June 18, 2025 • 30 mins
There's nothing wrong with saving and protecting what you have. There's nothing wrong with planning ahead in case a catastrophe strikes. That's why we have insurance.
Jesus tells Christians not to worry about the necessities of life in the Sermon on the Mount. But sometimes we wonder, "What if…?” What if the worst does happen? How would we deal with it? Would we keep our faith or lose it? Would we praise God or blame Him?
This episode looks at a piercing question. If we were to lose every good thing we have, would we still love God? Do we serve Him only because of what He gives us? That was the debate between God and Satan about Job.
Read about this subject
- Scriptures: Job 1:13-22; Habakkuk 3:17-18
- “The Power of Satan” in chapter nine “Spiritual Environment” in God at a Distance
Listen to more on this subject
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My Godin My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
In the Book of Job, God andthe devil have a disagreement.
God said Job was a good man.
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The devil said Job was not.
He said Job only acted religiousbecause God was making him rich.
Then almost unbelievably,the devil challenged God.
He said if you take away everythingyou've given to Job, he will
curse you to your face—not behindYour back, but to Your face.
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Satan said Job was not sincere.
He insinuated that Job was ahypocrite, that he was just pretending.
But God accepted his challenge.
The Lord told Satan everythinghe has is in your power.
That's Job chapter one, verse 12.
“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, allthat he has is in your power; only
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do not lay a hand on his person.’”
So God allowed the devil to test Job, tohave, as the Bible says, power over Job.
Now that power was limited.
He didn't have any power over Job's will.
He couldn't force him,let's say, to hate God.
The book of Job is one of the strongestcases for free will that you will
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find anywhere because the devil dideverything he could to get Job to
quit, to curse God, but Job refused.
And the limit that God put on Jobhere in Job chapter one is that
he said don't lay a hand on Job'sperson, that is, on Job himself.
Now, this is the beginning of the test.
This is not the only test thatthe devil is going to give to Job.
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We read about another one, ofcourse, in Job chapter two.
We're going to get to that later, andthat's where he actually did lay a
hand on Job, but he did have power.
He had a power that Godallowed him to exercise.
Now remember as you study throughthe Book of Job that no one knew that
the devil was doing all this to Job.
They don't even mentionthat as a possibility.
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I'm talking about Job, his threefriends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar,
and then the young man Elihu, andnot even God himself said anything
about this confrontation that we readhere in Job Chapters one and two.
If you didn't have Job chapter one andJob chapter two in this book, if it
just went right into the sufferingsof Job and this argument between
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Job and his friends, this book wouldbe a lot different, wouldn't it?
But you see in the very beginninghere, God pulls the curtains.
He lets us see what'shappening behind the scenes.
Now, this means that Satan hassome power over the physical
realm, but it's not miraculous.
A miracle in the Bible is the power ofGod which is displayed in a special way.
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In other words, people can know it.
Now we're not talking aboutdemon possession in Job chapter
one, but Satan is allowed by Godto affect the physical world.
How and when he does thistoday, we don't know.
The only reason we know what happenedin Job's case, that is, that the
devil was working against him, isbecause God tells us in the Bible.
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He pulled the curtains to let us seewhat was happening behind the scenes.
So what did the devil do to bring sorrow,pain, and loss in the life of a good man?
Let's read Job chapterone, beginning in verse 13.
“Now there was a day when his sonsand daughters were eating and drinking
wine in their oldest brother's house,and a messenger came to Job and said,
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‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeysfeeding beside them, when the Sabeans
raided them and took them away.
Indeed, they have killed the servantswith the edge of the sword, and
I alone have escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, anotheralso came and said, ‘The fire of God
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fell from heaven and burned up the sheepand the servants and consumed them,
and I alone have escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, anotheralso came and said, ‘The Chaldeans
formed three bands, raided the camels,took them away, yes, and killed the
servants with the edge of the sword,and I alone have escaped to tell you.
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While he was still speaking, anotheralso came and said, ‘Your sons and
daughters were eating and drinkingwine in their oldest brother's house.
And suddenly a great wind came fromacross the wilderness and struck
the four corners of the house.
And it fell on the young people andthey are dead, and I alone have escaped
to tell you.’ Then Job arose, torehis robe and shaved his head, and
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he fell to the ground and worshiped.
And he said, ‘Naked I came from mymother's womb and naked shall I return.
The Lord gave, and theLord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this Job did not sinnor charge God with wrong.”
Now, when Job's Day started,it started out well.
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He was happy.
Everything was normal.
His kids were fine.
His workers and his livestock were okay.
It seemed like just another day, andthen unexpectedly out of the blue
from nowhere all this trouble hits.
Does that sound familiar?
How many times have you had a phone callor someone told you something or some
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kind of tragic event struck very suddenly?
That's just life.
It's a good thing thatwe don't know the future.
If we did know what was coming next,we'd be able to see all the bad things
that we're going to have to endure,and life would really be unbearable.
God has shielded us.
God protects you by not letting youknow what's going to happen tomorrow.
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That's why you don'tneed to worry about it.
That's why you don't need to get overinto tomorrow and hold on to the things
of the past in the other direction.
You need to just live one dayat a time as the Bible says.
So the things that you need to do todayin Matthew 6 34: the Bible says do not
worry about tomorrow because tomorrowwill worry about its own things.
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Sufficient unto the day is itsown trouble or its own evil.
That's Matthew six, verse 34.
So what did the devil do hereto cause havoc in this home?
And I say that he did cause havoc.
He does that today.
The Bible says that theywere enjoying their lives.
Everything was going well.
Job's sons and his daughters wereeating and drinking together.
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They were enjoying a goodmeal like they oftentimes did.
They got along with each other.
There was peace and harmonyand safety in this household.
