Job 38

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm: ‘Who is this, darkening my plans with his ignorant words? Stand up like a man and brace yourself; I will ask questions; and you, give the answers!’” Job 38:1-3 (CJB)

In reading Job, it is easy to get the impression that Satan is taking advantage of God and the Lord is passively standing by. It is as if God has been conned by the Devil, pick-pocketed, as it were, and robbed of His best follower. But that is not the case. Satan may be taking advantage of the situation, but he is not taking advantage of God. We must remember that it was God who brought Job into the conversation.

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’; Then 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, one who fears God and shuns evil?’” Job 1:6-8 (NASB)

So, now we see that it was God’s idea. It sounds cruel - as it no doubt felt to Job - but if God allowed it, Job’s suffering must have ultimately been a good thing. For one thing, at the pinnacle of his suffering, Job uttered these words:

“And to human beings, He said, ‘Look, to fear the Lord is wisdom!  Shunning evil is understanding!’” Job 28:28 (CJB)

We began this probe into Job’s story with a simple thought: FAITH is not FACT until it is TESTED. At the beginning of the book of Job, God declares that Job was “a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil.” Of course, it is easier to be blameless and upright when the times are good! But what if you stripped a man of all his worldly possessions and brought a man to the brink of death? That was basically Satan’s argument to God. Through it all, Job never stopped fearing God, nor did he ever embrace evil.  

In the beginning, Job’s faith was mainly a theory, but by the end, Job had the most valuable knowledge available. Job’s faith was the real thing. God knew it from the beginning, Satan learned it, and (most importantly) Job learned it, but Job still didn’t understand why all this was happening. I am certain he understood after the following conversation with the Lord!!

In today’s passage, the Lord says, “Who is this, darkening My plans with his ignorant words?”  It was God’s plan, not Satan’s, for Job to undergo such tribulation. Therefore, it was ultimately for good.  (Romans 8:28)

Do you feel like you are in the “olive press,” being squeezed for no apparent reason?  When what we believe is not what we feel, and we still hold on, that is when we truly know for certain that we’ve got the real stuff!