The personality of Job is introduced in the first sentence of the book with his name on it: he “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”  The first two chapters help us understand what all that means.

In the first paragraph we learn that he prayed and made burnt offerings regularly; he was concerned for his family.  The rest of the first chapter is about the tragic, complete catastrophes visited on him by Satan. His livestock is stolen or destroyed, and all his children are killed in a freak windstorm.  His reaction is to worship God with this famous quote: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”  He did not sin or charge God with wrong

Things get even worse in chapter 2.  Satan causes revolting open sores all over Job, and he ends up in a dust heap scraping himself with a piece of broken pottery.  This is nasty on the level of Lamentations 3.16 – “He has made my teeth grind on gravel.” Job’s wife implores him to curse God and die.  But the man who fears the LORD responds, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”  In all this, he did not sin.

Job knows the authority and providence of his sovereign God are all encompassing.  He will not sin in his despair and anger, he will not curse the name of the LORD, he will not kill himself, he worships.   The fear of the LORD includes continuing, as best as we can, to trust and believe in all circumstances and know that this God is with us.