So what did the devil do to Job first?
Well, the Bible tellsus in verses 14 and 15.
It says that the oxen were plowing.
Everything was going well in that way.
The donkeys were feeding beside them.
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Everything was fine.
And then the Sabeans raided them.
The Bible says that as long aswe're in this life, as long as
we're in this world, there willalways be the threat of thieves.
Jesus said in heaven there will be nothieves to break through and steal,
but while you're on the earth, therewill always be that kind of danger.
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These Sabeans raidedthem and took them away.
That is, they took the livestock.
So what happened to theservants that were with them?
They killed them.
They murdered them with the edge of thesword, and there was only one of them
that escaped, and that's the man thatwas the messenger that came to Job.
These servants did nothing tothese Sabeans that we know of.
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They didn't provoke them.
These Sabeans just wanted this property.
They were thieves.
Now the Bible says thatthe devil is a murderer.
In John chapter eight, verse44, Jesus said that he was a
murderer from the beginning.
So it is in the nature of Satan to wantpeople murdered, to want people killed,
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to want innocent people to perish.
That's his desire, andthat's what he instigates.
That's what he wants people to do.
So somehow, some way, in a way thatyou and I cannot comprehend, the
devil tempted, the devil was ableto persuade, the devil, without
appearing to these people and saying,“I'm Satan himself—listen to me”, the
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devil somehow influenced by temptationthese Sabeans to do what they did.
Now that shouldn't seemlike some kind of miracle.
It doesn't mean that thedevil took over their will.
The devil is working behindthe scenes here, but he is
only beginning his dirty work.
He is by no means finished.
The Bible says in verse 16, “Whilehe was still speaking…” Now that
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refers to the first messenger whohad the first bit of bad news.
This second messenger comes in whilethe first one is still speaking.
The first man is not even done tellingthe bad news yet, and the Bible says
he came also and said this (09:10):
the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up
the sheep and the servants and consumedthem; I alone have escaped to tell you.
This man says that the fire of Goddid this, and by the fire of God he's
evidently talking about lightningbecause God created nature and that
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means that He created lightning.
It's interesting that when God addressesJob in the last part of this book,
lightning is one of the many thingsHe talks about in His creation.
In Second Kings chapter one, theBible says that Elijah called down
fire from heaven to consume 50 men,and the Bible refers to that at
least one time as the fire of God.
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Now, you'll find that also in Lukechapter nine, verse 54, where the
disciples said do you want us to calldown fire from heaven and consume
these men just like Elijah did?
This man in Job chapter one saidit was the fire of God that burned
up the sheep and the servantswho were taking care of them.
Now, that brings up a question.
If the Bible here in Job chapterone, verse 16 says this was the
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fire of God, then how could thedevil have been behind that?
Now we know that the devil is behindit because God has given him leeway.
God has given him some latitude, so tospeak, with His physical creation so
that the devil can inflict harm on job.
And we know that because God saidall that he has is in your power.
Well, we have to remember when weread Job chapter one that the man
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who saw this did not know that thedevil was behind it when he said the
fire of God fell down from heaven.
He didn't know anything aboutthe devil's part in this.
This man, like Job and the others inthis book, tended to attribute everything
that happened to God, right or wrong.
That's the way that they looked at things.
So in Job chapter one, verse 16, wefind a very important insight here,
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and that is that God allowed the devilto use natural forces to afflict job.
He allowed him to have some kind ofpower, some kind of latitude, over
His creation in this instance inorder to afflict Job his servant.
So that shows that the devil doeshave some power in that area.
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Now, again, this is a uniquecase here because God is pulling
the curtains and letting us seewhat happens behind the scenes.
As to how and when and why andwhere the devil does this at other
times in the Bible, much less today,God doesn't explain that to us.
This is a unique situation thatwe're reading here in Job chapter
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one, but it does show that Godsometimes allows the devil to do this.
Here in Job chapter one, where lightningcame down from the sky and burned up these
sheep and these servants, we might lookat it and say, “Well, that was a natural
disaster.” But actually behind the scenesthere was a supernatural element involved
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in what we call a natural disaster.
So his sheep, which were a mainsource of his income, are gone.
They are burned up.
All that wool that they wouldproduce is now gone, and the servants
who took care of them are gone.
So the first calamity, the firstloss to Job in verse 15 was at the
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hands of human beings, the Sabeans.
The second loss is in verse 16, and thatcame from nature itself by lightning.
The third loss is alsoat the hands of men.
Verse 17 says, “While he was stillspeaking…” Now that man who's still
speaking is the second messenger inverse 16 who had also come in while the
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first messenger was still speaking thebit of bad news that he was delivering.
So you had one man in verse15 who came in with bad news.
You had a second messenger who camein with the second bit of bad news in
verse 16 while he was still speaking.
A third man comes in andhe has more bad news.
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So what's happened here inone day all at the same time?
Basically, Job finds out thathis 500 yoke of oxen and his 500
female donkeys have been stolen.
No sooner does he learn that than hediscovers that the 7,000 sheep he had have
been burned up and now he finds out thatthe 3000 camels he owns have been stolen.
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So here are three tragedies thathappened to Job in the same day.
Here are three pieces of very bad newsthat are delivered to him all at once.
Isn't that the way thatit oftentimes happens?
If we only had one trial to happenonce in a while and then we had a break
for, let's say five or six weeks, oreven one week, sometimes before the
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next trial comes along, so that weare able to recover, so that we're
able to get back up on our feet, thenthe calamities and the hardships of
life wouldn't be so hard to handle.
But when you have two or three thingsthat happen all at once—you might have
something that happens in the family,you might have a death that occurs,
you might have a health problem, youmight have an accident, you might have
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some kind of financial issue, or youmight have some kind of conflict that
arises—and oftentimes they come in threes.
