Job’s Second Test
March 26, 2021
Commentary
Faithfulness requires more faithfulness (vv. 1-3). – Job proved his faithfulness at the end of chapter 1 by praising God even after losing his livestock, properties and children. You may think that faithfully serving the church for 20 years is good enough and that God will let you rest after retirement. What you don’t know is that faithfulness requires more faithfulness. The alternative would be unfaithfulness. In Job’s case God permits Satan to test Job again.Satan must respect God’s boundaries (vv. 4-7). – We can be confident that Satan can not do anything to us unless God permits it. Surprisingly, the Lord permitted Satan to afflict Job, but not to kill him (vv. 5-6). He knew Job would not deny Him.Human pity without regard for God results in foolishness (vv. 8-10). – Some Bible scholars believe the reason Job’s wife told him to curse God and die was because she really loved him and didn’t want to see him suffer any longer. She had pity on Job, but was not at all concerned about what God was doing. Job recognized this as foolishness.Job’s closest friends teach us four characteristics of comforters (vv. 11-13):
Contact the person with the goal to comfort (v. 11).Allow the person suffering to be different than you have known them before (v. 12a).Empathize with compassion (v. 12b).Better to be close and leave out the cliches (v. 13).Notice that all had to report to God. You and I are going to have to report to God some day. Remember that the Christian is going to stand at the Judgment seat of Christ (II Cor. 5:10).
Application
When counseling I need to remember that silence can be far more blessed than any speech can be.
Job 2:1– 13 (NET)
1 Again the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also arrived among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roving about on the earth, and from walking back and forth across it.” 3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a pure and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still holds firmly to his integrity, so that you stirred me up to destroy him without reason.”
4 But Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! Indeed, a man will give up all that he has to save his life. 5 But extend your hand and strike his bone and his flesh, and he will no doubt curse you to your face!”
6 So the Lord said to Satan, “All right, he is in your power; only preserve his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and he afflicted Job with a malignant ulcer from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape himself with while he was sitting among the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? Curse God, and die!” 10 But he replied, “You’re talking like one of the godless women would do! Should we receive what is good from God, and not also receive what is evil?” In all this Job did not sin by what he said.
11 When Job’s three friends heard about all this calamity that had happened to him, each of them came from his own country —Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to come to show sympathy for him and to console him. 12 But when they gazed intently from a distance but did not recognize him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads. 13 Then they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, yet no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.
Illustration: Grief Stricken Couple in Pakistan
While my husband Frank and I were living in Pakistan many years ago, our six-month-old baby died. An old Punjabi who heard of our grief came to comfort us. “A tragedy like this is similar to being plunged into boiling water,” he explained. “If you are an egg, your affliction will make you hard-boiled and unresponsive. If you are a potato, you will emerge soft and pliable, resilient and adaptable.” It may sound funny to God, but there have been times when I have prayed, “O Lord, let me be a potato.” (Guideposts).