Published by So you think you have troubles, well the man Job in the Bible had more than his share. When he thought life was sailing along just fine, he lost his lifeline and his boat began to sink fast.
He believed in god, the Almighty, through it all. It is said that Job was “tested” and the book of Job verifies it.
The book is one of the Books of Poetry contained in the Bible. Job is a poem, and according to Alfred Tennyson, is the greatest poem ever written.
The time that this is written is when the partriarchs lived and ruled. It is one of the oldest books of the Bible. It is confirmed, through the prophet Ezekiel, that Job was indeed a real person.
As stated above, he had it all, sheep, possessions, a wonderful family of ten children, until God allowed Satan to tempt Job by destroying his prized possessions. Satan thought that once he had lost his worldly possessions that he would resort to despair and lose his faith in God. Even Job’s wife felt this way, and chided Job to give it up.
This story relates that the Godly sometimes suffer that they may see themselves first. God has a wise purpose in allowing suffering, even to those who live a good life. He wants all to achieve a patient spirit, a resolve to accept suffering as part of the trials of human life, and never to despair to the point of turning away from the Master. Job obtained all of these qualities, throughout his laments. It is a reminder that God’s only Son suffered on the cross. Here the most righteous man, Jesus Christ, suffered for the consequences of sin. This was sin that he never committed.
In Job his friends felt that his suffering was God’s punishment for him. His friends, judging him, felt that he must have sinned greatly to lose all of his personal possessions, including his family. It is further explained in the book, that God tested him, but Job knew that he could accept their accusations because He trusted God to provide for him.
Through his sufering, he learned that God developed in Job, preserverance in struggles, trust in Him, and a desire to glorify God even through insurmontable problems in life.
Job’s untiring belief, through all of his trials, was that he would see God in the end.
