Job 2:3  And Jehovah said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil: and he still holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. ASV
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                     Commentary

What does it mean to be -Perfect-; to be Upright; to fear God and turn away from evil? Well if you read what happened to Job & how he lost everything including his children and was left with a bitter wife who told Job to curse God and die!!!.. yet in the midst of all that what does Job do? Simple; he holds fast his integrity. In a word it means to keep on trusting God & loving & worshiping Him... No Matter What!!!!!!

Now notice that the verse says that Satan "moved God against Job, to destroy him without cause."
This is a great lesson for those of you who try to figure out what God is "trying to tell me/us" based on Providential Circumstances. This verse tells us clearly who was behind all of Job's calamities that came on him and it was -Not- Satan. Satan was only a tool in the hands of God to carry out God's designs. Now... the Scriptures teach most clearly that the Living God is in Absolute Control of every last thing in the universe including when a bird dies and how many hairs you have on your head. That means that... when Job lost everything it was God who was in control. That means that, when men crash planes into buildings it is GOD who is in control. It is GOD who not only ordained every last thing that comes to pass in life & history but He also actively Controls every last thing that comes to pass and sees to it that it infallibly does come to pass or He ain't God! And that includes the greatest sin in the universe folks; See Acts 2:23 & 4:27,28. Are we in Goshen yet?

Now... the grand mistake that everybody makes including Job's wife who Job rightly called a fool and Job's 3 "friends" is that, based on the truth of God's sovereignty over everything that comes to pass including the greatest sin in the universe, we can tell something of God's present attitude towards us and figure out... what is God "trying to tell us"? ...  by looking at Providential Circumstances or so-called "current events".  The Biblical answer to that question is... Nuttin! Why? Because... there is one and only one place where God is "trying to tell us" something and that one and only place is the BIBLE! Outside of the Bible there is NO WAY that God "speaks" to anybody.
What's strange about all this is that we have legion who claim to hold to one of the great cries of the Reformation... Sola Scriptura... which means the Scriptures Alone are the word of God and the Only place God speaks... all running around telling us that we need to figure out what God is "trying to tell us" by looking at Providential Circumstances... or Current Events and the whole thing is completely unbiblical.  To employ such an unbiblical principle will only result in the same thing that Job's wife & friends ended up doing... when calamity strikes home you will question God and that's wicked.  See Jonah.   See Ps 1:1.

Job

Main Index