At times, people may refer to the patience of Job–how he endured hardship and punishment from God and never complained. Of course, that is not true, because Job complained quite a bit. A deeper and more accurate analysis reveals that there are lessons for us to learn from the story of Job, even though Job had a hard time in learning these lessons himself.
Job is dead and the record of events is in the Bible for us to glean from it. Job suffered from two problems which are not as overtly evident as other sins one may have. He was self-righteous, and he was also proud of his righteousness. This is most likely why Satan did not see Job’s problems, because he allowed the same kinds of sins to overcome him.
Ezekiel 28:15-17 shows us why Lucifer fell and became Satan the devil. God said to him: “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.”
It’s interesting that Satan corrupted his wisdom and became proud and self-righteous. Once the mind of a spirit being or a human being is corrupted with sin, it cannot think right. It is like a virus in a computer. If you do not deal with it early, it will corrupt the whole computer.
Paul understood this when he stated that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little sin, not dealt with, corrupts the whole mind, and that was where Job was heading. God had to intervene to break this vicious cycle. Just think of how entrenched Job’s problem was. He lost all his possessions; his children were taken from him; he had sores all over his body; and even his wife turned against him with discouraging words, saying: “Curse God and die.”
Job suffered great loss, but in the end, when he finally saw his problems and repented deeply of them, God blessed him with more than what he had at the beginning, as Job 42:12-17 explains to us:
“Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”
Job will be in God’s Kingdom because he repented of the corrupting sins, which he, in his self-righteousness and pride, could not see. He even accused God of unrighteousness, because he wanted to maintain his self-righteousness. But Job’s sins were very evident to God, and had to be dealt with.
The lesson we must extract from this is that we must be very careful to deal with sin early, and not allow it to corrupt our minds, since we also want to be in God’s Kingdom along with Job. And further, if we don’t deal with our sins, God will, because He has called us for salvation and not for condemnation.
