Job, a prosperous wealthy man of impeccable moral character was a man with whom God had proved to be still His own, no matter how hard his trials were. Satan challenged Job’s goodness, proposing to God to test him since he is only good because of God’s protection. God did agree and removed Job’s protection. Satan removed Job’s wealth, children and health so he would curse God.
Despite his extremely difficult situation, Job did not curse God, but rather cursed the day of his birth. Albeit he protested his plight and sought for an explanation with his 3 friends, he never accused God for the injustice. God then reply to Job with these famous words: “Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you will answer.” Job was overwhelmed and said “I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.” Then Job’s trial was over. He is restored to health and gained more than what he lost in possessions. He lived for another 140 years.
Learning from Job’s experience
Many people are maybe wealthy, but most of them are not godly. Likewise, there are people who suffered much from scarcity and sickness, they blame and sometimes curse God for whatever happened to them. Job’s story helps righteous people to learn to trust God when they go through traumatic experiences, while waiting for Gods resolution for their problems.
Job proved to Satan that not all Christians, stripped of comfortable things, would curse God. Job had shown that his character is not that weak. Later, his three friends visited, comforted and lamented with him. They discussed his calamities and sufferings, not knowing he was put under trial. They were certain that God punished Job for committing a sin, which he vehemently denied.
Many chapters of the book of Job tell us of the wrong accusations of Job’s friends and Job’s many denials. Job enumerated his complaints of life’s inequities and unfairness. Elihu, one of Job’s younger friends recognized Job’s perspective distorted. He asked Job, “Do you think this is right? Do you say, “my righteousness is more than God’s?” (Job 35:2).
Things Job failed to see
Job, so confident of his righteousness and innocence, claimed that God was simply not treating him fairly. For this reason, Job missed the chance to learn the highly-valuable lesson from his trials. Instead of letting God mold him and his patience, he objected on God’s unresponsiveness and failure to acknowledge his being righteous.
Job later realized that he was so blinded by his over confidence that he failed to see God’s fairness... for that he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes. (Job 42:3-6).
Our current situation
No matter how severe the pain is, we should never think that God does not listen or does not care. God wants us to learn beyond what we can presently see. We also learned from Job’s story the following lessons: God can love a wealthy person (we thought He cannot), we can be stripped off our wealth anytime to put our strength of faith under trial, it is possible to surmount even the most terrible test and that God is always there with us though He might be intentionally silent sometimes.
King David’s excellent advice is: "Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!" (Psalm 27:14).
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