I. INTRODUCTION

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• Job was a man who lived in the land of Uz (Job 1)

• God was pleased with him, because he was a righteous man in God’s sight (Job 1:1).

• He was very blessed as he had 7 sons and 3 daughters.

• Also, he was wealthy for his time, because he had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 5,000 oxen, 500 donkeys, and a lot of servants (Job 1:2-3).

• Job’s family had a tradition.

• His sons would hold birthday feasts in their homes and invite their sisters to celebrate (Job 1:4-5).

• After the feasts, Job wanted to make sure they were right in God’s eyes, because his children may have sinned or thought something evil about God.

• So, Job had his children purified and would offer an animal sacrifice to God for their sins.

• Also, notice that Job was a worshipper of God in the good days of his life (Coffman, n.d.).

• In other words, we must continue to believe and obey God when things are going well in our lives and not just during bad times.

• God wants us to stay loyal to Him at all times (Revelation 2:10).

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II. GOD GIVES SATAN PERMISSION TO TEST JOB

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• Moving on, we see Satan talking to God (Job 1:6-12).

• God allows Satan to test Job.

• Satan is confident that he can get Job to curse, which means say something evil, about God.

• He believes that Job is only faithful to God, because the Lord continues to bless him!

• God gives the devil permission to test job by allowing him to take away everything Job has, but not hurt his body in the process.

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III. DISASTER STRIKES JOB

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• Unfortunately, Satan’s work against job was really harsh.

• First, the devil sent the Sabeans.

• These cruel men killed Job's servants who were watching his animals in the field.

• They then took the donkeys and oxen away with them (Job 1:13-15).

• Second, even more disaster struck Job.

• Fire from the sky fell upon the farm.

• This fire burned up all the sheep and the servants who were watching them (Job 1:16).

• Third, we find that the disaster the devil was bringing into Job’s life was not finished.

• The Bible says that the Chaldeans came in 3 raiding parties to Job’s farm.

• They killed the servants that were tending the camels.

• Unfortunately, the Chaldeans stole all of the camels (Job 1:17).

• Fourth, the devil created a horrible, heart-breaking situation for Job.

• A wind came and collapsed the roof of the house where all of Job’s children were feasting together.

• The roof collapse killed all of Job’s children that day (Job 1:18-19).

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IV. JOB STAYS FAITHFUL TO GOD ANYWAY

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• All of these disasters happened to Job on the same day!

• However, Job still worshipped God, praised Him, and did not sin by cursing God in anyway (Job 1:20-22).

• Job is a good example for us, because we will have some bad days, but this does not mean God has abandoned us.

• What you will find out like Job will later on is that God will make things better with time.

• So keep believing and obey God even when bad things happen, because it is just a matter of time, before God makes things better.

• We may never understand why God allows some things to happen, but we do know that God can be trusted!

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V. SATAN AFFLICTS JOB'S BODY

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• In the past, Satan had taken away Job’s riches and killed his children (Job 2).

• However, Job stayed faithful to God and did not curse God as the devil wanted him to do.

• So, Job successfully passed Satan’s test.

• Remember, this is what we must do.

• The devil will cause a lot of havoc in our lives, but we must stay faithful to God no matter what!

• However, we must understand that just because we have beaten Satan in the past does not mean he will not try to do more ugly things to us to try to get us to hate and disobey God.

• This happened to Job.

• Satan came back to God looking for another opportunity to test Job and make poor Job curse God.

• So, Satan wanted the Lord to grant him the permission to cause pain and suffering in Job’s body.

• He was thinking that if one hurts enough, he would surely curse God.

• God gave the devil permission to cause Job to suffer, but would not let the devil kill Job (Job 2:1-5).

• So, Satan made Job suffer with sores from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head (Job 2:6-13).

• Poor Job’s wife saw all of his suffering and offered some really bad advice.

• She told Job to curse God and die.

• However, Job would not listen to her and kept his faithfulness to God!

• He would not curse God no matter what.

• He was loyal to God as an example we should follow.

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VI. JOB'S FRIENDS COME TO COMFORT HIM

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• After Job’s friends heard about his suffering, they set off on a journey to come spend time with their friend and to comfort him.

• Their names were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

• Job’s body was so afflicted with the sores that from a distance, they could not even recognize their friend!

