IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOB - "What Job Did Not Know

 

There is a reason to believe that sometime after Job died, the faithful man Moses wrote the story of Job's life. Under divine inspiration, Moses was able to reveal not only the events on earth that affected Job but also some events that unfolded in heaven.

At the beginning of the account, we find job leading a full and happy life. He was prosperous. a man well-known and respected in the land of Uz-possibly in northern Arabia. He shared freely with those in need and championed the cause of the helpless. Job and his wife were blessed with ten children. Above all, Job was a spiritual man  He eagerly sought to please Jehovah, much as  his distant relives Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph had done. Like such patriarchs, Job acted as priest for his family, regularly offering up sacrifices in behalf of his children. - JOB 1:1-6; 31:16-22.

Suddenly, though, the scene shifts in Job's story. We get a glimpse into heaven, and we learn things that Job could not have known. Jehovah's faithful angels were gathered before God, and the rebel angel Satan entered.  Jehovah knew that Satan despiesed the righteous man Job, so God addressed Satan, pointing out Job's outstanding integrity.  Satan boldly replied:"Is it for nothing that Job feared God?  Have you not put a protective  hedge around him and his house and everything he has?"  Satan hates people of integrity.  Whey they show such wholehearted devotion to Jehovah God, they expose Satan for the loveless traitor that he is. So Satan insisted that Job served God only for selfish reasons. If Job were to lose everything, Satan asserted, the man would curse Jehovah to his face! - JOB 1:6-11. 

Job could not know it, but Jehovah had entrusted him with a grand privilege. Prove Satan wrong. Satan was allowed to rob Job of all  that he had.  Only the man himself he was not to touch.  So Satan eagerly set about his sadistic work.  In a single day, a series  of terrible blows rained down on Job.  He learned that his livestock-first his cattle and donkeys, then is sheep, and then his camels-were suddenly wiped out.  Worse, the servants who tended them were killed.  In the case of one group, the cause was reported to Job as  "fire from God" -possibly lightning.  Before Job could even contemplate the loss of human lives or the poverty he now faced, the heaviest blow landed.  His ten children were gathered together in the home of the oldest when sudden windstorm struck the house, destroying it and killing them all! -JOB 1:12-19.

It is hard, perhaps impossible, to imagine how Job felt.  He ripped apart his clothes, cut off his hair and collapsed to the ground.  Job concluded that God had given to him and God had taken from him. Indeed, Satan had cleverly made it look  as if God had sent those disasters.  Nonetheless, Job did not curse God, as Satan had predicted.  Rather, Job said: "Let the name of Jehovah continue to be praised." - JOB 1:20-22.

Next time: IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOB - "He Will Surely Curse You" 

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