A Man Of Perfect Integrity

Job 1

There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.

His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”

“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and reported, “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “God’s fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
Job 1:1-22

I started reading Job back in April of 2019. I had just found out we were expecting our second child, and, much like my first pregnancy, I struggled with fear and anxiety in the first several months. Because of that fear, I put of reading through Job – a book that I can often find confusing and hard to understand – and moved on to more uplifting encouraging books, like Psalms.

It’s not lost on me that as I begin this book, almost 2 years later, that I am once again entering into a season of uncertainty – which for me often brings anxiety. After several months of discussion, my husband and I decided to put our house for sale to look for something a bit bigger, something that would suite our family’s current and future needs as my husband is now indefinitely working from home and we are heavily considering homeschooling for our children. We also wanted to be closer to our community group, believing that the way we do “church” may drastically shift in the coming years, and home church may become a new norm.

Our home sold in the first weekend, and even though the first contract fell through, we were back under contract within an evening. Now we are in the very stressful, very emotional process of looking for our new home. Currently, we are in a seller’s market, and houses are going for $40-70K over asking! It’s crazy competitive with homes receiving as many as 60 offers in a weekend! We placed three offers on houses that we really loved, homes we could see staying in long term that would easily suite our family’s needs. But we didn’t even come close to having our offers accepted. It’s so hard to love a house enough to want to make it your own, yet now become so emotionally attached that you are devastated if it doesn’t work out. Over the last couple of days I’ve had to readjust my expectations, apologize to my husband and daughter for my sullen and moody attitude, and remind myself that when I say that I believe God is sovereign, it means IN. ALL. THINGS. Easy words to say, but harder to live by.

I was denied a house (or 3) that I really liked. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d already begun mentally placing furniture in each room. And I was devastated when things didn’t work out as I’d hoped. And then I read about Job. He lost just about everything. His herds, cattle, source of wealth, but most devastatingly, his ten children. While I moped around all day when I realized our offers weren’t accepted, Job fell to the ground, tore his robe, and WORSHIPPED the LORD. I can assure you there was little to no worship from me a couple days ago, though I wish that that could have been my response. I wish that what my family saw from my reaction to this disappointing news was an attitude of full faith, full trust, full worship, and full integrity.

Because integrity is what set Job apart. God says of him, “No one on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away evil.” I recently wrote about the integrity of Joseph, and perhaps this in an area of my life where God has some pruning to do. The dictionary defines integrity as, “the state of being whole, undivided”. There are a lot of things that can distract us from wholehearted devotion to the LORD…my list would go on for miles. Yet I want to be more like Job in how I approach disappointment and despair. I want to walk in integrity before the LORD no matter my circumstances and worship Him for the abundance of grace that He has already bestowed on me. The past few days have been an amazing reminder of how blessed we truly are. In the middle of the coldest temperatures that Texas has had in more than 70 years, with power outages and rolling blackouts, somehow our home has been spared from having lost any power and have therefore had heat and electricity and comfort. I don’t know why our family has been so fortunate, but maybe my heart just needed a little reminder that God is in control. My challenge may not be someone else’s, their testing of faith may look very different from mine, and yet God is good no matter what. I can’t explain how or why He does what He does, why He allows people to go through various trials and tribulations, but I do know that He is working it all out for the good of those who love Him. And refinement is good. Sanctification is good. Greater dependence on the LORD is good.

I loved Spurgeon’s notes on verses 20-21: “‘The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.’ Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters, and some of the choicest utterances of believers have come when God’s waves and billows have been made to roll over them. The fire consumes nothing but the dross and leaves the gold all the purer…Job looked on everything he possessed as the gift of God. He did not complain, ‘I spent many weary days and many anxious nights in accumulating all those flocks and herds that have been stolen from me.’ We must learn the wisdom of never ascribing any earthly comfort to any earthly source. We must worship the Giver and not the gift. And when we know that the LORD takes away our possessions, the knowledge that they are His effectively prevents us from complaining. From the first moment when the love of God is revealed to us, right on to the hour when we will be in the presence of the Father in glory, we may depend on it that there is infinite love in every act of God taking from us, just as much as in giving to us.“ WOW. I mean, that is EXACTLY what I needed to hear! AMEN!