Under Attack! - series from Job

| ______________________Job 1 and 2----

 Why do bad things happen?  And why do bad things happen to good people?  That may be the most vexing question we ever face, and sometimes we face it in very personal ways.  If God is so good, why did He allow this or that to happen?  As I began contemplating this series several months ago, I received this e-mail from Don and Debbie Mynster regarding family and friends of theirs in Virginia.  It was addressed to Sherry Anderson in our church office. Sherry, I received a phone call last night from my sister that her husband’s sister and brother-in-law, Dale and Reba (Martin) Showalter, had a tragedy happen in their lives.  Their family is an old-order Mennonite group who still use horse and buggy.  Many of these who read this will remember them from the way they were dressed when they came from Virginia to attended Emily’s funeral.  Their oldest son, Scott, has a dairy farm.  He and a 23-year-old Amish man were working putting manure in a three-foot deep manure trough when apparently the pump in this trough broke.  Scott had to get in the trough, as he had to do in the past.  Apparently there was something different this time, for when he removed the cap from the pump he was overtaken by methane gas and lost consciousness.  The Amish man ran to the farmhouse for help, and Scott’s wife, Phyllis, and their four daughters came running.  The Amish man and Phyllis jumped into the trough and also lost consciousness.  His two oldest daughters, Tina and Shayla, ages 10 and 11, jumped into save their mother and father and the other man.  They all lost consciousness, and all five of them drowned.  A pastor who was living next door heard the screaming and had to hold back the two youngest daughters, ages 2 and 4, from also perishing. When I read that e-mail, it was very disturbing to me and to everyone else who read it; and I asked myself, “Why would the Lord allow something like this to happen?”  In a matter of minutes, four members of a family of six were wiped out along with another man, leaving two little girls alone in the world.  Why would God allow that to happen?  That’s a question that comes to us very often in the face of unspeakable suffering or tragedy. The Bible doesn’t avoid this question.  Bad things happened to people in the Bible, too, and very often the great heroes of the faith grappled with why certain things happened.  The book of Job addresses this, and in fact this is the major theme of Job, which may be the earliest and oldest book of the Bible.  As we begin reading the book of Job, we only have to read the first six verses before the character of Satan appears—and in the book of Job Satan is the unseen villain behind all of this man’s disasters.  Look with me at Job 1 & 2: One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.  The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”  Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”  Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?  There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”   “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.  “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?  You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.  But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”  Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off.  They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off.  They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house.  It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.  Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him.  And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”  Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”  Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?  There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.  And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited Me against him to ruin him without any reason.” “Skin for skin!” Satan replied.  “A man will give all he has for his own life.  But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”  So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. This is a strange passage, and I want to say a couple of things about it from the outset. 1.  This is a story, not a creed or a doctrinal section of Scripture; it’s not a systematic theology passage in which we are given a stated doctrine of Satanism or demonism.  So I don’t want to build a theological statement on Satanism based exclusively on this passage. 2.  This is a true story, and so we can observe some things that belong to the realm of reality.  This is very interesting because it takes us behind the scenes, behind the curtain, and we get a glimpse at what goes on in the unseen world around us and above us.  There is an invisible sphere of the spirit, and this is one of the most revealing passages in the entire Bible about what happens in this invisible realm. So let’s work our way through this story, and I want to make five observations regarding the part that the devil plays in the problems we encounter in life. 1.  Satan is our Adversary (v. 6)Verse 6 says:  One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The word “Satan” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “Adversary.”  In this passage, he is an adversary to God and to God’s people.  He and the Lord had a conversation about Job, and it begs the question, “Do the Lord and the devil ever have a conversation about you or me?”  I’m sure that it happens.  Let me show you two other times in the Bible when this happened: Zechariah 3 says:  Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. Revelation 12:10 refers to the devil as The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night. 2.  Satan is Prowling Around This World Like a Lion (v. 7)The next thing to notice is that Satan is a peripatetic enemy. He’s always on the move.  Verse 7 says:  The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”  Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”  This verse reminds us of 1 Peter 5:8:  Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 3.  Satan Can Do Us Great Harm (vv. 13-19)The third observation is that Satan can do us great harm.  I’ll not read these verses again, but think about all the destruction that Satan caused.  Now, if you had been reading the newspaper that day, there would have been no mention of Satan.  You would have read headlines in the Daily News of Uz—I think the newspaper back then was called the Uz Buzz—that said:   Sabeans Attack Area Ranch.Lightening Destroys Herd of Sheep.Chaldean Raiding Parties Strike Region.Strong Wind Destroys House, Kills Inhabitants.City Leader Contracts Skin Disease. Those were the headlines, and they are not unlike the headlines you’ll read today in the Nashville Tennessean.    But the devil was directly behind these events.  He was the mastermind.  And I believe that he is just as certainly and just as directly behind many of the headlines we read about today, and he is the lurking figure behind many of the problems that we face in our personal lives.  And he can do us great harm. 4.  Satan Cannot Touch God’s People without God’s PermissionBut here is a very interesting and wonderful observation:  Satan cannot touch God’s people without God’s permission.  The Lord placed a hedge around Job and around his family and around all that he owned, and Satan was unable to penetrate that hedge without God’s permission. Now, God gave him permission, and that’s what the entirety of Job is about.  This book explains why the Lord did that and what the outcome was.  