Job: Trial 2

You think Job's trial was too hard to endure? Well, God knew that Job was righteous enough to endure even more. God knew that Job was strong enough to remain faithful.

The last post that I wrote had to do with the first trial that Job went through. The first trial that Satan put Job through was taking away everything he owns. Job was faithful enough to know that God was still worthy to be worshipped. The second trial that Satan put Job through was attacking Job’s health.

“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.” (Job 2:7-8)

Ouch. Literally and figuratively. The pain that Satan forced Job to suffer through was too strong for even his friends and family to handle. Not only did Job have to suffer through the pain of losing everything he owned (including his family), but he had to endure pain that was too hard for anybody around him to accept the extremeness of. In chapter 2 verse 12, it is written that Job was covered in so many boils and scrapes that they couldn’t even recognize him.

Not only was more pressure put on Job in the sense of health problems taken to an overly extreme extent, but he also had to deal with his friends and family trying to turn him against God. Satan had pushed things to an extent where Job finally started to curse the day he was born.

Think about that. Job was in so much stress and feeling so hopeless that he couldn’t prevent himself from complaining about having ever been born in the first place. Job wasn’t cursing God. Job was cursing his birth. I’d say that takes quite a lot of faith on it’s own. His reaction to wanting to complain didn’t start off by complaining about God, but rather his birth. Despite the hopelessness that Job was going through, there was still a portion of him that knew that God did not deserve to be cursed about.

One thing that God clearly was a part of was that God had prepared Job and helped Job’s faith to grow to such a righteous extent. Another thing that comes into my mind here though is chapter 2 verse 6. That verse says, “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behonld, he is in your hand, but spare his life’”. The reason I want to point that verse out is because I believe it helps us to realize that God did still put limitations on what Satan could do. God obviously knew that Satan didn’t want to spare his life, so God made sure that Satan wouldn’t do to him what he couldn’t handle.

That’s something that I think would be good to think about. No matter how hard life is, God is always a part of it in a great way. No matter how much things may seem like they are getting out of control, God will never let Satan be in full control. Finally, God won’t let us be tempted or hurt beyond what we can bear. If you go through something really hard that feels just feels like too much to bear, know that God has always known that you were gonna go through something that hard. If you go through something really hard, God knew you could handle it. He won’t force things to go beyond what you can handle. Use the hard moments in life to realize just how strong God has made you.