I've heard people say for years, “When itrains, it pours.” And that's oftentimes
true. I've also heard people say thatdeath comes in three’s oftentimes, and
they don't mean that as a superstition.
They don't mean that as a law of naturewhere it always has to happen that way.
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They just mean that oftentimes youwill find that when one person you
know dies, there will be two othersin the close timeframe related
to that, that pass away as well.
Well, what we find herein the case of job.
Is that it's not just raining.
It's pouring.
This man is getting all kindsof bad news all at once.
His life has completelychanged in one day.
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All of his assets and all of his sourcesof income have been wiped out, and when we
think about everything he's lost, we haveto wonder how much more can this man take.
You may be thinking about someother men in the Bible we talked
about in the first lesson.
One of those men was Mosesin numbers chapter 11.
Virtually the whole nation ofthe Hebrews were upset with him.
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Now, that was when Moses cried out to God.
He basically said that he couldn'ttake anymore and he told God if
you're going to treat me likethis, go ahead and take my life.
The other man was thegreat prophet Elijah.
In First Kings chapter 19, whenthe vicious queen Jezebel vowed to
kill him, Elijah ran for his life.
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He sat down under a juniper tree andhe prayed that God would take his
life and end it all, but it wasn'tover for either one of these men.
God still had work for them to do, butat their lowest point, when they felt
that they couldn't carry any more weighton their shoulders, they thought that
they couldn't endure anything else.
We feel like that sometimes, don't we?
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We can carry a heavy load fora while, but when more and more
burdens are laid on us, we get tired.
We ask for relief, we pray toGod, and then we get discouraged,
and finally we get mad and upset.
That's when we say, “I don't knowhow much more this I can take.”
And what do we mean by that anyway?
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That if we have much morepain, we'll lose our mind?
That we'll have a heart attackand die that will collapse?
Or if we have any more problems,we might lose our faith?
You see, that's what the devilwas hoping for in Job's case.
He wasn't trying to cause Job tohave a heart attack or lose his mind.
God wouldn't let himdo that to job anyway.
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The devil wanted to push Job tothe point where he would curse God.
He's doing everything he canto antagonize and provoke him.
If he can get Job to curse God,maybe God will take his life and
the devil will be the winner.
And the devil does antagonize.
In Luke chapter 22, verse 31,Jesus told Peter that the devil
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wanted to sift him like wheat.
In Bible times when people had to havewheat flour to bake bread, they had to
separate the wheat kernels from the husks.
Now, they had several ways of doing this.
Sometimes they would use largefans to remove the husks.
Sometimes they would use a sifter.
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Sometimes they would pull a weightedpalate behind an ox to crush the grain.
Now, that is the strikingimage Jesus used.
The devil shakes us.
He tries to crush our spirits.
He antagonizes.
He agitates, and he grindsour hearts without mercy.
That's what he's doing to Job, and thebad part is he's just getting started.
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If you've already read the Book of Job,you know what's going to happen next.
You know it's going to getworse for job much worse.
But Job did not know what you and I know.
He didn't know how bad it would get.
He couldn't see what was coming,which was again a good thing for him.
But the good part is thatGod knows our limits.
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He knows how much pressurewe're able to stand.
We don't.
But if we listen to experience as weget older, we'll trust in God more.
We'll put our faith in Him that He won'tput on us more than we're able to bear.
God told the Jews in Isaiah 57,verse 16, “For I will not contend
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forever, nor will I always be angry,for the spirit would fail before me,
and the souls which I have made.”
Now this verse in Isaiah is a differentsituation than the Book of Job.
God punished the Jews in Isaiahfor their sins, but God was
not punishing Job for his sins.
But at the same time, Isaiah 57, verse16 does say that there are limits as to
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how much punishment, how much sufferingGod will give men in this lifetime.
He said He would not punish them tothe point that their spirits failed.
The Lord broke their stubborn will whenHe punished these people in Babylonian
captivity in the book of Isaiah,but He did not crush their spirits
because God loved them and He loves us.
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It can be hard to do this, butwhen Christians suffer great
anguish and pain, they must notthink that God doesn't love them.
Paul said in Second Corinthianschapter four, verse eight, “We are hard
pressed on every side, yet not crushed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair.”The word perplexed comes from a Greek word
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which means not to know which way to turn,not to know how to decide or what to do.”
Doesn't that describe your life at times?
That's how the Apostle Paul felt.
The same apostle who preached,debated, and worked miracles.
And yet Paul said that evenwhen he was at his wits’ end,
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he said we are not in despair.
There's always hope in God.
There's always a future ahead, andas we say, and as we sing sometimes,
God holds the future in his hands.
We think the future is in our handsor on our shoulders as it were.
But it is in His hands.
There's a case of God showing mercy toPaul in Philippians chapter two when he
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already had a lot of troubles in his life.
Paul had already been arrestedfor preaching the gospel.
He was a prisoner in Rome, and a man namedEpaphroditus was a dear brother to Paul.
He was a valuable worker.
Now that man became verysick and almost died.
Paul said he was sick almost untodeath, but God had mercy on him,
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and not only on him, but on mealso, lest I should have sorrow upon
sorrow” [Philippians two verse 17].
Sometimes in life we feel that that'sthe way that our lives are going.
It's just one sorrow right afteranother, or one grief on top of another.
Paul said that he was spared.
If this dear brother Epaphroditus haddied, it would've been a heavy burden
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of grief on top of everything elsePaul was carrying, but God spared him.
Paul doesn't say that he would've diedor lost his faith if his dear brother had
died, but he was very, very thankful thathis trouble in his own life wasn't worse.
Now that should teach ushow to look at our trials.
