The Courtroom Of Heaven Series

The FBI has some amazing ways of bringing criminals to justice.

One of these ways is by means of the Petrographic Unit of their

famed laboratory in Washington, D. C. This unit is devoted to the

analysis and identification of different kinds of soil. They know

what soil is from a South Dakota corn field, or a moss cranberry

bog, or an Arizona desert. By analyzing the mud on a mans shoes,

or from the underside of his car fender, they can tell where he has

been.

For example: In March of 1960 a car had been abandoned near

the dump in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It had been set afire and

burned out. The FBI took samples of the soil under the fender, and

they sent it to this Petrographic Unit. The soil revealed that that car

had come from Morrison, Colorado, where Adolf Coors III had

been kidnapped and murdered less than five weeks before. This

evidence put the FBI on the trail of Joseph Corbett Jr., owner of the

car, who is now serving a life sentence. The mud under his fenders

led to the discovery of the corruption in his heart. The FBI has

developed some marvelous methods to get their man.

Satan, in the book of Job, is portrayed as a sort of FBI agent of

the spirit world. He walks to and fro upon the earth like a spy

seeking to detect some evidence to show that even the best of men

are no good. It is not just the guilty he is after, but the innocent.

Satan seems to have a compulsion to prove that all goodness is mere

sham. He feels that righteousness is only a racket, and that men are

pious only because it pays. God has a different view of man,

however, and he proudly calls attention to his righteousness servant

Job. Satan clearly despises Job whom God so admires. Satan is a

pessimist about man in general, and Job in particular. He knows he

could prove that Job is a pious hypocrite. He just needed to the

freedom to put him to the test. He is saying to God, "Just let me

analyze the soil is he make of, and I can prove he is rotten to the

core. By his own mouth he will reveal his guilt, for he will curse

you."

We are comparing Satan with the FBI, but he is really more like

the diabolical secret police, or Gestapo, who are determined to

ensnare the innocent, and prove that the loyal are really enemies of

the state. God thinks Job is an ideal man, loyal and loving and committed

to what is good. Satan is the great accuser who says it is

all a hypocritical facade. God does not ignore this accusation, but

takes it seriously, for Satan appears to be a servant of God. His duty

is to investigate, and bring back reports to the court of heaven. God

does not scold or rebuke, but gives him greater power to test his

theory, and get more evidence. Satan is like a prosecuting attorney

in the court of heaven.

Before we pursue this case, and the methods used by the

prosecuting attorney to prove Job was a scoundrel, we need to do a

little FBI work ourselves, and investigate this zealous accuser. A

slang expression for confusion is appropriate here, as we ask: Who

the devil is this Satan who marches into the presence of God with

these charges against Job? We are forced by the book of Job to

confess how ignorant we are about Satan, and his function in God's

total plan. It is not wise to be ignorant about one whose job it is to

know everything about you. The CIA of our nation has spies in the

Intelligence agencies of other nations so we can know what they

know about us. If you don't know what your enemy knows about

you, he has an advantage over you. Paul said this of Satan in II Cor.

2:11. He said we are not ignorant of Satan's devices, or designs.

The purpose was to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us.

Paul is saying, what you don't know can hurt you.

Job did not know that Satan had accused him of serving God for

the profit in it. He was at a tremendous disadvantage because of this

lack of knowledge. We have this information, however, and we can

see what Job never did. Satan's primary function is that of man's

accuser. God is for man, and Satan is the opponent of man. The

Jews have an ancient tradition that Scripture seems to support.

They say that Satan fell because of his jealousy of man. This would

explain why he tempted man to fall. God made him a marvelous