Continuing Trials
-
Daily Reading: Job 2
So again, God asks Satan, "where have you been" and again Satan is very vague. We know that God knew where Satan had been as God is all knowing. Yet we also know where Satan had been because he had been testing Job. In Chapter 1, Satan was sure that if God would allow him to take Job's physical things that Job would turn on God...yet Satan was wrong. Now Satan is sure that if he takes Job's health that Job will then turn away from God...yet once again Satan is wrong. Satan does not know what is in our mind or our abilities to resist him.
Job's wife is not very encouraging in this situation. She tells Job to curse God and die. I cannot imagine enduring all that Job went through, but to imagine doing it without the support of a Godly and loving wife would seem unbearable. Yet this is just another trial that Job must face.
Job's friends seem very supportive here in this chapter. In future chapters they become more difficult, yet here they probably do the best thing they can. They come and just sit with Job and for seven days they say nothing. Sometimes just being there for someone is the support that they need.
Job 2
[2:1] Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
[2] And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
[3] Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”
[4] So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
[5] “But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
[6] And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”
[7] So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
[8] And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.
[9] Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
[10] But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.Job's Three Friends
[11] Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him.
[12] And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven.
[13] So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
-
I struggle with this. I can't imagine letting one of my children go through what Job went through.
Not saying that makes God a bad parent. ... I'm just saying. lol
-
The reason why good people suffer is one of the most difficult topics man will ever deal with. In the end, I realize that I only see things from my prospective and I trust that God would not allow suffering without a greater cause being fulfilled.
