Read: Job 1:1-2:10

“There is None Like Him on the Earth”

If God and Satan were to have a conversation about you, how would it go? Would God say the things about you that he said about this patriarch? Replace Job’s name with yours as you think about this question: “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?” (Job 1:8).

How would Satan respond? Again, substitute your own name for Job’s: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9).

Satan was accusing Job of serving God only because God blessed Job. That, according to Satan, was his whole motivation. Satan did not believe that Job feared God because of God’s power or righteousness. Rather, he only served God—according to Satan—because Job was getting something out of it.

God allowed Satan to test his theory. God allowed calamity upon calamity to come upon Job at the hand of the adversary. His servants were killed by the Sabeans. His sheep and those servants tending to them were destroyed by fire from the sky. The Chaldeans stole his camels and killed the servants riding them. His children were crushed in the collapse of the oldest brother’s house. Horrible tragedies, but Job’s resolve toward God remained the same. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

After all of this, God told Satan, “And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause” (Job 2:3). Satan again challenges God, alleging that Job only continues to serve Him because his health remains. Thus God allowed Satan to inflict bodily harm upon Job: “painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 1:7).

His wife encouraged Job to forsake his faith, but Job responded, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). Many today are quick to turn on God and curse His church. Friends, we must stand firm against the devil’s many attacks and be rooted in the truth of God’s Word. Will life always be easy? No! But even in those difficult times, may we never, in the words of Job’s wife, “Curse God and die!” (Job 1:9).