Job’s Job

Job’s Job

Bible Blast: Read Job 1:20-22

In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God. Job 1:22

The book of Job starts off with a conversation between the Lord and the devil. When God remarked about how faithful and sinless Job was, the devil said, “Well, sure he’s faithful now! He’s rich and has everything he wants! Let me take all that from him, and then I bet he’ll turn his back on you!” God said, “Okay. You can do whatever you like to him, but you can’t take his life.”

It’s a weird beginning, right? But the awesome thing to remember here is that God knew Job would remain faithful to him, no matter what happened. I would love to have God brag about me like that!

The devil didn’t waste any time. These are the things that happened to Job after that:

He lost all of his oxen and donkeys (1,500 animals) and all of the people who took care of them.

He lost all seven thousand of his sheep and the shepherds who watched them.

He lost all of his three thousand camels and the people who handled them.

His sons and daughters died.

He was covered in terrible sores from head to foot.

Basically, Job was stripped of everything he had, except for his wife—and she wasn’t a great source of encouragement for him. After he was covered in sores, she told him he should just “curse God and die” (Job 2:9).

The big thing we can learn from Job is this: We aren’t just supposed to praise God when things are going the way we want them to go. After Job’s wife told him to curse God, he said, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” (Job 2:10). Even though he had lost everything, he did not let go of his love for the Lord.

Whether God is giving to us or allowing things to be taken away from us, we still need to bless his name and love him with our whole hearts.

Girl Gab: To learn the rest of the story, read Job 42:12-17 right now. God rewarded Job’s faithfulness big time! Pray today, and thank God for good things that are going on right now. Then praise him in spite of not-so-good things that might be happening right now.