Following Jesus When You Suffer2:
THE INVISIBLE WAR!
Job 1:13-2:10
At this very moment, our planet is deeply entrenched in a world war. It is not a military campaign for territorial rights. It is not a political struggle between opposing parties. It is not an economic struggle for superiority in the market.
This is a warfare that is far more strategic – a spiritual warfare for the souls of human beings. This age-long conflict is an invisible war between God and Satan…a cosmic struggle between Heaven and Hell. And the battlefield is the souls of men and women. What are at stake are the eternal destinies of people.
Each of us is engaged in this invisible war. Everyone is enlisted in active duty…none of us is exempt. There are no draft-dodgers. There are no conscientious objectors. No one can sit this one out. We are all foot soldiers either in God’s army or in Satan’s.
The sad thing is that most people do not recognize that they are at war. Even many well-meaning Christians live as if peacetime conditions exist while a bloody war is being fought all around them. Casualties are strewn across the landscape, and none of us can afford to be uninformed. We cannot afford to be ignorant of our great adversary Satan.
Satan is the supernatural force behind all evil. He is the sinister architect of all suffering in the world, either directly or indirectly. He is bent on destroying your life, dividing your marriage, and damning your soul.
If we are to make sense of this fallen world around us and so much of the suffering in our lives, we must see the invisible war being fought between God and Satan for the souls of humanity.
The book of Job takes us behind the scenes into Heaven. It allows us to witness a remarkable exchange between God and Satan. It gives the opportunity to see firsthand the invisible war between God and Satan. It shows us some things to unmask a bit about Satan and how we can better follow Jesus when we suffer.
Body
I. SATAN IS PERSISTENT IN HIS ATTACK.
In chapter 2, once again, the curtain is pulled back and we are allowed to see “behind the scenes” into some of the reason why these things are happening to Job.
Once again, God presides like a king in court and Satan has to come and report. You talk about being out of place! Here is the filthy, fallen Devil in the presence of the holy, pure God of Heaven…face to face…eyeball to eyeball!
Ray Stedman said, “You can see him sauntering about among the angels, hands in his pockets, picking his teeth, showing disdain for all the angels and looking for an opportunity to accuse.”
That is precisely why he is here. He is intent on hindering God’s program of redemption upon the earth. He is intent on discrediting the Lord before His people and discrediting God’s people before the Lord. Filled with hatred, the Devil seeks to accuse those whom God loves – you and me – of sin. Satan is powerless to defeat God, but he can hurt God by destroying those whom God loves.
The Lord brings up Job once again, bragging that Job maintained his integrity and faith in spite of having everything taken from him…all his wealth, possessions and all his children.
Notice Satan’s response 2:4-5. He will not admit he is wrong. Day after day, he is like a grave-digger, stirring up dirt against us. He says, “Look there, God. Gary Harner is the biggest hypocrite on earth. He says that he loves you, but look at the way he’s living his life. He is disobedient and selfish. God, You’ve got to judge him!”
But Jesus Christ is our defense attorney and He’s never lost a case. Never. “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous” (1 John 2:2)
Satan was not through with Job. Not yet. Don’t miss the first words of chapter 2… “On another day…” Resist the devil today and he will be back tomorrow.
Satan asks for a change in the rules. Satan says, “Touch his life, his health. That will bring Job to curse you.” Even prosperity is less precious than our health. Thinks can go wrong. We can suffer losses and we will say, “Thank God we have our health!” What if we lose our health? Satan was saying, “Don’t let Job fool You! His possessions are gone. His children are gone, but that barely scratched the surface. What counts to Job is that he himself is safe. Satan is right about many of us. There is a chink in our armor. There is an Achilles heel that we all have, and that when we get right down to it, we will cave in. However, God has promised not to bring more that we can bear.
Satan asks for an even more severe test: the loss of Job’s health and the indignity of a repulsive appearance because of a skin disease.
Perhaps Job loved his noble appearance and bearing, but if he has this horrible skin disease, he would be banished from his home to the city dump. As long as he has the sympathy and comfort of his neighbors and friends, Job might still muster up the courage to persevere, but once he became a chronic invalid, with offensive breath and a hideous appearance, he would lose heart and become bitter, despair and curse God. That seems to be Satan’s reasoning.
What I want you to remember from this first point is that Satan is persistent in his attack! You’ve got to give the devil his due; he is a persistent old cuss. Even though Job survived round one, the devil wasn’t through. He gains God’s permission for round 2. He is still attacking God’s children today.
We saw in chapter one that SATAN HAS GREAT POWER TO USE CIRCUMSTANCES. His hatred is seen in the timing of these disasters. He strikes in the midst of prosperity and good times. While Job’s 10 children are together celebrating at one of their brother’s houses – a picture of love, closeness and unity – suddenly disaster strikes.
