Merry Christmas

In Job 1 verse 8, God points the attention of the Accuser towards Job. From this we can see three concepts. One, God notices us. We are not numbers, we are unique individuals made by God, known to God. Second, God knows our hearts and our deeds. We are more than our actions, we are thoughts, beliefs, uncertainties, and God know these things that make us us. Third, God knows outcomes. Our lives are laid out before us as opportunities for failure and success with no way for us to know which comes when, but God knows who we are and how we will struggle through trials.

One of the many “facts” about Job’s story is that he ends up better off from a worldly standpoint than he started before these troubles befell him. There is some of the old “do good to get good” math working in the background to obscure the message of Job, but Job did not hold fast to his integrity to gain more kids or more stuff than he had before. He held fast to his integrity because he revered God and held Him as the highest priority in life. In essence, he wanted to hear God say: “Well done good and faithful servant”, more than he wanted anything in this world. The pain of losing children can never be rewarded away, but even that pales in comparison to the glory of God.

In verse 1:11, one version I read indicated that the Hebrew could be interpreted to show that Satan “prays” that God will strike all of Job’s property. I did not use this term when I complied my verse 11, but it did open up a rabbit trail to chase down.

Whenever my kids ask me to do something, the likeliest outcome is “Can” I do something. I rarely take action and force them to rephrase to either a “May I” do something, “please” or “Will you” do something, “please”. I have run across the term pray in literature something of the format “I pray, ‘George’ will you” do something. I had never really understood the concept of praying to anyone other than God, so I took this to mean they were praying to God that ‘George’ would do something for them. Here I assumed the same kind of phrasing was behind this use of pray in the interaction between Satan and God. As if Satan was asking God to please make Job suffer. Then I wondered if indeed the phrase should be not “pray”, but “please” and that the literature was indicating someone saying please when using “I pray”. (I would hate to think people actually prayed to other people to do something.)  So I am still wondering if this phrase was somehow an indication that Satan actually wanted Job to suffer.

Another aspect of this interaction shows two things. God knows the outcome. He knows Job’s heart and He knows Job will overcome the trials to come. However, Satan does not. Satan assumes that all men are weak, and that Job will fail, just as Adam and Eve fell and everyone else besides Jesus has failed and sinned. Satan has a role to fill in this story with Job, a role to fill in the downfall of world and individuals, but he is only a creation of God and only knows what God wants him to know. Our adversary is powerful, but God is all powerful and comes out on top of any dreams Satan’s pride may give him about Jesus or God bowing before him.

This example of Satan and God interacting is relatively clear here in Job, but when reading the various versions of translations from Hebrew to English, I realized the potential flaw of someone basing doctrines and theology on a single interpretation or version of the Bible. My new study in Peter will be based on a guide I found at my mom’s that flat out says to not limit reference to the Authorized (King James) Version, but to also use the Revised Standard Version to understand the text. The three books I am using about Job specifically are all done by Jewish Clergy who in theory know Hebrew pretty well and know English pretty well. The most scholarly of the three is obviously an expert in many forms of Hebrew and the older languages used in the area Hebrew was spoken as well as an expert on poetry. Their interpretations vary widely, and the differences add great flavor to many of the verses, phrases, and “poetry” being presented by the author of Job.

So, I have caught up with my note highlighting and I wanted to pick up the other aspects of Satan shown in these verses separately before moving on. The verses today spoke to me about knowing someone. God knows us intimately. Satan knows our weaknesses. God has given us His Word in many forms so that we might know Him. I have read the Bible several times, its parts many times. I have studied the Bible and its contents. I have facilitated classes on Bible Study. I have taught from the Bible. But everyday I study it, I find how little I know and how much there is to learn about who God is and what a tremendous love He has for us. I encourage you to do what you can to know Him better.