Week 1 Day 5- Job and Babel

The book of Job begins with a conversation between God and Satan (who came to present himself to God).  Satan said that he had been patrolling the earth and God asked, "Have you considered my servant, Job?"
Satan said that Job has a reason to be blameless, there was a hedge around him for protection.  He said to take away all that he has and he will curse You.  God gave permission for the test. 

So, we watch as Job loses his property, livestock, and most importantly- his children.  He lost all of his children.
Job tore his robe, fell to the ground... and worshipped.  Yes, that's right- he worshipped God.  He said a phrase that has been echoed for thousands of years,

"The Lord giveth, 

and the Lord taketh away." 

(Job 1:21)

The author, Angie Smith, who has buried a child, states:

"I believe God is good even when I don't understand all of the particulars of His decisions.  I don't say this flippantly.  I say this as a woman who has stood in a cemetery while her daughter was being buried.  And with the thud of every shovelful of dirt that separated us, I had a decision to make about the God who allowed it: either He loves me or He doesn't.  Either He is good or He is not.  I decided to believe that God was good, and He loved me." (page 29-30)

As we continue to read in Job, we see that he also loses his health, but he stays true to God. His wife tells him to curse God and die, but he states, "you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all of this, Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:10)

The story of Job teaches us that if we lose all we have, but still have God- that's all we need. God is enough. 

It's a heat wrenching story of a man that stayed true to God and in the end, God blessed him with twice as much as he had before. All because he was faithful. 

The next story is the Tower of Babel where once again men's hearts were filled with selfish intent. They wanted to build a tower that would reach heaven. Their thoughts were to do it without God. So God scattered them and confused their language and they could no longer work together. This story shows a pattern- mankind continues to stray from their Creator, the loving God. This pattern continues today.