Job is a great book of the Bible. Many claim that it is the oldest book in the Bible. There is evidence that Job was around during the days of the patriarchs like Abraham. A patriarch’s wealth was associated with having many children along with many animals.
Job 1:3 (NKJV)
“…this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.”
Reading the book of Job also gives us a unique glimpse into a conversation between God and Satan, God’s blessings and Satan’s attacks. However this has, in the minds of many readers, been used to mischaracterize God’s sovereignty over His creation. In the next few articles in my Pastor’s Seeds, I will share some thoughts on God’s sovereignty in the life of Job and in ours.
One key in understanding Scripture is not forgetting truths about God in the other parts of the Bible. There are no contradictions in the Scriptures, only a lack of understanding of those Scriptures on our part. If you won’t jump to any conclusions, but actually allow God time to enlighten you, then you will get the understanding of biblical truths as you patiently meditate on God’s Word.
In Job chapter one we see that he was blameless and an upright man of God.
Job 1:1 (NKJV)
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
If Job was an upright man of God than why would God allow Satan to attack him? Some quick answering people might pipe-out this response, “Because God wanted to test him”. However, this isn’t the kind of test that God has used on people in the Bible. In previous Pastors Seed articles (September-December 2014 titled TEST) I have written about what is a test from God biblically.
The author of Job tells us why Job was able to be attacked the way Satan attacked him.
Job 3:25-26 (NKJV)
25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,
And what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
Fear opened the door for Satan’s attack. It’s not that God wouldn’t protect Job but that He couldn’t protect Job because of his fears. Fear is perverted faith because it believes what the devil says versus what God says. If you believe it then you open the door for Satan’s attack in your own life. God did everything that He could to limit Satan’s assault but Job’s fear kept the door wide open.
God in His sovereignty gave us authority over this world and everything in it through Adam. However, Adam gave that same authority over to the Devil when he had sinned and the world became subject to Satan.
Romans 6:16 (NKJV)
16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Romans 8:20a (NKJV)
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly…
But God through Jesus gave us victory over the Devil in this world. If “not fearing” wasn’t so important to the quality of our lives than why would Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, write that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear? So if fear is of this world, than we must reject fear whenever it comes to mind. It is an attempt of the Devil to negatively affect our lives.
2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
As born again believers we have been reconciled to God through His son Jesus.
Colossians 1:19-20 (NKJV)
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
You are free to live in God’s victory over the Devil’s fears. God has given you His peace.