Passage Read: Job 1-4
Meditation Verses: 1:15-19
Thought
The brutality of this passage! Satan kills who knows how many servants and all Job's children in a single day, almost within a single hour! All these lives are meaningless to him, just to get Job to curse God! Even more shocking, God allows Satan to do these things, all to test and prove Job. Human lives are casually thrown away to test one man's faith. Satan cares nothing for men. God knows who is chosen and who is rejected, and He won't mix them up. The chosen will be saved; surely Job was the kind of man to make sure all his servants and children knew at least what he knew of the Lord. The rejected would be lost, even if they lived a hundred lifetimes. None of these people who were marked for salvation missed their chance for salvation. But many of these people may have been eternally lost.
Application
This is hard to swallow, but it is reality. Countless people die every day, and there's no way to stop that. God lets it happen. How do I respond to that? People need to hear the Gospel, compassion and the Great Commission demand it. I should care enough to do whatever I can to make that a priority, but if people reject the Gospel or if I can't reach them, I don't need to feel excessive responsibility. I can and should move on to the next person and the next and the next. Lives are at stake, but they don't depend on me making them believe, but on me making them aware. The results are up to God, and He tells me to move on from anyone who doesn't welcome the message. There's surely nothing wrong if I try a few times, but I don't need to place excessive value on one person at the expense of others who may be ready to receive the Gospel. How horrible it would be to spend all my days working to make one man believe who God never intended to believe. People are precious, but I need to be careful not to see some as more precious than others. The real determining factor is their response to the Gospel. Those who believe are worth more of my time; those who refuse to believe and show no interest are not worth expending extra effort.