence is not in the Son of God and in His power.
Since Satan is no longer in his place in the order of God, he is nothing more than a wandering star, aimless and dissatisfied. He has no joy in heaven or earth except in tempting others and bringing them into the same torment as himself.
Here is another interesting point to observe. There seems to be an odd informality about this interview between God and Satan. While it is true Satan must "present" himself to the Lord, as servant to Master, once these two are together, they do not seem to stand much on ceremony. Instead, they come straight to the point. Satan sauces, and the Lord boasts. Even in such a sketchy dialogue we are left with the distinct impression these two individuals know each other—in fact, they obviously know each other only too well. The Lord knows Satan through and through, and Satan too, after his own perverted fashion, knows the Lord like the back of his hand. Is this not precisely the way things stand between archenemies? After all, these two have cased each other since who knows when.
But who, exactly, is this ancient rival of the Lord, and what is he doing among the holy angels before the heavenly throne? From the sound of things, he seems just to blunder in right off the street, almost as if he owned the place! Surely, this is one of the deepest and most inexplicable situations. It is not just that such awesome power and privileges are bestowed with such seeming casualness on this cosmic hooligan, but the man who suffers so monstrously at Satan's hands is kept entirely in the dark as to the very existence of his spiritual enemy. Nowhere in the long and exhaustive dialogue between Job and his friends is the idea of personal, supernatural evil so much as broached as a possibility. The whole subject is a locked room. Satan is mentioned only in these first two chapters, and even here, as elsewhere in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word is not even a personal name but rather a title or office. Literally it is "the satan," a term meaning as I mentioned already, "accuser" or, as he might be called today in a court of law, "the Prosecution."
Just as the term "Christ" (or "anointed one") does not come to assume personal weight until the advent of Jesus, so only in the New Testament does the shadowy figure of "the satan" step fully out of the wings. The revelation of the personification of evil remained blurred until Jesus met Satan face-to-face in the wilderness, and then proceeded to expose the Devil's dark identity and all his evil works before the world. Ever since then this work of unmasking the face of evil has continued, and is due to climax in the revelation of what the New Testament calls "the man of lawlessness"—that figure who in some unthinkable way is to be the incarnation of Satan, the very "son" of the Devil, just as Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. The whole story of the Bible might be summarized as the gradual unveiling of the profoundly personal character of both good and evil.
What is so very strange about these first verses is that they seem to take us back to a time when Satan presumed to occupy the rightful place of Christ as the favored son. We are taken back to a time when Satan apparently had the very ear of God and could ask Him for whatever he wanted. This picture gives new and pointed force to Jesus' triumphant assertion in Luke 10:18, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven!"
If Job was kept in the dark about these things, it could only have been because the personal knowledge of Satan, this breathtakingly cunning and powerful enemy of his soul, would simply have been too terrifying, too searing a knowledge for any human being to have carried with them. Certainly not without at the same time having the full revelation of the saving victory of Jesus Christ on the cross and of His ascent to the right hand of the Father.
The Lord knew very well what the adversary's feverish roaming back and forth in the earth meant! And it was not going to benefit anyone, especially any faithful servants of God. He also would not settle for the insolent vagueness of Satan. Yet neither does He lose His temper. Instead, the Lord sharpens the focus of the conversation with a provocative gibe of His own, saying, "Have you considered my servant Job?" Or, as one translation says, "Have you set your heart on my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns anything evil." It is almost as if the Lord addressed the insolent kid by saying, "You ought to try hanging around with Job. Now there's a kid who knows the meaning of respect."
"There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns anything evil." What a testimony of Job! No one like him in all the earth! Did the Lord actually mean what he said? I know I touched on this above, but the Lord declared that Job was the ripest, most mature, and choicest servant of God. From this one statement it is clear the Lord considered Job to be the best among everyone of his time who sought to serve Him in integrity of heart and life.
