Satan’s Sifting

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In Job 1, hasatan—the Adversary , Opponent, or Accuser—traditionally identified as Satan—asked God to afflict Job. Satan wanted to test Job’s faithfulness to prove he feared God for the wrong reasons:  So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side?  You have blessed the work
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Trust that God Is Wise (Job 38-42)

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I’ve heard it said that everyone is either in a storm, entering a storm, or coming out of storm.  Life is full of storms. And people are full of opinions about how to go through them—such as Job’s friends. The book of Job is full of such opinions and they were all wrong. All that merely human wisdom
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Job’s Faith Grew Through Suffering

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Job was extremely religious, extremely pious, and extremely good. Even God said,  “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). But being blameless and upright doesn’t mean you know all there is to know about God and the world.
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Suffering Opened Job’s Eyes

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Job’s three friends had a very legalistic view of the world and of God. They thought everything worked according to a clear and simple law of moral cause and effect—of reward and punishment—in which good people are blessed, and bad people suffer. So when they saw Job suffering, the only explanation for it, given their theology, was that Job and his
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Can Legalistic Thinking Explain All Suffering? (Job 3-14)

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Kūmāré is a 2011 documentary about a New Jersey man who pretends to be a guru from India—complete with accent—to see if he can get a following. The documentary is painful to watch because he does gather a following, and the people are totally convinced that Kūmāré is a spiritual man, with spiritual powers, who can help them. And since the audience knows this is all
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Three Ways to Comfort Your Suffering Friend (Job 2:11-13)

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I was reading an article by a woman who lost her brother, sister, and her sister’s children in a car crash. Horrific. She was stunned. She walked around as if in a fog, unable to think clearly. Of course, friends offered to help. Several said, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” She found that well-meaning, but unhelpful. The bereaved don’t want to impose
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God or Genie? A Lesson from Job

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Job.  He was the ideal man— righteous, upright, fearing God, shunning evil, and so concerned with holiness that he made sacrifices for sins that might have been committed by other people (i.e., his children, cf., Job 1:1-2, 5).  No wonder God was especially pleased with Job, twice saying that no one else on earth was like him (1:8; 2:3). Consequently, God supremely blessed what Job did. But not everyone was convinced of Job’s piety.  One
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Dramatic Irony in Job

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Have you ever seen a performance of Romeo and Juliet? Near the end of the play, Juliet takes a drug that induces a temporary, but deathlike, sleep, to avoid marrying a man she does not love. To add to the drama, her body is placed in a tomb. To all appearance she seems dead. But the audience knows better. 
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