Instead of us saying, “I can't takeit anymore,” we should say, “I'm
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glad it's not worse.” So the answerto the question “How much more can
Job take?” is actually a lot more.
much more than we might think.
And though we don't want tothink about this and admit
it, the same is true with us.
When life seems to be crushing us andthe weight is so heavy it's hard to
breathe, we cry out, “How much more canI stand; Lord, help me.” And there's
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nothing wrong with praying for the Lord'shelp. But when we ask “How much more
can I stand?” the answer is the same.
More, maybe even much more, andmaybe even a lot more than you think.
Now, in Job's case, theanswer is a lot more.
Now, if you've never read thisbook of Job, you might ask,
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“But how much worse can it get?”What can possibly happen next?
We see the answer in verses 18 and 19.
This is the fourth piece of bad news.
On top of everything else, he'sbeen told that he lost everything.
Now, if we were to lose all of ourmoney and all of our income and
all of our possessions, that wouldbe devastating to say the least.
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That would be a trial; thatwould be a test of your faith.
But even then, you could be able tosay, if you have children, “At least
I still have my children.” But poorJob couldn't even take solace in that.
This fourth messenger deliversthe worst news of all.
That is, your sons andyour daughters are dead.
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A terrible windstorm collapsed the housewhere they were eating and drinking.
The messenger's awful words must havepierced Job's heart deeper than anything
he had ever felt before in his life.
They are dead.
Who or what was responsiblefor this tragedy?
Again, the answer inthis case was the devil.
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Now, that doesn't mean that every time thewind blows, the devil is in control of it.
We only know his involvement in this casebecause God tells us in this chapter.
Otherwise we wouldn’t know this.
So the devil was given some leeway fromGod Himself to use the forces of nature to
cause grief and pain and sorrow and death.
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The first time he used lightning,and this time he uses a
windstorm—10 children in one day.
Those of you that have lost achild know how painful this is.
It's something that younever fully get over.
You can learn to function and moveforward, gradually and painfully
move forward, but it's always there.
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That is why we need to draw close to Godand not push Him away in times of tragedy.
But imagine the heartache of losingall of your 10 children in one day.
If anything seems unbearable, that does.
Alexander Campbell lost 10 of his 14children and his first wife by the
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time that he was 61 years old, but theydied over the course of several years.
In the case of job, he lost allof his 10 children in one day.
Now, I know that some of you whoare listening have been through some
very painful experiences in life.
I know that some of you are goingthrough some severe circumstances
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in your life right now.
Those situations may be financialproblems, maybe even financial
disaster, or you've lostloved ones just like Job did.
But try to imagine losingeverything that Job did in one day.
It's impossible for us to fullyempathize with this man and his loss,
and it's even more impossible for usto answer the question “What would
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I do if I was in Job's shoes?” Whatwould I do if I lost everything that
Job lost here in Job chapter one?”
We can only read Job chapter one, 20and 22, and hope that we would have even
a fraction of the faith that he had.
So let's read verse 20 through 22.
Now this is the description ofjob's response to everything
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that he's been through and allthe bad news that he's received.
The Bible says, “Then Job arose, tore hisrobe and shaved his head. He fell down to
the ground” the Bible says “and worshiped,and he said, Naked I came from my mother's
womb and naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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In all this Job did not sinnor charge God with wrong.”
How did Job respond?
How did he react?
Well, he wasn't angry,at least at this point.
He certainly wasn't filledwith rebellion or self-pity.
He didn't turn to suicide.
He certainly didn't turn to thebottle for some kind of relief,
and he didn't become an atheist.
The first thing that he did wasnot to clench his fist and shake
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it toward heaven, but he fell downon the ground and he worshiped God.
He tore his mantle.
He shaved his head.
Now, these were old ways of expressingshock and grief and heartache.
He got down on his handsand knees and face.
This was also common in Bible times.
You find Abraham doing that inMoses and Joshua and Daniel and
many other great men in the Bible.
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And he worshiped God.
He didn't turn away from God.
He turned toward God and he worshipedGod after all this that had happened.
Now that came naturally to himbecause he had always worshiped God
continually and conscientiously.
He had honored God and askedfor God's mercy in good times.
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So it was natural for him toacknowledge God in these hard times.
What did he say about losing all this?
He said I came from my mother's wombnaked and naked shall I return there.
That's exactly what we read inEcclesiastes five, verse 15.
He said the Lord gave andthe Lord has taken away.
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The Bible says in First Timothy six,verse seven, we brought nothing into
this world and it is certain we cancarry nothing out, and having food and
clothing let us be therewith content.”
Job said the Lord gave andthe Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now there's something interesting andI believe something very important to
point out here about the problem of evil.
The Bible says that Job said these words: The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. (28:02):
undefined
Now, think about the context here.
Think about what we've justread in Job chapter one.
Who took these things awayfrom Job: God or the devil?
It was the devil.
God didn't do this, but Jobthought that God did this.
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Now, this was a mistake in his opinionat the very beginning of this book,
and there are several lessons in that,but one of them is that a mistaken
opinion is not necessarily a sin.
This man Job has the wrong opinion here.
The devil has done all these things.
The devil has taken awaythese things from Job, but Job
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thinks that God has done that.
And the Bible says in verse 22 “inall this job did not sin.” So the
mistaken opinion in verse 21 isnot a sin according to verse 22.
And another example ofthat would be Abraham.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11, 17through 19, that Abraham thought that
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God was going to raise Isaac fromthe dead after he had offered him.
In other words, after he hadoffered him as a sacrifice.
And yet that didn't happen.
But the fact that he had a wrongopinion about that did not affect
his faith because he is commended forhis faith in Hebrews 11 and James 2.
But in spite of having a wrongopinion, which you and I sometimes
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do as well, the Bible says thatJob blessed the name of the Lord.