Praise from your friends or coworkers is one thing, but the praise that comes from Heaven is quite another. We have already seen that Job was great among men, but that is nothing compared to the fact that he is also great in eyes of God. Job would have been in the top ten, perhaps, of the finest human beings that have ever lived, and without this fact firmly in mind, the rest of the story will be out of focus.
This verse leaves no doubt that Job really was a "blameless and upright" man and that this was not simply the subjective opinion of the author of the book. Job's righteousness was a divinely attested fact and from the very beginning it is the Lord Himself—not Job or any other human being—who sets out to justify this man and to establish his innocence. On top of that, this is not a defensive reaction on the Lord's part, but an offensive initiative. The Lord issues the first challenge, the first taunt, by aggressively boasting to Satan about Job.
The impeccable righteousness of Job is the very core of the book, the linchpin if you will, on which the entire plot hangs. God's praise for Job is so open and lavish, and His backing so unqualified, that if at any point in the ensuing struggle we are tempted to question the integrity of Job's faith (as his friends do, relentlessly), it will not really be Job we are questioning, but the Lord.
I don't know about you but I find something shocking about this. Something almost flatly unacceptable—that the holy and awesome Creator of the universe should declare of a mere man (a man obviously flawed) that He doesn't even find the slightest fault in him. Also, that this same God should then deliberately set out to defend this man against any and all detractors. Yet, right here lies the unsearchable mystery of the gospel. The same condition of imputed, impeccable righteousness is an established fact for every believer in the Messiah of God (whether before Christ's actual coming or after it). Moreover, Job, as we will see, was undoubtedly a believer in the coming Christ.
In Christian terms, it is often explained that God "sees" believers as being righteous, even though we are not, because He sees us "in Christ." When He looks at us, He does not see our sin and ugliness, but Jesus. Yet how can this be? Does it make any real sense? Well, yes. Let us consider for a moment the analogy of a garden sown with seeds. No one sees these seeds, they are hidden in the ground. Although, the gardener knows they are there, and so he tends them, waters them, fertilizes the soil, and perhaps even builds a fence around his little plot. Anyone who had no knowledge of plants would think the gardener was crazy, lavishing all his attention on an empty, barren patch of ground. The mystery is that, although the seeds are of little value to all but the gardener, he cherishes them as much as if they had already produced the full crop he is expecting from them. While seeds in their ungerminated state may appear virtually worthless, they are precious to him because he knows their potential. Inside those tiny little seeds contain the blueprint of perfection. So it is in our lives, in the eyes of our Father! I do not fully understand it, but each of us can enjoy it and live life more abundantly because of it.
Many people have a real problem with the whole story of Job. Some argue that God never should have allowed the extreme hardships to happen or they claim that Job was the cause of the whole tragedy. Others contend that he was simply a "pawn in the chess game of life." One commentator views it as a cosmic dual of good and evil.
My design in this study is for us simply to examine the story and see what we can learn and apply in our own lives.
As I look around, I see many of God's people in the furnace of trial. And it is not always, as the letter to the Hebrews describes, a trial of mocking and scourging . . . of bonds and imprisonment. All I know for sure is that they are in fiery furnaces made exceedingly hot. Yes, many of these tests and trials could be similar those listed in the letter to the Hebrews or to the sufferings of Job. Then again, they may be an emotional crisis so intense they sweat drops of blood like Jesus in the Garden.
There are times in each of our lives when life does not make sense any more. All of Hell seems to be on our backs. We are filled with guilt, doubt, low self-esteem and defeat. These thoughts occupy every waking moment. During these times we can give up or remember who Jesus is. Hardships will either cripple us or cause our roots to grow deeper and stronger.
My hope in writing this study is to reach anyone who is walking with the Lord in integrity of heart and loyal obedience to what they sincerely believe to be His will and purpose for their lives. This study is to those who are doing everything that they know to do—and yet find themselves in such a fiery trial they are confused and disillusioned.
