Job’s Temptation (Job #2)

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Text: Job 1

Let’s begin by jumping ahead to the end of Job’s first trial in verses 1:20-22.  After Satan is given permission to take everything Job has, Job is still a resolved defender of the LORD’S righteousness.  And he is a defender of the LORD at great personal cost to him. It’s often said that this book of Job is about suffering and why good people suffer.  That is certainly in this book, but that isn’t the point of Job. Verse 1:22 brings out the point of this entire book which is whether God is righteous in his ways or is he wicked.  Is he good or is he evil?

Job the ardent defender of the Almighty (vss 1-5)

• Job is a man who wants to protect any charges against God.  The idea of accusing God shows up immediately in 1:5. It is Job’s chief concern that his family is right with God.  He wants to protect God’s reputation in the hearts of his children. And make sure that if they have even thought about accusing God, that God would pass over that transgression.
• God’s testimony of his servant Job (1:8)
  • Perfect
    • Complete.
    • Noah was perfect in his generations.
  • Upright
    • Man is fallen, as opposed to upright, but Job was not led by his fallen nature apparently.  That’s the testimony of Job in these verses.
    • Psalm 37:37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
  • Fears God
  • Eschews evil – he shuns evil. Paul would say abstain from all appearance of evil.

Satan the accuser of God (vss 6-12)

• Then you have a glorious scene in verse 6.  The heavenly host presenting themselves before God Almighty.  Job had presented himself and his family to God as a man in the earth.  And other created beings, angelic host, present themselves to God.
• Speak of the devil!
• I imagine all this angelic host assembling before God Almighty.  And there is one creature that stands out more than all the others.  He’s covered in jewelry, he is beautiful like a celebrity, he is charismatic, and when Satan speaks he commands attention.
• You learn in Job, the oldest real book in the world, that Satan is the chief being who brings accusations against his Creator.  He is the architect of all allegations against God Almighty. His influence brings slander and insinuation against the Most High God.  He has made it his mission to prosecute and curse the throne of Heaven in the minds of man. Notice 1:9-11 and 2:4-5. He succeeds with Job’s wife by 2:9, which is understandable.
• You learn Satan’s philosophy of even the best of men is a prosperity gospel.  If Job loses what he has, Job will become suspicious of God and charge God with poor judgment.
  • Satan’s philosophy of man and God is the main influence among mankind.
  • Why do bad things happen if God is so good?  That’s one way to put it. You’ve probably sided with the devil on that a few times in your life and charged God with something you didn’t know about.
  • How does a loving God send people to hell?  That’s another one.
  • The irony is you end up finding common ground with the actual destroyer of mankind.  Satan creates the evil circumstances in Job’s life in order to make Job think God is evil.
  • In insurance policies you have the “act of God.”  How about act of the devil? See verses 18-19. Harvey a couple years ago.
• Garden of Eden makes Eve suspicious of God.

Blessed be the name of the LORD (vss 13-22)

• Satan is given power over all Job has and he steals, kills, and destroys it all.
• But Job never curses God.  And this is the main thought in this world by the god of this world.
  • God is not right in handling this situation.
  • God is not right to tell me this.
• Job blessed be the name of the Lord in light of tragedy.
• For you and me it won’t take as much to get us to charge God.

Three things you can be sure of if you’re tempted to charge God

• #1 – God is righteous in everything He does.
• #2 – You don’t have all the information.
  • Job doesn’t know about the conversation and the honor God bestowed on Job.
  • Job doesn’t know that he will see his family again and his end will be more blessed than the beginning.
• #3 – You’re being tempted to side with the real killer