He did not curse God to his facelike the devil said he would do.
He blessed the name of the Lord and theBible says in verse 22 in all this, in all
of these problems that we've read about,Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
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So the next time that you feel likeyou have more than you can bear in
life, go back and read Job chapter one.
And better than that, read thisentire book because this is the
book to read on the problem of evil.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My Godin My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
In the Book of Job, God andthe devil have a disagreement.
God said Job was a good man.
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The devil said Job was not.
He said Job only acted religiousbecause God was making him rich.
Then almost unbelievably,the devil challenged God.
He said if you take away everythingyou've given to Job, he will
curse you to your face—not behindYour back, but to Your face.
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Satan said Job was not sincere.
He insinuated that Job was ahypocrite, that he was just pretending.
But God accepted his challenge.
The Lord told Satan everythinghe has is in your power.
That's Job chapter one, verse 12.
“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, allthat he has is in your power; only
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do not lay a hand on his person.’”
So God allowed the devil to test Job, tohave, as the Bible says, power over Job.
Now that power was limited.
He didn't have any power over Job's will.
He couldn't force him,let's say, to hate God.
The book of Job is one of the strongestcases for free will that you will
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find anywhere because the devil dideverything he could to get Job to
quit, to curse God, but Job refused.
And the limit that God put on Jobhere in Job chapter one is that
he said don't lay a hand on Job'sperson, that is, on Job himself.
Now, this is the beginning of the test.
This is not the only test thatthe devil is going to give to Job.
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We read about another one, ofcourse, in Job chapter two.
We're going to get to that later, andthat's where he actually did lay a
hand on Job, but he did have power.
He had a power that Godallowed him to exercise.
Now remember as you study throughthe Book of Job that no one knew that
the devil was doing all this to Job.
They don't even mentionthat as a possibility.
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I'm talking about Job, his threefriends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar,
and then the young man Elihu, andnot even God himself said anything
about this confrontation that we readhere in Job Chapters one and two.
If you didn't have Job chapter one andJob chapter two in this book, if it
just went right into the sufferingsof Job and this argument between
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Job and his friends, this book wouldbe a lot different, wouldn't it?
But you see in the very beginninghere, God pulls the curtains.
He lets us see what'shappening behind the scenes.
Now, this means that Satan hassome power over the physical
realm, but it's not miraculous.
A miracle in the Bible is the power ofGod which is displayed in a special way.
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In other words, people can know it.
Now we're not talking aboutdemon possession in Job chapter
one, but Satan is allowed by Godto affect the physical world.
How and when he does thistoday, we don't know.
The only reason we know what happenedin Job's case, that is, that the
devil was working against him, isbecause God tells us in the Bible.
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He pulled the curtains to let us seewhat was happening behind the scenes.
So what did the devil do to bring sorrow,pain, and loss in the life of a good man?
Let's read Job chapterone, beginning in verse 13.
“Now there was a day when his sonsand daughters were eating and drinking
wine in their oldest brother's house,and a messenger came to Job and said,
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‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeysfeeding beside them, when the Sabeans
raided them and took them away.
Indeed, they have killed the servantswith the edge of the sword, and
I alone have escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, anotheralso came and said, ‘The fire of God
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fell from heaven and burned up the sheepand the servants and consumed them,
and I alone have escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, anotheralso came and said, ‘The Chaldeans
formed three bands, raided the camels,took them away, yes, and killed the
servants with the edge of the sword,and I alone have escaped to tell you.
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While he was still speaking, anotheralso came and said, ‘Your sons and
daughters were eating and drinkingwine in their oldest brother's house.
And suddenly a great wind came fromacross the wilderness and struck
the four corners of the house.
And it fell on the young people andthey are dead, and I alone have escaped
to tell you.’ Then Job arose, torehis robe and shaved his head, and
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he fell to the ground and worshiped.
And he said, ‘Naked I came from mymother's womb and naked shall I return.
The Lord gave, and theLord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this Job did not sinnor charge God with wrong.”
Now, when Job's Day started,it started out well.
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He was happy.
Everything was normal.
His kids were fine.
His workers and his livestock were okay.
It seemed like just another day, andthen unexpectedly out of the blue
from nowhere all this trouble hits.
Does that sound familiar?
How many times have you had a phone callor someone told you something or some
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kind of tragic event struck very suddenly?
That's just life.
It's a good thing thatwe don't know the future.
If we did know what was coming next,we'd be able to see all the bad things
that we're going to have to endure,and life would really be unbearable.
God has shielded us.
God protects you by not letting youknow what's going to happen tomorrow.
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That's why you don'tneed to worry about it.
That's why you don't need to get overinto tomorrow and hold on to the things
of the past in the other direction.
You need to just live one dayat a time as the Bible says.
So the things that you need to do todayin Matthew 6 34: the Bible says do not
worry about tomorrow because tomorrowwill worry about its own things.
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Sufficient unto the day is itsown trouble or its own evil.
That's Matthew six, verse 34.
So what did the devil do hereto cause havoc in this home?
And I say that he did cause havoc.
He does that today.
The Bible says that theywere enjoying their lives.
Everything was going well.
Job's sons and his daughters wereeating and drinking together.
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They were enjoying a goodmeal like they oftentimes did.
They got along with each other.
There was peace and harmonyand safety in this household.
So what did the devil do to Job first?
Well, the Bible tellsus in verses 14 and 15.
It says that the oxen were plowing.
Everything was going well in that way.
The donkeys were feeding beside them.
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Everything was fine.
And then the Sabeans raided them.
The Bible says that as long aswe're in this life, as long as
we're in this world, there willalways be the threat of thieves.
Jesus said in heaven there will be nothieves to break through and steal,
but while you're on the earth, therewill always be that kind of danger.