I am not trying to give you a minute exegesis of the text. I will let the Scholars do that. I only want to give an outline from the experiential standpoint and give it in simplicity to anyone that can be fed by it.
I think the biggest mistake we make with the story of Job is looking only at his physical suffering or his financial loss. As you will see in Chapter 29, his greatest loss, or at least what he thinks is lost, is his relationship with the Lord and his service for the Lord. He barely even mentions the loss of his children.
Forget about his physical suffering. Maybe your trial is internal, focused on your attitudes or emotions. It might be a purging of your will or desires. The Lord will test and try you on your greatest need. Something a friend reminded me of is how the Lord will always test you concerning your obedience to His Word. Satan, however, always tempts you to disobey God's Word.
There comes a time in the life of every fervent believer when the very foundations in our lives are shaken. Times for us to either hang on to heaven or fall into destruction. Times for us to anchor our faith in the Rock of God's Word or to lose all hope. It may come from pressures from without, or tremendous struggles within. These may be troubles and difficulties we did not anticipate, possibly a time of disillusionment when it seems we have given more to God than we are receiving.
Have you ever felt that "it wasn't supposed to be this way!"? "That's not the way my TV preacher told me it would be. If I ever saw him in person I'd cram these tapes down his throat." I am talking about honest, gut-level pain. Please realize, though, there are times when the Lord's answer will simply direct you to be patient. His plan is in place, just trust Him.
Sometimes it may feel as though He is silent, but do not confuse that with indifference or you will really be miserable and miss His best for your life. If you give up when you do not understand, you will reject His caring, steadfast love and cut yourself off from your only real hope of deliverance. That is of course exactly what Satan is hoping you do—give up, pack it in and quit. That was the whole purpose in his attacks against Job.
The Lord said that He will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap, and He will purify His priests and refine them.
What form this refining and purifying takes is totally in His hands. I do not know what He is doing with you or in your life, but I do know His desire is for you to become identified with His suffering and to be conformed to His image. Whatever it is that's standing in the way will be burned away!
I also realize that if you have never tasted of this type of work being done in your life, you may as well put this study down now because it will not mean a thing to you. It may even make you a little mad. Just put it away until the Lord speaks to you to pick it up again. Beware though, if you are lead to consider this study it means one of two things: either He is preparing you for some trials that lay ahead of you, or you are currently in the midst of fiery trials and aren't learning the lesson very well.
There was no one like Job in all the earth, according to the Lord and it is obvious that the prince of darkness held a similar opinion. To him, Job was a city set on a hill that could not be hid. Of all men, Job could not live or die unto himself. His fall would be the stumbling block for many. There is no doubt that because of this he became a central target for Satan, someone that he had indeed set his heart on with unceasing thought and fiendish plans to steal, kill and destroy.
Also, understand the attacks had absolutely nothing to do with Job, the man. It was his soul Satan was after. It was his faith and integrity of heart that was under attack.
Satan did not say, "Take away his wealth, because he has too much." He said, "Take it away and he will renounce you." Satan could not care less about Job's wealth, or health, or family. It was Job's devotion and love for the Lord that irritated Satan.
I think the clearest illustration of this truth is seen in Mark 4:14-20. Specifically verse 15, when Jesus said, "Satan comes immediately to take away the Word that was sown." Notice it was the Word he was after, not the soil. In fact, verse 17 clearly says that the adversity comes because of the Word that was sown! You, in and of yourself, mean nothing to Satan. Your devotion and your faith are what he hates. It is the good fight of faith we are to fight.
Proverbs 24:10 says, "if you faint in the day of adversity your faith was weak." One translation says that your faith was shallow (or insincere). The Living Bible says it even plainer when it says you are a poor specimen if you can't stand the pressure of adversity. OUCH!
I have heard it rightly said that you could judge a man's commitment by how much of a storm it would take before he gave up and quit. That being true, we can see the immense confidence the Lord has in His servant Job.
