What Job Did Not Know - Conclusion

 Suddenly, though, the scene shifts in Job's story. We get a glimpse into heaven, and we learn things that Job could have known. Jehovah's faithful angels were gathered before God, and rebel angel Satan entered. Jehovah knew that Satan despised the righteous man Job, so God addressed Satan, pointing out Job's outstanding integrity. Satan boldly replied: "Is it for nothing that Job has feared God? Have you not put a protective hedge around him and his house and everything he has?"  Satan hates people of integrity. When they 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 great 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 his livestock-first his cattle and donkeys, then his sheep, and then his camels were suddenly wiped out. Worse the servants who tended them were killed. In the first 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 he oldest when a 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 away from him. Indeed, Satan had cleverly made it look as if God had sent those disasters.  Nonetheless, Job did not curse his God had Satan had predicted. Rather, Job said: "Let the name of Jehovah continue to be praised." - JOB 1:20-22. 

Next time: "He Will Surely Curse You"

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