In the book of Job, we read how God removes his hand of protection from Job, opens him up to attacks of Satan, and then seemingly leaves Job hanging in the dark, without an explanation for why God does this. And from chapters 3 until 32, Job and his three friends wrestle, argue, and debate. Job’s friends are convinced that Job must have done something terrible that deserves God’s judgment. Job doubles down and holds on to his integrity.

The book of Job has often been cast as a discussion about the problem of suffering: Why does God allow suffering? And this is an argument in the world: If God is good, how can he allow suffering? How can God be almighty and good? I am not qualified to answer the question of suffering (which is a different way of saying that I do not know the answer). But I do want to study with you this chapter of Job, and learn more about Job, Satan, and God.

Sermon Manuscript

A couple of weeks ago, we sang this song with the bridge “He gives and takes away, He gives and takes away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.” I don’t know about you, but I often tremble when I sing those songs. They are true, this is a verse from Job and we will read it later, but I while singing (not so loud) I often think in my heart “I hope that the Lord is not paying too much attention to these words and hold me to that”. And we have more songs like that, for example from “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”: 

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

In the book of Job, we read how God removes his hand of protection from Job, opens him up to attacks of Satan, and then seemingly leaves Job hanging in the dark, without an explanation for why God does this. And from chapters 3 until 32, Job and his three friends wrestle, argue and debate. Job’s friends are convinced that Job must have done something terrible that deserves God’s judgment. Job doubles down and holds on to his integrity. The book of Job has often been cast as a discussion about the problem of suffering: Why does God allow suffering? And this is an argument in the world: If God is good, how can he allow suffering? How can God be almighty and good?

I am not qualified to answer the question of suffering (which is a different way of saying that I do not know the answer). But I do want to study with you this chapter of Job, and learn more about Job, Satan, and God.

Job is Righteous

When I would ask you about Job, the first thing you probably say is that he was rich, that he was a good man and that he suffered a great injustice: he suffered without cause or fault of his own doing. That is an understatement on all accounts. Job was not good as such, he was righteous, and it is God who says this in verse 8. My servant… blameless and upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. He serves God, his heart is set on the right relationship with God and his conduct is blameless in both doing the right things and not doing evil. That is an incredible testimony. It does not say that Job is sinless, but that to the best of his knowledge, the best of his ability, he has set his heart on serving God. Later in the book Job describes some of the things he did and did not do, and it is impressive. He took care of the poor, and acted just with his servants. You may have heard of the expression “I made a covenant with my eyes”, and it is from Job. We may assume that Job lives before the law is given, he is likely a contemporary of Abraham or before. Job is similarly righteous as Noah is (again God’s own words in Ezekiel). 

Job is also incredibly wealthy, by our current standards he would have been a billionaire in the Forbes top 100. Note that both the writer of Job and Job himself mention this as an afterthought – first his righteousness is mentioned (1:1), then his family (1:2), and then his wealth (1:3). Job receives his wealth as a gift and a blessing from God, and he takes the loss of his wealth as an act from God, without questioning the nature and character of God: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD” (1:21). We live in a time and place where people are obsessed with material wealth and bodily health. Despite being incredibly rich, Job maintains the right attitude towards his wealth. From Job 31:24

“If I have put my confidence in gold,
And called fine gold my trust,
If I have gloated because my wealth was great,
And because my hand had obtained so much;
If I have looked at the sun when it shone,
Or the moon going in splendor,
And my heart was secretly enticed,
And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
That too would have been a guilty deed calling for judgment,
For I would have denied God above.

If this sounds like wealth and idol worship are blended, it is because it is, and Job was aware of this. And he loses it all: his children, all his wealth, and in chapter 2 his health. Suddenly. He did not gamble in the stock market or speculate in the housing market and lost a fortune, he did not speed intoxicated and lost his family in a car crash. Seemingly out of nowhere, he loses it all, and Job’s response is in chapter 1:20

Then Job got up, tore his robe, and shaved his head; then he fell to the ground and worshiped. 
He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Despite all this, Job did not sin, nor did he blame God.

And in chapter 2:10b:

Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?” Despite all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

What a confidence and trust Job had in God. For Job it was simple: if God is almighty, He can give and He can take. He can give the good, and He can allow adversity. I have to admit that I am happy to accept all good things and ascribe them to God, but often hesitate with adversity, and I’m afraid I am not alone (see last year).

