WHEN ADVERSITY COMES
Job 1:1-21

The confusion associated with adversity and suffering is as old as time itself.   Consider Job.
When we think about bad things happening to good people, Job would be first on the list.   There
is no record in all history of a better person who had worse things happen to him or her.

  1. Job's Piety   1:1

    The book introduces us to a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job.   Uz is believed
    to have been East of Canaan and on the border of Arabia.   It was a place of good farming
    and pasture near to a city.

    Four things are stated about Job's character:

    1. Job was "perfect."   The root of the Hebrew word means "complete" referring to
      spiritual maturity.   Blameless is another word that is synonymous with perfect.   Job
      was not sinless but a complete man in contrast to an incomplete person who might
      have integrity and lack compassion.
    2. Job was "upright."   This means Job was "straightforward."   In other words he was
      not deceitful.   His word was always good and clear.
    3. Job "feared God[.]"   The phrase "feared God" literally means "revered God."   He
      understood the holiness of God and how terrible sin was to a holy God.   Job was not
      afraid of God but knew God was a holy God and righteous in all His ways, as well as
      just.   Prov. 1:7.   Job's fear was a holy respect that led to obedience.
      "The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing
      else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else."         Oswald Chambers
    4. Job "eschewed evil."   In other words, he "shunned evil."   Job "turned away from
      evil."         I Thess. 5:22

  2. Job's Prosperity   1:2-8

    1. Job was blessed with a family.   1:2
      1. He was an ideal father who made-a-to-do over things that were important to his
        children.   1:4
      2. He was not only right with God, but he also wanted his children right with God.
        1:5; Eph. 6:4.
    2. Job was a very wealthy man.   1:3
      1. In ancient times wealth was measured in terms of land, animals and servants, and
        Job had an abundance of all three.
      2. No one in that part of the world was wealthier than Job.   "[S]o that this man was
        the greatest of all the men of the east."           1:3d

  3. Job's Problems   1:9, 10

    1. Satan accuses Job before God of having a weak and superficial faith.   1:9-11
      1. There is a very real devil who tries to destroy everything that is holy and just.

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      1. As Christians, all of us have an enemy who is seeking to devour, literally
        "swallow[,]" us.   I Peter 5:8.
        1. When a lion roars it creates fear and sometimes causes a scared sheep to
          flee from the flock and become easy prey.
        2. In a similar way the devil "roar[s]" through adversity, hoping we will leave
          the flock, drop out of church, and become easy prey.
        3. It is very important that we continue to attend Bible study and worship
          when we hear the devil "roar through adversity," lest we become an easy
          target.
      2. The purpose of Satan is to destroy our faith and discredit the goodness of God.
        1. Satan knew that Job was such a well-known person that if he could shake
          his faith in God, it would weaken the faith of everyone that knew Job.
        2. This is one of the reasons the devil "roar[s]" through adversity in the life of
          the best of people.   (The devil's purpose is to shatter our faith in God to the
          point that others will take note.)
        3. If Satan can get good people to doubt God and become bitter, he can cause
          other people to doubt the goodness and credibility of God.
    1. With God's permission, Satan tries to destroy Job's faith in God.
      1. All of Job's wealth was lost.   1:14-17
      2. While Job was being told of all his material losses, another messenger comes
        with more tragic news - the loss of his children.   1:18, 19
      3. News of these tragedies came on the heels of each other, all on the same day.
      4. The timing of it all was a mystery to Job.
        1. "Truth is always strange; stranger than fiction." Byron
        2. Even fiction could not top the strangeness of what happened to Job.

  1. Job's Prayer   1:20, 21

    One day Job is blessed beyond measure with family and fortune; the next he finds himself
    as desolate as a human can be.   What would be Job's reaction?

    1. "Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground,
      and worshipped,"       1:20.   (Tearing one's clothes and shaving one's hair were common
      gestures of profound grief in Bible times).
      1. Showing his grief and sorrow was not a sign of weakness or spiritual
        immaturity.
      2. It was the natural and beneficial thing for Job to do.   (A tragedy of our modern
        world is the suppression of grief or denial of reality-which is a God- given
        emotional relief valve).
    2. Job prayed, praised the Lord and "sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."   1:21, 22.
      (Much can be learned about Job from his prayer).
      1. Job realized that everything he had came from God.
      2. Job knew the hand who had given it all to him had every right to take it away,
        and if He did take it away Job would still believe in His goodness.
      3. Job's great faith is revealed because in the midst of sorrow and suffering he
        could say, "blessed be the name of the LORD."
        1. Though deprived of family and fortune, Job was praising God instead of
          cursing Him, as Satan had predicted.

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        1. Job was not praising God for what he had lost, but for God allowing him to
          have it in the first place.
      1. Another lesson to learn from Job is that one cannot prepare for adversity after it
        comes.   Prov. 24:10
        1. The real strength of our faith is revealed when the vicious storms and
          tornadoes of life hit us.   Jer. 12:5

If you are barely able to handle the routine problems of life, what are you going to do when a
violent "roar" of the evil one comes?

There was a time years ago when the countertops in banks were made of marble so as to detect
counterfeit coins.   A banker could tell if a coin was real or counterfeit by the ring it made when it
hit the marble.

God allowed Satan to give Job a few hits to see how he would "ring."   Was Job real or not?   The
"rings" from Job's life when hit with adversity would reveal the quality and genuineness of his
faith in God.

When you take some serious hits in life, how does your faith "ring?"   How can you prepare for the
hard hits of life?   List two things you can do to be better prepared for the adversities of life.
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