Job 1:6-11: a reflection

6Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them. 7The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, “From going back and forth on the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” 8The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” 9Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”

In the heavenly scene that opens Job's story, Satan makes an accusation, not directly against Job's character, but against his motives. When God points to Job as a blameless, upright man who fears God, Satan sneers: Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and blessed everything he does? Take away the blessings, he charges, and Job will curse you to your face. The accusation is that Job's faith is not real devotion to God, but merely a calculated response to God's blessings, a way of securing the good things God gives.

Notice the searching question underneath the accusation: Does Job fear God for nothing? That is, does Job serve God for God himself, or only for what he gets out of it? Satan assumes the latter, that no one truly loves God, that all religion is ultimately self-interested, a transaction to secure blessings. And the whole book of Job is, in a sense, the answer, as Job holds on to God even when the blessings are stripped away, proving that his faith was for God, not merely for God's gifts.

That question searches every one of us: Do we fear God for nothing? Do we love and serve God for himself, or only for what we hope to get from him, the blessings, the security, the good life? It is a question best answered not in prosperity but in loss, when the blessings are gone and only God remains. Would you still hold to God if the blessings were stripped away? Genuine faith fears God for nothing, that is, for himself, loving him not merely for his gifts but for who he is. Ask God to make your faith that kind, that loves him for himself, and would hold to him even with empty hands.

Lord, Satan's accusation against Job asked whether he feared you for nothing, or only for your blessings. That question searches me. Do I love and serve you for yourself, or only for what I hope to get from you? Purify my faith. Help me love you not merely for your gifts but for who you are, so that I would hold to you even if the blessings were stripped away and only you remained. Let my faith be the kind that fears you for nothing, that treasures you for yourself. You are worthy of that.