Before I write anything about today’s reading let me share a couple caveats (and this is true for future posts on the book of Job as well). First, I believe the book of Job to be an absolutely true story, a historical account and not an allegory. Second, I don’t fully understand why it seems God “recommends” Job to be harassed by Satan. I understand it from the viewpoint of the great controversy, but not emotionally. As I’ve matured as a Christian I’ve learned to be okay with not always understanding everything, and I’ve learned that often times if I wait on the Lord in due time He does give me understanding. In my life I have discovered the immense goodness of God and so in Job 1 where I see something that does not seem so “good” I don’t accuse God, rather I recognize my own limitations and I choose to be as the just and live by faith and not by sight. That said I do have points of views on these texts that have helped ease my concern over the years, but since I cannot support them 100% Biblically I refrain from putting them out there. If you have similar concerns about the book of Job I encourage you to “taste and see that the Lord is good!” and then to live by faith when understanding is limited, remembering, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

Job 1 & 2:

Job was the greatest of all men of the east (1:3b) How? Job “was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.” (1:1). Don’t be fooled the greatness comes from verse 1 not verse 3a. How do we know this? Because in chapter 1 verses 13 through 19 he lost all of what was listed in 3a and then we read in chapter 2 verse 3b, “There is no one like him on the earth…”

Greatness comes from character not possessions or accomplishments.

How could Job stay this great, and not sin in light of these challenges?

1:20, “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and WORSHIPED.”

The scriptures do not say Job was okay with what happened. Or he said, “such is life,” no, he is broken, distraught, in such grief the strength in his legs has gone out…have you been there? I have!

Yet when he was lying on that ground in pain deeper than words can express, he worshiped, “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21)

Incredible. I won’t give away the end of the book of Job…but knowing the end of the book makes all of this even more amazing to me…okay I’ll give it away, from what we read at the end of Job God never explains, God doesn’t give Job the insight He gives us into seeing that this was all a live action drama of the great controversy, in which Job is one of the greatest character witnesses on God’s behalf. Job doesn’t know any of that yet he remains faithful. Wow!

To close this post today I want to share the insights I read from the Facebook page of my good friend Kim Taylor after she read today’s reading:

1. May I be like Job…How awesome would it be if this is the way God described me to Satan: “Have you considered my servant Kim? There is no one on earth like her; she is blameless and upright, a woman who fears God and shuns evil.” (insert your name and gender rather than Kim’s)
2. May I not be a wife like Job’s…may I always support and pray for my husband no matter what he is going through (men may we be husbands that always support and pray no matter what)
3. May I be like the friends were at first… at the end of Ch. 2, when they first come, they just sit there and support him by being there but don’t say a word. If only they had stayed that way

Tomorrow’s Reading: Isaiah 1-6