Satan was behind the scenes, influencing and manipulating the Sabeans like pawns on a chessboard. He inflamed their passions and incited their hearts to kill Job’s servants and steal his animals. Given an opening by people, Satan can fill their hearts with the rage to kill, steal and inflict great harm. We see it on the news every day. Whether the holocaust involving 6 million Jews, some terrorist flying planes into buildings killing over 3,000, a mentally disturbed man killing one and wounding 3 others as what happened this week, or one little boy killed in a drive-by shooting.
SATAN MAY ATTACK YOUR HEALTH. Satan afflicted Job with painful sores. What were they exactly? We just don’t know. Literally, it means “evil inflammation”. It is the same word used for one of the plagues of Egypt. Many different things have been suggested.
Different passages in Job suggest that whatever it was it involved
· His bones ached
· His skin darkened and he had a fever
· His skin erupted in pustules, worms and scabs
· He was emaciated
· He suffered fits of depression
· He suffered sleeplessness and nightmares.
Every sickness may not be a direct attack from Satan, but we can learn that, when permitted, Satan will try to attack your health. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul complained about a thorn in his flesh. Obviously, it was some type of physical suffering. Paul said it was a messenger of Satan to torment me. Remember Satan wants to make you miserable and sometimes he does it by attacking your health.
Added to Job’s grief is the steady, gnawing, unrelenting pain of a body no longer at ease with itself. No one appears to do anything to relieve the pain. No one cleanses his sores, pours ointment on them, baths his body or lovingly places him to rest between cool, clean sheets on a comfortable bed. No one puts ice to his parched lips or a cool cloth on his fevered brow. No one lowers the lights and sits by his side either to silently hold his hand or offer the comfort of distraction by playing soft music. No one does anything to ease Job’s physical suffering.
C.S. Lewis agonized over the question both before and after his wife’s painful death from cancer. He asked, “Why does the body have to suffer?” Finally, he concludes, in essence, that it must be necessary but why it is necessary remains a mystery. If it is not necessary, a good God would not permit it.
SATAN MAY ATTACK YOU USING SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU. Job lost his fortune, his family and his fitness but to add to his suffering, his wife survived. We will look more at her later. Satan will attack you by attacking those you love (Job’s children) and he may attack you using someone close to you (Job’s wife).
Satan is persistent in his attacks.
II. SATAN IS LIMITED BY GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY.
In chapter one, Satan made the complaint that God had put a hedge of protection around Job so Satan couldn’t get at him.
When you hear the word “hedge,” what you think of? Most people think of a hedge made of plants. You may have a set of hedge clippers somewhere in your garage that you use to trim
plants. But the word “hedge” in the Bible describes something more substantial than a bush. The Hebrew word really means “wall.” A hedge was a defensive wall often built around a city. The bottom part might be comprised of stones or hard packed dirt, and there might be thorny plants on the top of it.
The general idea of a hedge is that of a protective fence–a barrier around his family (household) and around all his possessions. Job couldn’t see the hedge, but Satan could. There are many things that exist in the spiritual world that are invisible to our eyes, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real–they are. It is a wonderful insight to realize God can provide a spiritual barrier around His servants to protect them from spiritual attacks.
This hedge can only be removed by God’s permission. The great Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee pastored in Los Angeles for many years. He had a radio broadcast called “Through the Bible.” Dr. McGee wrote in his commentary on Job: “I believe there is a hedge around every believer today, and I do not think that Satan can touch you unless God permits it. And IF God permits it, it will be for His purpose.”
God limits Satan. At first, God told Satan he could do anything to Job but he couldn’t touch Job himself. In chapter 2, God gave permission to Satan to do anything to Job except take his life. God said, “Satan, you can go this far and no farther. You can do this and that, but you can’t cross this line and do this other.” God remains in control.
We don’t want to see a demon behind every bush. Nor do we want to fail to see the devil’s presence at all. We need to keep a balanced view. Satan is powerful, but he is limited by the boundaries established by a sovereign God.
That is a great comfort. In the middle of the struggle, never forget that we fight a winnable war. We wrestle against a mighty foe, but one who can be defeated in God’s power. Our Commander-in-Chief will not allow the Devil entrance into our lives beyond what we can withstand.
If it comes with God’s permission, it comes with His power to deal with it. It must first pass through the hand of a loving God before it touches you. God is never caught by surprise by our troubles. He is always compassionate.