Looking at Job’s response, there are three interpretations of that response that I think are wrong. First, Job is not a neanderthal. We have a tendency to look at ancient times and think of all the violence and misery that happened, and tell ourselves that people in those days must feel more used to grief (but that we are allowed to grief more deeply because we live in more “sophisticated” times). That is not true, Job feels his loss deeply, and expresses it more eloquently than most of us will ever can. Second, Job can also not be accused of being superficial and callous, he grieves deeply, and is deeply hurt as will become clear in the next thirty chapters or so. He is hurting. Third, Job is not fatalistic in the sense of good things happen, bad happens, you win some, you lose some, what can you do? He believes in a God who reigns and ordains the universe, a God who is just. He is well prepared to take up his case with God, which one would not do if (i) one believes that God does not care (or is not almighty); and (ii) if one believes that God cannot act in real time.

A Peak Behind the Scenes

Before we look at our text in detail, we need to approach the text in the right way. You see, if you don’t believe in God, or don’t believe in Satan’s existence, then verses 6-12 and parts of Chapter 2 do not make sense. The atheist’s version of Job is shorter and more depressing than what we have before us. And also, if you think that people with the best intentions have made up this story as a fairy tale to make sense of why incredible evil happens, than we are deceiving ourselves. In fact, the writer of Job would then be in a predicament, because he would make up things about God in chapter 1 and 2, and at the end of the book talk about God’s anger against Job friends because they did not speak right of Him. No, we have to accept this account as a true version of events that happened. That is the way it is written up, as a historical account. More importantly, it is in line with other Scriptures what we know about God, the nature of Satan, and the relationship between heaven and earth. Now, that raises an interesting question, because we do not read that Job is aware of this heavenly conversation at all, so how do we know about this? And the answer is of course revelation to the author of Job.

So what is going on? The angels appear before God, and Satan is there too. Satan is not sneaking into the Heavens as an uninvited guest, he is there to given an account of what he is up to (verse 7). This is not an accident. Here we see the majestic God reigning over all of His creation. Of course God knows what Satan is up to, but in verse 7: Satan has to answer to God. Here we learn something about Satan – where God is everywhere (omnipresent), Satan has to take the bus, so to say. 

In verse 8 God asks Satan if he has considered Job, and at this point you may wonder why God does that. Some people may think that God is setting up Job for disaster, but that is counter to the nature of God (James). God does seek and delight in people who want to serve Him, who are blameless and upright, fearing Him and turning away from evil. Note how heaven and earth are related here: what we do here on earth, is well noted in heaven. No, God is not setting up for disaster, and He cares deeply about Job. God is also not giving Job a treatment He would not give His Son. When years later the Lord Jesus appears as a man amongst men, God speaks from Heaven: This is my Son, in whom I am well-pleased (Matthew 4:17). And again, Satan takes notice and goes after the Lord Jesus with temptations. In a broken world, in a universe with rebelling angels, there are people created in the image of God who want to serve God, fear God and love God. God sees that, and acknowledges such people. 

So Satan, this rebelling angel, fallen from his place of glory with God could just have answered the question and admit that he has seen this righteous Job who is serving God. Instead he accuses Job of calculating service and worship: verse 9: does Job fear God for nothing? You see, Satan has a limited repertoire and the Bible lays it out. He is the deceiver, spouting lies aimed at our mind, which is how he is introduced in Genesis, and one thing he will do mightily at the end of time. He is the destroyer, who uses suffering to attack our body. He is the accuser who tries to find fault. Ultimately he is the adversary, who hates everything that God has created. He is the mass murderer from the beginning.

From Satan’s answer three things become clear. First of all, he has indeed seen Job before, and probably tried to harm him before. We can infer from verse 10 that Satan is limited by the protection that God has put around Job. It speaks of a hedge, a barrier, where Satan peeked through, but could not reach Job. Second, Satan is not just on the look-out to cause harm, not just trying to get to believers. Ever since Genesis 3, Satan has been hunting down anyone who resembled the Christ, God’s promised deliverer of mankind. And for all Satan knows, Job could fit the bill. Thirdly, Satan cannot look into our hearts. He can observe what we say and what we do, and can get a pretty good idea of what is going on. What Satan puts forward in verse 11 is what he has seen as the typical response of people who lose everything. But Satan does not know that for sure that Job will respond like that. In fact, we know that Job did not respond like that.