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These Sabeans raidedthem and took them away.
That is, they took the livestock.
So what happened to theservants that were with them?
They killed them.
They murdered them with the edge of thesword, and there was only one of them
that escaped, and that's the man thatwas the messenger that came to Job.
These servants did nothing tothese Sabeans that we know of.
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They didn't provoke them.
These Sabeans just wanted this property.
They were thieves.
Now the Bible says thatthe devil is a murderer.
In John chapter eight, verse44, Jesus said that he was a
murderer from the beginning.
So it is in the nature of Satan to wantpeople murdered, to want people killed,
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to want innocent people to perish.
That's his desire, andthat's what he instigates.
That's what he wants people to do.
So somehow, some way, in a way thatyou and I cannot comprehend, the
devil tempted, the devil was ableto persuade, the devil, without
appearing to these people and saying,“I'm Satan himself—listen to me”, the
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devil somehow influenced by temptationthese Sabeans to do what they did.
Now that shouldn't seemlike some kind of miracle.
It doesn't mean that thedevil took over their will.
The devil is working behindthe scenes here, but he is
only beginning his dirty work.
He is by no means finished.
The Bible says in verse 16, “Whilehe was still speaking…” Now that
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refers to the first messenger whohad the first bit of bad news.
This second messenger comes in whilethe first one is still speaking.
The first man is not even done tellingthe bad news yet, and the Bible says
he came also and said this (09:10):
the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up
the sheep and the servants and consumedthem; I alone have escaped to tell you.
This man says that the fire of Goddid this, and by the fire of God he's
evidently talking about lightningbecause God created nature and that
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means that He created lightning.
It's interesting that when God addressesJob in the last part of this book,
lightning is one of the many thingsHe talks about in His creation.
In Second Kings chapter one, theBible says that Elijah called down
fire from heaven to consume 50 men,and the Bible refers to that at
least one time as the fire of God.
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Now, you'll find that also in Lukechapter nine, verse 54, where the
disciples said do you want us to calldown fire from heaven and consume
these men just like Elijah did?
This man in Job chapter one saidit was the fire of God that burned
up the sheep and the servantswho were taking care of them.
Now, that brings up a question.
If the Bible here in Job chapterone, verse 16 says this was the
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fire of God, then how could thedevil have been behind that?
Now we know that the devil is behindit because God has given him leeway.
God has given him some latitude, so tospeak, with His physical creation so
that the devil can inflict harm on job.
And we know that because God saidall that he has is in your power.
Well, we have to remember when weread Job chapter one that the man
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who saw this did not know that thedevil was behind it when he said the
fire of God fell down from heaven.
He didn't know anything aboutthe devil's part in this.
This man, like Job and the others inthis book, tended to attribute everything
that happened to God, right or wrong.
That's the way that they looked at things.
So in Job chapter one, verse 16, wefind a very important insight here,
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and that is that God allowed the devilto use natural forces to afflict job.
He allowed him to have some kind ofpower, some kind of latitude, over
His creation in this instance inorder to afflict Job his servant.
So that shows that the devil doeshave some power in that area.
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Now, again, this is a uniquecase here because God is pulling
the curtains and letting us seewhat happens behind the scenes.
As to how and when and why andwhere the devil does this at other
times in the Bible, much less today,God doesn't explain that to us.
This is a unique situation thatwe're reading here in Job chapter
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one, but it does show that Godsometimes allows the devil to do this.
Here in Job chapter one, where lightningcame down from the sky and burned up these
sheep and these servants, we might lookat it and say, “Well, that was a natural
disaster.” But actually behind the scenesthere was a supernatural element involved
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in what we call a natural disaster.
So his sheep, which were a mainsource of his income, are gone.
They are burned up.
All that wool that they wouldproduce is now gone, and the servants
who took care of them are gone.
So the first calamity, the firstloss to Job in verse 15 was at the
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hands of human beings, the Sabeans.
The second loss is in verse 16, and thatcame from nature itself by lightning.
The third loss is alsoat the hands of men.
Verse 17 says, “While he was stillspeaking…” Now that man who's still
speaking is the second messenger inverse 16 who had also come in while the
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first messenger was still speaking thebit of bad news that he was delivering.
So you had one man in verse15 who came in with bad news.
You had a second messenger who camein with the second bit of bad news in
verse 16 while he was still speaking.
A third man comes in andhe has more bad news.
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So what's happened here inone day all at the same time?
Basically, Job finds out thathis 500 yoke of oxen and his 500
female donkeys have been stolen.
No sooner does he learn that than hediscovers that the 7,000 sheep he had have
been burned up and now he finds out thatthe 3000 camels he owns have been stolen.
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So here are three tragedies thathappened to Job in the same day.
Here are three pieces of very bad newsthat are delivered to him all at once.
Isn't that the way thatit oftentimes happens?
If we only had one trial to happenonce in a while and then we had a break
for, let's say five or six weeks, oreven one week, sometimes before the
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next trial comes along, so that weare able to recover, so that we're
able to get back up on our feet, thenthe calamities and the hardships of
life wouldn't be so hard to handle.
But when you have two or three thingsthat happen all at once—you might have
something that happens in the family,you might have a death that occurs,
you might have a health problem, youmight have an accident, you might have
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some kind of financial issue, or youmight have some kind of conflict that
arises—and oftentimes they come in threes.
I've heard people say for years, “When itrains, it pours.” And that's oftentimes
true. I've also heard people say thatdeath comes in three’s oftentimes, and
they don't mean that as a superstition.
They don't mean that as a law of naturewhere it always has to happen that way.
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They just mean that oftentimes youwill find that when one person you
know dies, there will be two othersin the close timeframe related
to that, that pass away as well.