For all the bad news that might lead us to think that God has given up on this world, I know better. Evil may seem as if it is having its day, but God sets the time and God draws the boundaries. Death is the worst Satan can do and for the Christian to die is to gain. We live under the protection and presence of God.
Satan is persistent in his attack but he is limited by God’s sovereignty.
III. SATAN IS DEFEATED BY OUR FAITH.
In 2:9-10, Job’s wife appears. Surely, in his hour of greatest need, she will be there for him, to comfort his heart and console his hurts…but no. This is strange advice from a wife! Someone said that Satan took everything from Job except his wife and there may have been a reason he left her! She was no help to Job. She urges him to do exactly what Satan wanted.
We don’t know what kind of relationship Mr. and Mrs. Job had. We do not read of Job turning to his wife for comfort. Instead, he runs away! It may be that they were in love. It may be that she saw his suffering and wanted him to be free from suffering, but it certainly doesn’t sound very loving. If anyone else said it, it would have been hurtful, but it was so much more so from the one who was dearest in his life. Job certainly did not ask for her advice, but she gave it anyway.
Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. She may not have meant to hurt him. Maybe she loved him, but she is hurting also. Her security was gone. Her husband’s source of income was gone. Her husband’s health was gone and in 1 swift blow, all her children were gone. Add to all of this that her husband became physically repulsive. His sores stink so that she cannot stand to get near him, just at the time when she longed to feel his strong protecting arms around her and bury her face in his chest.
She was angry. She feels threatened. She doesn’t understand and she was worried about the future. She had already lost her faith and wanted Job to join her. She is filled with rebellion against God. When he needed her spiritual support the most, he finds she has withdrawn it.
Job’s wife must have been terribly confused as she watched this truckload of losses being dumped on their family. After all, her husband was a good and honorable man. He was a prayer warrior, provider and protector. Why should these tragedies befall someone like Job?
G. Campbell Morgan commented that only those who have stood beside the bed of a suffering loved one will fully understand the heart of Job’s wife. It is the cry from someone bounded by love to the one who is sick. It says, “I can’t stand to see you suffer one more day.”
“Curse God and He’ll strike you dead, too. Then you can escape this pain. Death would be better than this.” I wonder if she had done this and yet she had not died. She was certainly outspoken! She was like the wife of the man who was asked, “Is your wife outspoken?” He replied, “Not by anyone I know of!” That was Mrs. Job!
It is sad when we ourselves are hurting, we often wound those we love the most. Satan will often use those closest to us to get at us. If Satan can’t get at us any other way, he will try to reach us through those we love the most: a spouse, children, parents, brothers and sisters, a close friend, or a respected teacher. It may never be more difficult to recognize the evil one’s presence that when he comes in this guise. I believe this is the most severe test Job faced. The enemy put the words of the challenge between God and Satan into the mouth of someone Job loved. How clever! The angels must have leaned over the precipice of Heaven breathlessly to see if Job would finally cave in.
There are some wrong responses to trouble given in the book of Job. Job’s wife verbalizes one of them here. Some folks when they face trouble and suffering just give up. “Job, if I was you, as hard as you’ve served the Lord and done the right thing, and with all this trouble on your plate, I would just curse God and die.”
You would be surprised how many people have contemplated suicide. Sometimes in our darkest moments, it seems like life just isn’t worth living. You do everything you know how to do and it looks like all your dreams have turned to ashes. But just remember what Job said to his wife, “Woman, you talk like a fool.”
Anyone who has an ounce of faith in God must understand that, no matter how bad things get, you are being foolish if you think the answer to your dilemma is to just give it all up and to snuff out the life God has given you.
Don’t let life get you down to the point that you ever consider giving up and not wanting to live anymore. The life that you have? God gave it to you, and He didn’t have to. So He gave it to you for a purpose. You may not be able to detail or understand exactly what He meant for you to do in your life, but you must stay here until you find out your mission because God does not do things that are unwise. Some folks just flat give up.
When anger, anxiety, or bitter bereavement mount to an unbearable pitch, instead of wounding with your words, isn’t it better to vent our emotions in other ways? We sometimes need to put into words how we feel, but we also need to chose wisely one who can listen objectively, unaffected by what we say, who can really discern what is really meant. We need to be aware of how our words affect the attitudes of our families or others who hear us.
What was Job’s answer? Remember Job’s first response? 1:21 Now he says, 2:10. His faith in God keeps him going. The word, integrity, has almost lost its meaning in today’s dog-eat-dog and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. What is integrity? The dictionary says that integrity is the quality or condition of being whole or undivided. In math, an integer is a whole number. It is a number that isn’t a fraction or divided. 5 is an integer. 5 ¾ is not an integer. To maintain your integrity means your mind and heart are not divided – they are whole.
