THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Job: The Great Lesson Of Submitting To God

Part I: Submitting To God If He Lets Us Lose Our Possessions Though We Are Righteous

(Job 1:1-22)

I. Introduction

A. The problem of suffering by the righteous is likely one of the biggest theological problems known to man.

B. Of the various sufferings of righteous Job, the loss of all he owned in Job 1:1-11, 12-19 with his response in Job 1:20-22 examples our need to submit to God if we lose our possessions though being upright.

II. Submitting To God If He Lets Us Lose Our Possessions Though We Are Righteous, Job 1:1-22.

A. Job was the most righteous human being on the earth in his generation, Job 1:1-8:

1. Job's righteousness was seen in his blessings of wealth from God, Job 1:1, 2-3: he had 7 sons and 3 daughters, a common family size in his era (2nd millennium B. C.), but 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels 1,000 (500 yoke) of oxen and 500 donkeys, enormous herds, making him the wealthiest of the "people of the East," northern Arabia according to Jeremiah 49:28; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 719, 717.

2. Job's righteousness was seen in his devout oversight of his family, Job 1:1, 4-5: every time his children held a feast for each other, a birthday party, Job would rise early that day and offer 10 burnt offerings, one for each of his children to atone for the sin of each lest any of them sinned or cursed God, Ibid., p. 719.

3. Job's righteousness was seen in God's own commentary about Job, Job 1:1, 6-8 NIV: when the "sons of God," a reference to angelic beings, came to present themselves before God to report on their activities, and Satan was among them, God asked Satan if he had considered His servant Job, that there was no man on earth like him in his "blameless" and "upright" life, who revered the Lord and shunned evil, Ibid.

B. However, Satan charged that Job's reverence for God, the cause of his righteous life, was based on his desire to be blessed with possessions from the Lord, not out of a love and value for God Himself, Job 1:9-10.

C. Indeed, Satan predicted that if God took away all of Job's possessions, he would curse God to His face, Job 1:11. This charge of selfishness in Job left Satan also attacking God's integrity, suggesting the only way God could get people to worship Him was to promise them wealth, Ibid., p. 720.

D. Partly to silence Satan and partly to develop Job's relationship with the Lord, God told Satan that all of Job's possessions were in his power to do with them as he pleased, but that Satan could not hurt Job's person, Job 1:12a. Satan then left the Lord's presence to remove Job's possessions from him, Job 1:12b.

E. Satan methodically, quickly destroyed all of Job's possessions to get him to curse God, Job 1:13-19:

1. First, on a day when Job's children were feasting and Job was obviously sacrificing burnt offerings for them in case they had sinned (Job 1:13), a messenger came to Job, reporting on a raid by the Sabeans who had taken all his oxen and donkeys and slain all his servants who cared for them, Job 1:14-15.

2. Second, another messenger quickly followed the first to tell Job that lightening had burned up his sheep and servants, that he alone was left alive to tell him, Job 1:16.

3. Third, another messenger quickly followed the second to tell Job that the Chaldeans had raided and taken all his camels, slaying his servants who cared for them, and that he alone was left to tell him, Job 1:17.

4. Fourth, another messenger quickly followed the third to tell Job how a fierce wind had collapsed the house where his children were feasting, killing them all and leaving only the messenger alive, Job 1:18-19.

F. However, Job did not curse God as Satan said, but submitted to Him in this inexplicable loss, Job 1:20-22:

1. The repeat onslaught of bad news of tragic losses of all of his possessions obviously shocked Job, for he arose, rent his mantle, and shaved his head in a sign of grief in his era (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Job 1:20), but he fell down onto the ground and worshipped the Lord, Job 1:20.

2. Job there admitted that he had entered the world naked from his mother's womb, and that he would return in death from this life naked as well, Job 1:21a. God had given him possessions, and He had taken them away, but that the name of the Lord, representing His character, was still to be blessed, Job 1:21b.

3. In all this, Job "sinned not, nor charged God foolishly," defeating Satan's claim about him, Job 1:22, 11.

Lesson: Though Job was the most upright man on the earth in his era, and though God let Satan destroy all of his earthly possessions, including his children, he did not curse God to His face when he faced this trial like Satan had said he would, but Job instead submitted to the Lord's sovereignty in his great and unfathomable trial.

Application: May we love God apart from what He gives that we submit to Him though He lets us lose all we have!