Job 2:1-13
2:1-2 Satan presented himself before God once again after throwing Job's life into chaos.
2:3 Job had evidenced that his respect for God was true; despite wrongly attributing his suffering to Him, Job refused to curse God. Also note that God confirmed Satan torment Job without cause. Job was innocent; God does not punish innocent people.
2:4-5 Satan refused to see Job's response as faithful allegiance. The rogue and evil angel felt that if Job were persecuted even more, he would break his covenant with God. There are many people, fears, and temptations in life that will try to burden your relationship with God until it breaks. Do not let it break.
2:6 God allowed Satan to continue his experiment but did not give Satan permission to kill Job. Whether this story is literal or figurative, it was written for our benefit. It was written so that we would understand that certain elements and seasons of life would challenge our relationship with God. Doubt and fear and loss all work experiments on us to see if we will break. We must insist that our bond with God is unbreakable and He will see us through.
2:7 Satan struck Job's body with boils.
2:8-9 At this point, Job became pitiable and even pathetic to his wife and friends. His wife did not understood why he clung to his trust and respect for God. Again Job faced persecuted from an unexpected source. The people in our lives will not always understand our commitment to faith; they will not always understand our source of hope or courage but we cannot allow their opinion to threaten our relationship with God.
2:10 Job felt his wife was reacting foolishly. To him it remained illogical that he would curse God. God had blessed Job with so much and Job would not forget that. Although very much opposed to the circumstances of his life, his relationship with God was not conditional. Job knew that God had freely blessed him and he remained grateful, even though all of those blessings had gone away.
2:11 Three of Job's friends heard about his plight and desperation. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar traveled together to meet with Job. His friends meant well, but Job did not benefit from their visit.
2:12-13 When they arrived they did not recognize their friend; Job was so changed from his days of glory. They mourned for him. At first, they did not have any words for him. In the next chapters, however, we will see that they had far too many words and far too few truths to speak to their friend.
Support systems are wonderful but ultimately, God should be our support system. Even well-meaning people can lead us astray.
