It is interesting to see that when God
decided to write Scripture, the very first book He wrote was about a godly man.
That shows us what God is always looking for. He looked for a godly man in the
time of Enoch, in the time of Noah and in the time of Job. God planned from the
beginning to give us 66 books of Scripture. And in the very first of those
books, He wrote about what was uppermost in His heart – a godly human being.
Now notice the first sentence in the
first inspired book of Scripture: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless,
upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Can you see the
heart of God in the first sentence of Scripture? It was about one man - a man
identified by his name – Job - and by the place he lived in– Uz (so that he is not confused with some other Job living
somewhere else). And God gives His testimony of that man – not about his
cleverness, or his wealth, or his reputation with other men, but only about his
character. There we see what God truly values – uprightness, fear of God and turning
away from all evil.
God is not looking for people with
Bible-knowledge. Job did not have any Bible- knowledge because there was no
Bible then. He had no-one around him to encourage him to a godly life either.
Even the preachers of his day only discouraged him by what they said. But in
spite of all this, he lived an upright life.
The Lord told Satan what was
outstanding about Job: “There is no-one like him on the earth - a blameless and
upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil” (1:8). The fear of God –
or reverence for God - is something that is mentioned much in this first book
of inspired Scripture. Here we see that God compared Job with other people on
the earth. God does that today too.
It is not surprising that Satan made
Job his target, for Satan hates upright people. He hated Job in those days -
and he hates such people even today. That is why he does everything in his
power to prevent us from being godly. Satan troubled Job through his wife and
through carnal preachers. But none of this made any difference to Job’s
devotion to his God. What a man Job was! What a challenge he is to us! We can
be like him too.
Now see how Job reacted to all the
trials. He heard that everything had been lost. One after the other, his
servants came and told him that everything was gone. And Job arose, tore his
robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshipped God (1:20). That’s
another thing we see on the very first page of inspired Scripture: A godly man
is a worshipper. More than knowing the Bible and more than serving the Lord, a
man of God is primarily a worshipper. You must be a worshipper when you have
everything and you must be a worshipper when you have lost everything. Jesus
said, “God is a Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth, and the Father seeks for such worshippers” (John 4: 23, 24). To worship
God is to give Him everything.
Job said, “I came from my mother’s womb
naked, and I shall return there naked. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Through all this Job did not sin, nor
did he blame God” (1: 21, 22). Job was probably referring here to Mother Earth
from which he came naked and to which he will return as dust, naked. He
willingly accepted whatever the Lord permitted in his life.
When I think of Job’s dedication to the
Lord, I am amazed. He did not have the example of Jesus and the apostles that
we have. He had no examples whatsoever to follow. He did not have the power of
the Holy Spirit that we have. He did not have the Bible that we have. He did
not have the encouragement or support of fellow-believers or even of his own
wife. Job only had God – and God was enough. If Job could come to such a
glorious life, why can’t we? Author brother Zac Poonian
