Heaven's Controversy Concerning Job
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. God's everlasting eye watches over His children. When Satan made his second entrance into the presence of God, he discovered that the Lord had observed the fidelity of His servant, that His eye was upon him, and that He still had nothing but endorsement for His servant.
Before we take up the results of Satan's second challenge to God concerning Job's fidelity, we wish to carry you into the consideration of God's all-seeing eye, and of His watch care for His children.
Many of David's Psalms give us some light on this matter. They suggest what Scripture teaches, that God has searched us and known us, that He even understands our thoughts afar off. He compasseth our path and our lying down, and is acquainted with all our ways. He even knows every word that is upon our tongue. He besets us behind and before.
We do not marvel that the Psalmist cried out, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me."
2. We need to remember, however, that God watches over us for our good. God's eye runs to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him. Great has been His faithfulness for His children. It is renewed every morning, and fresh every evening. He never forgets His own. He has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He takes us by His right hand, saying, "I will help thee."
He who imagines that God delights in leading His own into trying circumstances and heart-rending conditions has no conception of the heart of God. If, as in the case of Job, God permits Satan for the while to seemingly triumph, it will not be but for a little while. The end of the Lord with Job was the same as the end of the Lord with all of His saints it brought a realization of God's tender mercies, and bountiful provision.
3. In the hour of travail and of trial, we must, therefore, trust in the Lord. Solomon has said, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." We need to spell the word "disappointment" as "His appointment."
Let us remember how the saints of old passed uncomplainingly through flood and fire with unwavering trust. They quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turnd to flight the army of the aliens.
Among the women there were those who received their dead raised to life again. There were others who did not accept deliverance; desiring to obtain a better resurrection. They "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented."
As we think of these, and their wonderful faith, and how God, through their trials, led them on to a larger and an eternal reward, we need not marvel at the afflictions of Job.
I. THE LORD'S SECOND COMMENDATION OF JOB (Job 2:1-3)
1. Satan's second presentation. We may not grasp the full meaning of Satan's access to the presence of the Lord. Of one thing, however, we may assure ourselves, Satan was not chained in hell, nor cast into the pit of the abyss in Job's day; neither is he now in confinement. He is still the same loose devil, whom Peter, in Spirit, describes as going "about, seeking whom he may devour."
Satan may once, long before man's day, have dwelt in the presence of God; however, he was cast out, and if he ever has audience with the Lord, it is only when the Lord, in His purposes, so permits.
2. The Lord's second endorsement of Job. The Lord said to Satan, "Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?"
Let us pause a moment. Is there any greater joy that could come to the heart of a servant of the Lord, than to know that he stands approved before the Lord? Our greatest boon is to hear His, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." If God be for us, who can be against us? If God commends us, what care we for all of the maledictions of men or demons?
II. THE LORD'S SUMMING UP OF THE FIRST ASSAULT ON JOB (Job 2:3, l.c.)
The last clause of our key verse reads, "And still he (Job) holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst Me against him, to destroy him without cause."
1. The overcoming Job. In the last verse of the first chapter is our first statement concerning Job's victory under Satan's first attempt.
(1) Job sinned not. This is the way the Scripture reads, "In all this Job sinned not." It was no small testing, the loss of all of his riches, and the loss of his seven sons and three daughters. Yet, Job sinned not.
(2) Job did not charge God foolishly. We must remember that our key verse says that God moved against him without cause. Yet, Job did not charge God, nor complain against God because of his reverses.
The women came to the sepulcher while it was yet dark. Job trusted God in the darkness. Trusted where he could not understand; believed where he could not see.
2. The immovable Job. Job still held fast his integrity. Like the rock of Gibraltar he stood staunch and true in his faithfulness. He had iron in his blood. He proved himself an iron pillar, and a stone wall against all of Satan's onslaughts.
III. SATAN'S SECOND CHALLENGE (Job 2:4-5)
Satan was forced to admit that Job had remained true with his possessions taken away, and his children slain. But now Satan says, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth Thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face."
Being routed in his first challenge Satan seeks another mode of attack. He has been forced to admit that Job did not serve God because of his temporal blessings with which God had surrounded him. Therefore, He challenges God from a second angle.
Fox's book of Martyrs gives abundant proof that God's children are willing to suffer. Some of them may suffer with tears, but many will suffer with a song.
Paul and Silas, with beaten backs, lying prostrate upon the ground, sang praises unto God. Some of the most beautiful of saints are the most afflicted.
IV. GOD'S WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT SATAN'S CHALLENGE (Job 2:6)
1. God permitted Satan to touch Job's body in order to prove Job's sincerity. The Lord knoweth what is in man. He knoweth the weaknesses of the flesh, and He also knows the strength of the Spirit. Our God does not believe that His children are a group of molly coddles, weak-kneed, and easily overcome.
From the beginning saints have proved themselves impervious to Satan's fiercest attacks, under any and every condition. Men who have known God, and have trusted in Him, have honored God, honored His grace, honored the character, the integrity, and the strength of the new man in them, which was begotten in righteousness and true holiness. In innumerable cases God has accepted Satan's challenge of verse five, and has proved Satan a liar.
