Satan vs. Job . . . Round Two, Part 1

Bill Meyer: When life is going well, it's easy to trust God. But what happens when the bottom drops out and you didn't see it coming? Job was by every measure a good man, a godly man, a faithful husband, and devoted father. And yet, in what seemed like a single terrible moment, everything he had built in love was stripped away. If that weren't enough, Satan was back with a second plan. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens Job chapter 2, and the question before us is a haunting one: how much can one man take?
Guest (Male): If you brought a Bible with you today, would you open it toward the center section of the book of Job? Just before the large book of Psalms, you'll find Job. Locate the second chapter, and may I read for you the first 10 verses as we focus on Satan versus Job, round two? Job 2:1: "Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause.'" Satan answered the Lord and said, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse you to your face." So the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life." Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into Job's story, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message Satan versus Job, round two.
Chuck Swindoll: When bad things happen, it seems they often happen to the wrong people. John Gunther was a handsome teenager who was a straight-A student at Deerfield Academy. He had high hopes and great dreams. Though young in age, he had already thought about tomorrow. He was majoring in math and chemistry, and everything looked bright on the horizon for Johnny until the dark shadow of brain cancer crossed his life. During the 14 months after the diagnosis, he endured two serious operations. And even after the second operation, he passed the grueling entrance exams to Columbia University. Two weeks after being accepted to Columbia, young Johnny Gunther died. The character of this brave young man was revealed after the first surgery. The parents, John and Frances Gunther, were alone with the physician who told them the grim prognosis, and they struggled wondering what they should say and how much they should say. Frances said, "I know my son well enough to know that he is so curious and he is so bright. I know he will want to know everything. But how should we tell him?" They decided that the surgeon would be the one who would go to Johnny and explain to him the whole story. So all alone, he slipped into Johnny's room and the two of them talked. The surgeon told him the seriousness of the malignant brain tumor. The boy listened with rapt attention and hardly blinked. When the physician finished, the young man's only response was, "Doctor, how shall we break this news to my parents?" When bad things happen, they seem always to happen to the wrong person. We are always left with that three-letter word: why? Why did such a terrible thing like brain cancer invade Johnny Gunther's life? That question is being asked in every major hospital in every major city around our nation this day. In some of the rooms, that question is on the lips of some of the people. Every large community has within it a home or two where that question is still being asked without an answer. Somewhere in all of this, there is room for the story of Job. For as we have learned, a better man never lived until this time. He was a good man. He was a godly man. He was a faithful husband. He was a loving and devoted father. He was a good employer. His hard work and integrity had led to a prosperous closing number of years of his life, which he was to enjoy with plenty of livestock and sufficient camels to pay the dreams that he and his wife had for the future. And it looked as though it was all a downhill slide. And then the bottom of his life dropped out. We call it unfair suffering. Seemingly senseless tragedy invaded the life of one who didn't deserve it. And he's left to pick up the pieces, he and his wife. He's lost most of his servants, all but four. He's lost all of his means of making a living. And he's lost all 10 of his grown children. And to make matters worse, we know a lot more than Job knew. He had no idea of this plan that was being laid behind the scenes against him. So to him, it just was like a bolt out of the blue. Just like those workers on the 10th of September 2001 who left late in the evening after a busy day in the World Trade Center, planning for tomorrow, adding their thoughts for the day for the 11th, the to-do list of things that needed to get done. And so many came in early, early the morning of the 11th to begin their work. And before 8:00, they had no idea that American Airlines flight number 11 was heading directly for their tower in the North Tower. And it struck. So surprising and shocking was it that not even those in the South Tower knew of it and had no idea that a plan was underway for that tower. And only 18 minutes later at 9:03, the South Tower was struck by flight 175 United. We couldn't believe it. It was out of the blue. Why them? Why that? What kind of plan is underway? Job thought that when all of his oxen and donkeys and servants and sheep and servants and camels and servants and now his 10 children were gone. We sit in this somewhat comfortable place and we try to imagine what we would have done. Eugene Peterson captures the scene in the paraphrase of The Message: Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped. "Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I'll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God's name be ever blessed." Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God. Remarkable. And I'm sure in the struggle of a fitful night trying to sleep after burying all 10 of the children with his own hand and the groaning and the weeping and the grieving alongside his precious wife who had also lost the 10, he had no idea that more was underway. He couldn't have imagined it anymore than those in the Pentagon who were now busily engaged in dealing with the details of the Northeastern Atlantic shoreline and the harbor at New York where obviously the terrorists were striking would have any idea that there was now another plane on another evil mission soon to plunge into the very side of the building where they're working on this other tragedy. Having spoken to some of those officers who were in the building at that time, one even admitted to his own embarrassment, "It never dawned on me that the Pentagon was next." But that plane circled, and not being able to find the White House which they were convinced it was heading for because of the foliage of mid-September, the pilot in his maddening plan turned and found this five-sided building. He knew what it was and tore a hole 200 feet wide as there was a double explosion: first the plane crashing into the building and then the igniting of the fuel that sent fire down the hallway. It's like Job. It just wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair from our perspective. He had stood in his integrity, he had blessed his father, he had worshiped Him, and Satan couldn't stand it. He lost round one. The second chapter begins as ominously as the first chapter had continued. Remember how you marked it? Chapter 1, verse 1: "There was a man." Chapter 1, verse 6: "There was a day." Chapter 2, verse 1: "Again there was a day." We're not told how long. I don't think very long. It's like Satan to hit us with a double blast. The first with a surprise, the second one an absolute shock. He had a plan when he stood before the Lord God along with his emissaries. And the Lord, verse 2, said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord and said, "From roaming about on the earth, walking around on it." The Lord said to Satan, remembering their earlier conversation, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." And he adds this time, "He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without a cause." See the word ruin? The Hebrew word means "to swallow." It is in the Piel stem, P-I-E-L, which is the stem that intensifies the verb. And in that sense, it's the idea of a barb, the scraping away, the gagging, if you will. You plan for me to ruin him without cause. Satan, not one to be outclassed, answered rather impudently, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. You've still got that hedge around him. He still gets penthouse treatment. He may not be able to make a living with the former animals, but he's got his health and he can go on living, and they can have more children. But you touch him at his lowest level—his flesh and blood—and he will curse you to your face." I think he said some of this out of irritated anger. He lives his life in anger. And he makes his prediction, "He will curse you to your face." Verse 6: "So the Lord said to Satan"—think about this—"Behold, he is in your power." Can you imagine that? Can you imagine your name connected to verse 6? "All right, Lucifer, go back, but don't kill him." He set the boundary: "Preserve his life, but he's fair game." As shocked as those in the Pentagon were, Job awoke the next morning feeling sore, unusually sore and feverish. Why? Because verse 7: "Satan went out from the presence and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." He felt the pain under his arm, and then he felt one at his neck. Something was inside his mouth swelling, and then across his eyes, and even in his scalp. And of all things, he couldn't get his sandals on, and his fever began to rage, and he'd lost his appetite. It's like he was coming apart. He says something to his wife. She looks and notices. He asks her to check his back. She observes there are swollen marks all over. And they are called here "sore boils." Medical doctors down through the centuries have been curious about this particular ailment, this skin malady. In my research, I found a number of comments made in their guesswork, and they may have gotten onto something. One said it was smallpox, another elephantiasis, another chronic eczema, another leprosy. One suggested psoriasis, another pityriasis, another keratosis. One even said for sure it was pemphigus foliaceus. I'm sure I said it wrong. And of course, a number of them suggested it was a melanoma, advancing form of skin cancer. This man, this man—as Satan, notice how quickly it reads—went out, smote. They're almost brought in juxtaposition. He went out and smote Job, hit him while he was down. What he thought was maybe just sore muscles from the burying of 10 children, he realized was now an eruption of skin ulcers. And to the pathetic man's dismay, he now realized he had a disease that would make him miserable. I have studied the 42 chapters of Job and I have made note of every reference to the symptoms that accompanied this ailment. Sit and listen to them; don't try to turn to the verses. This is what he suffered: inflamed ulcerous sores, persistent itching, degenerative changes in facial skin, disfiguration, loss of appetite, fears and depression. Purulent sores that burst open, scab over, crack and ooze with pus. Worms that form in the sores themselves. Difficulty in breathing. A darkening of the eyelids. Foul breath. Loss of weight. Excruciating continual pain. Also high fever with chills and discoloring of skin