These verses tell about Satan's first attacks on Job:
Job 2:7-10 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Did you notice that part I underlined? Now if someone were to suggest today that the Lord was responsible in some way for our troubles, I hate to think what others would say! Yet here there is no debate about it. Job says in no uncertain terms that God gave him all the good things he had and that he knew that God had allowed them to be taken from him. We don't like to think such things though because to us now, it makes it seem that God isn't "good" because He let's bad things happen to us. Let's look at what happens to him next and how he reacts:
Job 1:13-19 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
Can you imagine if similar things had happened to any of us today how we would respond to them? Wars, raids, fire and hurricanes..no one today would suggest aloud that God had allowed those kind of things would they?
Now, notice the very next verse:
Job 1:20-22 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and 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 name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Once again there is no doubt in Job's mind that God is in control so He has therefore allowed this evil to befall him. Job doesn't sin because he doesn't try and say that God was wrong or bad to allow these things to happen.
What's interesting to me is that for the most part when people today suggest that God either caused something bad to happen or allowed it to happen, that they are labeled as being superstitious. Yet, if we really believe that God is in control, then how can we say that anything can happen without His knowledge and without Him at the very least allowing it? We can't. He either is in control or He's not. He either is all powerful or He isn't. It can't be both ways.
I think perhaps in trying to make God more palatable to the unsaved, the church stopped preaching about how God does discipline, punish, test and prunes us. Instead they focused on how God is love and left out the other part. So we forgot that while He does love us, He also has expectations of us and will discipline us when we don't meet those expectations. The world has taught us a very corrupted definition of love too which doesn't help either. We need to remember that God is not some mushy, tolerant, "give them anything they want" God. He is instead, just, righteous, holy, impartial, jealous, omnipresent, omniscient, powerful, mighty, glorious, majestic, merciful, loving, fearful, perfect and awesome God, that will not share His glory with anyone.
The more I study on the subject of the fear of God, the more certain I am that it's something we would all be wise to develop! Look at just this one verse and how it says that the fear of God will help us. (I'm going to show it in two different versions)
2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Personally, I think using the "fear of God" has more impact then "reverence for God". Mainly because today, people really don't understand reverence very well either.
7:1 These promises that God will dwell among us, receive us, and be our Father (6:16-18) should motivate us to holiness, as should the proper fear of God. See 5:10, 11; 1 John 3:1-3.
Spirit filled life study Bible. 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
1 John 3:1-3 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Some people are beginning to see that God is beginning to judge the earth even now, yet what makes us think that He ever stopped?
You know, it's easy to say that judgment has begun because of the evil people and the unsaved, but we forget that the bible says the judgment begins with us who are saved. That alone is enough for me to want to cultivate the fear of God in myself! I don't really think we can do it ourselves though. Oh we can certainly try and we should, but I think in order to fully know the fear of God, that it's something the Lord Himself has to help us with....
