Life continued on for Job as it does for the rest of us until calamity struck and everything turned topsy-turvy or upside down in Job’s life in a single day. What happened you might wonder? Well in a single day Job lost all of his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, and children, meaning all the animals were carried away by raiding parties who also killed all of Job’s servants, and all of Job’s children were killed when the house they were partying in collapsed and all were crushed under the rubble. Trouble you might say. Yeah, big, big, trouble and I am not talking of Bart Simpson here. But in the midst of all of this calamity and misfortune that happened to Job what I really like and what we all can learn a lesson from is the way Job retaliated/responded or rather behaved when he heard all of the “bad news”. In Job 1:20-22 we learn “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
I want you to pay special attention to the last part of this passage i.e. Job 1:22 “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” Job did not practice bad religion stating “God was punishing him or God was allowing him to go through all of this to teach him something” which is the popular religious teaching that is taught and believed by most. In fact anything bad happens to anyone and almost everyone says hang in there, God is teaching you something from this or God is perfecting you/perfecting your faith or some similar religious mumbo-jumbo. Job, however, knew his God and knew that God was not the author or behind all the misfortune and calamity that had befallen him. He knew for sure what we all must know that it’s the devil who comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) i.e. anything bad that happens only comes from the devil. The Lord Jesus Christ has come only for one thing and that is for you to have life and life in full or abundance. Don’t give up on God for God will not give up on you. Even Job’s wife took the religious route. Her advice to her husband in Job 2:9 was, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!" but Job held onto God and in Job 2:10 we learn “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” Something else that comes up from the last verse is we sin in our speech. In fact James 3:2 says “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” Job was termed perfect based on these two scriptures, because he did not sin in what he said.
