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“The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”   Job 1:12

Reading through the Book of Job is not fun. If you’ve read it, you’ll remember that at the beginning, Job was a wealthy man, with seven sons and three daughters, and more livestock than he could count. He was a godly man, respected by everyone who knew him.

Enter Satan. He challenged God and told Him the only reason Job loved Him was that He had provided him with abundance. The next thing that happened shocks me from a human standpoint every time I read it: God took up the challenge and allowed the devil to take everything from him. God knew that even under those circumstances, Job would still love Him.

The devil had his permission. In one day, he killed off all of Job’s ten children and all of his livestock. Job went through incredible grief, but never wavered in his love for God.

The devil went back to God for another round. “If you take his health from him, he will curse you and die.” God again gave the devil permission to make him miserable with boils all over his body but would not allow him to kill Job.

If that weren’t bad enough, Job’s friends came to comfort him, but instead accused him of committing sin that brought on this punishment. This goes on for chapter after chapter, with Job claiming he had not sinned, and the friends calling him a liar. Still Job remains faithful to the God he doesn’t understand.

Finally, Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die. Job is still faithful.

I have read that book several times, trying to understand. So what is it all about, really? What is God’s point in putting that very difficult story in the Bible?

From Job’s point of view, it was all about Job. It was about loss, misery, and pain. It was about confusion over God’s actions when he had always been faithful to Him. Job wrestled with God verbally and finally came to the correct conclusion: God is sovereign. He has the right to do whatever He deems best, even when we don’t understand.

From Satan’s point of view, it was all about Satan. He was interested in knocking God down a peg and convincing Him that Job only loved Him for what he could get out of it.

But from God’s point of view, it was about displaying His sovereignty to Satan, to Job, and to everyone who would ever read Job’s story—including you and me. Job’s suffering for a while had millennia of influence.

Here’s what I’m taking away from reading about Job this week: When we run into the problems of life, and we’re tempted to pray, “Why me?”…maybe it’s not about us. It could very well be that He is using us for the benefit of someone else.

By the way, it is a relief to read at the end that after Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before, and the end of his life was more blessed than the beginning. Whew!

“Heavenly Father, we don’t ask for trials and tribulations, but when they come, we ask that you be with us as we go through them. Give us a confident trust that You know what You are doing, and your ways are higher than our ways.”

For His Glory
 

Cherie Williams (www.CherieHarbridgeWilliams.com)
TRBC Women’s Life