Manslick Road church of Christ

Job 1 depicts the sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord. Satan also came among them. The Lord asked Satan if he had considered Job, a blameless, upright man? Satan answered, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face” (Job 1:9-12 ).

Satan’s charge was that man reveres God only because God blesses him. If those blessings stop, so will man’s service to God.

God, in response, challenged Satan to prove his theory using Job as a test case. In a single day the devil took from upright Job all that he had: his oxen and donkeys, his sheep and camels, his servants, even his ten children. At the end of the day Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21 ). He did not sin nor did he blame God (v. 22).

The test went a step further when God permitted Satan to attack Job himself. Still, Job maintained his integrity. He trustfully asked, “Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10 ).

Job proved Satan wrong—at least, he did in Job’s case. But what about you and I? What if we had been the subject of conversation between God and Satan? How would we have fared?

Whenever a brother quits the Lord because adversity comes in his life, he is confirming Satan’s assertion in his case. What he is really doing is manifesting the shallowness of his faith. Jesus described him this way: “Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away” (Lk. 8:13 ).

Friend, if you abandoned God in the day of adversity, please reconsider. Do you want to be Satan’s poster child?