Trials and Tribulations

Trials and Tribulations

Job 1:6-12 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

I’d like to look at Job today. I realize that we could study the entire book and spend months on it and still not get everything out of it, but for today I want to just focus on another reason we go through trials and tribulations as believers.

In the beginning of the book we see that we are in a courtroom type scene in heaven. God has called the Angels and Satan to come and give an accounting of themselves. Often people seem to think that Satan is already in hell, but he isn’t. Even now he roams the earth and comes before God regularly to accuse us. Jesus called Satan our accuser, and He Himself is our advocate. Satan isn’t thrown out of heaven and bound until after the Tribulation.

Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

This verse in Revelation shows us that rather then being unusual, it’s quite normal for Satan to be accusing us before God, and this is exactly what Satan was doing when he made the accusations against Job.

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Note in the above verse that we are told that Satan is always looking for someone, a believer, to accuse and harass. However, we can know for sure from the passage in Job that he cannot harass any of us without God’s express permission. Therefore it’s God’s Will being done, not Satan’s! Another thing the above verse points out is that when Satan is allowed to test us, it causes us trials and tribulations. It causes us to “suffer”.

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

This is a verse we often don’t think of when we are undergoing a trial, but I wanted to point out that even Jesus was tested by Satan! We certainly aren’t any better then He is so I don’t think we can exclude ourselves based on that. Jesus set an example for us to follow with His life. As we’ve discussed before, He warned us that we would have trials and that we needed to expect them.

Luke 9:23-24 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

Luke 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

I’ve included the next verse just so you can see for sure that Jesus, who is God, is our advocate. And advocate is like a lawyer, he argues your case for you and declares your innocence. This is what God was doing for Job in the opening passages today and it’s what Jesus does for us every time Satan accuses us before Him. The main difference now is that Jesus has paid the price for our sins so even when we’re guilty of what Satan accuses us of, Jesus can declare that the price has already been paid for us.

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

In the opening passage we are told that Job was blameless and upright. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t ever sin, but rather that Satan and sin didn’t dominate him like it did most people.

What we’ve seen so far from this is that God tests our faith to be sure it’s real. He already knows if it’s real or not of course, but He knows that this is something we need to know so we can continue to grow. When we are tested for this reason as Job was, we learn just how real our faith is, and how real our God is. We learn what is usually called “the fear of the Lord” from these tests. Notice one other thing about this kind of test though:

Job 1:12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

God never gives Satan a free hand-instead He limits Satan. Further along in this book we’ll see that God lifts this limit but imposes another limit, again not giving Satan a free hand. This shows us that it is God who is always in control of everything, even when Satan is being allowed to test us. Nor does God just sit idly by while we are being tested. Remember when Jesus told Peter that he would be tested?

Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Again in the above verse we see that Satan had to ask first. We also see that God’s purpose for allowing this was to strengthen Peter’s faith and that to help Peter, Jesus prayed for him. Jesus does this for each of us as well. He didn’t pray for Peter just because He happened to know him while He was on the earth, but because Peter was saved and a part of His body just as we are.

Romans 8:34….. Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

No, the Lord isn’t sitting idly by while we struggle and suffer. He is right there beside us lending us His strength, guiding us and praying for us. His purpose isn’t to hurt us, but to grow us up to be more like Him and to fortify us against future troubles. (very much like an immunization injection fortifies us against future diseases) This verse from Exodus shows us this:

Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

We’ve talked before about how important the “fear of the Lord” is and what that means, so I won’t address that here. Here is a link to that topic if you’d like to review it though:

The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning of Wisdom

As a last thought I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite verses that describes what having that kind of faith and fear of the Lord is like:

Daniel 3:17-18 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

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