Still, it’s important to remember that when we are in Jesus Christ, we are under divine protection, and the evil one cannot do with us as he would wish. Let me show you two or two other passages about this.  One is in the famous Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel; and the other is in the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer at the end of John’s Gospel Jesus began His ministry with His Sermon on the Mount, and in that sermon He gave us one version of what we call the Lord’s prayer.  Notice how it’s put in Matthew 6:9ff: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Jesus began His ministry by advising us to pray specifically that we would be protected and delivered from the evil one, the devil. Now turn to the end of our Lord’s ministry, near the end of the Gospel of John to our Lord’s High Priestly prayer in John 17.  Listen to what Jesus prayed: I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name—the name You gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe… My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. As I pondered this in preparation for this message, I realized that I have underestimated the importance of asking God for His specific and definite protection over my family and my church and myself.  This is a lesson that goes all the way to what may well be the oldest book of the Bible—the book of Job.  Think of how powerful an adversary we have.  Think of what Satan brought about in the space of one day.·        He influenced and controlled human tribes of barbarians.·        He influenced and controlled the patterns of the wind and weather.·        He sent deadly bolts of fire from the sky like lightning bolts on steroids.·        He took away the lives of people in the flash of a moment as they feasted.·        He destroyed a man’s health just by beaming his malevolence in his direction.·        And he did all these things undetected by any human perception. And Jesus opened and closed His ministry by teaching us to pray to be delivered from the machinations of the evil one.  It’s possible that we need to take those prayers more seriously than we do. 5.  Satan is a Defeated EnemyBut there’s a final observation we can make about the devil in this passage—He is a defeated enemy.  Job was, in a sense, a human battlefield on which God and Satan battled; and at the end of the book we see that the Lord won, Satan lost, and Job was blessed. In the New Testament, that human battlefield was Jesus Christ.  In the book of Hebrews we read that by His own death Jesus defeated him who held the power of death, that is the devil.  And in Revelation 12:10, we read that the saints in the last days overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Recently a fascinating article appeared in the Baptist Press.   It was about a man named Gwan Garrison, who was living in California with his wife Judy and their two daughters.  One day Garrison discovered that one of the office supervisors who served under him was a practicing witch.  They struck up a professional relationship, and she pulled him into her belief systems.  She taught him how to cast spells, how to discern the future, how to influence people and to have power over them.  His family was unaware of his growing involvement in the occult.  He acquired satanic paraphernalia, but he kept them hidden.  As time went by, Garrison began to enjoy persecuting Christians, whom he increasingly disliked.  He especially resented an employee named Susan Conway, who had witnessed to him, and Garrison did everything he could to terminate her employment.  But he seemed unable to orchestrate anything against her, and her pleasant personality irritated him all the more.  Garrison said—and I’m quoting him:  “There was such a hedge of protection around her that I could never penetrate, and it really bothered me. I loved persecuting Christians and she was one trophy that I wanted on my wall.” One day Garrison walked into his office and there on the corner of the desk was a free ticket to a drama called “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”  He wasn’t sure what it was about, but he decided to go; and he was surprised when he pulled into the parking lot of a local church and realized this was a passion play.  Nevertheless he went in and sat on the very last pew thinking that he could make a quick getaway if he wanted.  But the play was a well-done one and he sat there riveted. Suddenly the character of Jesus was dragged down the aisle right beside Garrison and out of the room.  The next scene was conducted offstage and only the sound was heard.  It was the scene in which the Roman soldiers scourged Jesus.  I want to quote to you what Garrison later said about it: “The doors closed and I heard the whips hitting His back.  Then something strange began to happen:  Every time the whip struck Him I began having a very sharp pain in my chest that began moving down my arm.  I felt like I was having the symptoms of a heart attack.   Once again the doors swung open and Jesus was standing there wearing a crown of thorns.  He took three steps and fell in the aisle right in front of my pew and looked up into my eyes, with blood dripping down his forehead, and said, ‘I did this for you.’   Goose bumps ran down my spine. I didn't know how to respond. He was speaking directly to me like He had known me forever. “Once Jesus got to the stage, which was set as Calvary, He began crying out with each nail that was driven into his flesh. And each time the hammer hit the nail the pain in my own chest returned. I knew I was having a heart attack and morbidly thought to myself, ‘Well, at least I'll die in church.’ “Then they raised the cross with Christ attached, dropped it into a hole on the stage and a tremendous clap of thunder roared over the speaker system.  I heard Him say something remarkable: ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ “The house lights went down and the sanctuary was totally black.  As the lights come up, the cross was empty. I was used to casting spells on others, but at this instance I was spellbound by the gospel story. “The pastor, standing under one dim light at the front of the sanctuary, said,  ‘If you are hurting in your heart tonight, I want to pray for you.  Please raise your hand.’  With pain running from my heart down my arm I didn’t wait a moment… “I don't remember how I got to the altar when the invitation was given, I just remember kneeling with the pastor.  After a moment he looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’ve never felt the presence of evil like I feel in you tonight. I sense that Satan completely controls you.  If you want to be set free from the pain you're feeling, Jesus can set you free.’  As I prayed the sinner's prayer the pain immediately left.” Garrison returned home and prepared to destroy all his satanic paraphernalia.  He later testified that when he picked up his satanic bible to burn it, he was struck with a force of energy that felt like raw electricity; and he finally fetched his broom and mop and used them like a giant pair of chopsticks to carry the material out to the trashcan. Today Gwan Garrison is an information technology manager on the Florida/Georgia border and serves faithfully as a bi-vocational pastor of a Baptist church.   Satan is our adversity; he is prowling the world like a deadly beast, and he wants to do us great harm.  But he cannot touch God’s people without God’s permission, and he is a defeated enemy for there is wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. |