Well, what we find herein the case of job.
Is that it's not just raining.
It's pouring.
This man is getting all kindsof bad news all at once.
His life has completelychanged in one day.
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All of his assets and all of his sourcesof income have been wiped out, and when we
think about everything he's lost, we haveto wonder how much more can this man take.
You may be thinking about someother men in the Bible we talked
about in the first lesson.
One of those men was Mosesin numbers chapter 11.
Virtually the whole nation ofthe Hebrews were upset with him.
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Now, that was when Moses cried out to God.
He basically said that he couldn'ttake anymore and he told God if
you're going to treat me likethis, go ahead and take my life.
The other man was thegreat prophet Elijah.
In First Kings chapter 19, whenthe vicious queen Jezebel vowed to
kill him, Elijah ran for his life.
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He sat down under a juniper tree andhe prayed that God would take his
life and end it all, but it wasn'tover for either one of these men.
God still had work for them to do, butat their lowest point, when they felt
that they couldn't carry any more weighton their shoulders, they thought that
they couldn't endure anything else.
We feel like that sometimes, don't we?
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We can carry a heavy load fora while, but when more and more
burdens are laid on us, we get tired.
We ask for relief, we pray toGod, and then we get discouraged,
and finally we get mad and upset.
That's when we say, “I don't knowhow much more this I can take.”
And what do we mean by that anyway?
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That if we have much morepain, we'll lose our mind?
That we'll have a heart attackand die that will collapse?
Or if we have any more problems,we might lose our faith?
You see, that's what the devilwas hoping for in Job's case.
He wasn't trying to cause Job tohave a heart attack or lose his mind.
God wouldn't let himdo that to job anyway.
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The devil wanted to push Job tothe point where he would curse God.
He's doing everything he canto antagonize and provoke him.
If he can get Job to curse God,maybe God will take his life and
the devil will be the winner.
And the devil does antagonize.
In Luke chapter 22, verse 31,Jesus told Peter that the devil
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wanted to sift him like wheat.
In Bible times when people had to havewheat flour to bake bread, they had to
separate the wheat kernels from the husks.
Now, they had several ways of doing this.
Sometimes they would use largefans to remove the husks.
Sometimes they would use a sifter.
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Sometimes they would pull a weightedpalate behind an ox to crush the grain.
Now, that is the strikingimage Jesus used.
The devil shakes us.
He tries to crush our spirits.
He antagonizes.
He agitates, and he grindsour hearts without mercy.
That's what he's doing to Job, and thebad part is he's just getting started.
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If you've already read the Book of Job,you know what's going to happen next.
You know it's going to getworse for job much worse.
But Job did not know what you and I know.
He didn't know how bad it would get.
He couldn't see what was coming,which was again a good thing for him.
But the good part is thatGod knows our limits.
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He knows how much pressurewe're able to stand.
We don't.
But if we listen to experience as weget older, we'll trust in God more.
We'll put our faith in Him that He won'tput on us more than we're able to bear.
God told the Jews in Isaiah 57,verse 16, “For I will not contend
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forever, nor will I always be angry,for the spirit would fail before me,
and the souls which I have made.”
Now this verse in Isaiah is a differentsituation than the Book of Job.
God punished the Jews in Isaiahfor their sins, but God was
not punishing Job for his sins.
But at the same time, Isaiah 57, verse16 does say that there are limits as to
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how much punishment, how much sufferingGod will give men in this lifetime.
He said He would not punish them tothe point that their spirits failed.
The Lord broke their stubborn will whenHe punished these people in Babylonian
captivity in the book of Isaiah,but He did not crush their spirits
because God loved them and He loves us.
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It can be hard to do this, butwhen Christians suffer great
anguish and pain, they must notthink that God doesn't love them.
Paul said in Second Corinthianschapter four, verse eight, “We are hard
pressed on every side, yet not crushed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair.”The word perplexed comes from a Greek word
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which means not to know which way to turn,not to know how to decide or what to do.”
Doesn't that describe your life at times?
That's how the Apostle Paul felt.
The same apostle who preached,debated, and worked miracles.
And yet Paul said that evenwhen he was at his wits’ end,
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he said we are not in despair.
There's always hope in God.
There's always a future ahead, andas we say, and as we sing sometimes,
God holds the future in his hands.
We think the future is in our handsor on our shoulders as it were.
But it is in His hands.
There's a case of God showing mercy toPaul in Philippians chapter two when he
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already had a lot of troubles in his life.
Paul had already been arrestedfor preaching the gospel.
He was a prisoner in Rome, and a man namedEpaphroditus was a dear brother to Paul.
He was a valuable worker.
Now that man became verysick and almost died.
Paul said he was sick almost untodeath, but God had mercy on him,
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and not only on him, but on mealso, lest I should have sorrow upon
sorrow” [Philippians two verse 17].
Sometimes in life we feel that that'sthe way that our lives are going.
It's just one sorrow right afteranother, or one grief on top of another.
Paul said that he was spared.
If this dear brother Epaphroditus haddied, it would've been a heavy burden
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of grief on top of everything elsePaul was carrying, but God spared him.
Paul doesn't say that he would've diedor lost his faith if his dear brother had
died, but he was very, very thankful thathis trouble in his own life wasn't worse.
Now that should teach ushow to look at our trials.
Instead of us saying, “I can't takeit anymore,” we should say, “I'm
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glad it's not worse.” So the answerto the question “How much more can
Job take?” is actually a lot more.
much more than we might think.
And though we don't want tothink about this and admit
it, the same is true with us.
When life seems to be crushing us andthe weight is so heavy it's hard to
breathe, we cry out, “How much more canI stand; Lord, help me.” And there's
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nothing wrong with praying for the Lord'shelp. But when we ask “How much more
can I stand?” the answer is the same.
