Monday 26 Sep 2022

September 26: Job 1:6-22

Key Verse: Job 1:12
The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Devotion:
How many times have you read through these verses and thought “how could God allow Satan to ruin Job’s life!” Well, let us look at the question you probably ask and split it into two parts: 1) God allows Satan free will 2) Satan chooses to ruin Job’s life!

This book is a book about how Satan has free choice to do what he wills. The same free choice each one of us has in our lives – the choice to do what we will. Most of us will choose to follow the law and will not do bad things, but there are a few who choose to do bad things. Satan chose to do bad things, but he did not just choose to go and steal something or tell lies, he chose to ruin Job’s life by killing his servants, his livestock and then his family! Most of us could not imagine the hatred in anyone's heart to be able to do that to another person!

God did not have one rule for the angels and one rule for mankind. Whilst the angels had power to do all manner of things, God still allowed them free choice to do things in their lives. This free choice does have consequences, just as the free choice in our lives has consequences. If we choose to go off and do bad things, then we should expect the consequences to be severe.

We brought nothing into this world apart from a built in knowledge of God. We have the choice as to whether we turn our backs on this knowledge and follow the ways of the world, or whether we turn toward this knowledge and invite God to be a bigger part of our lives just as Job did. If we choose to have God at the centre of our lives, we can still expect to have earthly things happen to us just as they do with the people around us; this is life. But we can also expect to have a fulfilled life with God after this earthly life – this is what we should aim for!

Points to Ponder:
Do you choose good or bad?

Are you ready to accept the consequences if you choose bad?