In this episode, we delve into Job Chapter 2, where Job’s journey of adversity continues as Satan gets permission to afflict him physically. Despite the intense suffering and the caustic advice from his wife, Job’s integrity shines through, never faltering in his faith or his relationship with God. We reflect on the powerful lessons this teaches us about the nature of divine will, human suffering, and unwavering faith.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
Today we are in Job chapter 2. As if what Satan did to Job in chapter 1 wasn’t enough, he’s going to further attack Job in this chapter. Let’s listen in to Faith Comes By Hearing’s reading of Job chapter 2.
Job 2. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and from.
And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin,
All that man has, he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will come.
And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?
In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
I have read the book of Job at least 11 times since I was in my 20s. I’m referring back to a journal I wrote in 1984 when I was 29 years old. When I read Job chapter 2 that day, I wrote, God allows Job’s health to be attacked by Satan. Job’s response, verse 10, Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? The next journal I’m using is from 1997, when I was 42 years old. So that’s 13 years later. Then I was reading Job at a quicker pace. I read Job chapters 2 through 5 on the same day. And I wrote, God allows Satan to attack Job physically after he told him to spare him physically. Confusing. Fact is, Satan cannot and does not have free reign. He must get permission from heaven to do what he does. The third journal we’re using is from 2015, when I was 60 years old, 18 years later. On that day, I read Job chapters 2 and 3 on the same day, and I wrote, The Bible is a story about God, but it is also a story about people. Recently, we had read about Ezra, Nehemiah, the disciples, Paul. And now Job. Recorded in the Word of God are various responses of people, normal people, to God, His Word, His ways, His calling. So far, Job, who has done nothing wrong, responds to God’s blessings and Satan’s attacks with integrity. How would I do? Satan incites God to act against him, according to verse 3 of chapter 2. He has lost it all. Now his health is at risk. Yet in all this, Job did not sin with his lips, according to verse 10 of chapter 2. Do we only expect good from God? Why? Do we deserve good? On what basis? Let’s take a look at Job chapter 2. As we do, let’s first go back to Job chapter 1, when Satan had a similar discussion with God, and God gave Satan the permission to basically sift Job. In chapter 1, his livestock is destroyed, and his sons and daughters are killed in some kind of a windstorm, a hurricane, a tornado, as the house fell on all of them. In all that, Job worshipped God. As if that wasn’t enough, Satan goes back to God and talks to him about Job again. The Lord says to Satan in verse 3, He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him. So God is watching Job from heaven. He’s watching you and I, isn’t he? He watches how we handle the tests that come our way. Satan talks back to God. He basically says, I can strip somebody from everything, but as long as they still have life, health, they might be okay. But let me attack their health, and then they will curse you. And the Lord amazingly says to Satan in verse 6, Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life. Wow, what a license of freedom to Satan to destroy everything in Job’s life except take his life. God, have mercy on me. I pray Satan never asks for that kind of permission from you over me. Verse 7 says, So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. Have you faced a health challenge? Have you been so sick you may have wanted to die? I faced a health challenge a few years ago when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had been very healthy up to that point in my life and I didn’t understand how someone like me could end up with cancer. I remember the day I got the phone call and the diagnosis from the doctor. You have cancer. I was at home. I dropped down on my knees and I said, Lord, I don’t know where we’re going and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. But I know I’m in the same place that I was yesterday, and that’s in the palm of your hand. It’s been seven years since that diagnosis. Surgery, radiation, hormone shots. But according to the doctors, I’m cancer-free. The Lord allowed Satan to attack me physically. He didn’t win with me, and he didn’t win with Job. In verse 9, Job’s wife had probably had about enough. She responds to this by saying to Job, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. But look at Job’s amazing response once again. Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. The story of Job’s suffering, the story of Job’s attack by Satan on his life, will continue in chapter 3 as these friends show up. Seven days of silence, for they saw that his suffering was great. But the silence ends in chapter 3. Until then, how do we apply Job chapter 2 to our lives? We think of some of the health challenges that some of us have had. And we think about our own response, our own attitude toward God. Do we understand that good or evil can be permitted by God in our lives? I wrote in that journal back in 2015. Do we only expect good from God? Why? Do we deserve good? On what basis? After reading Job chapter 2, I, for one, want to praise God for the good that He has allowed me to experience in my life. Father, I thank you for your goodness to me. I have sojourned on this earth over 60 years. You have provided blessing after blessing after blessing. I have no idea how many times Satan has come calling to you on my behalf. I have no idea how many times you said no, don’t touch him. I understand that Satan walks to and fro around the earth seeking whom he may devour. None of us are exempt. Job was not exempt. But for some reason, for most of us, by your grace, you have put a hedge of protection around us. I thank you for that protection from the enemy. My selfish personal prayer is that it would continue forever. I pray in thanks for your goodness to me and your protection. And I humbly ask, keep the enemy away from my doors. In Jesus’ name, amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. so he was never home. So we took the car that day, neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. but God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf, get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did, was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
In this episode, we delve into Job Chapter 2, where Job’s journey of adversity continues as Satan gets permission to afflict him physically. Despite the intense suffering and the caustic advice from his wife, Job’s integrity shines through, never faltering in his faith or his relationship with God. We reflect on the powerful lessons this teaches us about the nature of divine will, human suffering, and unwavering faith.