One of my favorite stories is John Bunyan's classic, Pilgrim's Progress. In this story, Young Christian, the hero of the tale, faces many hardships and terrible troubles, yet with undaunted faith and commitment he continues on his journey to the City of
Finally, poor Christian was wounded, bruised and knocked down to the point that he began to despair of life. Reaching for his Sword one more time yelled out "Don't rejoice over me, O my Enemy! When I fall, I shall arise;" and with that gave Apollyon a deadly thrust.
Maybe we need to have such tenacity. Such boldness. At the end of the story is a poem that was set to music by a former Pastor of mine. He called it The Pilgrim Song and the lyrics go like this:
Let him in constancy follow the master.
There's no discouragement shall make him once relent
his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
they but themselves confound, His strength the more is.
though he with giants fight he shall make good his right to be a pilgrim.
We know we, at the end, shall life inherit.
Than fancies flee away, I'll care not what men say,
I'll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.
our first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
You see brothers and sisters, when we face our trials, large or small, we can settle for lukewarm, diluted faith—or we can seek the real thing: the type of faith that never gives up on it's “first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.”
The Lord asked Satan if he had considered his man Job and Satan's answer proved that he had indeed considered Job at every angle. He was prepared with his answer when he quickly replied, "Does Job fear God for nothing?"
You can almost see the sneer on his face as, true to his character, he throws doubt on the integrity of Job's motives in being "blameless and upright" and "abstaining from everything evil." Satan claims Job follows God because of all that he receives from Him. It has nothing to do with how great God is.
That's nothing new, though. Satan did the same thing to Eve when he convinced her God was being unfair and "holding out" on them when he withheld the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: "Hey, God knows that when you eat that fruit your eyes will be opened. In fact, you'll be like God yourself, knowing all about good and evil." His tactics haven't changed a bit today. He still tells people that there is always a selfish motive at the back of all service to God. "They're all out for the money!" "They're all crooks!" Disinterested and unselfish love and devotion, whether from God toward his people or from his people toward God, is beyond Satan's understanding as well as those under his power. To the world, Christian devotion and commitment is foolishness and His followers are simply a bunch of morons. I have never expected understanding from the world, only judgment and ridicule.
Satan claims to have proof to his accusations because Jehovah had "put a hedge around him (Job), his household and everything he has." You know that the prince of darkness was speaking out of experience because he must have met that Divine environment on whatever side he had tried to attack the servant of God. Satan must have been walking around chomping at the bit for a chance to break through this hedge God placed around this "man of God."
On top of that, Satan also complains that God not only put a hedge around Job and protected him, but He had "blessed the work of his hands, and increased his substance in the land."
In Satan's view, what opportunity did Job have to prove the authenticity and sincerity of his devotion? Sure, the Lord could see his heart and knew he was loyal to the core, but who else could believe it when all they saw was prosperity and blessing on every side?
Very few Christians experience such an outpouring of disasters as those Job has. However, that does not mean an ordinary person, going through ordinary struggles and setbacks of life cannot identify with him. Think about it, Job in his suffering is essentially a figure like Christ on the cross. He is a person with whom everyone can identify with in spite of his absolute uniqueness. We do not have to have nails driven into our hands and feet to know what a cross is. A cross is a cross. To be crushed is to be crushed. Countless people have committed suicide with far less provocation than Job had, and what to one person seems a feather is to another a millstone. Even feathers, when blown about by the Devil, can stir up quite enough trouble of their own.
When Jesus said, "Each day has enough trouble of its own," He was talking about everyone's day. Yet, who hasn't caught themselves wishing that they could fight more glamorous battles than the ones they actually face? As asinine as it sounds, I have. I have foolishly challenged the troubles to come. "Come on Devil, give me your best shot." Glamour is one of Satan's great drawing cards. However, in reality, what good is it to beat the Devil at cancer only to lose out to the common cold? It is just as important to beat him at the corner store as in the concentration camp.
