Dec. 13, 2017
Job 2-Part 2
LET IT GLOW
Do we ever feel like we are sitting in the city dump? Our world is a mess, things couldn't get any worse. Our life stinks. Dogs are growing round us. We need to sit down and have a good cry. Maybe that will make things better. Well, pouring out our heart to God does. He loves us with an unfailing love. His mercies are new every morning. Beyond his control, Job's life stinks.
Through it all, Job trusted in God. He was ruined financially. His family fell apart. His position in the community was wiped out. Yet during all the devastation, Job's integrity remained in tact.
But the Adversary was not finished with Job yet. He had another scheme. With God's permission, Satan brought on the second wave of suffering upon Job. His only restriction was Job's life must be spared. Then Satan smit Job with boils.
There are many opinions as to what kind of disease Job was struck with:
smallpox, elephantiasis, eczema, keratosis, melanoma. Whatever the skin ulcers were, Job was covered from head to toe. What misery for this godly man to experience. What physical pain and emotional pain he went through. It was for sure that Satan wasted no time hitting Job while he was down.
Swindoll gave symptoms of Jobs ailment using Scriptures:
- Inflamed ulcerous sores (2:7)
- Persistent itching (2:8)
- Facial disfiguration (2:12)
The list goes on in other chapters. What misery for one person to endure. Whatever the disease was, we know that Satan caused it. We learn that he has the power to inflict people with disease, even believers. (Sometimes diseases are self inflicted, though.)
LET IT GLOW
Job's poverty and rejection would have resulted in a relocation to what we call the city dump, where the lepers went. Can we picture a man who once was the wealthiest in the East and highly respected in the area, sitting in the city dump? Job is sitting in an ash heap, surrounded by rejects that lived there, a place where dogs fought over a scrap to eat, and where the city's dung was brought and burned. Job scraped his sores with a broken piece of pottery, too. How horrible for him. Doesn't our heart go out to this man suffering beyond our comprehension?
Death under these conditions would have been preferred. During one of Mrs. Job's visits to her husband, she encouraged him to just curse God and die. Say it and get this over. Why was he still trying to maintain his integrity?
Matthew 22:37 says, Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Job called his wife foolish. His answer is found in verse 10: Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?
In all of this, Job did nothing wrong.
Was Job's wife presenting another trial for him? She advised the very thing Satan had been trying to get Job to do. Perhaps in her deep love for her husband, Mrs. Job could not stand to see him suffer any longer. At that time, it was presumed that cursing God would bring death. Through it all, Job remained faithful to his God. He did not sin with his lips.
Satan was rebuffed, defeated, and overcome, and does not appear again in the book. (Falwell)
A man must continue to fear God even when his world flies apart and life strands him, like Job, in stunned bewilderment on the refuse heap. (Kline says in Wycliffe Bible Commentary)
Amidst the suffering, no matter what it is, will we stand firm in our love for our God?
Remember, God loves us so much that he left heaven, took on the form of man, and died for us so we could have heaven for all of eternity. Thank You Jesus!
LET IT GO
Love God with all my heart, soul, and mind.
Love others.
Trust God with the reasons for suffering.
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