Gods Sabbath

T HE L IFE OF J OB

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“‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the L ORD , ‘From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.’ Then the L ORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and up right, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’” Job 1:7–8. Job’s faithful obedience provided God with a powerful argu ment to use in His loving appeal to Satan to surrender his pride and self-will. Therefore, when God directed Satan to consider Job’s obedience, He was asking him what further proof he need ed to end the controversy. Making no attempt to deny the fact that Job was obedient, Sa tan falsely attributed evil motives to him. “‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’” Job 1:9–11. Here, Satan spelled out his position precisely—that the divine law can be kept only under limited circumstances. Satan argued that, favored by prosperity and protection, Job could keep God’s commandments, but if those conditions were changed to adver sity and suffering, Job would reveal his wickedness. This is the message so often promoted through works of fiction where the good obey the law only until they believe it must be broken in or der to destroy the evildoers. As the controversy over Job waxed hotter, Satan clarified his stand still further through his spokesmen, Eliphaz the Temanite and his friends. “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice ....” Job 4:12–16. The Real Accusation