28 September 2020
The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’ Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around 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 stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’
From Job 1: 6-22, NRSV
We begin reading today from the Book of Job. This is a very ancient story and Satan here is still able to enter the presence of the Lord although we might begin to see the beginnings of his fall from grace in his cynicism about why Job is good and honest. The Book is a long reflection on suffering – and, especially, completely undeserved suffering. Our opening reading – much longer than our extract – takes us from Job as a man who has everyting a man of his time could want to someone who has lost it all in a matter of hours. The reading closes with his famous words: ‘The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back.’ And then, giving us the measure of this man: ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’
- What have you heard about Job? What sayings include his name?
- If you lost everything, could you say what Job says?
Spend some time today thinking about how to approach a bible book like this one – an ancient story set in a very different time but telling us something important about what it means to be human.
Image: By Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55012089
