The Book of Job has always been one of my favorites in the Bible, I remember reading it when I came to the Christ, it was actually one of the first books I read and studied. It tells the story of a wealthy man who lost it all and in spite of loosing everything, He never cursed the name of the Lord or turned away from Him.

There are several interesting points in this book, but there are 2 that draw my attention about the character of Job:

1. Spiritual Warfare
2. God provides to those who follow & trust Him.

This book has taught me those important lessons as I have gone through different trials in my life. Lets take a look more in depth in these two lessons.

The Spiritual Warfare going on:


In Job 1:6-12, Satan's weakness is revealed, He is shown having to ask permission to God in order to tempt His servant Job. Satan has been observing Job and has seen that he is a man of God, he fears God and serves Him. His purpose is to make him turn his back away from God and see how far he will go.

Job loses everything, his land, cattle, even his children ALL MINUTES APART FROM EACH OTHER!
Have you ever lost something or someone dear to you? It can be hard, specially when it is someone you are attached too, now imagine that pain multiplied by everyone else you love, not only that but also everything you own.

How would you feel? Would you blame this on God and turn your back on Him?

Sadly, this is what many Christians do, in the midst of trials and tribulations they give up and turn their back away from God. I have wanted to do this several times before, when things get hard, I want to take the easy exit and forget God, but I am always stopped when I am reminded of Christ's death on the cross and His sacrifice for my sins.

I think the best way to describe it is using Job's own words (this is after hearing the news of losing everything):

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
(Job 1:20-22)

How many times have you wanted to blame God for what is wrong? I think it is our human nature that tends to want to blame someone. We see Adam blaming God for sending him this woman to taste the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eve (as when you call customer service to tell them their product is defective).

I specially like verse 22 that says "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong".


If you lost everything would you react the same way? Think about it for a moment...

There is Spiritual Warfare going on. As I stated in this post, we are not tempted by God. I found the Scripture reference (I mentioned I couldn't remember where exactly it was):

Let no one say when he is tempted,"I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
(James 1:13)

To think that "you are tempted by God" is an oxymoron to me, God does not tempt you contrary to popular wordly belief, it is the enemy, Satan and his army who do. Of course, compared to God they are powerless (remember that!). Yes, there are hardships that God allows us to endure, just like Job, He allowed Satan to throw stuff at him to test his faith, but it wasn't God who took everything away from him, there was no reason for Job to blame God because he knew this.

I have always laughed at "God VS Satan" idea that the world seems to like in which God and Satan are fighting for people...as if God could lose against such an unworthy opponent! Come on, Satan is a created being and God is the CREATOR, He has power over Satan, he fears His name and His Word (read Matthew 4:1-11 for a great example of this).

This is where I conclude this blogpost, I titled it "Part 1" because I was briefly going to touch on each point, but as I continued writing I realized I could go longer, part 2 will expand on the other valuable lesson from the book of Job.