“It is no new thing for the Lord to allow the efforts and enmity of Satan for the blessing of His saints. In the case of Job we see this very thing, indeed the Lord probed His servant far more deeply. At each successive trial from Satan, Job retained his integrity, and blessed the Lord; but the Lord showed Job himself—the very thing he needed for the full blessedness of turning away from self to the Lord. Then He showed him God, and Job’s comfort was at last as deep as his self-abasement. Job had no idea that he thought too much of himself; but that was just what God had to show him he did. He loved to recall the time when the fruits of godliness in him drew forth the respect and esteem of men. But God showed him how evil a thing it was to be looking at the effects of grace in himself or upon others. What the enemy of God and man could not do, Job’s friends did. He could stand against the temptations of Satan, but he was provoked to folly by his friends coming and condoling with him, and giving their misdirected opinions. When a person talks much about grace, there is not very much to be found of it there, we may be sure. Job had to be put into the furnace to find out that there was a great deal more beside grace in him. But though Satan might tempt without success, and his friends only provoke, when the Lord Himself comes in, then at once Job is thoroughly humbled. He sees himself in the light of the presence of God, and exclaims, ‘Behold I am vile.’ ‘I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.’ But the end of the Lord is as good at least as His beginning. He is ever pitiful, and of tender mercy. And it is when Job thinks nothing of himself that the true stream of grace flows out, and he prays for his friends. ‘And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.’”