Hey, Bible readers. I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today's reading landed us about 400 years post flood, and we met a man named Job. Initially, he sounds a lot like Noah. He's blameless and upright and fears God. In Noah's story, things got really dark. Then there was some relief at the end. And not to give spoilers, but we'll see the same type of thing playing out in Job's story. Based on our conversation from day 2, you may have noticed that Job 1:6 referred to the angels as sons of God, including Satan, who in his created form is an angel. In Job 1:8, God initiates a conversation about Job with Satan. One thing worth noting here, the word Satan means adversary, one who resists, accuser. There's some debate about this, but many people believe Satan is not necessarily a proper name that refers to one being, but that it's a general term referring to God's adversary, in this instance, a fallen angel who opposes God's reign. Later in scripture, we have references to a specific fallen angel named Lucifer. But there's reason to believe that the word Satan doesn't always refer specifically to Lucifer. There are many fallen angels who are God's adversaries. In fact, a lot of people believe that Revelation 12 indicates that one-third of all the angels God created ended up rebelling against him and were cast from heaven.

So there are a lot of Satans. And I think if I were to pronounce that word correctly, it would be Satan. But I'm not going to try to get too weird here. After God initiates the conversation about Job with one of his enemies, the enemy concocts a plan to test Job, and we see God allowing it. Here's what's noteworthy to me in this section. God didn't create the plan for testing Job, but he allowed it. He wasn't the active agent in the evil perpetrated by Satan, but he was still sovereign over it. And in his mercy, he limited it. Satan was on a leash. He was not allowed to take Job's life. Satan attacked Job in a variety of ways. In 111 through 19, we saw that his losses came twice as acts of men, the Sabaians and the Caldians, and twice as acts of nature, fire from heaven and wind. Quick sidebar, I wonder if the phrase fire from heaven is an old-school way to refer to lightning. Regardless, God granted Satan the opportunity to influence both of those things, the acts of man and the acts of nature. For God to allow Satan to influence those things means that God himself is the one who has control over those things.

You can't give someone influence over something that isn't in your domain. Job's response to all this trouble was humble. 122 says, In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. In 2:10, Job acknowledged that everything comes from God's hand, and he received it. He's handling his grief pretty well until three of his friends show up on the scene. They came to show him sympathy and comfort, and they did a great job of that during the seven days when they sat in silence with him. The problem was when they started to talk. Maybe you've had friends like that, or maybe you've been a friend like that. There are some really good lessons for us in the Book of Job for how to comfort someone who has experienced trauma. Sitting with them in silence is a pretty safe bet. But after seven days of silence, Job's friends start giving him bad counsel. We heard from the first one today, Eliphaz. In 4:12-16, Eliphaz claims to have a word from God about what Job has done wrong. He insinuates that Job has brought all this trouble on himself, but we know from the story that Eliphaz is wrong here.

Tomorrow, we'll see how Job responds to his opinionated friend. Where did you see a picture of God's attributes in what we read today? What was your God shot? Here's mine. It was really comforting to me to see how God is sovereign over evil. God limited the actions of the enemy, and every action the enemy took against Job ultimately served God's greater purposes as we see them unfold in the rest of Job's story. If you've never read this story, it does get really dark, just like Noah's, but it does have a happy ending. Like I said, I'm not trying to spoil anything. I'm just trying to encourage you as you press through these dark spots. Keep looking for God in the dark spots of this story because he's where the joy is. If you never got around to listening to our 6 Prep episodes from before our Daily Recap started, I would encourage you to take time to do that today.

You can listen to all six episodes in a little more than an hour, and they will really help you out.

My friends at Hope Nation have another fun song battle for all the Christian music lovers out there.

Whether you're 2023 included music by Brandon Lake, Lauren Dagle, or for King & Country, this game recaps all the best music from the year. Watch with your family or share it with your church small group. Click the link in the show notes to check it out.