Welcome to the Road2Wholeness Blog. Thank you for stopping by. Today we continue
in the blog series “Lord! ASAP”. This is
a series about prayer, and I’ve been featuring life changing conversations God
had with unique characters from the Bible.
For this blog, we go to JOB, and we begin by looking at Chapter 1, Verse
6.
This is a conversation God is having with none other than
Satan. The scripture says, one day when
the angels came to present themselves to the Lord, Satan also came. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come
from?” Satan answers, “From roaming
throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” Then the Lord says to Satan, “Have you
considered my servant Job? There is no
one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and
shuns evil.”
The first thing that captures my attention is how much
respect God shows to the devil. It’s
also worth noting that Satan showed up among angels. It is clear that Satan is sure about who he
is, but it is also clear that he is clear about who God is. How many times as Christians do we shun
opposition? How many times do we
disregard God’s use for the devil. It is
apparent in this conversation that Satan’s role is to challenge the people of
God. What He is really seeking to do is
discredit the love between God and His people.
In order to do that, in this case, He presents a challenge. Let’s also witness that Satan has combed the
entire earth and hasn’t found anyone worth challenging. This shows two things. First, it shows that he is not seeking for
the average person. It also shows that
Job was protected by God, and could not be seen by the devil. Therefore, the idea of the blameless and
upright being hedged in by God is confirmed here. Yet, God opens Satan’s eyes to Job for the
purpose of proving Satan wrong.
In verse 9- 11, Satan responds to God, “Does Job fear God
for nothing? Have you not put a hedge
around him and his household and everything he has? … But now stretch out your hand and strike
everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
In verse 12, the Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything
he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
After this conversation with God, Satan began to devastate
Job’s life. He loses his children, his
livestock, and he is struck with physical ailments. The book of Job carries on with a series of
sentiments between Job’s closes friends and Job. All of them testify to the truth about who
God is. Neither of them speaks negatively
about God, but Job is convinced that God is angry with him.
In Job 29, Job is recorded, “How I long for the months gone
by, for the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone on my head and
by his light I walked through darkness.
In Job 30, Job laments, “I cry out to you, God, but you do
not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of
your hand you attack me. You snatch me
up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.”
In Job 34:10, Elihu says “Listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong.” Elihu is in fact right, and yet, he is suggesting that Job must be at fault for what he is facing in his life.
As the book continues, Job demands to face God. He wants to state his case before God, and
continues his laments. The book does not
state that God ever speaks to the Devil again, but eventually God comes before
Job and corrects Job.
God never lets Job know of the great faith He placed in him. He never reveals to Job why the
strong turn in his life, but God reminds Job that he is not worthy of an
explanation. God goes into a list of
glory and glorious things that He makes possible.
In Chapter 40, God responds to Job, “Would you discredit my
justice? … Do you have an arm like God’s,
and can your voice thunder like his?
Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in
honor and majesty. Unleash the fury of
your wrath, look at all who are proud and bring them low, look at all who are
proud and humble them, crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud
their faces in the grave. Then I myself
will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.”
In the end, God restore to Job all that his life is worthy
of, and He commands Job to pray for his friends. God rebukes his friends, saying to them, “You
have not spoken the truth about me like my servant Job has. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will
accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.”
Why folly??
These men only spoken about the goodness and the
faithfulness of God. Yet, God is not
satisfied with their testimonies and orders Job to pray for them. I find this powerful, and this ending is in
keeping with the knowledge of God.
Although God does not bring Job in fully on the purpose for the trouble
he underwent, God is certain not to leave these men who testified without
personal experience and knowledge unchecked.
God absorbs all of Job’s frustration and misunderstanding of the
situation and credits it to him as righteousness; for only God and the angels
that were present for God’s infamous conversation with Satan knows the hands in
which he was hand over to.
In the end God wins the challenge presented to him by the
devil and Job is rewarded. Therefore, my
encouragement to you here is to stand firm and take up your position in times
of challenge. See that God may have
chosen you in confidence and great faith to face the challenges you are facing. Continue to believe in the overcoming power
of the Living God, and remember the story of Job.
Remember to go within that you may never go without. The God within you awaits you. Until our paths collide again, I wish you.... Peace, Love, Life, and Complete Wholeness in Christ.
In service,
NaTisha Renee Williams
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