Old Testament God of Love

Job and the Great Controversy

Sabbath, at church, I talked about Job and the way the whole story of the battle between God and Satan play out in his story. There is no where in the Bible where it comes across so plainly just what is involved in this life on earth. We are caught between two forces and we have to choose which one will have control over our lives.

Job was a man who loved God and had chosen to follow Him no matter what happened. God blessed Job with a wonderful family: a wife, seven sons and three daughters. He also blessed him with wealth. Job had 7,000 sheep which would provide him with wool for making cloth; 3,000 camels which he would use to ferry his goods and other merchandise across the desert between what is now Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran; 500 yoke of oxen (meaning he had 1,000 oxen) which could also be used for hauling loads that needed wagons; and 500 female donkeys which would procreate so he could sell them as well as use them in hauling merchandise up in the fertile crescent of what is now Iraq and Iran. Even by today’s standards Job was a millionaire. He had it all.

One day God called a counsel meeting. The Bible doesn’t say how often God calls these meetings, but evidently it is fairly often because two different occasions are mentioned in Job 1 and 2. At this meeting satan came as the representative of the world. As you may know, Adam was made ruler of earth and given dominion over everything on it (see Genesis 1:26-29). When Adam sinned, he gave the dominion of the earth was to satan (see Scriptures below[1]) and he became the prince of the world. Therefore, he represented earth in the heavenly council meetings.

When satan presented himself before God, God asked him where have you come from? Not because God didn’t know, but it is interesting that God always asks questions. He asked Adam and Eve, “Where are you? What have you done?” And He still asks us those questions: where are you? What are you doing there? Where are you going? Where have you come from? He asks us because we have to play a part in our salvation. We must think about what we are doing, where we are going, etc. Until we acknowledge where we are and who we are, we will never feel the need for a Savior. So God asked satan, where have you come from?

How it must have galled satan to have to answer: “From roaming about the earth and walking around on it.” Satan had been the covering cherub, he had stood by the throne of God (see below)[2]; he had walked the streets of gold and worshiped at the throne of God. Now he was reduced to “walking around on the earth.” What a bitter pill he had to swallow and all because he wanted to be “like God” to have the power of God.

So then God draws satan’s attention to one of the few men on earth who still worshiped Him, Job. At that time in earth’s history, very few people still retained the knowledge of the true God, the Creator God. Job followed God and lived his life according to God’s will and turning away from sin. God called him “blameless.” That is certainly an adjective I want God to apply to my life. “Blameless” and I have confidence that He can because Jesus died for my sins; I accept His sacrifice and therefore His blood covers my sins and I am “blameless” in the sight of God. What an amazing promise and assurance. No matter what I’ve done in the past, I can ask Jesus to forgive me and to cleanse me every day and then it is no longer my sin and filthiness that God sees, but Christ’s righteous life that is revealed instead!

Job offered sacrifices for his children every time they got together because he was afraid they might have sinned and forgotten God during their partying, so he offered sacrifices “continually” for the forgiveness of their sins. As long as we live in this world of sin and darkness, we need to continually bring ourselves “a living sacrifice[3]” to the feet of God and ask Him to forgive us for our sins. And the good news is that not only will He forgive, He will cleanse and make us like new![4]

Anyway, satan accused Job of only following God when things were going well. “Look,” he said, “of course, he follows you, you protect him from everything. I can’t get near him. If I had my way with him then he would be just like everyone else and would choose to serve me instead of you.”

So God, said “Okay, you can do whatever you like with Job, just don’t touch him physically.”

And then we see the contrast between life with God and life with satan. Had Adam and Eve not sinned, their lives would have been full of everything that is good and beautiful. Just as Job’s life was full of joy and abundance. But when Adam and Even sinned, they chose to serve satan instead of God and they unleashed untold miseries on our world. Miseries like satan unleashed on Job’s unsuspecting head. If nothing else this story should show how evil satan is and how much he enjoys hurting God’s creatures.

