Reflection on Job 1 and 2 by Calvin Griffith

I was reading the Bible this morning and I read through the first 2 chapters of the book of Job. I know the story, but I am not quite sure that I have ever read the entire book the whole way through, so I decided to do so. I have read the last 4 chapters of Job, which completely blew my mind and I am looking forward to reading them again when I get that far. Job's story is quite an interesting one, for those of you who have not had the privilege of hearing it before. It begins with the devil approaching God and asking Him if he could basically tear Job's life apart, sort of as an experiment to test his faith. The devil is hoping to completely break Job's faith in the Lord, but God trusts that Job's faith is strong enough to withstand the best Satan can throw at him. This is sort of like the movie with Eddie Murphy where the two rich guys make a bet to see whether they can transform a bum (Eddie Murphy) into a rich, successful stock broker and reduce a rich, successful stock broker to nothing more than a bum. Anyway, God gives Satan permission to proceed, only He tells him not to hurt Job. Satan kills all of Jobs children by making a house fall on them, and takes away Job's riches and livestock by having them stolen by his enemies. Job responds in faith, by saying "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 1:21). After this, Satan again approaches the Lord, asking if he can inflict Job with disease, to continue the experiment. The Lord allows it, but tells Satan not to kill Job. In turn, Satan inflicts Job with boils from head to toe. Still Job refused to doubt the Lord's divine will, despite his wife's urging.
In all of this, Job remains faithful to the Lord. The rest of Job is a continued story of how awful Job's life gets and also of how strong his faith in God remains. To see a man in such dire condition, whose faith in God does not waver, is astounding. As I mentioned earlier, the last part of Job is the coolest part because right as Job begins to lose it, God shows Himself in all of His majesty. Job finally begins to question God, asking why He would inflict Job with such troubles. God's reply is to simply ask Job if he was the one who created the earth and set it in motion or if he was around when the animals were made. God goes on for 4 chapters, basically calling Job out for doubting Him even for a second. The last few chapters of Job are by far some of the most powerful words in all of scripture. It is especially interesting to read these chapters in light of the doubting that you have done of the Lord's will and purpose in your life. To direct these words at yourself makes for a very powerful experience.
Why, you might ask, did God feel it was alright to test one of His servants in this way? Is this not a cruel thing to do? However, this is not the first time in the Bible that God has engaged in what might look like borderline sketchy testing of His people. Take, for example, when He tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. God's will is shown in the end of the story, when He provides an alternative sacrifice in place of Abraham's son, which is identical symbolism to the sacrifice of God's own son, Jesus Christ. Likewise, God has His reasons in Job's case as well. Some apparent reasons are that this story shows God's power over Satan, who must ask Him for permission to torment Job. Also, God shows His power in that millions of people throughout the history of the world have read Job's story and been inspired by his perseverance in faith. Additionally, Job's own faith must have been strengthened by leaps and bounds through this whole ordeal. Plus, we see at the end of Job that God has a plan which none of us can grasp. He created the universe! So, in the end, we need to leave it up to Him to figure out what's best for the world.