Lessons Learned From Job
Scriptures: 1 Pet. 5:8; Job 1:1-22; Matt. 4:8-9; 1 John 2:16; 1 Tim. 6:3-9
Introduction
We often hear of things going on that we readily blame on Satan. People have made the statement when they got caught doing something that "the devil made me do it." There are many influences in the world but truly one of the most destructive influences is that of our adversary, the devil. In these messages I will examine some of the things we can learn about how Satan operates through the experience of Job. The idea for this message actually came from a lesson that my brother taught to his men’s group, however as Barry and I often discuss, I reserved the right to Rodneyize it. (Yeah I know Rodneyize is not a word, but Barry and I know what it means.) As I read Barry’s lesson, I thought about some of the people I have interacted with over the years and the beliefs they have held. Some of those beliefs I held earlier in my Christian walk, but have since changed as I’ve learned more. In these messages we will take a look at what happened "behind the scenes" in the situation with Job to identify the tactics that Satan still uses today to get us off track. You may be tired of hearing about Job, but I ask that you bear with me for just a little while as we take one more look at the lessons we can learn from his situation.
Lesson 1: Satan Is Not Our Friend
The first lesson we learn from Job’s situation is that Satan is not your friend, he is your adversary. He is no one to fool around with for he does have power. First Peter 5:8 says "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” There are many people who believe that Satan is weak and powerless until they find themselves spiraling downward in a situation that they cannot control. Peter, who actually walked with Christ, described him as a roaring lion walking around seeking who he may devour. A friend would not be walking around seeking someone to devour, to kill, to destroy. Satan is powerful, yet he has no power over God’s children as long as they stay within God’s hands, but I will talk more about that later. So lesson one, understand clearly that Satan is not your friend, he is your enemy. The first step in dealing with an enemy is actually being able to recognize the enemy and how they operate. We must understand the tactics of our enemy so that we recognize when they are in action. You do not go to your enemy’s yard to play, but you will keep a watchful eye out for the attack that you know is coming. If you are playing on the enemy’s playground, you are allowing your guard to fall and before you know it your enemy that you have been playing with now attacks you. Satan is not our friend, he is our powerful enemy. Do not let your guard down and think you can play in his yard and be his friend.
Lesson 2: Satan Is Not Omnipresent
When the book of Job opens, it tells about the possessions that Job had and then it transition to Satan entering into God’s presence. Verse seven of Job chapter one says "And the Lord said to Satan, ’From whence do you come?’ Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ’From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." Satan cannot be in more than one place at a time. This means that he cannot personally be attacking you and me at the same time for he can only be in one place. God is omnipresent for He is everywhere and can be influencing my life and yours at the exact same time. When God questioned Satan as to where he had been he said he had been roaming the earth. Remember what Peter said about Satan in what we just read, how he was "prowling" the earth looking for someone to destroy? He is not omnipresent so he cannot be everywhere at once. Because he is limited in this way, he does have an army of demons who are very proactive in their assault on our lives. The tactics they use are the same ones that Satan used on Job. From this point on when I mention the things Satan will do to hinder us, understand that I am primarily talking about those spiritual influences that report to him. This brings me to the third lesson.
Lesson 3: Satan Is Deliberately Looking For Ways To Enter Your Life
When you consider what Peter said and Satan’s response to God when questioned about where he had been, it becomes clear that he is very active. He is very deliberate in his seeking out of ways to enter into our lives and disrupt our relationship with God. In verse eight of chapter one God asks Satan has he considered His servant Job who was "a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." Why would God proactively ask Satan this question? God has the ability to look out into time and know what we are going to do. When we have walked with Him for so long, He pretty much knows exactly how faithful we will be to Him, especially in the midst of trials and tribulations. It is sort of like when you have been in a relationship for a long time with someone you begin to know what they are and are not capable of doing, except in God’s case, He really knows. God had faith in Job; He knew what Job was about. Satan on the other hand does not have this ability. He cannot look out into time and know what our actions are going to be. Satan never knows what we’re going to do until we do it. That’s when he knows that a particular thought or tactic has influenced us. He also listens to our conversations, the way in which we speak and conduct ourselves. If he is speaking doubt about God in our minds and we begin to speak those things out loud, he knows and understands that he is influencing us. You may call me paranoid and that is okay, but we cannot fight against an enemy that we do not understand, know or recognize. If you know that Satan is looking for any small crack in your spiritual armor in his attempt to enter your life and disrupt your relationship with God then you are always looking for, evaluating and patching the cracks before he can enter. But back to my point, Satan is seeking a way in your life. When God asked him had he considered Job, his answer confirms that not only had he considered Job, but that he may have already tried to get Job to turn his back on God. Look at verse nine and ten. "Then Satan answered the Lord, ’Does Job fear God for nothing? Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side….." For Satan to know all of this, he had to have been looking at Job as a potential target. Satan told God that Job served him because God had blessed him and had a hedge of protection around him. Do you understand what he was saying? That hedge of protection kept Satan at bay, he could not do whatever he wanted with Job because Job belonged to God and God was protecting him. When we gave our lives to Christ, we were covered by the blood of Jesus and therefore we are protected. The only way that Satan can truly wreck havoc in our lives is if we allow him. Remember, our lives are much more than material things. We should be able to lose everything we have and still remain faithful to God, but Satan does not believe that. He believes that we only serve God because we are blessed and have material things and that brings me to lesson four.
