This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the ESV Study Bible. Click here to learn more. You are most welcome to join along at any time.
Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Job 1-5
As we have just completed the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we find, in our chronological reading of the ESV Study Bible, that we are suddenly in the Book of Job!
This is because, as our theologian guides Kenneth Laing Harris, and August Konkel share with us in their introduction to Job, it is held that Job is one of the oldest books of the Bible, and was written somewhere around the time of Abram.
The book of Job, for the first time reader, is likely to shock you to your core. Here we find a very wealthy, and godly man stripped of his family, his business, laying naked on the ground covered from head to toe with painful oozing boils.
As it turns out, this was all brought about by Satan proclaiming to God that the only reason Job loves you is because you have blessed him so well. "Let me", requests Satan, "strip him of all his blessings, and he will curse you."
Most surprisingly, Job begins this difficult journey proclaiming, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” But as we shall soon see, by chapter three Job is saying, “Let the day perish on which I was born..."
The book of Job teaches us about suffering, and the sovereignty of God. The lessons contained in these chapters are difficult, and likely foreign to the modern reader. I can certainly attest that I struggled as I began to grapple with these issues. In fact, here and here are a few posts from days gone by as I was studying this chapter. I can also highly recommend Dr. John Piper's series on When the Righteous Suffer.
So, as we begin this book, what do you make of Satan asking God to let him torment poor Job?