Fear God for what?
Read Job 41-42; Acts 16:22-40
Focus on Job 42:7-17
Observation
After all the dialogues between the LORD, Job and his friends, at the conclusion we see the LORD’s doing.
1. The LORD rebuke Job’s friends for giving wrong information concerning God to Job (v. 7)
2. The LORD instructed the three friends to offer burnt offering. (v. 8a)
3. The LORD wanted Job to pray for the three friends. (v. 8b)
4. The LORD restored the fortunes of Job. And it was twice as much as he had before. (v. 10)
5. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. (vv. 11-16)
And concluding statement is “Job died, an old man and full of days.”
Did you notice a prominent figure is missing at this conclusion?
In chapter one, we saw Satan was a prominent figure…
In Job 1:9, Satan questioned God, “Does Job fear God for no reasons?” So God allowed Satan to test Job’s heart for God. And Satan whacked Job real hard! He took Job’s property and children (1:13–22) and attacked Job’s health (2:1-10). 有什么就拿什么！有的打就打大大力！
Where is Satan now at the end of the book? Why not appear at the end and admit he is wrong about Job? Job is tested and he passed the test of “fear of God for no reasons.” He simply fear God because God is God. Though he may not understand why tragic events happened to him, Job still worship God and admit he couldn’t understand the great God fully!
Interpretation
The prominent figure at the beginning did not return at the conclusion. Why? Perhaps the author is telling us,
Satan could do many evil things at the beginning or during certain stages of our life BUT he will never be able to conclude our life! Ultimately, God is the one who concludes our lives beautifully for His glory! God is the judge!
(By the way, don’t think Satan will be that humble to admit he was wrong about Job too)
Application
Baby Sarah is born on the 8 July 2018, 6:33pm at NUH. Both mummy and child are fine. Strong and healthy! And today is Sarah’s day two on earth, and we are already experiencing sleepless night, especially tiring for Emily. We know there are more to come… More challenges for Sarah and for the parents and siblings too! For this is not a perfect world we live in.
The evil ones aims to disturb us… he could bring the challenges of parenting to higher levels… make us frustrated! Make us weak and tired! Make us lose hope and faith! Make us lose passion! And we know from scripture his ultimate aim is to prove that no one actually fears God!
Satan thinks that people simply fear God because they want blessings from God and not really because God is God Almighty Creator! (In some sense this is quite true for some people today.)
Let’s prove Satan wrong! But we don’t just fear God to prove that Satan is wrong.
We really fear God because God is God Almighty! And God is the one who will conclude our life. Not ourselves, not Satan, not anyone else…
Prayer
Dear God, help us to pray like what Job said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
May the the name of the LORD be praised.”
No matter what you give or take away, help us to fear You not for gifts.
Help us fear You because you are our Sovereign God!
In Christ Name, Amen!