Satan Attacks Job's Health 2 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 3 And the Lord said to Satan, “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? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” 4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job's Three Friends 11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. The scene resets and is almost identical to the first conversation we saw between God and Satan. The angels come before God and Satan is among them. God asks Satan where he's been and what he's been up to, and Satan gives the same canned answer as before. Once again, God asks Satan if he's considered His servant Job and adds this time that "He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."
Satan is unhappy with Job's response and even more unhappy with God's verdict and claims that God has still protected Job by putting a hedge up around Job's health and life and that a man would give everything to keep his health and life and that explains why Job did not yet curse God, but Satan posits that if God would remove His hedge of protection around Job's health and life that Satan could make Job curse God. We once again see God setting the limits and He tells Satan that he can touch Job's body and take his health away, but he cannot kill him (and we'll see later in the Bible the life and death belong only to God--this view that we have of Satan being some kind of grim reaper and killing people of his own accord is completely unbiblical). Satan is then permitted to give Job painful sores/boils from head to toe so the he is in agony no matter what position he lies in. All Job could do was take a broken piece of pottery and open and drain the sores (which would itself be painful) in hopes that this would help them heal). Now we get introduced to a new character in the story. Until now we have not seen or heard from Job's wife. We would have assumed he had a wife because of all of his children, but this is the first and only time we hear her speak in the entire book. Curious that Satan did not take Job's wife away from him as well as his children when God gave him the opportunity--though not so curious when you see what she has to say. Job's wife adds insult to injury and asks him why he still chooses to hold to his integrity. She's asking him essentially what good that has done him if he would look at his current circumstances. Then she concludes that his life is no longer worth living and he might as well trade his integrity for a quick death if this is what life is going to look like for him. This might be the first time we see a "quality of life" argument coming form someone that tries to argue that Job's life was no longer worth living because he was poor and diseased with an illness that probably had no cure at the time. What was Job's response to this? He told his wife that she was speaking foolish words and that we must receive everything that comes form the hand of the Lord, no matter if we perceive it to be "good" or "bad" in our own judgment, and Job continues in a posture of morning by sitting in the ashes (probably naked from other references in the book). He has lost everything and now even has Satan using his closest relationship--his marriage--to intensify the attack, but it won't stop there. Enter the next three characters in the story--Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. We will learn later in chapter 32 that another is among them named Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram (he is most likely the one writing everything down). These friends come to sit with Job and mourn with him and try to comfort him in his loss, and they cry with him and tear their robes (a sign of mourning in the ancient Near East) and also sprinkle dust/ashes on their heads (another sign of morning) and all turn their eyes towards heaven--probably an indication of prayer--as there is no other response that is appropriate, but even in this no one can utter a single word out loud for seven days. This verse from the book of Romans comes to mind when I think of such deep grief and suffering: Romans 8:26 English Standard Version26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Things will not stay silent for much longer though as Job is about to open his mouth and that is going to make his "friends" feel the need to respond. The rest of the book will be several rounds of "debate" where Job will speak and the friends will usually speak in turn form oldest to youngest (Elihu seems to be the youngest of all of them and sits in silence until the very end and waits for everyone to have finished speaking before he says anything at all). Note that just because they are going in order from oldest to youngest does not necessarily mean that those who are more advanced in years speak more wisdom. We will find some nuggets of truth hidden in the these speeches, but we will also find much worldly wisdom that if we look closely will sound exactly like the lies, errors and false religions of today. The old has just been repackaged and rebranded to sound new, but Satan is still a liar from the beginning and he's just gotten better at telling the same lies he always has. This would be my one warning as we study this book--be discerning about everything you read--most everything you hear Job's friends say in this book is wrong. In fact, let's jump ahead to the end of the story to see something that God is going to say to them at the end of the book. Job 42:7-9 English Standard Version The Lord Rebukes Job's Friends 7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Read this book with that judgment in mind. That is not to say that everything that Job says is perfect (he will get corrected by God in the end) or that everything that Job's friends says is totally wrong, but God seems to say that Job knows God and speaks of what he understands about the nature and character of God and Job's friends foolishly try to speak of what they do not know or understand. This reminds me slightly of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 where He says in verse 22, "22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." (in response to the Samaritan woman's question about where was the right place for them to worship--on Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Zion). There will be much discussion in this book about who Job and his friends think God is, how He reveals His will to His people, His character and nature, and His interactions with man--specifically His justice and judgments. Is God slack in His justice? Is every bad thing that happens evidence of God being angry about something and judging sin? Do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people? These are all questions we hear frequently from people today--especially our youth and those going to college. Be ready to help people find answers to these questions from the Bible because otherwise "friends" like Epliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar will be happy to show up and fill their minds with the "widsom" (and by that I mean foolishness) of this world. The same garbage spewed here by these three friends is exactly what kids in college campuses are learning from their philosophy and humanities professors and even some of their science professors. This makes the study of this book all the more timely as we realize there is a spiritual battle (we got a glimpse of it in chapters 1 and 2) for the hearts, minds, and souls of men and women--Job is just one of the characters here, but Stan would be very happy to get Job to buy into any one of the false narratives of the three friends (or even Job's own wife). Job is constantly assaulted on all fronts when he's at his weakest. Which do you think was harder for him as you go through this book, the physical pain of the boils, the agony of loosing all he owned, the death of his children, or the betrayal or all of his friends and remaining family who tried to convince him that even God had betrayed him? I'll sum up Job's friends' arguments for you in some verses (also from the book of Romans). Romans 3:3-5 English Standard Version 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” 5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) So, there seems to be some truth value to some of the things they are saying, but in this specific case their broad generalizations don't apply to the specific because Job has not been unfaithful or unrighteous according to God. They have come in with preconceived notions that Job must have done something to deserve this (just like we see in the New Testament where people ask Jesus "who sinned so that this man was born blind?"). That's enough for now, but I wanted to lay a foundation and some groundwork for you before we dig in, because it's about to get really heavy, really fast. This is by no means "light reading."
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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