There can also be a dangerous false humility (in other words, spiritual pride) in saying, "I really have nothing to complain about, especially when I think about so-and-so or with all the starving children in the world." The real question is whether I myself, in my own unique set of circumstances, am giving glory and thanks to God from my heart. If I am not, then it does not make any difference whether the problems I face are big or little. Even the smallest of complaints can spoil fellowship with God. Just one. We see this principle plainly illustrated in marriage. Just one unresolved tension, just one episode of stubbornness, just one dirty sock or unmowed lawn can be enough to provoke a bitter argument. The point is not how big or how little the problem is; the point is the quarrel itself, the wrecked relationship. The point is whether one's own particular burden is being borne in the bitterness and pride of the flesh, or in the grace of God.
So, quit being trapped into comparing lots, whether in terms of troubles or of blessings. As Paul put it, "Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load." Whatever our trials are, we are not to begrudge them; but we also should not make the opposite mistake of underestimating or belittling them. Jesus did not sing happy, joyous choruses on the cross; He hung there and suffered.
"But I'll tell you what," Satan continued, "if you stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, he will curse you to your face."
You almost think that he had this challenge in mind when he first entered the Lord's chamber. It is obvious that he had set his heart on Job. He had surveyed that hedge from every angle, going around and around, trying to find a way in. As long as Job had kept his heart right before the Lord and stayed within that hedge, Satan had no way of reaching him. If he could just get that hedge removed, he knew he could make this so-called "Godly man" fall and curse God to His face. If he could just get at him, he could break him one way or another.
This rebel archangel had once tried to exalt his throne above the stars of God. He dared to claim, "I will be like the Most High." However, because of his pride and presumption he was cast down. If he, who had once been "perfect in beauty . . . a daystar and son of the morning," could fall from his high estate and become the archenemy of God, then he knew he could bring down this Son of Adam with him. The fact that Job was able to walk with God in loyal trust and obedience infuriated him and was more than he could endure.
Boldly he challenges the integrity of Job in the full assembly of the council of heaven, saying, "Put your money where your mouth is. You say he is upright and true to you and his devotion is sincere. Well, prove it. Strike everything he has and he will cease to serve you and will renounce his allegiance to you—not in secret—but to your face!"
What else could the Lord do but accept the challenge and allow His servant to be put to the test? To me this proves the Lord's utmost confidence in Job. The council of heaven has heard the Lord's estimation of Job as well as the insinuating sneer of the accuser of the brethren as to Job's integrity. I am sorry if you have a problem with this, but this accusation cannot be overlooked. The Word of the Lord is at stake here. That is what is brought into question now! The loyalty of Job will be proved! All of heaven will know that Jehovah can be loved and worshipped for Himself, even by a Son of Adam.
The challenge of God's Word is the point of everything that has taken place from age to age. Satan started it and took one third of the angels with him. His original challenge took place in the realm of the spirit, and God created the realm of the flesh to prove His Word and love. During Jesus' life in the realm of the flesh, he remained true to God's Word and beat the challenger of God's Word.
With joy, the adversary sees the challenge accepted. The hedge around Job is removed by the words: "Very well then. Everything he has is in your hands,
"So Satan went forth . . ."
"It all fell on a day . . ."
Those few, brief words give us a very vivid description of the enemy's attack on Job's possessions. His plan had been carefully thought out with all the skill and cunning that he had developed since he tempted Eve in the garden.
Job had to be taken totally unaware and with full guns aimed at once. It would be during the immense pressure of sudden loss that he would be forced to an impulsive renunciation of God. In Luke
Also, times of great celebration and rejoicing are times when men are generally off guard, and bad news in the midst of a party is always more appalling.
The time is carefully chosen by the subtle adversary. On a day of feasting, a messenger comes to Job to tell him that the Sabeans have suddenly taken all his cattle away and killed all of the servants with no one left except the messenger.
Before he finishes speaking another man shows up with news that all Job's sheep and servants have been burned up by fire from heaven. Immediately a third messenger arrives to tell Job that his camels were ripped off and those servants killed, too.
