In this message on the trials of Job, we will first consider the person of Job.
Job 1:1 says, "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and this man was perfect and upright, and he feared God and turned away from evil." Being perfect is related to our inner man, and being upright is related to our outer man. Furthermore, to be upright means that we are not crooked or biased.
In addition to being perfect inwardly and upright outwardly, Job feared God positively and turned away from evil negatively. However, even with the positive matter of fearing God, there is not anything that is actually positive. God did not create man merely to fear Him without doing anything wrong. The Bible tells us that God created man in His own image and after His likeness that man may express Him (Gen. 1:26). This is the most positive thing among all positive things. To fear God and turn away from evil is not adequate, and actually this is not positive. The most positive thing is to express God. To express God is higher than fearing God and turning away from evil.
Another word used in relation to Job the man is integrity. In 2:3 Jehovah tells Satan that Job "still holds fast his integrity." In verse 9 Job's wife asks him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity?" In 27:5 Job says to his friends, "Until I die, I will not put away my integrity from me." Finally, in 31:6 Job declares, "Let God know my integrity." Whereas the words perfect and upright are adjectives, the word integrity is a noun. Integrity is the totality of being perfect and being upright; it is the totality of perfection plus uprightness. With respect to Job, integrity is the total expression of what he is. In character he is perfect and upright, and in his ethics he has a high standard of integrity.
According to 1:2, seven sons and three daughters were born to Job.
Job possessed seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a great many servants (v. 3a).
Job was greater than all the sons of the east (v. 3b).
Job's sons would hold feasts in each one's house, each on his own day, and they would invite their sisters to eat and drink with them (v. 4). Job would send word and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for them, saying, "Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their heart" (v. 5). Because feasting, an excess in eating, can be worldly, Job sanctified his children after their days of feasting. He offered the burnt offerings for them continually. He surely was a godly father.