Skip to main content

Why did Job Suffer?

http://dailymedit.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/fv.jpg%3Fw%3D610%26h%3D126

















Not having the insight of the discussion that took between God and Satan, we would be left with Job's friends speculating and discussing why Job suffered.  Reading the book of Job in full, we see a bigger picture. The book of Job reveals to us the things that are hidden from Job and his friends–the conversation that took between God and Satan.

 God, asked Satan a question when he appeared before Him. "And the LORD said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?'” (Job 1:8).  To which, Satan had to say this: “'Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land'” (Job 1:9-10).  Satan accused God and Job in his answer, God for blessing him and Job of having false motives serving God.  "Does Job fear God for no reason?" God responds to Satan accusation by giving him power of the over everything that Job has, except Job's life. “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand” (1:12).  This conversation took place before Job lost everything he had.  

 Evil people 
We see camels, oxen and donkey were stolen by evil people and killed Jobs servants: “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you... The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you" (14-17).

 Natural disaster
Job's children and sheep were taken by natural disaster, fire and wind. “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you... Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you" (16-19)

Fire, wind, Chaldeans, and Sabeans were the tools that Satan used to take away everything that Job has. Satan himself did not appear in some form of scary image and dictated his demons to take everything Job has, it was something natural, something normal taking place. 

 It took 32 chapters, the discussion between Job and his friends, to give an explanation to why Job suffered? Lot's of ideas were given, but none were right or true before God.  We see the purpose of Job's suffering was the outcome of the discussion that Satan and God had about Job.  Did Job knew the reason for his suffering, no.  God in the last chapter did not explain to Job why he suffered, He just showed himself.

 Natural disasters happen all the time; people do suffer in life, the question is: do we know why?  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scripture

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures ,  that he was buried , that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,   and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.   Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.   Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.   For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.   But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.   Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.  (1 Corinthians 15:3)
1 comment
Read more

The Last Moments of Christopher Hitchens life

Christopher Hitchens is one of the leading atheist of our times, they call it the new atheism now.  He also is the author of a book, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” that was just recently released; heavily opposing religion and any idea that God exist.  But right now Mr Hitchens is in his last stages of the esophageal cancer.  The New Your Time describes his last moments of life like this: “Some of these articles were written with the full consciousness that they might be my very last. Sobering in one way and exhilarating in another, this practice can obviously never become perfected.”  Another words, Hitchens has little time left. Smoking and drinking was something that Hitchens needed to quit, life was more important then the pleasures of these habits, not mentioning that he had a feeding tube installed since June.  He had power in articulating his worldview to others, the ideas, but were these thoughts the reality of our world? You could notice that Mr Hi
2 comments
Read more

Why Job DID NOT cursed God?

http://www.skybluevaping.co.za/image/data/journal/1383-1.jpg The tone of the conversation was different when Satan appeared before God second time. Not because Satan repented or agreed with God, but because his hypothesis fell short.  Satan just destroyed Jobs wealth and his children (seven sons and three daughters) using evil men, fire, and wind arguing that this was the reason why Job served God in the first place. Job response to his lost was not a cursing God attitude but a humble worship.  “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord ” (Job 1:20).    When Satan appears before God second time, God asked him the same question as he did in the first conversation,  "' Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? ” (Job 2:3). Since what Satan hoped for become eventually not t
1 comment
Read more