Icons of the Bible: Job - Tried by Satan, Defended by God
Updated: Sep 25, 2022
Image from Icons of the Bible James Lewis
The Icons of The Bible Series will go through all the people of the Bible in chronological order. I will attempt to provide you focused article and videos that will help you become more familiar with those whom God chose to tell us about in His Holy Scripture. - Andy
The Patience of Job
"Trials are a regular part of the Christian’s experience. Our Christian lives will be marked by physical decline and spiritual opposition. We won’t get a new body until our Lord returns (Phil. 3:21), nor will we be loved by this world as long as we are His (1 John 3:13). But God grants us joy in trials. Our Lord’s brother James gives us guidance on how to seek it.
Remember that your Lord is returning. Just as a farmer waits for fruit in season (James 5:7), you can be sure that the Lord is preparing for you a harvest from your godly suffering. When He returns, you will reap the fruits of your endurance. The reward will be greater than the pain. Regardless of the source or the form of your suffering, your godly endurance will result in an eternal blessing.
Nurture your faith. James says, “Establish your hearts” (5:8). Don’t give in to doubts. Faith is meant to be filled by the Word of God, fed by the Lord’s Supper, buoyed up in corporate worship, and exercised in prayer. Suffering brings the temptation to turn inward and ponder why God has not put you on another path. Resist that temptation; embrace Christ right in the path of suffering. Think less about how long you have been or will be suffering, and more upon Christ who dwells with you in the midst of it.." from the article: The Patience of Job
Who Causes Your Suffering? The Sovereignty of God and Reality of Evil
When suffering comes to us, we naturally — instinctively — want to know what or who has caused it. The answer to that question often affects how we respond to the pain. We focus immediately on the obvious causes. For an illness, we think about what has gone wrong with our body biochemistry. After an accident, we visit and revisit what happened, how it happened and whose fault it was.
“When suffering comes to us, we naturally — instinctively — want to know what or who has caused it.”
When a so-called “natural” disaster strikes, we may think about why people were living where they lived, why the early warnings didn’t work, why the flood defenses were inadequate, and so on. We want to blame somebody or something. And, whether or not we can blame a human agent, behind all that we want to blame God. For God — if there is a God — must have something to do with it all.
After that, we may react with bitterness, recriminations, or resentment. Perhaps these are specific, or maybe we are just left with a residual sense that we have been unfairly treated. At the beginning of the book of Job, Job suffers four terrible tragedies (Job 1:13–19) before losing his health (Job 2:7–8). Two of the four tragedies we might today call “natural disasters” (although the Bible never uses this expression); the other two would perhaps come under the label of “terrorism.”.. from the article: Who Causes Your Suffering?
Job was a Real Person by Matthew Schmidt (First Things)
Or so argues Fr. Ryan Erlenbush in a post at the New Theological Movement
"There is nothing in the description of the figure of Job which would make us think that he was not an historical person. Indeed, though one may hold that the various dialogues and discussions in the book of Job are stylized and that the work is not a word-for-word transcript, we most certainly need not conclude from this that none of the characters (especially Job himself) even existed!
You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is merciful and compassionate. (James 5:11)
Here, the Apostle James calls to mind the example of Job, presenting him as an historical person whose virtue ought to be emulated. Again, he is presented as being a real historical person, not merely a literary invention.
Now this trial the Lord therefore permitted to happen to him, that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, as also of holy Job. [ . . . ]For as the kings insulted over holy Job: so his relations and kinsmen mocked at his life. (Tobit 2:12,15)
This is a citation from the Latin text of Tobit (which was received at the Council of Trent), but the Greek manuscripts which have come down to our day lack these references to Job. In this book, Tobit is compared to Job – and since Tobit was an historical figure, we are led to conclude the same of Job.
And if these three men, Noe, Daniel, and Job, shall be in it: they shall deliver their own souls by their justice, saith the Lord of hosts. (Ezekiel 14:14)
Here, and again in Ezekiel 14:20, Job is mentioned together with Noah and Daniel. Since both of these men are historical, we are led to conclude the same of Job.
The book of Job itself, together with three other biblical books, presents Job as being an historical figure. There is no reason to suppose otherwise."