2. God permitted Satan to touch Job's body in order to strengthen Job's character, and to develop his spiritual life.
While God had said there was no one like Job on the earth, yet, that meant by no means that Job, in all things, was what he might have been.
The result of this second test, like the first, proved a benefaction to Job. He came out of the fire purified and made white.
Where is he who doubts that David's experience under Saul's cruel dealings, did not make him the stronger, better man?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the burning fiery furnace; Daniel, in the lion's den; Jonah swallowed of the whale; each received a blessing through their trials.
3. God permitted Satan to touch Job's body in order to give to succeeding generations the inspiration of Job's all-glorious faith. Chapter eleven of Hebrews recounts the victories of faith wrought out through almost inconceivable difficulties and trials.
Chapter twelve of Hebrews tells us that we, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, should run the race which is set before us.
Among the valiant men who look down upon us, as we meet the tribulations of these last days, is Job.
Let us, therefore, run the race that is set before us with renewed courage, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, and the file Leader of all those who endure.
V. THE LORD'S LIMITATIONS ON SATAN (Job 2:6)
The Lord said unto Satan, "Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life."
1. Satan's operations against the saints are always circumscribed. God seems to say, "So far shalt thou go, but no farther." If Satan had full sway against the saints, he could annihilate them from the face of the earth.
Our security against Satan's strategies lies not in our own strength, but in Christ's. We are made more than conquerors through Him.
A little child, hearing the soldiers fighting in the street, cried out in fear, until her big brother put his back against the door and said, "Now, they cannot get you, because I am here."
2. Satan's operations against the saints are without mercy. The wicked one was not content merely with robbing Job of his family and his wealth, he wanted also to attack Job personally in his body.
Those who follow Satan are following a cruel master. Think of the woman bent double with disease, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. Consider the man of Gadara, dwelling among the tombs; the demoniac whom no man could tame, driven of Satan.
Even the Lord Jesus, when He came into the hour of darkness where Satan held sway, found no pity and no remorse with Satan.
VI. SATAN SMITING JOB'S BODY (Job 2:7)
Our verse says that Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
1. Satan as the author of physical ailments and deformities. We must keep before us constantly, in the study of Job, this positively stated fact, that Satan smote Job with boils.
There are various reasons to which sickness and physical infirmities may be traced.
(1) One may be sick from natural causes, such as improper diet, the drinking of impure and tainted water, the breathing in of diseased germs, the abuse of the laws of hygiene and of sanitation. The majority of diseases doubtless come from these causes.
(2) One may be sick because of Divine chastisement. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth," and that chastening may at times take the form of physical suffering.
(3) One may be sick because of Satan's attack. There are various incidents of this in the Word of God.
Job's physical plight was due to our third reason. Job was not sick because God was chastening him; for God distinctively said to Satan, "Thou movest Me against him, to destroy him without cause."
Job, however, while he complained at times because of physical oppression, and while he doubted, he never was reproved by the Lord for misrepresenting Deity.
There are abroad, many who still contend that every sickness and every human ill befalling the children of God is due to their sinning, and is a result of Divine chastisement. Not so with Job.
2. Satan in the case of Job gave him the worst of all physical ills. We may not be right, but we can imagine nothing harder to bear than boils from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. One boil is more than enough for most people, but a body covered with boils is unbearable.
Job was not only in physical pain, but he was greatly embarrassed. He sat down among the ashes, and took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal.
VII. JOB'S PHYSICAL ANGUISH IS SUGGESTIVE TO US OF THE SAVIOUR'S SUFFERING ON CALVARY (Psalms 22:14-15)
1. The Lord Jesus, like Job, was in terrible physical anguish. The Bible says that His face was more marred than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. Remember the crown of thorns that had been beaten down into the brow of the Lord. Remember the back that had been lacerated with stripes at the whipping-post. Remember the nail-pierced hands and feet, the unnatural position, the inflamed wounds, and the exposed nerves.
2. The Lord Jesus, like Job, was surrounded by accusers. In the case of Job, his own wife said unto him, "Curse God, and die." His three supposed friends did nothing but berate him, criticize, and condemn him.
The Lord Jesus was betrayed with a kiss by His own familiar friend. His own disciples forsook Him and fled. The people of His own race to whom He had come with hands outstretched with blessings, surrounded the Cross, and like maddening bulls and hungry dogs, cried out against Him.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Satan could not touch Job against God's wilt. As God protected Job during his testings, and preserved him unto a final fruitfulness, so has He kept His people Israel during twenty-three hundred years of wandering.
"Anti-Semitism will never destroy the Jew. Attacked and persecuted as no other nation ever has been or will be, Israel survives and always will survive. 'Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. Although scattered among the nations, Israel has never been assimilated by the nations; this is a miraculous part of her history, God predicted it in the words: 'The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations,' although Jehovah 'shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.' This word from Moses went on. to declare that 'among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee: and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear.'
"Yet, as a well-known Bible teacher has said: 'Destroy Israel? You might as well try to destroy God Himself. His Word cannot be broken. He is preserving His gainsaying and disobedient people for His own purpose. Who shall hinder Him?'