July 26, 2012 – Job 1 – 2

2:10 – “We accept good things from God; should we not accept evil”  When we think of Job, we think of “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away”.  But isn’t this verse a harder one to ponder.  It is not just that the Lord takes stuff from us, but that we are to accept it.  We see Job lose everything he has in a brief period of time (although he apparently didn’t lose his wife) all so that Satan might try to prove that humans don’t really love God.  Satan’s premise is one that many might think is very true.  If you give people everything their heart desires, of course they will be happy and loving and thankful to God.  It is when you strip all that away that their true feelings will show and they will turn from God.  But we find both sides of that premise are not visible in the world.  Those that have everything they could want are often not those that are God fearing people.  They have lost sight of God as they have filled their life with material things.  They are usually not happy and feel that they can only be happy with more things.  Most humans in Job’s shoes are not obedient to God, but have turned to the world for their pleasure. 

The second thought is that if we lose everything, we will turn away from God.  When people lose everything, they sometimes turn to God as their only refuge.  Church’s and Christianity thrive in some of the poorest places in the world because of the Hope the comes from God and the obedience to give your life completely to Him. 

I also thought it was interesting that Satan thought the health of Job was more important to him than his family.  I could be very sick, but if I would have my family intact, I would count it as very little.  If I were as healthy as possible, but lost all my family, then I would think I had lost what was most important.  I think it is interesting that bodily health was seen as more important than possessions or children to the writer of Job.