Saturday, November 27, 2010

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Satan vs. Job round 2 (Part 6)

Job 2:7-8
I cannot imagine the torture this must have been. The Hebrew word for the sores is shĕchiyn. It is the same word used for the boils that were sent as a plague on Egypt. I've had a boil before, but I cannot imagine having them from head to toe. He was broken. He lost everything. With all of this happening, the worst was still to come.

Job 2:9-10
Satan must have felt that this would be the key. Everything else, and Job's wife was done. "Curse God and die" are not the words of a compassionate loving wife. These are the only words of Job's wife recorded in the Bible. With no one left to help him, at this point, the loneliness must have been unbearable. Pain, humiliation, and loss can be suffered by most people, but that feeling of separation from everyone and everything is one of the scariest feelings known to man. I truly believe that this is why the Bible describes Hell as a place of eternal separation from God. What could be worse? Here we see Job getting a small taste of that.

Job 2:11-13
Sympathy of friends can really be a good thing. Sometimes a simple vote of confidence from a friend can make a huge difference. These three started with good intentions. They obviously met first and surely they meant well for the Bible says they were setting out to comfort him. Yet what can it do to you when your three friends pull up on their camels, start crying, tear their clothes, sprinkle dust on their heads, and can't seem to come up with one word of sympathy. It's like they've seen his death certificate already. In their mind Job is already done.

Job still hasn't faltered. Up until now he's still put his faith solidly in his maker. "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" These words echo a faith so mighty that it wasn't toppled. For the one piece that Satan missed is that faith this mighty cannot live in the flesh. It lives in the soul. Job's soul belonged to God, so his faith rested in God. No matter what Satan did to Job's flesh, he couldn't steal his soul.

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