Must be a “Book of Job Week”. I guess I cannot help it. It is one of the most enigmatic books of the Bible. It is a reminder that sometimes “good people” suffer for reasons we don’t always understand. It is also a reminder that God is in control.
However, I guess you would not strictly believe that to be true if you belonged to the “Word of Faith” movement. It basically places a lot of emphasis upon words. We realize that words do have power and meaning, and that is evident when God speaks and things are created throughout Genesis 1.
However, we are not God. We cannot bind God with our words. That is essentially what the Word of Faith movement teaches. In reality, it is a form of witchcraft. Witchcraft teaches that with the right words, the right incantations, the right emotions and the right ceremonies, desires become realities.
The Word of Faith movement teaches that God is attracted to love and Satan is attracted to fear. So far, so good, but it doesn’t stop there. God reacts to love, and Satan reacts to fear. In the extreme, it makes God and Satan both powerless as they can do nothing but react to the expression of these emotions.
They teach that Job was afraid, and therefore he was “outside of God’s will” in words and actions. He offered sacrifices for his sons and daughters because he was “afraid” they may have sinned. Therefore, even though God had given Job a hedge of protection, his actions through fear “tore down the wall of Blessing” and opened him up to Satan’s attack.
In other words, God had no choice but to allow Satan to attack Job, and it was Job’s own fault! This interpretation of Job is completely contradictory to the Book of Job itself. Job was “perfect” and he “feared God and eschewed evil”.
Again, the emphasis is placed upon what Job did wrong. They say he “sinned” because he was “operating outside of God’s will”, yet the Bible is clear that Job was a righteous man who did no sin or charge God with wrongdoing until he was grievously afflicted by his trials and interrogated by his 3 friends.
It is just another instance of false accusations against Job – the same exact thing that Job’s 3 friends were guilty of doing.