In this text, integrity means that you fully trust God without a divided heart or a fractured mind. Many people think that believing in God protects them from trouble so when calamity comes they question God’s goodness. The message of Job is that you shouldn’t give up on God because He allows you to have bad experiences.
Learning to receive the good gifts of God, praising Him and cultivating a thankful attitude in general, gets us into the right frame of mind to accept the problems of life. Job and his family had been the recipients of God’s free blessings for years. Their hands had been wide open, stretched toward heaven to receive all the Lord gave them. Job refused to take those same outstretched hands and clench them into fists to shake in the face of God when the gifts of grace, health, wealth and happiness were withheld. God is the Giver of gifts and He has the right to give or to withhold. He is under no obligation to us whatsoever! Having been a thankful man all his life helped Job when he had nothing to be thankful for.
When you are suffering, 2 things will help you maintain your integrity.
1. TRUST GOD’S PLAN WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE HIS HAND. At the very time when Job felt God had forsaken him, God was actually giving Job very personal attention. When you think about it, in one sense God was putting His entire divine reputation on how Job would respond to this suffering. Like us, when Job was suffering, he couldn’t understand the details of God’s plan. He just had to trust that God had a plan. Sometimes you just simply have to believe God even when you don’t have any evidence that things are as God says.
There was an episode of the “Andy Griffith Show” that can teach us something about trusting God. In this episode, Opie claims he has just met a man in the forest named Mr. McBeavy. He describes Mr. McBeavy as if he’s an alien. Opie claims Mr. McBeavy came down out of tree wearing a big shiny hat, and he jingled when he walked and he could make smoke come out of his ears. They go out in the woods and don’t see any evidence of Mr. McBeavy. Andy and Barney are certain that Opie is making this all up. One day Opie brings a hatchet he says Mr. McBeavy gave him and Andy makes Opie take it back. Another day Opie brought home a quarter he claimed Mr. McBeavy gave him. By now, Andy is concerned that Opie is making all this up and stealing from someone.
Finally, Andy gets so frustrated he sits Opie down and tells him he must admit he make up the whole story about Mr. McBeavy or he will be punished. Opie wouldn’t admit it. Instead he looked at Andy and said, “But, he’s real, paw, don’t you believe me?” Andy thought a moment and against all evidence said, “Yes, son, I believe you.” When Barnie learns that Andy didn’t punish Opie, he says, “Oh come on, Andy, you don’t believe in Mr. McBeavy, do you?” And in the best line of the show, Andy says, “No, Barn, I don’t believe in Mr. McBeavy, but I do believe in Opie.”
Later, Andy walks out in the woods and in his frustration, just cries out sarcastically, “Mr. McBeavy, Mr. McBeavy.” Then a voice from above says, “Yeah, I’ll be right down.” Mr. McBeavy climbs down. He’s a forester with a belt full of tools wearing a silver hat. Andy grabs his hand and says, “Mr. McBeavy I can’t tell you how happy I am to meet you!”
You have to do the same thing. You may be in the midst of suffering and you can’t see any evidence of God’s hand. That’s when you just have to trust His plan.
Job refuses to get bogged down in trying to understand all the reasons for his misfortune. God knows the reason. He does not. Job’s words imply that he accepts that often it doesn’t make sense. To Job, God is so big, He is not only unmanageable, but also to a large extent unknowable.
2. TRUST GOD’S GRACE WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE HIS FACE. When we are hurting we often put our eyes on our desperate circumstances and we beg God to change our circumstances. If you’re looking at your bad circumstances, you’re looking at the wrong thing. You should be looking for God – looking to see what God is doing. And even though, you may not see His face, you can trust His grace.
Diseases, accidents, and natural disasters remind us that life is out of our control. Job recognized that God remained in charge. God gave good things and God gave bad things and although he hurt and didn’t understand, he knew God and trusted God’s heart, God’s grace and God’s plan.
Matt and Beth Redman wrote a chorus, titled, “Blessed Be Your Name.”
Blessed Be Your Name,
When the sun’s shining down on me,
When the world’s “all as it should be,”
Blessed be Your Name.
Blessed be Your name,
On the road marked with suffering,
Though there’s pain in the offering,
Blessed be your name.
They must have read the book of Job before writing the chorus:
You give and take away,
You give and take away,
My heart will choose to say,
“Lord, blessed be Your name.”
When we can say that even in our pain and suffering, we win a victory for our Lord’s glory in this invisible war.
Gary Harner, sermon, “The Invisible War!”
Steven Lawson, When All Hell Breaks Loose”
David Dykes, sermon, “Would I Be Better Off Dead?”
No comments:
Post a Comment