I love that one of the changes made to our original Bible Reading Plan was to read the Book of Job right here, in context of the time in which it occurred. Many of the commentaries about Job have completely missed it concerning the conversation between the God of the Bible and the devil. Job was upright before God and honored God with his life and his possessions. When satan challenged God (access that he no longer has because of the victory that Jesus Christ won over him!), he told God to put His hand against Job and see what Job would do. Job 1:11-12:
11 But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face. 12 And the Lord said to Satan (the adversary and the accuser), Behold, all that he has is in your power, only upon the man himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
Contrary to some, God did NOT give permission to the devil to steal everything from Job! God simply revealed the Truth. The devil was the god of this world because of Adam's sin. The devil had access to all that Job possessed. When Job lost everything, he still did not curse or blame God (something many believers need to understand and learn!). Satan returned to challenge God again to hurt Job and God did not. Look at Job 2:7:
7 So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with loathsome and painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
Satan is the liar, the killer, the thief, the smoter, the doer of all evil. HE is the source of all evil and WE are the ones who give him permission by our actions and the Words of our mouths. This was true in Job's case as we see in Job 3:25:
25 For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me. AMP
Job operated in the fear that either his children or he himself would do something that would cause these things to happen. He was forever giving sacrifices just in case his children had sinned against the Lord (Job 1:5). Here are some things we really need to learn from this.
- God does NO evil to us (John 10:10)!
- Satan is the one who attacks, hurts, steals, kills and destroys (John 10:10).
- Fear will open the door to satan and his evil hosts to attack us (1 Peter 5:8; Job 3:25).
- Standing strong on the Word will always bring us to victory (read the rest of the story) (1 Corinthians 15:7)!
- God will see to it that we have replaced, multiplied, all that the enemy has stolen (Proverbs 6:31).
- WE have an even better Covenant than Job had (Hebrews 8:6)!
- GOD gets all the glory for the good things in our lives (James 1:17)!
Don't be afraid to read the rest of Job's story in expectation! You WILL learn something that you can apply to your own life that will carry YOU through to victory! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "Alive In Us":
Shalom in Him!
