The Book of Job (Part 6)

The next two questions (Question 7 & 8) that we posed in our first devotional concerning the Book of Job were as follows:

7.  Was God trying to kill, steal, and destroy, or was Satan trying to kill, steal and destroy?

8.  Are the gifts of God without repentance, or are they given and then taken away?

Most people do not even have a clue where some evangelical doctrines come from. I didn’t know where they came from for years and I was an ordained minister. However, once you start really studying the Word of God you start to hear certain scripture verses come up over and over again in sermons and even in contemporary Christian music. These verses sound spiritual, but are they? We have even built certain tenants and doctrines of the church around these particular verses. Many of these verses come straight out of the Book of Job. Let’s look at several of these and see just how they can affect the way we understand God’s character and goodness:

Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. (Job 2:9-10)

Job mistakenly believed that everything (good and evil) came from God. Many Christian churches still believe that today. That type of belief system flies in the face of New Testament scriptures and pollutes, or waters down, the goodness of God.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. (Matthew 7:17-18)

Job goes one step further and says the following:

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. (Job 13:15)

This scripture is a commonly used scripture in some churches to reflect great faith in the midst of trials. It sounds like a great faith statement. There is only one small problem with what Job believed. He believed God was trying to kill him and that is exactly what the enemy wanted him to believe. The truth is that it wasn’t God trying to kill him.  It was Satan. It’s Satan that comes to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10).

How many times have you heard this scripture at funerals, or in contemporary Christian music? It sounds so spiritual!

And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)

The God that I serve is not bipolar. He does not change His mind every time we turn around.

For I the Lord do not change; (Malachi 3:6)

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19, ESV)

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable [for He does not withdraw what He has given, nor does He change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call]. (Romans 11:29, Amplified Bible))

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)

I hope you can see the spiritual warfare at work here. Satan is a liar and a con-man. He knows how to twist certain scriptures to plant doubt in our minds that God is not as good as we think. If he can water down or pollute the goodness of God in our eyes then he has succeeded in planting doubt and that is a huge problem when it comes to believing God for anything.