Job 1 – 5 and Lunch with Esther

How exciting! Day 4 and we are already reading from the book of Job.

The book of Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible. The subject of the book is quite a guy:

1. Lived in the land of Uz (no one knows for sure where this was, but probably in the Mid-East since some of his attackers were Chaldeans (remember Abram was from Ur of the Chaldees))
2. Very wealthy, “in fact, the richest person in the area”
3. Owned a lot of animals
4. Had a large family: seven sons and three daughters

While all of this is very impressive, more importantly, Job was described as “blameless--a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.”

In the book of Job, we get a lot of insight into God and how He deals with and members of the heavenly court. Most of what we learn, at least in the first chapter of Job, is:

1. Satan is called the Accuser
2. As a member of the heavenly court, Satan presents himself before God
3. Satan patrols the earth, watching everything that is happening
4. God brings up Job to Satan, not the other way around, telling him that Job is the finest man on the earth and that he fears the Lord because God has put a wall of protection around him
5. Satan is allowed to test Job in terms of his possessions and his family, but not his personal health and comfort

Satan has been called the deceiver, but it appears from this that Satan is deceived. He really thinks Job will curse God if everything is taken from him, but Job proves him wrong. When everything he has is taken away, he does grieve, but instead of cursing God, he falls to the ground and worships Him.

What wonderful words Job speaks: “The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord.” Wow!

Of course, Satan doesn’t admit he was wrong when he appears before God again. Instead, he tells God that Job did not curse God because he still has his health.

In spite of his painful boils, Job does not curse God. In spite of his wife urging him to “curse God and die,” Job does not curse God.  Instead, he states a philosophy we should all adopt: “… Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad? …” (Job 2:10) And he still said nothing wrong.

After awhile, we see his “friends” show up. They sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights straight and never uttered a word.

He curses the day of his birth. You can see by his words that he falls into a deep depression. I tell you what: I would be whining and carrying on.

In my opinion, the main thrust of what Eliphaz the Temanite says to Job is found in Job 4:7 “…when have the upright been destroyed?” In other words, everything that has happened to you is because you committed some wrong.

Wouldn’t you like to have a friend like Eliphaz? Not me.

Tomorrow, we’ll be reading Job 6 – 9.

Hope you are enjoying these reading as much as I am.

Lunch with Esther

Today, while I was in the middle of eating lunch at home, Esther called and invited me to lunch. We met at Mimi’s where we had a great lunch.  The food was great and the fellowship was fine.

Until next time..