mixed with anxiety, diarrhea, delirium, sleeplessness, rejection of friends, and all this lasting for months. In short, Job became the personification of misery. I failed to mention in verse 8 of chapter 2 that all of this resulted in his being isolated and sitting at the city dump. We would call it today the ash heap. The ashes were the places where—was the place where they burned the garbage and the rubbish and the human excrement of the city. It became his abode. Warren Wiersbe writes, "There the city garbage was deposited and burned, and there the city's rejects lived, begging alms from whomever passed by. At the ash heap, dogs fought over something to eat, and the city's dung was brought and burned. The city's leading citizen was now living in abject poverty and shame. All that he humanly had left were his wife and three friends, and even they turned against him." Complete confusion, total isolation, no hope of change. You're doing exactly what you should be doing: sitting in silence. His friends, as we will see next time, did that for seven days and nights. Didn't even recognize him. Have you ever had a boil? Ever—those of us with white hair would have to say, among the men, white hair, whatever color your hair is, ladies—if you're this age, if you've had a boil, you'll never forget it. I threw a paper route as a kid. I think I was about 11, 12 when I had my first route, and I had a boil just below my elbow on the left arm. I'm left-handed, so I would throw the papers with my left hand. And I rode on my bicycle and had the papers in the bag on the—behind the seat. And I'd reach back and sling the papers. I took delight in landing them in the flowerbeds—no, on the porch of the people who were on my route. But as this boil grew, and then one formed on my wrist—never knew to this day why they formed there, but one was here and one was there and they got so sore I had to throw with my right hand because I couldn't use—just two boils. My mother said to me, "Oh, it's okay, son. It'll go away." That's kind of the way we treated them back then. And she didn't tell me it would take three months, but she said it will go away. She was right. But they became so swollen and on occasion we would prick them and try to get the pus, the core out as it was called. Those two boils. Can you imagine covered with boils and sitting in this filthy place away from friends and the comforts of home? It all finally overwhelmed Mrs. Job, and she came to him one day for a visit. And she asked, "Do you still hold fast your integrity?" Remember God when he said to Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He still holds fast his integrity." Unknowingly, she put her very finger on the one, the one lasting thread that God used in answering Satan. And she challenges his need to do that any longer. And then she uses Satan's line when she says to him, "Curse God. Curse God." Satan was never closer to a smile than at that moment as he and his minions sat staring, waiting, hoping. Say it, Job. Say it! Say it! I want to pause here and say something regarding Job's wife. I want to confess to you that for too long in my ministry, I've taken unfair shots at her. I think it was probably immaturity on my part. Furthermore, I hadn't been married long enough to know better than to do that. And I cannot leave this one snapshot of Mrs. Job without saying some things in her defense. So hear me on this. She too had lost 10 children. Until you or I have lost 10 children, let's stay quiet about criticizing Mrs. Job. Who knows what you would do in the backwash of that kind of grief? I can't even imagine.
Bill Meyer: What do you do when everything is gone and the pain just keeps coming? Job didn't have an answer for that. He couldn't explain it. He couldn't stop it. All he could do was sit in the ashes and hold on. Today Chuck Swindoll has reminded us that sometimes that's the most faithful thing a person can do. Suffering has a way of exposing what we really believe about God—not what we say we believe, but what we actually believe deep down when the lights go out. You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck titled today's message Satan versus Job, round two. It's message number three in a comprehensive study of Job's remarkable life. Let's face it: there are days when the headlines feel like too much to bear. When grief piles on grief, when the world seems to be unraveling faster than anyone can explain. That's the story of Job's life, and for many of us, it's our story too. If you've been dealing with an unbearable heaviness lately, you're not alone and you're not without hope. Chuck Swindoll's book *Finding God When the World's on Fire* was written for exactly this moment. With the wisdom and warmth that have defined Chuck's ministry for decades, he opens God's word to show you that even when everything around you shakes, the God who holds you never does. We'd be pleased to send it to your home when we receive your donation to support the ministry of Insight for Living. It's our way of saying thank you and pointing you toward the peace that only God can give. Once you're finished reading Chuck's book, you'll want to share it with a friend or family member. Request the book *Finding God When the World's on Fire* by going to insight.org/donate or call us at 800-772-8888. Again, just go to insight.org/donate or call 800-772-8888. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe how Job, in an endless cycle of suffering, kept his faith, Tuesday on Insight for Living.
Guest (Male): The preceding message, "Satan versus Job, round two," was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.