“Satan’s Futile Strategy!”

“Satan’s Futile Strategy!”(Job 1:1-22).
In this first Sunday in the season of Lent 2025, let us rehash this tragicomedy story of the biblical Job.
Job as a character may have been the creation of the author. The main learning gleaned from the story is that good people suffer – not necessarily as a result of sin, but because sometimes in the heavenly realms, humanbeing beings are objects of divine shenanigans.
The book of Job is the story of a man who had everything majority men can only have in their dreams and fantasies. A man who, within a short spell, lost all his possessions and beloved children.
Job is the story of a man who rose from grass to grace, then brought down from grace to disgrace and nothingness.
Job is the story of resilience, strong faith, confidence, hope, and uprightness.
Job is the story of a good man who knows that he is good. It is the story of a man who knows that God’s judgment is impartial; even when good people suffer while wicked people prosper.
Above all, it is the story testing a theory to see which side of the scale tilts the balance.
If Job, like any of us, was aware that his suffering was God wanting to prove Satan wrong, he could become furious with God. This, of course, is another lesson of the story that in our human limitedness, we shouldn’t jump to hasty conclusions about what we know nothing about.
And since our text is limited to the tragic part of this tragicomedy, the main lesson for us to learn is Job’s words after the full story of his loss was reported to him: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
The chronicler ends this part of the story by affirming Job’s acknowledgement of God’s correctness: “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”
God is never wrong. He knew the end before the beginning. When you face tough times, do not doubt the goodness of the LORD. The tragedies of life are just speed brakes! Your present condition is not your conclusion! If there is no fullstop, rejoice because the LORD has not yet concluded the story of your life. We have this confidence if we are in a right relationship with God: The life of Christ, no matter how tragic at certain points, had a happy ending. Therefore, no tragedy in your life is the ending of your story!
Sunday prayer: Holy Spirit, in the face of adversities, helps us to be firm in our affirmation of the goodness of the LORD. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
09/03/2025.