Job 1:1-2:13

There are four descriptions of Job in the opening chapters: he was blameless, upright, feared God, and turned away from evil.  Job was also incredibly wealthy, being the greatest of the people of the East (which is saying something as the people of the East in general at that time were considered very wise and rather well-to-do).  This juxtaposition led to a very interesting "battle of wits" in Heaven.  Or maybe, even a scientific experiment.

1. Investigator: Satan
2. Overseer/Higher-Up: God
3. Question: What is the motivation for Job's faithfulness/uprightness?
4. Background Research: Job is healthy, wealthy, and wise.  He fears the Lord, and he ain't playin'. (Or is he?)
5. Hypothesis: Job will curse God to His face if you take away God's protection to Job.
6. Test/Experiment: Remove God's protection for Job's wealth and family, only Job's physical being saved.  I.e. All of Job's possession are destroyed or taken, his servants murdered, and his children dead in a freak natural catastrophe.
7. Analysis/Results: Job does not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.  (FAIL)
8. Reevaluate!!: Take away Job's wealth, he'll curse God.  (Fo' sho'!)
9. Test/Experiment: Strike Job's with the following symptoms: inflamed, runny, wormy, scabby sores, itching, degeneration of the face, loss of appetite and strength, constant pain and restlessness, decaying and discolored skin.
10. Analysis/Results: Job does not sin with his lips.
11. Conclusion: Job is upright in that he never curses God to his face.  Experiment proves hypothesis FALSE.

(Never knew the entire scientific method was in the Bible, did you?)

Two things strike me about this passage.

One, the Scriptures do not actually refer to time passage.  After Job is struck with the first calamity, it merely says, "Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord".  We don't know how much time has passed.  How much time, then, might Job have had to mourn and reflect on what has become of him?  Was it just days after that Satan went back before the Lord to accuse him again?  Did it linger into moths, even years, to give him time to grow bitter and curse God?  Did he have time to start healing?  We don't really know.  I rather wonder if it was months between times, long enough for Job to have the tragedy weigh on him a bit, but still enough time when the second calamity strikes, the first one is fresh enough to still sting. 

Second, it says Job "did not sin with his lips."  So, Satan lost, definitely: Job did not curse God to His face as Satan had predicted.  But what about Job's heart?  Was he growing angry and bitter there?  Was he silently stewing, questioning in his mind?  You have to admit, Job had ready answers when his friends came to accuse, er, comfort him.  Or was Job not yet angry?  Did it take the goading of his supposed friends to take him there?  (Some have said that this is the final test of Satan against Job.  We shall see as we read.) We know that eventually there is some bitterness in his heart about what is going on.  God's conversation with Job shows that.  And we'll get to that eventually.  But for now, Wow, Job.  I don't think I would have handled the first calamity as well as you.

Tomorrow's Reading: Job 3:1-26