February 10 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

The primary purpose of the book of Job is to draw our attention to the power of God’s work in the lives of people He chooses to renew. The LORD will keep His people in the salvation obtained for them. Children of God can persevere in faith because the Lord preserves them.

This book preaches the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ and foreshadows Satan’s ultimate defeat. For the power which makes new people of Job and all the Lord’s children is the power present at Christ's birth, death, resurrection and ascension.

Satan fully expects Job to curse God in the hour of affliction. Job, however, does not curse or charge God with wrong but he worships. In his grief he confesses, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

The devil, however, is relentless. In a second meeting Satan challenges the LORD to go one step further and touch Job’s body to the bone. He argues that if God makes Job suffer as much pain and discomfort as is humanly bearable, he will surely curse God.

Satan’s argument must be totally refuted. For this reason the Lord accepts Satan’s second challenge. Once again the devil sets out to fulfil the test. He infects Job with a painful and loathsome disease. Job’s body is afflicted “with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown” (Job 2:7). Other parts of the book give us some indication as to how bad it was. Job uses fragments of broken pottery from the city’s garbage heap to scratch himself (2:8). He is so hideous, his friends do not recognize him at first (2:12). He can barely eat (3:24); he is infested with worms (7:5); he has difficulty breathing (9:18); and his breath is so bad that his wife does not want to come near him (19:17). His skin is blackened (30:30); he has a continual fever (30:30).

Often in grief believers will try to piece together the events leading up to their loss or illness in the hope of finding answers. They may find the trial incomprehensible but they will not curse God. For the Lord keeps His own. He certainly manifested that in the life of Job, and you and I can live in the assurance that He will do the same in our lives.