The Bible is sometimes misunderstood for a number of reasons, mainly because it is not all understood with our mind, but with our spirit. When we read a book like “Job” in the Bible, we read a story about a man that loses everything, then is later restored. In our physical world we can sympathize with him and relate to him because of our own losses, but in order to understand Job’s “spiritual compass” it takes a greater depth of spiritual meditation to grasp the whole picture.
Job 1:6
One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 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.”
The first chapter starts out with a challenge from God to Satan (the Devil). If we stop and think this through, it will shake the foundation of how we have been taught and challenge our perception of the spirit world. It goes against the conventional wisdom of most churches, and even most of our beliefs, about God. Why would God challenge Satan and why does he point out Job, who, according to the scriptures, was an upright man and had done nothing wrong? We find in the story that Job lived humbly before his Creator and is blessed with a great family of seven sons and three daughters. Things were near perfect in his life, so much so that Job’s daily routine was to pray and sacrifice for God’s continued favor, not only for himself, but also for his children.
Satan accepted God’s challenge with the condition that God would lift the hedge of protection from around Job. The second the “Spiritual” hedge was lifted, physical enemies came and destroyed Job’s family, killing all his children, cattle and possessions. Job responded to God by becoming more humble, tearing his clothes, shaving his head and sitting down in sack cloth and ashes and simply continuing to worship God.
Job 2:3
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.
God taunted Satan “Have you considered my servant Job?” Satan again asked that the “spiritual” barrier be removed so that he could test Job’s physical body. God then “allows” Satan to hurt Job physically. Boils came up on his body and he was in horrific pain. At that point Job’s wife told him to give up by cursing God and dying. Job had nothing left. He wondered where God was and his body was in severe pain. Yet, still Job continued to magnify and worship God. He even had some “friends” come by and try to explain to Job how that everything was his fault, and that he must be covering up a sin. Each one, in their own way, explained their concept of God and Job’s perceived sin against Him. The rants go back and forth until finally in a whirlwind God spoke.
Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Each one of us are caught in this “tug of war” between the “spiritual” battles and the physical struggles. Each of us are trying to please our Creator in our own way, while fighting an enemy we can’t see. We sometimes wonder, “Where is God?” We want Him to speak over our lives. We need the answer to our questions today because we think that tomorrow may be too late. We want God to speak to us, our way, through our filter, saying something we are comfortable with, giving us only answers we want to hear.
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between you (serpent; Satan) and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers; he (Jesus Christ) will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
At our first look, it seems terribly unfair how Job is just a pawn in a chess game between God and Satan. But I think the story reveals much deeper issues than we first realize. Job is the story of human existence and God’s unchanging love and patience toward us all. Adam and Eve were created and placed in paradise, but because of the serpent (Satan) the barrier that kept pain and suffering away was removed. Yet, God in his infinite wisdom, taunted (Satan) with the prophetic promise of a deliverer that would come through the offspring of the women (Jesus Christ). Jesus’ blood covers the earth for those who will accept Him and, when God looks down on us, He sees us as upright and is then unable to see our faults.
Isaiah 29:15
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord,
and their works are in the dark,
and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay:
for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not?
or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Humankind has endured wars, pestilence and persecution at the hands of Satan and his minions, but it is all blamed on an “uncaring God”. We are bombarded by “friends” that tell us about our sins and how we should just give up. Our whole world system teaches us God is a myth and man’s ideas and theories are fact. We are taught that we are just a cosmic mistake, suffering in a world of hate, created by a God, that “if” He exists, he does not speak or care.
Job 19:25
For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God
In the end God spoke to Job through a whirlwind, and explains to Job and his friends that they have no comprehension of the infinite nature of God. He created the largest and smallest creatures in the ocean and when He speaks universes are formed. He then defends Job in front of his “friends” by telling them the folly of their ways and asks Job to pray for his friends so God won’t deal with them harshly. Then the book ends much like it began. God restored Job and blessed him with wealth and family; even more so at the end than the beginning.
Romans 8:22
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
God’s patience and love for us frail humans is paralled in the story of Job. No matter how weak we are or how bad our surroundings, He instills in us an inner “spiritual compass” that lets us realize that one day He will speak to this physical world in a whirlwind. Satan (the invisible enemy of our soul) will be destroyed and we, like Job, will rise up and see our Redeemer face to face. So, our story will end much like it began. We will be restored and blessed even more at the end than we were in the beginning.
“Show The Way” David Wilcox
> You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason we should dream
> that the world would ever change, You’re saying love is foolish to believe
> ‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a knife
> To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life
>
> Look, if someone wrote a play
> just to glorify what’s stronger than hate,
> would they not arrange the stage, To look as if the hero came too late,
> he’s almost in defeat, It’s looking like the Evil side will win,
> so on the edge of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
>
> It is….Love that mixed the mortar
> And it’s love who stacked these stones
> And it’s love who made the stage here
> Although it looks like we’re alone
> In this scene set in shadows
> Like the night is here to stay
> There is evil cast around us
> But it’s love that wrote this play…
> For in this darkness love can show the way.
Hebrews 3:4
For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.