“Spare His Life”
On
another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan
also came with them to present himself before him. And the LORD said to Satan,
“Where have you come from?”
Satan
answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on
it.”
Then
the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on
earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns
evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him
to ruin him without any reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life.
But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will
surely curse you to your face.”
The
LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare
his life.”
So
Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful
sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a
piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
His
wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and
die!”
He
replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In
all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
When
Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the
Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out
from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him
and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize
him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on
their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.
No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
Job 2:1-13
Job’s
affection for his heavenly Father did not depend on a tidy solution to his
problems. Rather, he loved and trusted God because of all that He is.
We
will be tested, but never beyond our limits. Count on it.
Our
love for God must not be based on His blessing but because of who He is.
Focusing on the character of God helps up take our eyes off our
circumstances.
Our Daily Bread –