Have you noticed My friend Job?
Job 1:8
Oh boy, the book of Job. Why oh why does God point out His friend to His enemy? We’re tempted to question, Doesn’t God care about Job’s suffering?
But how could that be given all we know about God? How He made us, gave us the garden of His grace, had great mercy on our dirty hands after gobbling up the fruit of everlasting separation—affording us every opportunity to return to Him. And the Cross! What kind of God lays down His life that His worshipers might become His friends?
Did you see what just happened there? We went to the scriptures for answers because we trust God to meet us there—the Lord is first in our hearts—and the tempter cannot bear the thought of it.
Consider my paraphrasing a portion of Spurgeon’s preaching of this passage: A prince of heaven’s court fell from his throne because he refused to submit to the will of God. Satan thought it better to live in hell than reign in heaven. And then there’s Job. Just a mortal man with the world in his pocket—suffering poverty, persecution, and affliction in an instant. Satan’s gotta be thinking, “I can’t break this guy. What is holding this puny human together under such pressure?” Satan both admires and hates the kind of peace which reigns in the believer’s soul.
Let’s follow in the faith of our brother, Job. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
“The trial had lost all its sting the moment Job said, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.’ That enemy was slain—nay, it was buried and this was the funeral oration, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.'” –Charles Spurgeon
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