Today’s Bible readings are Job 1:1-3:26, 1 Corinthians 14:1-17, Psalm 37:12-29, & Proverbs 21:25-26
Job 2:1-3
One
day the members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves before
the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan,
came with them. 2 “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.
Satan
answered the Lord, “I have been
patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”
3 Then the Lord
asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all
the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays
away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me
to harm him without cause.”
When we read
the story of Job we often have thoughts like: “I hope I never have to go
through anything like that.” Sometimes we may even think, “That guy really got
a raw deal.” Many times we fail to recognize the positive things that are revealed
in the story. We all know that it ends well for Job, but even in the beginning
of the story we see some very honorable things to mention.
I want to
discuss a point today that I think would do us all well to consider. In the
beginning of the story we see satan accusing man before God. He was probably
saying things like:
1. People are failures.
2. People hate good & love evil.
3. Your creation is a messed up deal.
4. Man is not worth saving.
This is the
nature of satan. He always tries to magnify his half-truths to a place where
they distort the truth. Yet notice what God said in reply to his accusations
against man:
3 Then the Lord
asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all
the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays
away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me
to harm him without cause.”
God had taken notice of Job. God had
seen his heart. God knew of his integrity. God knew that he was a man of
character. I am sure that there were days when Job wondered if his choices to
obey in the small things were even noticed, yet he maintained integrity in all
that he did.
Imagine all the times that he did right
when nobody was looking. Imagine all the times that he could have done things
different & gotten away with it, yet each time he chose to walk upright
& in integrity.
I want you to know that God never
misses anything. He sees everything that we do. It may seem like nobody takes
notice of your hard work & faithfulness BUT THAT IS JUST PLAIN NOT TRUE.
God sees & remembers!!!
In all the accusations that satan
brought, God silenced them with the mention of one man—JOB. God had great
confidence in this one man because God had noticed the pattern of his lifestyle.
Job had made the right decisions before. God knew he would make them again.
To me, I have to say, it must have been
an honor to Job, in the end, to know that God thought so highly of him. It
challenges me in my faith to maintain integrity at a high level so that God
will have confidence in me as well. When the enemy speaks evil against God’s
people I want the mention of my name to silence Him. It is my desire that when
Christians are being persecuted that someone might say, “Well what about
Richard? He walks the walk. He lives what he believes.”
I know that this is your aim also. That
is why it is so important for us to make sure of actions line up with our
message. Remember that faith without works is dead. So let your faith be
demonstrated through your actions so the mention of your name silences the
enemy.
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