Happy Reformation Day everyone. I hope you've joined our Here We Stand series this month and are enjoying it and being edified by it is a remarkable gift to have the Bible in our own language

so that we can read it for ourselves and to read the book of Job for ourselves which we begin

tomorrow in the Navigator's Bible reading plan. Here is a question about those early

chapters in Job from Lisa, a listener to the podcast. Pastor John, hello and thank you

for APJ. We often focus on how Job responded to suffering, the steadfastness of Job, as James says in James 511.

But we often don't focus on Job's Wife's Response in Job 2 verses 9 and 10. Can you expound on her response and tell us what

lessons we can take about how not to respond to personal suffering?

Both in the old and the New Testament,

amazingly, God uses Satan to serve his own purifying, strengthening, preserving purposes in the lives of his precious children.

In other words, God baffles Satan by making him the instrument of the very thing he hates, namely trust in God and holiness in life.

And I mentioned this just to make sure that none of us thinks that Satan's involvement with Job's suffering is somehow exceptional in the Bible and can be marginalized as though it weren't going to happen to us.

Remember how Paul describes his own thorn in the flesh and why it was given to him.

In 2 Corinthians 12-7, to me, to keep me from becoming conceited

because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given to me in the flesh a

messenger of Satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited.

Now Satan's purpose in our lives is not to keep us from becoming conceited.

His purpose is to make us conceited, make us proud and arrogant and self-sufficient, but this

thorne was given to keep Paul humble, keep him trusting God, so it was sent from God, but the messenger that God used to send it was

Satan.

So if we see Satan's hand in our suffering, it doesn't mean that the suffering has no good design from our loving father.

So, we're not surprised when we read in Job 111 that God makes Satan the instrument of the terrible

suffering that he used to test his servant Job. Satan says to God stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he'll curse you to his to your face and the Lord said to Satan behold all that he has is in your hand only don't touch him and Satan goes out and with

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