Job’s Struggle Who Are You Helping?

In the book of Job, right after the description of Job and what a wealthy, Godly man he was, an interesting thing happens; Satan comes to God along with all the angels and tells Him that he has been wandering the earth. God, knowing He was wandering the earth to attack God’s children, mentions Job as a prime example of a man following God, but Satan challenges this by saying Job only loves God because God has blessed Him so much and once you take that away He will curse God like many others. God basically responds by telling Satan, “you think so? Ok go for it, take whatever you want, but don’t touch Job.” Satan takes away everything destroying all of Job’s cattle, killing his servants and even killing his children. Job literally gets the news of each tragedy back to back. The Bible says while one servant was giving him the news the next servant walked up and started talking. So you are talking about a man that within minutes has everything he has taken away from him. However, Job’s reaction is extraordinary.

The Bible tells us that after hearing the news of everything that he just lost, “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped and said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.’” I find this amazing. Job lost everything and yet he still keeps in mind nothing that he had was truly his, because God had provided everything and therefore it was His to take whenever he decided. I don’t know about you, but I struggle with remembering that if my car starts making a funny noise much less losing all of my wealth and all of my children in a matter of minutes. Yet, Job, even amidst all his grief, remembered who God was and praised Him.

Again, the Bible says that Satan came to see God with the angels and, much like the first time, God throws Job’s name out there and Satan, since taking away Job’s wealth didn’t work, tells God if you took away his health He would curse God. Again, just like before, God responds by telling Satan He can do what he pleases to Job as long as he doesn’t kill Job. Satan struck Job with sores across his entire body. Remember, this is a man that is still grieving losing everything and now He has sores all over his body. At this point, even Job’s wife basically asks him what in the world he is holding onto and says “just curse God and die.” I hate to say it, but if I were in those circumstances I don’t know that I would have the strength of character to respond the way Job did; “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10).

We often forget as the church we are Jesus’ bride, meaning that marriage is a union that God created to reflect our union with Him.

Job is quick to remind his wife that we have to stay faithful to God in the good and the bad. Much like our wedding vows, we are to meant to hold on to God no matter if we are: better, worse, richer, poorer, in sickness or in health. We often forget as the church we are Jesus’ bride, meaning that marriage is a union that God created to reflect our union with Him. Unfortunately, we haven’t done a very good job of reflecting that in our marriages, the skyrocketing divorce rates can easily testify to that, but we need to remember that we are Christ’s bride and as such we need to follow and honor him regardless of what is going on in our life and what we “feel” like that day. Job clearly understood this even through his suffering.

For those of you that have read Job you clearly know there is much more to the story, and for those that haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. There is so much for us to learn in this story (it even talks about dinosaurs and fire-breathing dragons!!! Seriously, you should check it out!). However, I want to stop here and just focus on the first two chapters of the book. Something I want to point out about these first two chapters is both God and Satan make pretty clear statements about Job. First, God makes it clear that Job is blameless, righteous and loves God, but Satan counters that by saying that Job only does that because his life is perfect even asking God, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?” Meaning, haven’t you been protecting him? At this point, it really seems as though Satan is trying to tempt God into letting Him torture Job. The surprising thing is that God actually does, but we know that God can’t be tempted so clearly He had a purpose behind it. If you read through Job, there is a clear message that is taught, but what if God had another purpose?

What if God wasn’t just teaching us something with this story, but what if He was also teaching Satan a lesson? It does seem like Satan is being pretty cocky with God. He essentially tells God, “I know more about your creation than you do. You only think they love you, but I know the reason and if you would just stop protecting them I could take them.” Perhaps, God tells Satan to go ahead, because He needed to remind Satan, “I’m God; not you.” Clearly, God knew how it would all end up. He already knew how Job would react. So maybe God was just letting Satan go after Job so that Satan would see that Job stayed true to God and then have to watch as God restored Job to even greater wealth and an even stronger relationship with God; reminding Satan that He still has power over him.

Imagine that the hardships in your life are Satan attacking you trying to prove God wrong about your love for Him. Think about how you reacted during those times.

Satan is basically trying to prove God wrong here. If Job had turned against God because of these hardships, it would have proven that God didn’t know His own people. It would have proven that God was wrong about Job’s loyalty. On the other hand, Job remaining faithful to God proves that Satan was wrong and God was right about Job and his love for God. Imagine that the hardships in your life are Satan attacking you trying to prove God wrong about your love for Him. Think about how you reacted during those times. Now ask yourself the question: Who did I prove right?

Did your actions confirm your love and loyalty to God or did you help Satan prove that you only love God because He provides you with blessings? Did you help God put Satan in his place or did you give Satan something to gloat about? Understand, I am not saying that the situation that led to Job’s hardships has happened with you and I’m certainly not saying that it happens every time we struggle, but if it was, who would you be helping, God or Satan?

So during any hard time, any struggle, any disaster and any period of mourning we need to think to ourselves: Who am I going to prove right, God or Satan?

We also need to keep in mind that it doesn’t really matter why we are struggling. Whether it is Satan, our mistakes or just the hardships of life, if we turn away from God, Satan will gladly take credit for it and use it to hurt as many Christians as he possibly can. So during any hard time, any struggle, any disaster and any period of mourning we need to think to ourselves: Who am I going to prove right, God or Satan? You always get to choose how you react. Job chose to react by praising God and not sinning, while Job’s wife chose to lose all hope and tell her husband to curse God and just die. After you read Job, you will understand how much Job would have missed out on had he taken his wife’s advice.

Remember, we are the bride of Jesus Christ and so we are called to always remain loyal and honor Him. What kind of bride are you going to be?

So whose side are you on? If God and Satan had a similar conversation tomorrow and your name came up, would Satan walk away feeling defeated or victorious? Remember, we are the bride of Jesus Christ and so we are called to always remain loyal and honor Him. What kind of bride are you going to be? Will you remain faithful or will you commit adultery against the creator of all things?

“You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and His way” (James 4:4; The Message)

Next time you struggle, who are you going to help?

Author: Nick Schroeder

I am 32 years old. I have been blessed with a wonderful wife and 3 amazing sons. I have loved to write for a long time, but have just recently found the confidence (Thanks to amazingly supportive friends and family) to actually start sharing that with more than just my closest family and friends. View all posts by Nick Schroeder