We all know that sometimes life can be hard. Money vanishes, property gets destroyed, loved ones pass away, our health fails, the list goes on and on. Sometimes in these situations, we begin to feel that God has left us, or that He is mad at us. It can be difficult to see, but as Job will show us in a moment, this is not the case.
Job 1:1-5 tells us that Job was the "greatest of all the people of the east" (Job 1:3). He had a family, money, and servants. In verse 1 we find that Job "feared God and turned away from evil". In modern terms, Job was a Christian. One would think that this would mean that Job would have a easy life. WRONG!
Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The
fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants
and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three
groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the
servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell
you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the
wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon
the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell
you.” Job 1:13-19
So basically, in the span of a few minutes (I say minutes, because it tells us that the each servant came in before the previous servant had finished speaking) Job found out that he had lost everything. He lost his animals(which in that day was the source of income), much of his property, and his children. Talk about a bad day! To make things worse, we find in chapter 2 that Job's health began to fail him.
The rest of the book goes on to tell us about how Job's friends try to convince him that he must have done some foul act for this to be happening. In other words, they thought that these awful events were happening because God was mad at Job, but this was not the case. The real reason this happened is because God was allowing the devil to test Job. We find in chapters 1 and 2 scenes where Satan asks for God's permission to test Job to see if he will curse God. Now you're probably wondering why God would allow this. Good question (I will address this in a moment)! At the end of the book, we find that in spite of all of the trials Satan threw at Job, he never sinned against God.
So, why would God allow his faithful servant to go through trials such as what Job faced? The answer can be found in Isaiah 48:10-11: "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another" In other words, God did it for His glory! He did it so His name would be made great (and not be profaned), He did it so that the glory would not go to another, but to Him!
So right now you may be asking yourself "What's the point?". My point is the God is not done yet. God is working in such a way that will glorify His name, so hope in God.
I leave you with a sermon by Pastor Sam Crabtree. In his sermon he talks about hope, which we all need when times get tough.
