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Healing and Discipleship 
Job 2 World English Bible (WEB)
2 Again, on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. 2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”
3 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”
4 Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”
6 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. 8 He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”
10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips. 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. 12 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
Good Morning! Yesterday’s chat gave me so many positive things to meditate on. I am still in awe and wonder that living in a place of total protection from certain tribulations is possible and praying about what life together daily means for us today. What a blessing to walk through this season with you. We have a new addition to our family as a grand daughter was born to one of our dear Sister’s this morning. Praise God!!!
Karen
Good morning and Congratulations on the joyful addition to your family!
With these passages my heart went out to Jobs wife in that she was also a part of this divine testing. She obviously wasn’t in the same spiritual place as Job. She was watching him suffer though ,had lost everything including her kids and began to question Gods goodness. His response was amazing and even in his great physical suffering maintained his integrity
So true.. and that his response surely had an impact on her. At the end of the story, she was able to see the immense blessing that resulted from Job’s integrity restored. But how encouraging that God’s goodness towards Job ended up blessing this women who was clearly sturggling through this season. Brings me back to the image of us being a fruitful tree that people can be blessed by even if they don’t have that relationship with God themselvs.
Amen !K.C
Luke 20:38 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) “38 Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all men are alive [whether in the body or out of it] and they are alive [not dead] unto Him [in definite relationship to Him].” This verse came up in our family Bible study this morning. It makes me question if my working definition of alive is actually biblically accurate. Adam and Eve died when they ate the fruit (if you are unfamiliar with the idea that we are made of three parts, Spirit, Soul and Body I highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5aAGTNWNBA&t=89s ). To us being alive means being present in the flesh. Luke 20 tells us that we can be alive is a state that is possible both in and out of the physical body. Scripture also tells us that those who do not know the Lord, do not have eternal life. From God’s perspective those who don’t know Him are dead at least in some level. Thinking that my own heart needs some tweeking in this area.
Col 3:1 therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Wendy
“No one spoke a word to him'” These 3 made the right move initially but unfortunately didn’t look to God for a word in this season of Job’s life. Like so many of us we start well, but do not end well.
Remember Paul’s admonition to the Galatians; 3 v 3 – “How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” NLT
Good morning Bob! Nice to have you in the chat. THIS!!! yes.. I think so much of this has to do with our mindsets going in. If our central goal is to glorify and submit to God in all things… our comfort is of less importance to us. If not, our comfort can easily become the driving force in our life.
Yes!! KC
Vs 3 really pops. “without cause”. Job truly was holy and blameless before the Lord. So just because calamnity comes, this does not necessarily mean that there is an “open door” or a specific sin. However, that must be tempered with the fact that Job was the ONLY one in the whole world at this time who was living this way. So we also cannot conclude that if something is going sideways in our life that there is no open door. We stayed at a cottage a couple of years ago where there were mice. As a home owner of course the first thing to do is get the mice out… and the second is to figure out how they got in in the first place and close the door. As a gate keeper of the Lord’s temple we have a 2 fold job. Guard the gates and also take out any thing that is offensive to God from within the temple. Job’s best defense in this situation was to maintain the posture that he managed to maintain through the first part of this book. Now if we were to make Job our role model, we could say, look, even Job caved in and sinned in the end… So surely if a man like Job fell short God will understand when I do. There is an account of Jesus walking through this kind of pressing and temptation in the NT when He fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. He demonstrates that it is possible to walk sinlessly even in these circumstances.
Karen
Yes the fact that Jobspossibility is shown to us pre-cross really negates the excuses and reasonings we come up with why certain things like healings ,resurrections ,living without sinning and transitioning like Enoch are not possible today. With God all things are possible!
Amen!
Last part of vs 3. How satan again has complete access to God and His Presence and incites God to act without cause.
Rob
This is really something to think about. I struggle a bit as there are verses that say that God never tempts a man and yet we see examples of God allowing men to be tested for a short window of time Genesis 22:1-3 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) 22 After these events, God tested and proved Abraham and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Here I am. 2 [God] said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you. 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then began the trip to the place of which God had told him.”
Matthew 24:22-24 New International Version (NIV)
“22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
God is so good though, He has determined that the day of testing will be limited in length and does moderate the intensity. There are several promises here worth meditating on.
1 Corinthians 10:13 King James Version (KJV)
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
I love the above verse in 1Corinthians 10:13 in the amplified. Read it when you get a chance. The last part says “,so that you will be able to endure it (without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy).
Congratulations on the little grandbaby. New life always give us hope. I think that is why we love spring so much.
I find it interesting in the second half of verse 10 that jOb says. “Shall we indeed accept (only) good from God and not (also)accept adversity and disaster? Does this infer that God gives us adversity and disaster? It seem so from this verse doesn’t it. Thoughts? The other thing that stood out to me isn’t in the last verse where his friends were with him and didn’t speak to him for seven days and nights because they saw that his pain was great. I think that is the wisest thing they did at that time. Too bad they didn’t keep to that. Hahaha Wendy
Yes Wendy I had the same thought about the initial wisdom of Jobs friends…but they too were obviously wrestling with the ‘whys’ of the thing as they sat and watched their friend suffer….just like his wife. I can only cry out to God to continue His perfecting work in me as I have zero confidence that I would have Jobs responses to the kind of suffering He endured. I’m so thankful I can plead the blood of Jesus.
