You Love Me How Much?

Job 1:1-12 ESV

1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge 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. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

As we begin our new year here at church, we are going to be starting out with a series of sermons from a narrative that I am sure most of us are very familiar with as we will be working our way through the first two chapters of the book of Job.

And the question that I want us to answer for ourselves as we go through this series is if it were not for the blessings, would you still love God?

That is a question that I have asked many a person, a question that I have asked myself many times. If God did not bless me, if I did not have the promise of heaven awaiting me, if I did not know that God loves me the way that He loves me, would I still love Him?

And so, at that, we are forced to ask ourselves, do I love God because He is God? Do I love God because He is so infinitely magnificent that having been awakened to Who He truly is I cannot help but to love Him? Or do I love God only because of what He does for me and what He has promised He will do for me in the future?

This is indeed the question that Job had to answer for himself as the struggles which rained upon him pushed him to the limit, and caused him to ask himself if he, in fact, loved the Lord.

As we begin our exposition of these first two chapters of the book of Job and we look to verse one, we see that it centers on the character of Job.

Concerning his character, we are told first, that he was “blameless and upright”. This describes his character in relation to other people. He was known by others as an honest and upright man.

We are told also in this first verse, that Job was “one who feared God and turned away from evil”. Of course, this describes Job’s character in relation to God. That he is said to fear God indicates that he revered and worshipped God. And because he revered and worshipped God, he then “turned away from evil”, that thing which God is most opposed to.

And so, in this first verse, we see that Job held a good rapport with man as well as with God.

Then, as we look to verse two, we read that Job was not only one who feared God and was upright, but he was also one who was blessed with an abundance of children: seven sons and three daughters.

Then looking at verse three, we see that Job not only was blessed with a large family, but he was also blessed with an abundance of possessions and wealth, livestock and servants.

Indeed, so blessed was Job in every regard that he was considered to be “the greatest of all the people of the east”. This means that among everyone living east of the Jordan River, outside of the Promised Land, Job was the greatest in terms of spiritual health and material wealth.

And one of the aspects of Job’s spiritual greatness was his care and concern for others. In fact, when we look at verses four and five, we see the kind of care that he had for his children.

Here in verse four, we read of how his sons and daughters liked to get together regularly and hold a feast at each of his seven sons’ homes, and when they would gather together, our reading says that they would “eat and drink”.

Now, what this eating and drinking, what these festivities would consist of is uncertain. Whether it was simply family getting together to have a good time or if it involved some kind of debauchery is not fully known but based on what we read Job performing on behalf of his children in verse five, we can probably assume that this feasting typically wasn’t godly in nature.

We read that whenever these feasts would be over, Job, as the patriarchal priest of the family, would send for his children and “consecrate them” in some kind of purification ceremony to purify them from the filth that they had contracted through sinful behaviors at these feasts.

And before you think I’m jumping the gun here in saying that these children of Job had done things that were sinful at these feasts, we need only to look to Job’s own comments in this regard when we read that Job himself would say, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts”. So, obviously, there was something about his children’s behavior at these feasts that concerned him.

Concerning what may be meant here, we look to the ESV Expository Commentary on this verse, which says, “We might express the sentiment this way: “While they praised Yahweh outwardly, they belittled him inwardly.” Perhaps they turned a solemn religious festival into something resembling Herod’s birthday party. Or perhaps they started the party with a token prayer to please their pious father but then unwisely overindulged on wine until the cock crowed.”[1]

But regardless of what exactly it was, what we see here is Job’s concern for others, being kind and considerate towards others, so much so that everyone recognized him as blameless and upright. He loved God with all of his heart, fearing Him and turning away from evil. And he was a good father, doing everything that he could to ensure that his children were also right with the Lord.

With this information at hand, moving to verse six, the scene now shifts from earth to heaven, as we read that there was a certain day when “the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord”.

Now, these “sons of God” would naturally be interpreted as angels. And that they came to present themselves before the Lord likely also indicates that they were in what may be described as God’s cosmic cabinet.

Now, in saying that this was the cosmic cabinet, I am not suggesting that these angels would advise God, like an earthly cabinet would, but rather, these would come before the presence of God and there, God would command them what to do, and they would then do His bidding.