In quick succession not only did satan destroy all of Job’s property, but he also killed all of Job’s children with one windstorm. Leaving Job penniless and childless in less than 24 hours. What a difference a few hours can make. Job woke up in the morning rich beyond our imagination with a loving family around him, and went to bed that night (if he went to bed) utterly bankrupt and with no children. How satan loved to see that. What tortures he loves to inflict on God’s creatures. Whenever I’m tempted to give up on God or blame God for something, I remember that if I give up on God then satan wins, and he is the bad guy. Every bit of misery in this world can be laid at his door. He is responsible, not God. The only reason we have anything good at all in life is because of God’s mercy and His watchcare over us. If it were up to satan we’d all be as miserable as Job.

But the Bible says that “Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head (signs of mourning), and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.” (Job 1:20-22).

Wow! I’d love to be able to say that I have never blamed God or sinned when bad things happen in my life. Unfortunately, satan’s biggest lie is to make us disbelieve God. He wants us to believe that God doesn’t care about us and that He doesn’t hear us. When the bad things that SATAN causes fill us with despair, he always makes it seem like God is the one to blame. God is the only one who holds satan back from inflicting even more misery.

Why does God allow this to happen? Job was a good man, he loved and served God, and still God allowed satan to hurt him. Why?

The Bible has an answer for that also. 1 Corinthians 4:9 – “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.” We are Exhibit A to angels and to men. To the angels looking on, we are an example of what turning away from God leads to. All they have to do, if they are tempted to sin, is to look at what a horrible place this earth has become and then they can resist, because who would want to live here and leave heaven?

There is another reason God allows suffering to happen. He is testing us, seeing if we will stay true, seeing if we can believe and trust Him no matter what happens in our lives.[5] Even Jesus was tested and satan was given an opportunity to try to shake His faith. Unlike Adam, Jesus stood firm and true and chose to serve and obey God and not take what satan offered.

Job also stood fast. Then came another counsel meeting and this time God gave satan permission to hurt Job physically, but he was not allowed to kill him. Then Job was covered, from head to foot, with horrendous boils. He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep, he had to sit in an ash pile and scrap his boils. He was a mess. And to make his agony even more bitter, his wife kept nagging him to forsake God and just die. Just get it over with. She was basically telling him to commit suicide. Just get it over with, death is better than this existence.

Although we often count Mrs. Job as a bad person, just imagine how she felt. She had lost everything also, these trials weren’t just affecting Job, they also affected his wife. Most of us, in that situation, would react the same way. If we don’t have a daily, saving relationship with Jesus Christ, then when troubles come we will give up and throw in the towel, just as Mrs. Job did. But Job’s response was different. He did have a saving relationship with Jesus. He did know in whom his hope rested. His response in Job 13:15 – “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”

Job was not going to let satan win. He didn’t know of the battle being fought over him, but he did know that to give is to sin was to choose to serve satan, and he chose not to. That is our battle every day, choosing to serve God, not satan, no matter what happens. That is the faith that kept the martyrs strong and peaceful even when they were tied at the stake and burned. It kept the Waldenses going even when they lost their homes and had to live in the wilderness. It will keep us going no matter what happens. Because as Job said: "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth” (Job 19:25).

What amazing grace. God does save, He will stand on the earth again, and He will give us the power to withstand anything, no matter how horrible, if we ask Him. I am so glad that I serve the God of the Universe, the God that made me, that redeemed me, and that is coming back to get me. Praise God, what a hope we have in Jesus.

So the story could end right there, on the note of triumph and victory. I will serve God because He lives and He is my Redeemer. But God, in His grace, allows us to see the end of Job’s story. Not only will Job be resurrected at the coming of Jesus; not only will he inhabit that glorious mansion of gold that Jesus has built him in the New Jerusalem; not only will he live in a new earth where all things are made new and there will be no more sadness or crying; he was also rewarded in this life.

Job 42:10-17 tells us the rest of the story: “The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. The LORD blessed the latter {days} of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days.”

Job received twice as much as he had before his trial, and he had more children. He lived a long time and died a happy man. He never allowed himself to doubt God’s love and mercy toward him, and God came through. Not only in the end of the story, although that is marvelous, but God sustained Job throughout the trials and gave him grace to endure.

I pray that God is giving you grace to endure and that each day you can see a little clearer just how much He loves you.