“The Wiles of the Devil” series (post #4)

The method Satan used to get Job was sadistically lethal. It decimated Job’s wealth, family, health, relationship with his wife, relationship with his friends, and reputation in the community. It took Job from being “the greatest of all the people of the East” (Job 1:3, N.K.J.V.) to being a sad, pitiable shell of a man.

Unbeknownst to Job he becomes the test subject of a contest between God and Satan. When God holds Job up to Satan as the earth’s best example of a servant of God (Job 1:6-8), Satan’s comeback is, “Who wouldn’t serve you with a life like he has? You’ve given him a large family. You’ve blessed everything He’s ever done in regards to work and business. You’ve increased his wealth and given Him great possessions. And you’ve kept it all safe by putting a spiritual hedge of protection around it all. Sure, it’s easy to serve You when life is perfect. But if You take all of that away from Job, he’ll stop serving You and curse You to Your face” (Job 1:9-11). In reply, God says, “Okay, as of right now everything he has is in your power. Do with him as you will, only don’t harm him bodily” (Job 1:12).

So, over the course of a single day, Satan lays waste to Job’s wealth and family. First, he inspires the Sabeans to raid the site where Job’s hundreds of oxen and donkeys are located, steal the animals, and kill the servants who are tending them (Job 1:13-15). Second, he causes fire to fall from the sky and burn up not only Job’s thousands of sheep but also the servants who are tending them (Job 1:16). Third, he inspires three bands of Chaldeans to raid the site where Job’s thousands of camels are located, steal the animals, and kill the servants who are tending them (Job 1:17). Fourth, he creates a great windstorm that strikes the house where Job’s seven sons and three daughters are enjoying a feast, causing the house to fall in on itself, and in so doing kill all of Job’s children (Job 1:13, 18-19).

Incredibly, however, all of that disaster doesn’t create the response in Job that Satan had predicted. Rather than curse God, Job simply performs the customary ritual acts of mourning (tearing his garment and shaving his head), falls to the ground, and worships God by saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-22). Wow! Just wow!

But Satan isn’t ready to admit defeat, and so he returns to God with a new proposal. This time he says, “The reason Job stayed with You is because You didn’t let me do him bodily harm. If You strike him physically, he will surely curse You to Your face” (Job 2:1-5). God says, “Alright, I give you permission to strike him physically, only don’t go so far as to kill him” (Job 2:6).

Very shortly afterward Satan afflicts Job with painful boils that run from the top of Job’s head to the bottoms of his feet (Job 2:7). There is no natural cure for Job’s condition because the disease is supernatural in nature. Job himself describes its symptoms as: his flesh is caked with worms and dust (7:5), his skin cracks and breaks open (7:5), his body rots (13:28), his bones are pierced (30:17), his pain is a gnawing pain (30:17), his skin turns black and falls off (30:30), his bones burn with fever (30:30), and his flesh wastes away to the point where his bones protrude (33:21).

Being in such a condition Job has to move out of his home and take up residence at the local ash heap. Typically, that’s where the lepers live. So, there he sits, day after day, scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery to try and get a moment’s worth of relief (Job 2:8).

That’s where he is when his wife makes her way out to him and says, “Are you still trying to maintain some integrity? What you need to do is just curse God and die” (Job 2:9). And how does Job respond to that? He answers, “You talk like one of the foolish women. Are we going to be the type of people who accept good from God but can’t take adversity from Him?” (Job 2:10). Again, wow! Just wow!

It is sometime after Job’s visit from his wife that three of his friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar) come to sit with him to join him in his mourning (Job 2:11-12). Give them credit for coming. And they sit with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights without saying a word to him (Job 2:13). Finally, at the end of those seven days Job breaks the silence.

Thus begins a running dialogue between the three that encompasses no less than 35 chapters. Over the course of those chapters each of the three friends takes his turn at trying to convince Job that Job must have committed some great sin or sins in the eyes of God for God to have done him this way, and each time Job responds with lengthy answers that defend his innocence. At one point in the dialoguing a fourth man, a younger fellow named Elihu, interjects himself into the debating (Job 32:1-5), but he doesn’t have any more success at getting Job to confess than Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar have had.

It is only after all of the dialoguing is completed that we get the book’s version of a happy ending. That ending begins with God speaking to Job out of a whirlwind (Job 38:1). Curiously, though, God doesn’t even mention Satan or the contest. Instead, He uses multiple illustrations from creation to prove that Job isn’t great enough or wise enough to question Him or accuse Him (Job 38:2-41:34). I don’t mind admitting that I’ve always found God’s explanation to Job to be fairly cold, but God would probably give me the same answer He gave Job if I questioned Him about it.

Once He is finished speaking to Job, God then turns His attention to Job’s three friends and informs them that He hasn’t been pleased with their words of accusation toward Job (Job 42:7). To make restitution they must bring seven bulls and seven rams to Job, allow him to offer the animals as sacrifices, and have Job pray for the men. If they don’t do all that, God will deal with them according to their folly (Job 42:8).

Next, God does what a literal rendering of the book’s original Hebrew describes as “turning the captivity of Job” (Job 42:10, K.J.V.). Evidently, this “turning” of Job’s Satan-induced “captivity” included both the restoring of Job’s health and wealth. In regards to Job’s wealth, God gave Job twice as much as he had owned before Satan began his attacks (also, Job 42:10, 12).

As for Job’s health, even though Job 42:10 doesn’t specifically mention his health being restored, the healing is certainly implied in Job 42:11 in the fact that Job’s brothers, sisters, and all his acquaintances come to visit him, console him, and comfort him. Apparently, his disease had caused them to avoid coming to see him before he was healed. In addition to those acquaintances coming to see him, each one gifts him with a piece of silver and a ring of gold. Perhaps these gifts played a part in God restoring Job’s prosperity double-fold (Job 42:12).

Oh, and God also blesses Job with seven more sons and three more daughters (Job 42:13-15). Commentator John Phillips says that God didn’t give Job twice the previous number of sons and daughters because Job hadn’t truly lost those first seven sons and three daughters. It’s just that those children were now all in a blissful afterlife. That’s a nice way of looking at it.

Well, what a story, right? What a fascinating, amazing, profound story! It’s no wonder that it’s one of the world’s most famous. And while there are numerous spiritual lessons to be gleaned from the story, let me use just one of them as the closing to this post. That lesson is: Satan is a thief, a murderer, and a destroyer (John 10:10), and he will bring destruction into your life if he gets half a chance. Sometimes he does his damage personally. Other times he sends some of his fellow fallen angels (demons) to do it. Other times he accomplishes his purposes by working through people. But however he gets the damage done he will devastate your life if he can. Therefore, your best defense against him is to live a godly life and make a habit of asking God to prevent him from doing all that he wants to do to you.