This is an interesting and to us a controversy story about a just and blameless man under a test proposed by Satan to God. He was from the land of Uz. He possessed a host of sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys and a very great body of servants (Job 1). He feared God and shunned evil. He was a wealthy man, but not one prideful and selfish. His life was always a light to his world. God took notice of it and said to Satan: “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and abstains from and shuns all evil; and still he holds fast his integrity although you moved Me against him to destroy him without cause” (Job 2: 3). At Satan’s request, God allowed him to touch Job with the death of his family, destruction of his proprieties and disease on his entire body. As a matter of fact, he was disfigured beyond imagination. To that his friends lifted up their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and they cast dust over their heads toward the heavens (Job 2). Job used a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, and he sat down among the ashes. His ordeal continued for a long time. His wife suggested him to renounce God and die. In time, his friends from pity to the pointing of the finger, blamed him for his situation.
The time of his illness became a debate time among Job and his friends. He defended himself by saying, “Surely, I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue and reason my case with God” (Job 13:3); “though He will slay me, yet will I wait for and trust Him”. (Job 13:15). “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and He who vouches for me is on high” (Job 16:19); “Oh, that there were one who might plead for a man with God and that he might maintain his right with Him as a son of man pleads with or for his neighbor” (Job 16:21); “I was living at ease, but [Satan] crushed me and broke me apart; yes, he seized me by the neck and dashed me in pieces; then he set me up for his target; his arrows whiz around me. He slashes open my vitals and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground; he stabs me making breach after breach and attacking again and again; he runs at me like a giant and irresistible warrior; I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and have defiled my horn in the dust” (Job 16:12-15).
Light from the Word 