I don't know if it has sunk in yet, but all of that news meant utter ruin for Job as far as earthly substance is concerned. His entire world caved in overnight. That is like telling Howard Cunningham on Happy Days that his hardware store burned down and everything was gone. Or telling Donald Trump all of his real estate holdings collapsed. On top of that, I am positive Job was not in the good hands of Allstate.
The coincidence of everything happening at the same time and each group of servants killed except the one to tell the news, should have alerted Job that more than natural causes lay behind these sudden blows. Anyone who walks with God learns to understand and recognize the supernatural powers that lie behind the surface of things in daily life.
There was a time when the Lord instructed my wife and I to move to
While building a new house, every day brought another problem. For example, after the builder laid the foundation, one neighbor complained our house was too close to the lot line, (9 inches to be exact). The township supervisor settled the matter in our favor, but that was after we went ahead and shortened our house nine inches. Another neighbor brought a lawsuit due to flooding on his property. The flooding was due improper grading on both of our lots and the land surrounding our lots, but because we were the last to build, he held us responsible. The lawsuit brought against us was decided in our favor, but only after spending $3,000 in attorney fees and another $5,000 in attempts at resolving the grading problem. Because of all the re-grading, we had $23,000 worth of damages to repair on our new house.
Later, my daughter became ill with a viral infection and spent 4 days in the hospital. One of our twins developed a large lump on one arm resembling a tumor and required surgery.
That is only the beginning of the problems we encountered. We have lived in this house since 1987 and the end of the year 2002 was the first peaceful period we have experienced. I could list many other examples of problems, mistakes, misunderstandings and torments that have plagued us.
At one point, the situation was so intense and continuous we were ready to give up and move back to
Let me say something right here that is very important. When I say that we strengthened our determination to stay, I am not saying that we simply set our wills to put up with the attacks that were coming against us. We did not simply acquiesce to the storms of life. There is a big difference between Job's situation and our position as believers today. First, we can look back at Job and learn from his mistakes, and he does make them. We can also view our situation from a higher vantage point than Job had. Job was oblivious to the spiritual warfare going on around him. Granted, in this story we will find that Job catches occasional glimpses of that warfare, but it is not a deep-seated reality of his life.
Paul taught that we are not to be unaware of the devil's devices. We are told to stand strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. To put on the full armor of God in order to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We are also to take up the shield of faith in order to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
The scriptures compare believers to an eagle. The Bible states "those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength" (with the literal understanding being they will exchange their weakness for His strength). “They will soar on wings like eagles . . ." (Isaiah. 40:31).
I have heard it said that eagles build their nests in the highest places of rocky clefts. Their homes are secure and unmovable, regardless of the storms that come against them. When a storm is moving in, they leave their nest and face head-on into the wind. They will lock their wings in a climb position so that when the storm hits, they are flown above it until the storm passes. Certainly, the storms are going to hit, but the eagle is untouched and his home is secure in the midst of it, too.
In a sense, that's what Patty and I did: we exchanged our weakness for God's strength. We battled with the spirits trying to hinder us and drive us back from fulfilling God's purpose and plan for our lives. However, be aware that this battling is not a "one time and it's over" deal. It is a way of life! It is a daily struggle with flesh and a sincere fight of faith. Yes, many times the battle gets burdensome and frustrating. Decide right now if you are going continue to fight or roll over and let the Devil have his victory? Make what we used to call a "Quality Decision!" That is a decision you will not and can not back down from.
In the case of Job, this touching of his possessions did not end his torment. The devil reserved his keenest blow for the last.
Job hardly had time to realize that all his wealth was gone when one more messenger arrives to tell him that in the midst of a party. A strong wind struck the house his children were in and killed them all.
"They are dead!"
This is the hardest blow of all, and its effect on Job is what the subtle foe has been counting on. How would Job react? All of his wealth stripped away and then, suddenly, his children swept away without warning!
