Gods Sabbath

C HAPTER 22

The Life of Job

A prayer-filled careful reading of Job 1:1–2:13 can help to deepen the understanding of this chapter. T here was an occasion when Satan, as the prince of this world, presented himself at a council meeting of the sons of God (see Job 1:6). Jehovah invited Satan to explain how Job’s perfect obedience fitted in with his claim that the law could not be kept by created beings under every circumstance. Job’s life actually demonstrated the falsity of Satan’s claims, for if one man housed in fallen, sinful, mortal flesh could obey the law to perfection, then others could do so too. And if fallen mortals could keep God’s law, then the untainted inhabitants of the uni verse definitely had no excuse for rebellion. Above all, Satan’s own course was particularly condemned by the righteousness of Job. The faithful patriarch was serving God under conditions far more difficult than those experienced by dwellers in the sinless realms. Daily harassed by temptations and handicapped by weak, fallen, sinful, mortal flesh, Job con tinually witnessed to the certainty that God’s law was made for the blessing and protection of all His creatures. Thus it was in love for Satan that God addressed him with the words:

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