The last couple of weeks in Sunday School we have been studying Job. I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy reading this book of the Bible. It makes me angry to see how a faithful and loyal man who loves God with all his being is punished so cruelly at the hands of satan...with God's permission! He is like a pawn in a game of chess between God and satan. Yes, he remains faithful and continues to worship God through all his pain and agony. Yes, God knew Job would remain faithful which is of course, why He chose to use Job as the man for this job.
What I don't understand is Why? Why did God have to prove ANYTHING to satan? Why did God have to allow this dear man to go through such pain and agony just so He could show satan that Job would remain faithful to Him? God KNEW Job would remain faithful even if satan didn't know it...but what difference did it make? Satan is still around doing his evil and God is still on the throne...allowing evil to happen to good people (at least that's sure what it seems like every time I read Job!) See why I don't like to read the book of Job??
2 comments:
Job's a tough one to swallow, but it actually encourages me in several ways. It builds my faith to see a man who by all reason should have turned from God, stand on his faith and live.
It builds my faith to know that God does not give his children more than they can handle. Satan will not prevail.
It builds my faith to see how God redeemed all of that time and loss to Job and restored his earthly life.
It builds my faith to think that God was with Job all in the midst of these terrible years. Job was crying out to him moment by moment and God was faithful to sit beside him in the ashes and bring him assurance of His Love. Otherwise, I think Job would have certainly gone mad or killed himself.
This verse sums Job up for me:
Job 19:25-26
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
It certainly doesn't seem fair that God would allow all this to happen to one man, but He had His glory in mind and saw fit to record it for us to learn more about who He is and who we should be.
My husband and I had this very conversation YESTERDAY! Thank God for Jesus, because if I didn't know him for myself, I'd be behind Job's wife with pom-poms (smile).
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