Job is faithful. To put it another way, Job is completely filled to the brim with faith in God. But today, we see the accuser, (for that is who Satan is), accusing Job before God of being superficially faithful and, thereby, accusing God of being wrong about His evaluation of Job. Well, God isn’t wrong – ever! He allows Satan to ruthlessly test Job with only one condition. God doesn’t grant Satan authority over Job’s mortal life. And Job is never aware of this conversation. He doesn’t know why things are about to change or what could happen next.
Immediately Job’s unthinkable test begins. He loses his children as well as his entire fortune through attack after attack in one single day. In fact, he’s just getting a report of one tragic loss while another messenger is lining up to deliver even worse news. Through it all, his friends, who have an opportunity to support Job are useless. Even his wife tries to get him to “curse God and die”. This is no easy test of one’s faith in God. Nevertheless, Job makes the decision to continue to place his faith in God and, therefore, Job is more than abundantly restored by God in the end.
Throughout His entire creation, ‘God allows all kinds of tests. For example, we know strong trees don’t grow with ease; the stronger the breeze, the stronger the trees – a testimony to the tree’s endurance. As humans, we want a strong testimony but too frequently don’t want the “test” which, ironically, is the very root word of testimony. While God may not cause all the tests in our lives, He certainly allows them. He sees the end result, and He knows the result is good. For God’s faithful, if your story isn’t good right now, your story isn’t over. Remain faithful and you’ll be blessed abundantly by what God does with you because of your faith in Him during this test. And your testimony of enduring faith will become an inspiration to those around you.
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:2-4 (NLT)
