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Scripture Reading: Job 1
In this message on the trials of Job, we will first consider the person of Job.
Job 1:1 says, "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and this man was perfect and upright, and he feared God and turned away from evil." Being perfect is related to our inner man, and being upright is related to our outer man. Furthermore, to be upright means that we are not crooked or biased.
In addition to being perfect inwardly and upright outwardly, Job feared God positively and turned away from evil negatively. However, even with the positive matter of fearing God, there is not anything that is actually positive. God did not create man merely to fear Him without doing anything wrong. The Bible tells us that God created man in His own image and after His likeness that man may express Him (Gen. 1:26). This is the most positive thing among all positive things. To fear God and turn away from evil is not adequate, and actually this is not positive. The most positive thing is to express God. To express God is higher than fearing God and turning away from evil.
Another word used in relation to Job the man is integrity. In 2:3 Jehovah tells Satan that Job "still holds fast his integrity." In verse 9 Job's wife asks him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity?" In 27:5 Job says to his friends, "Until I die, I will not put away my integrity from me." Finally, in 31:6 Job declares, "Let God know my integrity." Whereas the words perfect and upright are adjectives, the word integrity is a noun. Integrity is the totality of being perfect and being upright; it is the totality of perfection plus uprightness. With respect to Job, integrity is the total expression of what he is. In character he is perfect and upright, and in his ethics he has a high standard of integrity.
According to 1:2, seven sons and three daughters were born to Job.
Job possessed seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a great many servants (v. 3a).
Job was greater than all the sons of the east (v. 3b).
Job's sons would hold feasts in each one's house, each on his own day, and they would invite their sisters to eat and drink with them (v. 4). Job would send word and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for them, saying, "Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their heart" (v. 5). Because feasting, an excess in eating, can be worldly, Job sanctified his children after their days of feasting. He offered the burnt offerings for them continually. He surely was a godly father.
Ethically speaking, Job was very good. According to human eyes, there was no problem with Job. God even boasted to Satan regarding how good Job was (v. 8; 2:3). Only God knew that Job had a need, that he was short of God. Because of His loving concern for Job, God held a council in the heavens to talk about Job.
This council was held by God with the angels, the sons of God (1:6a; cf. 1 Kings 22:19-23; Psa. 89:5-7).
I do not believe that Satan was invited to attend this council. He came without invitation; he came by inviting himself. Quite often Satan comes without being invited.
In Isaiah 14:15 and Ezekiel 28:16-17 Satan was condemned by God and even sentenced by God. Yet in His wisdom and sovereignty God did not execute His judgment over Satan. He still has given Satan a certain limited time so that he can do something to meet some negative need in the fulfillment of God's economy. God could not and would not ask any of His many excellent angels to do what was needed to damage Job. Without Satan, there would have been no one to do the ugly work of damaging Job in order to strip him of everything that he might be full of God.
We may use the case of Judas in the New Testament as an illustration. One day the Lord Jesus said, "Was it not I who chose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil" (John 6:70). Why did the Lord choose Judas to be one of the twelve when He knew that Judas would betray Him (John 13:2, 27)? Regarding a particular aspect of God's eternal economy, there was the need of Judas. Without Judas, how could the Lord Jesus have been betrayed, and without being betrayed, how could He have gone to the cross? Thus, there was the need for Judas.
The situation is similar with Satan in the book of Job. There was the need for someone to damage Job, not to judge him but to strip him of everything. Job had been laboring under God's blessing for many years and he had accumulated many things. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a great many servants. He had a dear wife and seven sons and three daughters. Moreover, Job was very successful in being perfect and upright and in holding to his integrity. His possessions, success, and attainment made him a contented and satisfied person. Although Job was full of possessions and full of his attainment, he did not have God within him. As God looked upon Job, He might have said, "Job, what shall I do with you? You are full of your possessions and your attainment, but you are not full of Me. You have Me in name, but you do not have Me within you." Thus, for God's dealing with Job, Satan was needed. Satan was the unique one in the universe who could and who would fulfill God's intention of stripping Job of his possessions and his ethical attainment.
Job 1:7-12a is a record of God's checking with Satan concerning Job.
God questioned Satan, asking him where he had come from (v. 7a).
In answer to God's question, Satan replied, "From roving the earth and going about in it" (v. 7b).
"Jehovah said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil" (v. 8). Here God was boasting to Satan regarding Job. If we read this carefully, we will see that God's boasting here was with the intention that Satan would do something for Him.
Satan answered Jehovah, asking Him, "Does Job fear God without cause? Have You not set a hedge around him and his household and all that he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his possessions are spread throughout the land" (vv. 9-10). God had set a hedge around Job, and He had blessed the work of his hands. In verse 11 Satan went on to say, "But stretch forth Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face."
"Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand; only do not stretch forth your hand against him" (v. 12a). We should not think that God was caught by Satan, for Satan was caught by God to do something for Him — to strip Job for God. Satan, an evil angel, was willing to do what none of the good angels was willing to do, and he immediately accepted God's commission.
Satan's evil concept concerning God's dealing with His seeking people is based on his commercial principle of gain or loss. Satan is a business man, a merchant, and his thought is according to his commercial principle. He does not know that God's purpose in dealing with those who love Him, even in the way of loss, is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, more than the loss of all that they have other than Him, that He might be expressed through them for the fulfillment of the purpose in His creation of man (Gen. 1:26).
In Job 1:12b-19 we see that Satan attacked Job and that Job suffered trials in the matter of his possessions and children.
Verse 12b tells us that Satan went forth from God's presence.
One day, when Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their firstborn brother, a messenger came and reported to Job that the Sabeans had fallen upon the oxen and the donkeys and had taken them away, striking the servants with the edge of the sword. Only the messenger had escaped to relate these things to Job (vv. 13-15).
While this messenger was still speaking, another came and reported that the fire of God had fallen from heaven and had burned up the sheep and the servants and had devoured them. That fire had been some kind of natural calamity. Only the messenger had escaped to relate these things to Job (v. 16).
While this messenger was still speaking, another came and reported that the Chaldeans had formed three companies and had raided the camels and had taken them. They had struck the servants with the edge of the sword, and only the messenger had escaped to relate these things to Job (v. 17).
While this messenger was still speaking, another came and reported concerning Job's sons and daughters. They were eating and drinking wine in the house of their firstborn brother; and suddenly a great wind came from beyond the desert and struck the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon the young people and they died. Only the messenger had escaped to relate these things to Job (vv. 18-19). The great wind was probably a whirlwind. Like the fire, it was a natural calamity instigated by Satan.
Verses 20 through 22 describe Job's reaction to his trials.
Job rose up, tore his clothes, shaved his head, fell to the earth, and worshipped God (v. 20).
Job said, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb,/And naked I will return there" (v. 21a). Then he went on to declare, "Jehovah gives and Jehovah takes away;/Blessed be the name of Jehovah" (v. 21b).
In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with unseemliness (v. 22).
Later, Job's three friends heard about his situation and came to visit him (2:11-13). Job, his wife, and his friends all were perplexed and unable to find out the reason for what had befallen Job. They could not find the answer because the Old Testament alone does not have the answer. The answer is in Paul's Epistles.
