Satan only appears four times in the Old Testament – Genesis 3; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Zechariah 3:1; and Job 3. The exchange in Job 1:6-12 is never revealed to Job.
- Satan aims at one possible weak spot.
- read 1:6-11. On the mission field, ‘rice Christians’ are those who gather around the missionary not for his Christianity but for his Western goods. That is how Satan sees Job. Augustine: ‘the good make use of this world in order to enjoy God, whereas the evil want to make use of God in order to enjoy the world’.
- God allows Satan to test Job – 1:12; note 1 Pet.1:6-7. Four disasters descend on Job like one hammer blow after another.
- God is sovereign over all things.
- Joni Eareckson-Tada: ‘It’s a fragile house of cards, and we keep praying that nobody bumps the table.’ Her sister, Linda, lost her five year old daughter, Kelly (Joni’s niece), to brain cancer. The table is bumped, and ultimately it is God who bumps it.
- How the believer should respond to great tragedy.
- he grieved – 1:20a. We are not meant to be Stoics.
- he worshipped – 1:20b. He praised the name of the Lord.
- he recognised the transience of life – 1:21a; 1 Tim.6:7; Eccles.5:15.
- he acknowledged the sovereignty of God in his suffering – 1:21. William Barclay: ‘I do not think that anyone can calculate the vast amount of damage that has been done, by suggesting that terrible and tragic events in life are the will of God.’ This makes God ‘cruelly weak’ (Augustine). See Isa.45:7.