18 A Pawn Job 2009.10.11

When Satan swung by to visit God, God needled Satan by bragging about Job.  He praised this fellow, carrying on about how faithful Job was, what a wonderful guy Job was and on and on.  Satan claimed that Job was so wonderful only because he was so blessed by God.  Satan said that if Job lost his blessings that he would turn against God. They were talking about a guy who had more large animals than just about anybody else, and whose adult sons were wealthy enough to have birthday parties in their own houses.  He was the richest guy in his 'hood.  So God, to make a point that Job was faithful, permitted son Satan to destroy Job’s wealth.

Guess what?  After his animals were either stolen or fried, and after his sons died from a house imploding upon them, Job grieved without hating God.  He noted that he had started with nothing and he currently had nothing.  Do you think God didn’t know the outcome beforehand? 

Check this out:

 ³And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.[Job 2:3 KJV ]

Did you pick up on that?  God admitted that he was directly responsible for Job’s losses.  Isn’t that cool?  And Job still loves God. 

This quote is well worth remembering.  If God can move against such a faithful servant as Job, what keeps you safe from God’s causeless destruction of your life?

Life got worse for Job.  Satan blew off the destruction of Job’s wealth and scions, claiming that if Job got sick, he would turn against God.  God, knowing full well how things would turn out, moved against Job without cause by permitting Satan to inflict a bout of boils on Job.

So Job kicked down, scraping his boils while contemplating his situation.  His wife, Sitidos, royally infuriated, blurted out that he should curse God and die.  She had lost ten children for no good reason, and her husband was now possibly unable to support her in the lifestyle to which she was accustomed.  Sitidos had lost face big time, falling from being married to the richest guy in the 'hood to being married to the most loathsome poor guy in the 'hood.  And it was all for nothing.  She knew her husband well enough to know that he had done nothing to deserve those losses.  And in a moment of despair, Sitidos urged Job to turn against his Lord.

But Job, like an abused dog happy to lick the hand of his Master anyway, praised his Lord by saying,

What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?  [Job 2:10 KJV]

Isn’t that wonderful?  God can give Job a fish, or God can give Job a serpent, and it’s all good.

You just gotta love how this story ends.  After all the effluent that Job endured, his Master rewarded him by giving to him twice as many large animals as he had at the beginning of his trials, and by giving to him seven more sons and three stone-fox daughters.  Yeah, the wife gets to give birth twenty times in something like forty to fifty years, but the babies belonged to Job, not to her. 

It’s all about Job.  God used Job as a pawn in his big game with Satan.  There does not seem to be any resolution in this game.  We never find out what happened between God and Satan after God restored Job.  We can surmise that Satan was not convinced that Job was righteous, or we can surmise that Satan was convinced that Job was righteous.  


Clearly God can destroy you without cause and can give you a fish, or a serpent, and it’s all good.