"Then Job got up . . . fell to the ground and worshipped the Lord."
Job could never have realized the cloud of witnesses looking on! What sympathy and joy there must have been in the heart of God for Job's faithfulness! In all of this adversity, Jehovah was not the adversary. He was not the one that afflicted Job. Yet, Job had stood the test. The adversary was defeated. Instead of rebellion, Job had worshipped God. All hell broke loose against him but still Job was firmly fixed on God. In one moment, his anchored soul clung to the only refuge he knew. He had torn his robe and shaved his head to show his deep sorrow and horrible grief, but in his hour of trial, his spirit worshipped the God who had given him life!
"In all of this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." Job instantly confessed that he did not really possess anything of his own. The Lord had given him his wealth. By making the continual burned offerings for his children, he was, by faith, laying his children before the Lord. He had nothing except what the Lord had given him; he was born with nothing and would take nothing out. The Lord had given him everything and the Lord had the sovereign right to take it all away! Whichever He did, Job would bless the name of the Lord.
Everybody wants to criticize Job. Some feel he is self-righteous, lacks faith, or had a defeatist attitude. Some charge that Job did not have any faith otherwise this would never have happened to him. Yet, it was because of his faith that all these things happened to him. The Lord had already declared there was "no one on earth like him; . . . blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." In addition, we know that without faith it is impossible to please God!
The most amazing thing about this is how worship is the initial response of Job; it is the spontaneous reaction to tragedy that simply wells up out of his heart. This type of response is foreign to us. Under similar circumstances worship does not come to a person naturally or spontaneously, it is a practiced response, the fruit of a long faith and discipline. Job could never have reacted as he did unless he had been practicing for this moment all his life.
I wonder if we would have fallen on our knees and worshipped the Lord. There are some who waiver and are ready to renounce the Lord if their BMW stalls on the highway. Some feel they are going through great testing because they do not have enough money to pay their monthly bill for their cable TV or are angry with the Lord because they cannot afford a microwave oven. Yet millions of people cannot even afford one meal a week, let alone the luxury of watching MTV or I Love Lucy reruns.
How much of a storm will it take to make you fall? Job lost everything and still worshipped the Lord! Not only that, he did not have the insight as to the accusations made by Satan concerning his integrity. He had no idea he was being put to the test. All he could feel was the pain in the aftermath of the attack.
I know people who feel they are going through great testing because they do not have enough money to pay their monthly bill for their cable TV or are angry with the Lord because they cannot afford a microwave oven. Yet millions of people cannot even afford one meal a week, let alone the luxury of watching MTV or I Love Lucy reruns.
Take careful note of the attitude of heart in which Job's words of worship were offered. In the midst of this turmoil and grief, Job certainly did not have a peaceful spirit nor was he filled with some kind of spiritual joy. No, he was as broken and cast down as a man can be. Granted, he apparently had the presence of mind to shear off all his hair and then take a straight razor and drag it across his scalp (no easy task, I can imagine). However, if Job's hand was uncannily steady, it certainly was not from being cool and collected. Rather, I believe from being in a state of shock.
I am puzzled. Can true worship really transpire when the heart is broken and the mind shocked and dulled with horror? Is there any place in worship for bitter tears and wailing? Just one chapter later we will hear Job groan, "May the day of my birth perish." Has his worship ceased by this point? Has mere self-pity overtaken him? On the other hand, can groaning be a part of worship too?
Think of Mary at the foot of the cross: was it a sweet and mystical experience for her to stand there and watch her son die? Maybe years later, looking back on the day, she had more tender feelings. However, at the time, surely, it was hellish. I believe that is how it will be for us whenever we make, in our daily lives, direct contact with the cross. It is marvelous to meditate on the cross and to be flooded with peace and joy. Although, that is the Holy Spirit showing us the effects of the cross; it is not the cross itself. It is wonderful to be filled with mystical rapture at the thought of
