Job Chapters 1-4

1:1 - This statement sets the stage for the book - Job is a faithful follower of God. There is much discussion from Satan and Job's friends about his righteousness...but the audience knows from the very beginning that Job loves God and runs from evil.

1:5 - I think it is really interesting that Job fears that his children may be turning away from God in the midst of their celebrations. You would think that they would be very thankful to God that they are able to regularly party together, but this isn't always the case in reality. How many times have we experienced times of great success where we begin to pull away from God thinking we do not need him?

Satan = adversary

1:8- I love that God takes great pride in His children when they faithfully follow him. I picture the proud father regaling anyone around with stories of His children. It excites me that God is interested in what His people are doing, and challenges me to honor Hm even more.

1:20 - This blows my mind!!! After everything is taken from him - all his possessions - his children are dead...Job falls down on his face and worships the Lord. What an example! Am I mature enough in my faith to worship God with everything I have when my world is falling apart?

2:3 - Clearly Satan is powerless before God. He cannot even touch the people of God without God's permission. So we can take heart in the fact that the hard things we go through are part of God's plan.

2:9 - Man, if only my wife could be this supportive! We need to understand that Job's wife is also dealing with the loss of everything she knows and her children - so that may be driving some of the bitterness in her advice to Job, but this tells us that Job is truly alone from a human standpoint.

2:10 - This is a great and challenging question from Job...how can we readily accept the good things from God, and then turn away from Him when bad things come?

2:13 - The friends actually start out very well...they just come a sit shiva with Job. Sitting shiva was a Jewish tradition of coming into the presence of someone who had been through tragedy and just sitting silently n their presence. It sends a message that we are here with you...we hurt with you...and we know you don't want a bunch of solutions right now...we are going to be here when you are ready to talk. When these guys keep their mouths closed, they are actually really good friends.

3:13 - This gives us a picture of an ancient view on the after life. Job believed that after death people found themselves in a place of rest with men and women from every station in life. Pretty similar to pictures we get of heaven we find later in the scriptures.

4:7 - We see an ancient theological belief here that is hard for present day Christians to understand. This men believe that bad things only happen to people who are rebellious against God and sinful. We would say innocent people die all the time - babies in child birth, young children to starvation, etc. These men would say that these things happened because of sins passed down through the family. Their theology was that God punished sinners - period.

4:12-21 - He is actually echoing sentiments from the New Testament of the bible...Paul tells us that no one is good - not even one. Job's friend is right in one regard (That no man can be right before God), but he is wrong in another. True, no one is good, but it is not Job's sin that brought on these horrors...it is actually Job's righteousness that brought about the pain he is going through.