Though not all of these sons of God, not all of these angels were godly angels, yet everything that they performed, they performed at the decree of God. Indeed, we know that not every one of these angels were good because we read that coming “among them” that is, in their number was Satan.

So, moving on now to verse seven, we see that God, having His cosmic cabinet assembled, included Satan and other evil angels, for even they cannot do anything unless God permits and decrees it. Having the cabinet assembled, the Lord asks Satan, “From where have you come?”.

Now, in asking this question, we must not suppose that God does not know the answer to this question, nor is it as though God is somehow surprised that Satan is there as if He says, “Where did you come from?!”, but rather, it is simply the Lord’s way of starting the conversation and commanding Satan to give Him a report on what he has been doing. Again, this doesn’t indicate that God doesn’t know what Satan has been up to, but rather, it is a way of God expressing His sovereignty, even over His greatest enemy. He essentially says to His greatest enemy, “Get up here in front of everyone and tell Me what you’ve been up to!”.

The answer that Satan gives to the Lord’s question of “From where have you come?” is, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it”.  This was a disrespectful, extremely vague answer which could more or less be paraphrased as, “Nowhere in particular and everywhere in general”.

Well, in verse eight, the Lord responded to Satan’s vague answer by asking the devil a question of his own, when He asks him, “Have you considered My servant Job?”

He more or less says, “Oh, so you’ve been going here, there, and everywhere. Well, while you have been doing that have you observed Job?, one who can legitimately be described as My servant as he is blameless and upright, he fears God and turns away from evil? There is none like him on earth, so blameless, upright, and God-fearing!”

Looking then at verse nine, Satan responds to the Lord’s question by essentially saying, “Yes. I have indeed observed Job, and You are right, he is blameless, he is upright, he fears God, but does Job fear God for no reason? God, does Job fear You because he loves You? Or does he fear You because of all of the blessings that You have given him and the promises of more blessings for further obedience?”

Then continuing on in verse ten, Satan tells the Lord, “Job fears You because You have put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side. You have not allowed harm to come to him on any side, and not only have You protected him from harm, but You have also blessed the work of his hands and caused his possessions to increase! So yes, Of course Job fears You! You have given him an abundance, and You have kept harm from coming to him and his possessions, but that is the only reason why he fears You, because of all of the good things that You give him!”

Then continuing on with the devil’s sick dialogue in verse eleven, he tells the Lord, “But, if You would stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has” that is, if God allows all of Job’s possessions and wealth and those things which he holds dear, including his own beloved children to be taken from him, Satan says that if this were to happen, Job will then “curse” God, that is, publicly reject God, leave off from worshipping and loving Him, and from being good to others.

So, Satan wished to test Job’s commitment and love to the Lord, being assured that when God took away the blessings that He had given Job, that he would then publicly reject God. Satan thought that Job’s answer to the question that I asked all of you to begin this sermon when I asked you, “If God promised no blessings to you, would you still love Him?” that Job’s answer would be an emphatic “No!”.

The Lord responded to this challenge by saying, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand”, in this, God gives Satan permission to afflict everything that Job has; his family, his wealth, his livestock.

But He also tells Satan, “Only against him do not stretch out your hand”. In this, God tells Satan that while He gives him permission to afflict those things which Job has, He does not give him permission to afflict Job himself, that is, He does not give Satan permission to hurt Job’s body.

And so, having received his orders from the Lord, Satan “went out from the presence of the Lord” to carry out what God permitted and what Satan desired.

Next week, we will see chaos and calamity ensue in the life of Job; and we will see how he responded to this.

But again, I ask you, what if this happened to you? What if everything that God has blessed you with; your money, your possessions, your family, is taken in an instant? Would you still love Him, worship Him, depend on Him?

Or, would you say, “I was only following the Lord because I thought that if I did, my blessings would multiply, not decrease! And now that I’m not getting anything out of it, I’m not even going to pretend anymore!”?

Do you love God because He blesses you? Or do you love God because He is God and sometimes blessings come along with that, but even if they didn’t you would still love Him, because He is Who He is?

Well, now, as we go to partake in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we see just how much He loves us.

*Communion

[1]W. Brian Aucker, Eric Ortlund, and Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Ezra–Job, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. IV, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 309.