Oh boy, the book of Job. Beginning a book like this—is there a bigger question than this? Why, oh why, oh why does God point out His friend to His enemy? We’re tempted to think, God could care less about our suffering.
But how could that be true 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?
Do you see what just happened there? We search the scriptures because we trust God to meet us there—the Lord is first in our hearts. And the tempter cannot bear the thought.
Consider my paraphrase on a portion of Spurgeon’s teaching of this passage: A prince of heaven’s court fell from his throne because he refused to submit to the will of Jehovah. Satan thought it better to live in hell than reign in heaven. And here was this mortal man (Job), with the world in his pocket, suffering poverty, persecution, and affliction in an instant, Satan seems to say, “And I can’t break him. What can be the matchless grace that holds him in his poverty?” Satan both admires and hates the peace which reigns in the believer’s soul.
“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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