Friday, January 23, 2015

Blameless and upright, feared God and shunned evil; Job

Job 1:1-12
Job, a truly good man, is introduced in the 'Once upon a time曾幾何時' style which tells us this is a story.
In the court of heaven, Satan accuses Job of serving God for what he can get out of it. God allows Satan to test this out - a measure of his confidence in Job - but Job himself is to be spared.
Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
shuns evil: 躲避
Job would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children. This was Job's regular custom.
Satan is roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.

The book of Job is a part of the 'Wisdom' material, but no one knows who wrote it, or when it was written, but the story is set in the days of the patriarchs先祖. Job is a wealthy and influential sheikh酋長 - wealthy in terms of flocks and herds rather than cash. Part of the year he is a man of the city; for the rest, on the move with his cattle. He belongs either the days before the priesthood and organized religion or to a region where these things were not needed. He reminds us very much of Abraham: a man of the East.
Why?
The book leaves much unsettled. It is only in the New Testament that e approach an answer to the problem. As we look at Christ on the cross we see the suffering of the only really innocent person.
And we see a God who cares so much for us he is prepared to shoulder the whole burden of human sin and suffering, Yet the book of Job is not out-dated. Even today suffering men and women find that this book speaks to their need as no other book in the Bible.
Job was a good man with four characters, blameless, upright, fear the Lord and shuns evil.
How?
Fear the Lord and do our best with the blessing of the Lord we can be a blames and upright man.





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