More, maybe even much more, andmaybe even a lot more than you think.
Now, in Job's case, theanswer is a lot more.
Now, if you've never read thisbook of Job, you might ask,
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“But how much worse can it get?”What can possibly happen next?
We see the answer in verses 18 and 19.
This is the fourth piece of bad news.
On top of everything else, he'sbeen told that he lost everything.
Now, if we were to lose all of ourmoney and all of our income and
all of our possessions, that wouldbe devastating to say the least.
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That would be a trial; thatwould be a test of your faith.
But even then, you could be able tosay, if you have children, “At least
I still have my children.” But poorJob couldn't even take solace in that.
This fourth messenger deliversthe worst news of all.
That is, your sons andyour daughters are dead.
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A terrible windstorm collapsed the housewhere they were eating and drinking.
The messenger's awful words must havepierced Job's heart deeper than anything
he had ever felt before in his life.
They are dead.
Who or what was responsiblefor this tragedy?
Again, the answer inthis case was the devil.
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Now, that doesn't mean that every time thewind blows, the devil is in control of it.
We only know his involvement in this casebecause God tells us in this chapter.
Otherwise we wouldn’t know this.
So the devil was given some leeway fromGod Himself to use the forces of nature to
cause grief and pain and sorrow and death.
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The first time he used lightning,and this time he uses a
windstorm—10 children in one day.
Those of you that have lost achild know how painful this is.
It's something that younever fully get over.
You can learn to function and moveforward, gradually and painfully
move forward, but it's always there.
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That is why we need to draw close to Godand not push Him away in times of tragedy.
But imagine the heartache of losingall of your 10 children in one day.
If anything seems unbearable, that does.
Alexander Campbell lost 10 of his 14children and his first wife by the
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time that he was 61 years old, but theydied over the course of several years.
In the case of job, he lost allof his 10 children in one day.
Now, I know that some of you whoare listening have been through some
very painful experiences in life.
I know that some of you are goingthrough some severe circumstances
(25:09):
in your life right now.
Those situations may be financialproblems, maybe even financial
disaster, or you've lostloved ones just like Job did.
But try to imagine losingeverything that Job did in one day.
It's impossible for us to fullyempathize with this man and his loss,
and it's even more impossible for usto answer the question “What would
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I do if I was in Job's shoes?” Whatwould I do if I lost everything that
Job lost here in Job chapter one?”
We can only read Job chapter one, 20and 22, and hope that we would have even
a fraction of the faith that he had.
So let's read verse 20 through 22.
Now this is the description ofjob's response to everything
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that he's been through and allthe bad news that he's received.
The Bible says, “Then Job arose, tore hisrobe and shaved his head. He fell down to
the ground” the Bible says “and worshiped,and he said, Naked I came from my mother's
womb and naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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In all this Job did not sinnor charge God with wrong.”
How did Job respond?
How did he react?
Well, he wasn't angry,at least at this point.
He certainly wasn't filledwith rebellion or self-pity.
He didn't turn to suicide.
He certainly didn't turn to thebottle for some kind of relief,
and he didn't become an atheist.
The first thing that he did wasnot to clench his fist and shake
(26:38):
it toward heaven, but he fell downon the ground and he worshiped God.
He tore his mantle.
He shaved his head.
Now, these were old ways of expressingshock and grief and heartache.
He got down on his handsand knees and face.
This was also common in Bible times.
You find Abraham doing that inMoses and Joshua and Daniel and
many other great men in the Bible.
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And he worshiped God.
He didn't turn away from God.
He turned toward God and he worshipedGod after all this that had happened.
Now that came naturally to himbecause he had always worshiped God
continually and conscientiously.
He had honored God and askedfor God's mercy in good times.
(27:20):
So it was natural for him toacknowledge God in these hard times.
What did he say about losing all this?
He said I came from my mother's wombnaked and naked shall I return there.
That's exactly what we read inEcclesiastes five, verse 15.
He said the Lord gave andthe Lord has taken away.
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The Bible says in First Timothy six,verse seven, we brought nothing into
this world and it is certain we cancarry nothing out, and having food and
clothing let us be therewith content.”
Job said the Lord gave andthe Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now there's something interesting andI believe something very important to
point out here about the problem of evil.
The Bible says that Job said these words: The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. (28:02):
undefined
Now, think about the context here.
Think about what we've justread in Job chapter one.
Who took these things awayfrom Job: God or the devil?
It was the devil.
God didn't do this, but Jobthought that God did this.
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Now, this was a mistake in his opinionat the very beginning of this book,
and there are several lessons in that,but one of them is that a mistaken
opinion is not necessarily a sin.
This man Job has the wrong opinion here.
The devil has done all these things.
The devil has taken awaythese things from Job, but Job
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thinks that God has done that.
And the Bible says in verse 22 “inall this job did not sin.” So the
mistaken opinion in verse 21 isnot a sin according to verse 22.
And another example ofthat would be Abraham.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11, 17through 19, that Abraham thought that
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God was going to raise Isaac fromthe dead after he had offered him.
In other words, after he hadoffered him as a sacrifice.
And yet that didn't happen.
But the fact that he had a wrongopinion about that did not affect
his faith because he is commended forhis faith in Hebrews 11 and James 2.
But in spite of having a wrongopinion, which you and I sometimes
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do as well, the Bible says thatJob blessed the name of the Lord.
He did not curse God to his facelike the devil said he would do.
He blessed the name of the Lord and theBible says in verse 22 in all this, in all
of these problems that we've read about,Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
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So the next time that you feel likeyou have more than you can bear in
life, go back and read Job chapter one.
And better than that, read thisentire book because this is the
book to read on the problem of evil.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
(30:06):
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
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