The first two chapters of Job raise so many questions - the kind that will never be answered until we stand face to face with our Savior. Then, frankly, we likely won't care about the answers! If God loved Job, why would he allow him to go through all of this suffering? Does Satan really have that kind of access to heaven? Does he really challenge God to contests with us as the battleground? The list goes on.
The sad part about Job is that many never study the heart of the book - the conversation between Job and his three friends, between Job and Elihu, and the finale, an answer from God. They justy read the first two chapters and the last. But there are some important lessons we can learn as we read Job 1 and 2. These chapters are only the appetizer for the main course that is served in chapters 33-41, but the appetizer has some tasty morsels.
First, we learn that no amount of righteous and godly living can shield us from suffering in this world. Watch out for the charlatans who promise freedom from pain, hurt, sorrow and hardship if you simply follow their teachings. Job would shake his head at them. He was a good and godly man, and he suffered worse than any man ever has, except for Christ himself.
In fact, the opposite can be true. Job actually became a target of the enemy because of the righteousness of his life. Righteous living doesn't shield us from suffering, it may put us on the front lines of battle. But the moral of this story is that God is faithful on those battle lines!
It is also clear from this story that our comfort and prosperity is not God's primary goal. Job had been greatly blessed by God, but such was not a guarantee. I don't understand why God got involved in this cosmic contest with Satan, but he did, for his perfect reasons. God's purposes in the world and even in Job's life matter more than Job's prosperity, happiness, and comfort. God was willing to permit Job great pain to lead him to a place of new insight and to use him in his divine plan. Some things matter more than ease and pleasure.
Perhaps the greatest lesson is the one so often missed. We focus on the great evil done to Job by Satan and try to figure out how all of that works. But the lesson we need to remember is key - Satan cannot attack the child of God without the permission of the Father. Whatever he did to Job was under the sovereign hand of God and was meant to accomplish the greater purposes of God.
What is the greatest evil ever done? The crucifixion of Christ would have to be the answer. But that evil accomplished the eternal purposes of God. God's power is so great that he uses even the evil of Satan to accomplish his mighty works of power. Here, Satan sought and received the permission of God to do horribly things to Job, but the end result is the glorious work of God.
Our God is powerful and good. Job would have a hard time understanding that, and often so will we. But God is power and he is good! We must hold on to that even when evil seems to be working its work. Know that the evil is ultimately only able to accomplish the purposes of the sovereign God in this world!
Thank you, Father, for being a God bigger than the enemy, bigger than my problems, bigger than anything this world can throw at me. Help me to trust you, no matter what!
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