In verse 12 God takes away the hedge around Job, and in fact limits the hedge to Job’s body. “In your power” is literally “in your hand”, which is a chilling thought. Though Satan is limited to what God allows, we will now see the damage that he can do. Satan goes all out, and proves to be a master of timing. Note that the disasters do not happen on the same day, the news arrives at the same day for a maximum shock effect. Satan goes all out to make it seem to Job that God has turned against him; this is no coincidence. Satan employs two bands of people, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, he uses forces of nature: fire of God (lightning) and a great wind (tornado). That morning Job woke up and all was well, that evening he was heart-broken and shell-shocked. The damage is enormous, the richest man at the time is now as poor as a Lazarus. It must have been heart-breaking for Job to bury his children, not knowing whether they had died sinning and cursing God (1:5). And that was not the only funeral. With all the servants and shepherds dying in this ordeal, a 100, 200? There were many houses with grief and weeping that night. 

Job’s response is remarkable: he mourns and worships, he blesses the name of the LORD, he did not sin, nor did he blame God. He did not ascribe all good to God and all evil to Satan: no, Job received it all from the hand of God. And Job was right, in Job 2:3 we read that God says to Satan: “…and he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”

Can you imagine the angels watching in Heaven what Job’s response would be? How precious must that praise have sounded in heaven, against all odds, against all reason, against all sinful human nature: “Blessed be the name of the Lord”. 

Conclusion

To sum up, we see that God is sovereign. How do we know that? Because it must be true of God? Yes, but more importantly, because the Bible says so. Psalm 115:3 says “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases”. God allows Satan to roam the earth for a while, and to wreak havoc. God allows people like the Sabeans and the Chaldeans to wreak havoc. God allows Cain to murder Abel, though God has a conversation with Cain before and after the murder. God allows people to touch His Beloved Son and murder Him. We may find that difficult. I like the idea that God puts a hedge of protection around me. I don’t like at all the idea that God can allow interruption of my comfortable life, or adversity in my life, let alone my children. And yet it is true that we need to examine our hearts to see if we want the gifts, but not the Giver, desire the protection, but not the Protector. It has been said that there are two kinds of people: those who say “Thy will be done”, and those who say “my will be done”. But wanting to do God’s will and blessing His name changes things on earth and resonates deep in the spiritual world. 

The end of Job is worth looking at. After Job is finished speaking in chapter 31, a fourth friend speaks, and then God appears in a whirlwind (chapter 38-39) and a storm (chapter 40-41). Job meets His Maker, but does not get any answers to the why, nor any description to the backstory that we have read. By the way, Satan is nowhere to be found, his role is limited and he is no part of the resolution between Job and God. God will deal with him. And Job humbles himself before the One who made him: 42:5 “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you”.

What about us? In some way, we have received an incredible treasure. Where Job asks for a mediator between him and God, we have one. Where Job’s faith is accused, Paul writes “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” Romans 8:32. We may know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28). We may exult in our tribulations (Romans 5:3). This is so true and so wonderful. And yet, like Job we may feel that God is silent for 29 chapters, or even withdrawn. Where our heads may know this, suffering and struggles are real in the life of a believer. We acknowledge the truth of God’s word, we strongly desire God’s presence, and yet we may be disappointed with God. We suffer and we go back and forth between moments of hope and light, and tears and a ceiling.May I point to something wonderful? Job intercedes on behalf of his children in chapter 1. At the end of Job, he intercedes on behalf of his three friends. Interceding means pleading with God on behalf of someone else, advocating their cause. Not because of their merit, not because of your merit, but because of God, of who He is. We may intercede for each other, for our governments, for our pastors, for our judges. The phrase “thoughts and prayers” or “good vibes” is utterly wrong. In interceding we may enter the same heavenly place where God’s throne is, where our majestic God receives Satan and angels, and we may approach that throne and plead. And if we don’t know how to plead, the Holy Spirit will plead for us (Romans 8:26), and the Lord Jesus intercedes for us. 

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