Nuggets 81: Job--Pawn or Pattern?

  • B. Shelburne
  • Sep 10, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

In my Tuesday night classes we are doing the Old Testament book of Job.  This is the longest section in the Bible about why bad things happen to good people.

There is a conversation between God and Satan.  God points out what a righteous and faithful man Job is.  Satan, in a slanderous mood as always, sneers, "No wonder Job serves you, considering how you protect and pamper him.  You have given him everything.  Take away your blessings and he will sing a different song!"  God allows Satan to attack Job within limits, which Satan quickly does.  Job loses his children and his wealth in one day.  His response:  "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."*

Again God points out Job's faithfulness to Satan.  "If you strike his body, then you will see," Satan answers.  God allows Satan to afflict Job with painful sores from head to foot, yet Job maintains his hope in God.  At the end of the book Job is vindicated and blessings are restored to him.

It might seem that Job is just a pawn in a board game between God and Satan, with little regard for how the game affects Job.  But there is another way to look at this:  By Job's trials, not only is Job's honor vindicated from Satan's slander, but Job becomes an exhibit of God's glory.  Job could receive no greater honor than this.  He has already given God glory by his righteous life.  But when heaven and earth see Job trust God even as he writhes on the ash heap and cannot understand what God is doing, they think, "What a wonderful God Job must have!"  And when the world sees us obey God at any cost, they see what kind of God we have.  That brings glory to God.

It is when we are under trial that the world sees our deepest feelings about God.  Jesus said Peter would glorify God by dying a martyr's death.  Jesus glorified God by remaining faithful through all kinds of trouble even to the cross.  Teachers have taught more by their attitude during suffering than they ever did in sermons or lectures.  If we accept the Bible truth that mankind's highest purpose is to glorify God, we can accept that Job's was a high privilege in spite of his suffering.

*NASB.  Job 1,2;  John 21:19:  12:23-29;  1 Corinthians 10:31;  Matthew 5:16;  Acts 5:40-42;  1 Peter 4:14

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

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