Karen
Over and over again, we here that our patience and endurance will be tested and grown through adversity. We often have an internal clock ticking and feel a measure of “entitlement” that the situation will improve or resolve by. When that window of time passes, we often give ourselves permission to “crack”, get discouraged, stop truly believing God. The 1 Corinthians vs above shows us that God provision is there for us guaranteed to endure as long as necessary or that He has provided a godly way out of the situation. So we can pray in agreement with these promises.
There are certainly scriptural evidence (2Chronicles 13 for instance ) where pre cross old covenant that God did bring and send “pestilence, locusts to devour”. . I have thought that what we are experiencing now …God is totally in for sure and working His plan but the question of where does the adversity and disaster come from… the enemy or God Himself ,I’m not totally clear about.
Karen
Yes… absolutely… Anyone not under the New Covenant, is still very much living under the Old. So in a way, both covenants are in place at the moment and what we believe I think determines which one is in place in our own individual lives.
I never thought about it that way before . So if both covenants are still in place depending on which people are living under would it be reasonable to think that this Covid virus thing could have been ‘sent ‘ by God to be experienced by those who don’t know him or are still under the old covenant in their thinking ,as a wake up call to repent and seek Him?…,but for those living under the New Covenant and under the blood it’s a Passover event ,drawing us into a new thing of coming more and more under His Lordship?
Job 38 to 40… Please share thoughts on God’s response to Job’s questions. Too much to paste.
Job 38 WEB”“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb, when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?” I find it very interesting that much of Job 38 describes the boundaries and God has set on creation.
Perhaps this is something worth meditating on. Satan has boundaries that He cannot cross. I can’t help but feel that the blood of Jesus has introduced a world changing, life altering, provision abounding shift in boundaries that as humans for the most part we have failed to understand. I have it on my list to meditate on and seek out clearer understading on this.
6 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”
This reminds me when Jesus stated to Peter. Luke 22:31“Simon, Simon (Peter), listen! Satan has demanded permission to sift [all of] you like grain”
Rob
Yes…. and if we know that God has set a limit on how far Satan can test us and that His provision for us is always there to ensure we can pass the test, we can surely navigate through these things in greater confidence and with greater peace and joy that a good outcome is assured for those who walk these things out with Him.
This access to Peter and ‘demanding’ before God to sift and test His people … is that still a thing now for us? …or with Christs death and resurrection that access Satan has to us has ended….. and now it’s only our loving Father that does the sifting and testing and disciplining as part of His perfecting us. That’s where I’m at in my thinking. For believers Satan should be a non issue .
Great question??? God had a relationship with satan. Then scripture states their was no place found for him in heaven and he was not strong enough. Jesus stated that he saw satan fall from heaven.
Could it be that he no longer has access to heaven and the Presence of God but rages here in earth.
Rob
Job 39 ““Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
2 Can you count the months that they fulfill?
Or do you know the time when they give birth?
3 They bow themselves. They bear their young.
They end their labor pains.
4 Their young ones become strong.
They grow up in the open field.
They go out, and don’t return again.” WEB
For me this speaks to God’s all-knowing-ness.. He knows.. whatever our needs are, He knows, even when we don’t know how to voice them. Part of God’s answer to Job focus on this element of His nature as Creator. There are too many verses to name.. the one about Him caring when a bird falls from the sky.. that He knows the numbers of hairs on our head… that He keeps track of every tear we cry. God knows everything and cares about everything.
Job 39 WEB ““Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
and stretches her wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up,
and makes his nest on high?
28 On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home,
on the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
29 From there he spies out the prey.
His eyes see it afar off.
30 His young ones also suck up blood.
Where the slain are, there he is.”
Following Gods line of questioning to Job makes me feel like the only appropriate response is to just be silent …
Yes
Both Rob and I are finding in this format it is a little difficult to go as quickly. It is different in the bible study setting when we are all together. But reading and taking time to process in this setting takes us longer. I don’t know if others are feeling this too. It’s hard to read 3 chapter and try to respond in the time frame. Just some thoughts. Wendy
I will keep bringing up one verse at a time. So hopefully that helps.
Job 39 WEB “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
and stretches her wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up,
and makes his nest on high?
28 On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home,
on the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
29 From there he spies out the prey.
His eyes see it afar off.
30 His young ones also suck up blood.
Where the slain are, there he is.”
This makes me think about how brilliant God’s creation is by design. Mark 16:16-20 World English Bible (WEB) “16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”19 So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.”
Blessings to you all. Chat with you again soon!
Yes those verses in Mark are very encouraging indeed. And I especially love the last verse 20. Where its says they were doing all those things then “the Lord working with them” We aren’t doing it on our own Praise God!!!!
Thank You ! this has been good, See you tomorrow!