Job 2

Last Sunday, we talked about how Job lost everything he had, including all physical property along with all his children. And how, even though he suffered, he did not blame God, but chose to worship God instead.

Today, Satan gives him another test designed to test his loyalty to God, and we will see the results that had on Job, too. Many times, in our troubles, we tend to say things we don’t mean, and some of those things don’t do anything to honor God. Even when we go thru these times, we must be very careful to always say the things God wants us to say.

The key verse today points out that Job kept that in mind even though his losses were much greater than most of ours.

JOB 2:10

“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”

Let’s begin reading about Satan’s 2nd plan to get Job to curse God.

JOB 2:1-3

“1 On another day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” 3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

This is the same wording as found in chapter 1:6-8, but the reference to ‘on another day’ points to some period of time elapsing between the two incidents. In this passage, God describes job’s qualities just as he did in chapter 1, but in chapter 2, he adds another quality. In verse 3, God says that Job kept his integrity.

In verse 3, there are 2 things we should pay attention to: The 1st thing is when God told Satan, “You incited me against him to ruin him.” Now, that does not mean Satan made God do things against His will. It does show, however, that God will allow tests to come upon us that will reflect our Godly character to others around us, even to Satan.

The 2nd thing is when god told Satan how he wanted to ruin Job “without any reason.” Satan’s agenda was to destroy one of God’s followers, just to prove he wasn’t what God said he was. But in the end, the truth showed that Job was exactly what God said he was.

Why do you think God allows us to be tested with very bad things? Satan failed to have Job blame God, so Satan figures he should turn up the heat.

JOB 2:4 shows us how that happened.

‘4 ‘Skin for skin!’ Satan replied. ‘A man will give all he has for his own life.’”

Notice how in verse 4, Satan’s tone rises in arrogance towards God when he demands “skin for skin!” His first plan was to destroy Job and make him hate God, but that didn’t work, so now, he is eager to step it up a notch! And that is what Satan does to us, too. He keeps attacking us until we give in or die and go home. And that shows his true desire - to kill our faith, to steal our focus from God and to destroy our souls.

“Skin for skin” is an expression that means a person will do anything necessary to save their own life. And while this might be true in the worldly realm, it is not necessarily true in the spiritual realm. True lovers of God remain - true lovers of God.

The bottom line is that Satan thought Job was just like himself; totally selfish and only valued what he wanted for himself. Satan was wrong. Job was not anything at all like Satan. But he was much like God.

In JOB 2:5, Satan told God …

“Now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

So God allowed Satan to test Job by attacking his body. But we see God is the one in control,

because he set the limits to Satan’s challenges and Satan had to abide by those limits. Job’s body could be stricken, but his life could not be taken. Even in that, we see that Satan must bow down and obey God.

In JOB 2:6, we see who is really in total control – even over Satan.

“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.’”