Oh No, He’s Back Again Series

Job 2: 1 – 13

Oh No, He’s Back Again

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” 3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.” 4 So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” 6 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

Have you ever come across someone that you do not like? There is a commercial that shows this relative to a college reunion. Apparently one of the former classmates is Peter Pan who does not age. He comes back to the 1966 college class reunion. Peter flies up to one of the guys and shouts his name. The guy responds ‘Oh, it’s you Peter’. Peter turns out to be an insulting and annoying addition to the class reunion. The commercial ends with Peter flying around with his foot in the face of his former classmate singing ‘You make me feel so young.’ I give a good credit to those who thought up this add. In fact it was so good I forgot what was being advertised.

Our God Is Amazingly Kind and Patient. If He wanted me to be in charge like we see in the funny movie Bruce Almighty, then this pain in the, you know what, would be history. I mean come on now, Satan is given permission to test Job so what does he do. He wipes out almost all his servants, his livestock and wealth, and then kills all of Jobs kids. You know the story. Job is being subjected to a very severe test. Satan has been permitted by God to take away all Job's possessions in an attempt to prove that if a man's possessions are taken away, he will curse God to his face. But Job has survived that first cycle of tests. Job is left crushed and broken, but, nevertheless, full of faith. In all this time of testing, Job does not sin but is such an amazing believer in the Goodness of El Shaddai that he worships our Blessed and Holy Maker.

So is this enough? Oh no, here he comes again.

Chapter 2 opens with another round in the test, and the first three verses tell us that God again initiates action against Job:

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” 3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”