May 11, 2025 - Job 1-3

Satan was convinced that Job worshipped God only for what he could get out of God.  Job had wealth, he had healthy children, he had land and livestock, and he had a great reputation, all in a sort of quid pro quo, or exchange of worship given to God in exchange for stuff received from God.   Or so thought Satan.  Satan’s charge proves to be false.  Job genuinely adored God and sought after him, and even when life turned ugly, he refused to turn away from God.  His wife, on the other hand, tried to persuade him to curse God and die (2:9).  Certainly, no one should make light of his wife’s loss. She had lost much of what Job had lost, and it all happened suddenly and, seemingly, in one fell swoop.  She was angry and bitter, and we might understand her feelings.  On the other hand, there are others who have lost as much or more than she did, and who did not turn away from God, rather, to him.  The wise person, in times of trouble, does not walk away from God, but rests in him.

We bear the burden of the day,

and often toil seems dreary;

but labour ends with sunset ray,

and rest comes for the weary:

may we, the angel-reaping o'er,

stand at the last accepted,

Christ's golden sheaves for evermore

to garners bright elected.   -- W. Chatterton Dix (1864)