Job 1
The Bible mentions that Job is not your ordinary ok kind of guy, Job feared God (I prefer to say respected and lived his life to please God) and shunned all evil. Job was one of the richest and most influential men in the East where he lived in the land of Uz. (Not to be confused with Oz!)
Job had 7 sons and 3 daughters, owned 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys, and a lot of servants to look after his affairs, Quite what he did with all these is not explored in the Bible text.
His sons were in the habbit of having birthday parties at their respective houses and Job would off a sacrifice to God when they did this just in case somebody did something wrong and they cursed God.
The story now takes a slightly different turn - Angels are presenting themselves before God when Satan turned up in the presence of God.
"Where have you come from?" Demanded God
"From roaming through the earth, going to and fro" replied Satan
God then said "have you considered my servant Job? he is a good man who respects me and shuns evil"
Reading between the lines, Job is a good chap and you will not corrupt him.
Satan explained that God has been protecting Job and his possessions, and that if Job loses all his riches and possessions then he will surely curse God
"Ok says God, you may take all he has but you cannot touch Job himself"
So Satan left the presence of God and set out to ruin Job's life.
First a message comes "your oxen were at work ploughing and the donkeys grazing near by when Sabean raiders came along and stole 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys and killed all the servants that were working with them, only 1 servant escaped and told Job
Hot on his heels another message came "Fire from the sky has killed all your sheep and servants, only I made it away to tell you
While he was finishing a third messanger ran up "Chaldean raiders have attacked and stolen your camels, killing all the others, I'm the only one that got away.
Then comes the final messenger, your children were at your eldest sons house and a sudden wind came off the desert and the house has collapsed killing everybody in it, only I escaped the carnage.
On hearing this Job tore his robes and cut off his hair and said "naked I came into this world, naked I will depart, the LORD gives and the LORD takes away, may the name of the LORD be praised"
Job did not sin be charging God with doing anything wrong.
One of the series of books I rather enjoyed growing up was the Dr Syn books by Russell Thondike.
In the books Dr Syn is an English clergyman in the late 18th century and he married a beautiful Spanish woman. His wife could not settle for life in the mist and fogs of England and ran away with Dr Syn's best friend. when Christopher Syn read his wife's note he misquoted Job - the lord giveth and the lord taketh away, cursed be the name of the lord.
Dr Chrisopher Syn I believe lost his faith at that moment and he became an extremely bloodthirsty pirate, then a smuggler on his return to England, eventually coming to a sticky end when the truth came out.
Part of the reason for me thinking of this book is that I am visiting the town where I went to school, Rye in East Sussex, and Dr Syn was vicar of Dymchurch just along the coast, and in several books visited Rye, staying at the Mermaid and preaching at the church and visiting his enemies (In fact his former best friend) in the prison to persuade him to claim Dr Syn's old pirate identity since his enemy was due for execution he saw the opportunity to protect his own past.
I hope that nothing happens to me to put me to that kind of test, but if it did I hope I would be more like Job than Dr Syn.
I'm not sure if there are morals to this chapter? Perhaps there are - God does not do anything to hurt Job, Satan asked for permission to do this, and God set a limit on the hurt Satan could inflict.
One thing is certain, Job has literally lost everything in the space of a day and he is not very happy about it.
The Bible mentions that Job is not your ordinary ok kind of guy, Job feared God (I prefer to say respected and lived his life to please God) and shunned all evil. Job was one of the richest and most influential men in the East where he lived in the land of Uz. (Not to be confused with Oz!)
Job had 7 sons and 3 daughters, owned 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys, and a lot of servants to look after his affairs, Quite what he did with all these is not explored in the Bible text.
His sons were in the habbit of having birthday parties at their respective houses and Job would off a sacrifice to God when they did this just in case somebody did something wrong and they cursed God.
The story now takes a slightly different turn - Angels are presenting themselves before God when Satan turned up in the presence of God.
"Where have you come from?" Demanded God
"From roaming through the earth, going to and fro" replied Satan
God then said "have you considered my servant Job? he is a good man who respects me and shuns evil"
Reading between the lines, Job is a good chap and you will not corrupt him.
Satan explained that God has been protecting Job and his possessions, and that if Job loses all his riches and possessions then he will surely curse God
"Ok says God, you may take all he has but you cannot touch Job himself"
So Satan left the presence of God and set out to ruin Job's life.
First a message comes "your oxen were at work ploughing and the donkeys grazing near by when Sabean raiders came along and stole 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys and killed all the servants that were working with them, only 1 servant escaped and told Job
Hot on his heels another message came "Fire from the sky has killed all your sheep and servants, only I made it away to tell you
While he was finishing a third messanger ran up "Chaldean raiders have attacked and stolen your camels, killing all the others, I'm the only one that got away.
Then comes the final messenger, your children were at your eldest sons house and a sudden wind came off the desert and the house has collapsed killing everybody in it, only I escaped the carnage.
On hearing this Job tore his robes and cut off his hair and said "naked I came into this world, naked I will depart, the LORD gives and the LORD takes away, may the name of the LORD be praised"
Job did not sin be charging God with doing anything wrong.
One of the series of books I rather enjoyed growing up was the Dr Syn books by Russell Thondike.
In the books Dr Syn is an English clergyman in the late 18th century and he married a beautiful Spanish woman. His wife could not settle for life in the mist and fogs of England and ran away with Dr Syn's best friend. when Christopher Syn read his wife's note he misquoted Job - the lord giveth and the lord taketh away, cursed be the name of the lord.
Dr Chrisopher Syn I believe lost his faith at that moment and he became an extremely bloodthirsty pirate, then a smuggler on his return to England, eventually coming to a sticky end when the truth came out.
Part of the reason for me thinking of this book is that I am visiting the town where I went to school, Rye in East Sussex, and Dr Syn was vicar of Dymchurch just along the coast, and in several books visited Rye, staying at the Mermaid and preaching at the church and visiting his enemies (In fact his former best friend) in the prison to persuade him to claim Dr Syn's old pirate identity since his enemy was due for execution he saw the opportunity to protect his own past.
I hope that nothing happens to me to put me to that kind of test, but if it did I hope I would be more like Job than Dr Syn.
I'm not sure if there are morals to this chapter? Perhaps there are - God does not do anything to hurt Job, Satan asked for permission to do this, and God set a limit on the hurt Satan could inflict.
One thing is certain, Job has literally lost everything in the space of a day and he is not very happy about it.
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