• They cried because they felt sorry for Job.

• When they had a chance to be with Job, they just sat down on the ground with him for 7 days and 7 nights without saying a word to him.

• One good thing that we learn from Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar is that God wants us to be caring people one for another.

• We are to visit each other when we need each other (Matthew 25:31-46).

• Also, we are to pray with each other when we are in need and if there is anything we can do as far as giving to others, we should do that to (James 1:27; 5:15-16).

• The point is to make other Christians as happy and comfortable as possible when they are hurting in any way.

• This is the Christian way and the level of compassion we are supposed to have for each other (Galatians 6:10).

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VII. JOB WISHES HE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN

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• Unfortunately, all of Job’s suffering made him very sad (Job 3).

• He even wished he had not been born.

• He even wanted to die (Job 6:9).

• Job was in a deep depression.

• Sometimes, when we suffer, we become just like Job.

• We are not happy and nothing seems to go right for us.

• However, we must understand that there are ways we can cheer ourselves up.

• When you are a Christian, God wants you to pray to Him, because this is when God will send you peace.

• In other words, He will calm you down so that you feel better (Philippians 4:6-7).

• Also, remember that God can change things at any time, because nothing is impossible for Him to do (Luke 1:37).

• So, you have to wait until God decides to change things, because He will change them for the better, which Job will find out later on in the story.

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VIII. JOB'S FRIENDS ACCUSE HIM OF WRONGDOING

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• To make Job’s troubles even worse, instead of comforting Job, his friends accused him of living in a wicked way and this has caused his suffering (Job 4-32).

• They were completely wrong.

• This teaches us to not accuse people of doing wrong when we do not have the facts.

• We call this jumping to conclusions and it causes us to lie on innocent people.

• If you did not witness something for yourself or a person has not confessed to doing wrong, then do not accuse him or her of being evil.

• We must realize that bad things do happen to good people and this was Job’s case.

• So, do not listen to all of the gossip that people bring to you. 

• It is often lies anyway even if a lot of people are saying the same thing.

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IX. JOB QUESTIONS GOD AND HE RESPONDS

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• In Job chapter 38, God answers Job’s questioning of His wisdom. 

• Job 38:2 is very important for our understanding as Christians and reads according to the New Living Translation, “ . . . Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?” 

• Job did not think God was being fair with him.

• God then questions Job about his knowledge of the creation of the world and how He keeps it going every day (Job 38-39).

• This shows us that whatever God allows us to go through is a part of His Divine plan for our lives. 

• Instead of thinking that we are being unfairly targeted by God, let’s think positively about the situation. 

• We have to think in a manner such as the following, “I do not know why I am going through this, but I realize that there is a purpose that God has in mind that I cannot see right now. I will trust in Him until the end!” 

• Please do not abandon God in your suffering. 

• It is always about God’s Will being done and not our own (Luke 22:42). 

• Some things we will never understand and that is where we have to have blind trust, which is another way of saying that we must have faith (Hebrews 11:6).

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X. JOB AND HIS FRIENDS REPENT

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• After God spoke to Job and challenged Job’s wisdom, Job could not answer even one of God’s questions.

• This made Job repent of his questioning God’s wisdom, which means Job stopped thinking that the Lord was not fair (Job 40; 42). 

• Job humbled himself as an example of what we are to do.

• In other words, He started thinking like a servant instead of a know-it-all like we are supposed to do.

• This shows us that our opinions must be thrown out when God’s Word speaks to us and tells us differently (2 Timothy 3:16-17). 

• What is interesting is that Job was forgiven by God after repenting (i.e. after changing) and confessing his fault to God as we are to be forgiven today through repentance, confession and prayer (Job 42:1-6: Acts 8:22; 1 John 1:9). 

• God also disciplined Job’s friends for saying false things about how God was punishing Job when He was not punishing him at all.

• In other words, the friends had sinned, because they lied on God.

• God had Job offer a sacrifice for their sins so they would be forgiven as well (Job 42)!

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XI. JOB IS BLESSED WITH TWICE AS MUCH AS HE LOST

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• ​Lastly, Job was blessed more materialistically than before his suffering, was healed, and was blessed with the birth of many children after the death of his family back in Job chapter 1 and 2 (Job 42).