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 through the earth and going back and forth in 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 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." Job 2:1-5 NIV (find any passage at www.Biblegateway.org)
As we read what happens to Job, it is tempting to see God's action here as cruel. Then I think of the account in Luke 22, where Jesus tells Peter that Satan has asked to sift through the disciples "as wheat" , which God also allows, and it could almost reinforce that notion.
But then I think of Jesus; then I think of you - and of me.
"For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son" for you - and for me. And how it must have hurt Him to send Jesus to suffer the abuse, humiliation, agony, and death - for you and for me. He loves us so much that He accepted that pain.
I don't understand why God allowed Satan to torment Job, but this I do know; as much as Job suffered, God suffered more. And my guess is that the whole reason Satan goes after any of us is to hurt our Father. Whatever we go through, the pain is magnified for Him. And when we choose to sin, how much that must pain God and please the enemy.
This stuff in Job gets pretty intense, and difficult to understand. But you know something? A three year old child does not comprehend why reaching up to touch a hot stove might result in a swat on the behind. And in that moment, he is being denied something he wants terribly, has received what he perceives to be devastating pain, and in his mind this does not add up to love.
But we know better.
And God, our loving Father, knows better than we do.
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Questions:
1. What are your thoughts? 2.How does this passage make you feel? 3. Who is God to you?
INTERESTING THOUGHTS:
"God, who foresaw your tribulation,
has specially armed you to go through it,
not without pain but without stain."
C.S.Lewis
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