Job 2:7-8 (NIV)
"So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes."
Job, a man who loved God and kept His commandments....who would NOT say or do ANYTHING that would offend OR disrespect God, a man who was BLESSED and LOVED by God, lost ALL his wealth, ALL his children was killed in a storm and his wife and friends deserted him. She who promised to love and keep him till death parted them....to forsake ALL else,turned her back on him and his God when he was plagued by suffering and misfortune: “Are you still maintaining your integrity?" His wife asked him, "Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9 (NIV)).
Things eventually got SO bad, that Job cursed the day of his birth....after ALL, he was ONLY human. He even got to the point where he questioned God. After listening to Job's self pity and complaints the Lord responded: " Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?" Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?' (Job 38:4,17,35). “Job, if you can answer these things, then you are fit to question Me. If you cannot answer it, who are YOU to demand answers from Me?” The Lord concluded.
Should we blame GOD for our hardships,suffering, trials and ill-health OR failures? We OFTEN believe that GOD is testing us by the latter means, but how CAN it be, if He is a God of love,light,joy,peace,salvation and deliverance? He is NOT a God of darkness,negativity OR suffering. ALL our hardships is either as a DIRECT result of our disobedience to God...He gives us over to the desires of our hearts: "...Out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean’” (Mark 7:20-23).
On the OTHER hand, our suffering and hardships could be a strategic ploy of Satan to estrange us from God...to DEPRIVE us from the truth, God's presence in our lives and His love....SATAN is the one who subject man to hardship and trials NOT God.(Job 1:10-12)
Only when Job accepted that God KNEW what He was doing in HIS creation.......that God had a MUCH greater purpose and plan for his life,could he reply: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
How OFTEN did WE not question God OR complain to Him when things DIDN'T go OUR way.... ACCUSED Him of forsaking us? Even in his hardships,losses, humiliation and suffering Job CONTINUED to praise and honor his Creator: "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:21 (NIV)). What courage, faith and conviction this man displayed in his God? In the end Job realized that God has a MUCH greater purpose for THOSE who loved Him.(Romans 8:28)
