Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.
– Satan to God (Job 2:4-5)
Do you ever wonder where God is when something bad happens to you? Does it feel like God doesn’t see what’s happening—or doesn’t care?
In one of the most fascinating reads in the Bible, the book of Job pulls back the veil on heaven to reveal a jaw-dropping discussion between God and Satan. The first two chapters alone tell us a lot about that other world beyond our natural senses. It says even more about the intimate way God orchestrates events in our lives. This revelation can help us understand and accept what we experience on this side of heaven. From these chapters we learn:
Satan still has access to God.
- The “sons of God” evidently came regularly to “present themselves” to God. Satan, the record says, came among them. God doesn’t seem to be surprised at his presence. This explains Revelation 12:10, in which Satan is called “the accuser of our brethren,” who “accuses them before our God day and night.”
Satan doesn’t sit around in hell awaiting souls to torture.
- He tells God he has been roaming about on the earth. This corresponds with 1 Peter 5:8, which tells us Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
God is the one who initiates the conversation with the devil about Job.
- This is our reminder nothing happens outside the knowledge of God. Romans 8:28 tells us all things work for good for those who love the Lord. God had a higher plan for Job and a message to all humanity through Job’s life. This was to be accomplished through Job’s suffering. The plan was God’s. The means was the devil.
Job’s trials had nothing to do with his sin.
- He was a righteous (though not perfect) man who served God in every way possible. He even offered sacrifices for his children in case they sinned. His life as a husband, father, and man of God was beyond reproach. God was not punishing him.
Satan accused Job of only serving God to get favor from Him.
- God allowed Job to be afflicted to prove Satan’s accusations wrong. In the rest of the book of Job, we discover Job ended up healed and restored. In the process, his eyes were opened to a new understanding of the God he served.
You may be going through terrible physical or emotional suffering today. As you pray, the silence from heaven is deafening. You’re sure God has totally forsaken you. You can’t possibly see what He is doing, or what you did to deserve it.
Take some time and read about Job, the man who proved Satan wrong.
I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
I have heard you by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.
– Job 42:3, 5-6
