Blessed be the Name of the Lord, Part 2

Previously...

Job was a devout man, a man who loved the Lord and served Him wholeheartedly. Satan wanted to test Job, to see if He would curse God when things were going wrong. Well, stuff went wrong! His sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, servants, and his ten children, were taken away from him. His reply was, " ' The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord.' And in all of this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."

Now...

We are back to the heaven scene. I know some of us memorized Job 1:6-8, and the first three and a half verses of chapter two are an exact repeat! Then the Lord praises Job to Satan and says "And still he holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause." This shows us that the Lord wasn't the one who was doing to hurt to Job, but He did allow it. Satan answered the Lord by saying, "Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" So Satan is testing the Lord again! But alas, the Lord replied, "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life." So Satan went to work again! This time, he hurt Job himself. Job all of a sudden had painful, horrible boils from head to toe. Literally! Have any of you had blisters on your feet? I have. It is VERY painful! you can hardly walk, and I had three blisters on each foot-- I had to walk on the outside of my feet! (I won't tell you what that looked like, you can imagine for yourself!) So Job had that, but five times worse. For one thing, it was all over, and for another, they popped open, bled, pussed out, and then new ones came. I really can't imagine what it felt like. Well, I could, but I don't want to!

So you need to know something about Job. He was a great guy over all, but he didn't really make wise choices in regard to relationships. The first I will mention is his wife. His wife, when she saw how much pain he was in, said, "Do you STILL hold fast to your integrity?!? Curse God and die!" Now, it was also HER ten children who died, so she was probably having an emotional breakdown, but still you do NOT say to curse God! Job had a wonderful response, though. He said, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" Wow. He has such control, it must be the Lord! Nobody, as a sinner, could react like that. But with God's grace, we can!

The next relationship I will mention are his friends. In his time of trouble, he didn't have one encouraging thing said to him. His three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, were not a comfort at all! They actually accused him, saying that he was a wicked man, that he should be more righteous so God won't do this to him, and that there is no one to listen to him. Then they go on about what THEY would do, how THEY would handle it, and that God would save THEM from it. How frustrating! What I think is interesting is that Job answers them, saying he wished he was never born, how it would be better if he died, and all that, but never once did he say it was God's fault. Later on, after many many chapters of complaints from Job and criticisms from his "friends", God talks to Job. And then come the verses we know;) I am not going to type out the whole thing, but if you look at Job 38 and 39, you will see how God is talking about things He Himself has done, and we as mortals could never do! How great is our God!

Now for the ending:

"And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted his for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and his grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days."

Yeah! A story with a happy ending! The Lord blessed him more abundantly than before, and he lived a long and happy life. And what does that do for us? Well, Revelation 2:10 says, "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the Crown of Life." We need to have perseverance like Job. Sure, he lived a long time ago, but he was a good example for us all. Of course, he wasn't perfect, so don't try to be exactly like him:) You've got to pick and choose! But thankfully, we have a perfect example in Jesus Christ! Always go to HIM for guidance, and may He be your role model! Ok, I'm almost done talking:) But there's one more thing. There is an example of what we are NOT supposed to be like: the friends. Do your friends rely on you? Can you be trusted to tell the truth in love, be a comforter, encourager, and spiritual friend as well as physical? These are just some things for you to think about. May the Lord bless you in your efforts to be like Him, and to please the Lord our maker!