Lesson 4: Satan Will Try To Influence Us Through Personal Gain
One of Satan’s theories about man is that no man will serve God without personal material gain. Does this theory sounds familiar – the old "prosperity" message. Satan believes that man is motivated to serve God (or him) based on what they receive materially. Remember in the Gospels when Satan was tempting Jesus? He tempted Jesus with material things. Matthew 4:8-9 records "Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, ’All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." Satan offered Jesus kingdoms if He would just bow down and worship him. Satan did not understand that Jesus was not motivated by material things. Would you give your soul to the devil in order to win the lottery? What about to become President of the United States – the most powerful person in the world? Satan believes that all of us have a price tag and if he finds the right one, we will sell out our faith and worship him. First John 2:16 says For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. Satan believes we are operating according to the ways of the world in which we are currently living.
Satan believes that we only serve God because we have material things and that if we lost those things, we could easily turn our back on God. This was his premise when he was talking to God about Job. Verse eleven of chapter one records Satan telling God "But put forth Thy hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse Thee to Thy face." Those are very strong words, but Satan knew that there had been many individuals who had done that very thing. They were fine with God until they lost their material things and then they turned their backs on Him. Satan has done a good job getting many to believe that the only result from serving God is the measurement of how "blessed" materially you are. If you do not have material things then you are not being blessed by God. If God is not blessing you, then why do you bother to serve Him? I am sure we have all had these thoughts at one time or another. Satan has taken this into the Church with the prosperity message. Many believe that if you serve God then you are guaranteed to be blessed materially. As a matter of fact, if you are not being blessed financially, then something is very wrong with you because God is a God of abundance and it all belongs to you. It is apparent that those who hold this belief does not fully understand what Paul said to Timothy in First Timothy 6:3-9. In these verses we find the following: "If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”
Paul said that our godliness does give us great gain, but not in the sense that some have interpreted. The gain we get is the contentment we have with our lives. We do not have to be rich but we find contentment with everything we have. Paul says the person who seeks riches actually falls into temptation and a snare. This is what Satan wants. He wants us to fall into a situation where we stop trusting God because we are not being blessed as some would define blessings. He wants our minds focused on other things, anything but our relationship with God. The search for riches has plunged men into ruin and destruction, both spiritually and physically. Understand that Satan will do his best to influence us through personal gain. When things seem to be bad he will whisper to you "Why are you serving a God who will not answer your prayer or give you blessings. Look at the new house so and so got and the new car that such and such got. Don’t you deserve these things too? God is such an unfair God that He will bless everyone else except you." Ever had thoughts like that? Do not base your spiritual relationship with God on material things.
Once Satan challenges God and God grants him permission to "test" Job, God restricted what Satan could do and limited him to Job’s possessions, not Job’s body. Once Satan received this permission, verse twelve says that he leaves God’s presence. Have you ever thought about why Satan left God’s presence? I told you earlier that Satan cannot be in two places and I believe that he wanted to be the one to tempt Job. This was important enough that he wanted to see to it himself verses sending one of his demonic spirits to do it. But his leaving God’s presence also speaks to another point I want to make. Whatever Satan wants to do in our lives, he cannot do it in the presence of God. Understand this, we are in a war. Satan is not going to go to God and ask permission to "test" us; he is literally doing all he can to destroy us because he knows his days are numbered. But again I ask you to remember that your life is not the possessions that you have gathered since you have been in this world. Your life is your relationship with God. While you are in God’s hands, Satan cannot destroy your life, unless your life is defined by the possessions you have. When Job lost all of his possessions including his children, he did not turn his back on God, nor did he curse God as Satan had thought that he would. After Job received all of the information about his loss, he tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshipped God. He said, "…Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21
Job did not curse God, he actually worshipped him. Can you imagine what Satan must have thought when he took all of Job’s possessions including his children and Job just bows down and worships God? Satan was not happy; actually I believe that he was extremely angry. But here is what truly blesses me. We have the knowledge of what was happening and who was behind it, Job did not know. Job thought that God had done this to him. Even while thinking God had taken away all of his material things and more importantly his children, Job refused to curse God. You hear me, he refused to curse God. He actually did the opposite by bowing down and worshipping God instead. That is a testimony. What would you do if you thought God had bankrupted you and caused your children to die? Would you bow down and worship Him still or would you do what Satan believes man would do and turn your back on God or curse Him to his face? Your life is much more than what you possess.
Next week we will continue with the Lessons learned fro Job. May God bless and keep you.
