Job was a man who was blameless and upstanding in the Lord. He was righteous in the eyes of God and he walked in integrity. One day, Satan wanted to see how far his faith would take him. So he went up into heaven and asked God to remove his protection hedge from around Job, to see if Job would curse God for taking everything away from him. So God gave Satan the power to take away all that he had, but he could not lay a finger on Job. It is cool that even when Satan takes everything from Job, God does not let him touch Job. It says in scripture that God had made job very prosperous and wealthy, and he was the father of many children. With the passing of just one day, he lost all of his livestock, all of his crop and every last one of his children. After all this, the Bible says that he did not do any wrong or sin towards God. Again, Satan comes to the throne room and this time, he is granted permission to inflict Job with sickness and disease. Job was plagued with painful boils from his head to his feet, and he had to use a potsherd to scrape himself. His wife, upon seeing his affliction, told him to lose his integrity and to curse God so he may die. Instead of cursing, Job replies in this way," Shall we indeed accept good from God, but not adversity." Again we see that he still did not curse God. Later, we see three of job's friends come and talk with him. At first, they are exactly what he needs. For the first couple days that they are there, they don't say anything, rather they just sit beside him, letting him know they are there for him. Pretty soon, that got real awkward and they began to talk with him of all the reasons he might be in this situation. Maybe there is a sin in his heart he needs to repent of. Was he really as full of integrity as he had thought? Was there still more punishment to come? These came from well meaning people who were trying to help in ways that they know how. When we are walking down a Job walk, people will show up and try to fix things that are not in their structure of fixing. Sometimes they get agitated and wonder why you have not taken their advice. When people try to fix thing with the natural that can only be fixed in the spiritual, it never works out the way it should. Throughout the book of Job, it seems like there are times when he gets frustrated with his friends, and completely dismisses their opinions because he knows that though it may seem crazy, he must still have faith that God knows what he is doing. Well meaning people will speak into your life, and it might not always be what you need to hear, yet they say it because it seems like the logical thing to do. But God does not want us to live by logic, but by faith and trust in Him. The trials that came upon Job was a test of his character and his faith. God knew that he would not falter, but I think this was to show his friends that Job lived out what he preached, so to speak. The journey of life will be full of trials that test us, but these do not only build our faith, but also the faith of those around us who are sitting on the fence when it comes to trusting. Job ends up becoming even more prosperous because he did not accuse God when things went wrong. I am not saying that Job never questioned God, or that he had his doubts. I am saying that even through these, he trusted God would finish what he had started, even though Job did not know how it would all play out.
God knows how things are going to end. Hold fast to what he has done, and what he will do. Even when things looks bleak and grim, there is a light at the end of your tunnel that gets closer to you everyday you walk with integrity in the Father.
Adam Semple- A young man on a mission
*photo credit-missionbibleclass.org
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