Spiritual Warfare: Is God or Satan Trying To Destroy Us With Sickness and Trials?

by Eric M Hill | May 24, 2017 | Demons, Spiritual Warfare

Do You Know Who Your Real Enemy Is? Or Are You Blaming God for Satan’s Work in Your Life?

Spiritual Warfare: Is God or Satan Trying To Destroy Us With Sickness and Trials?

The Bible is clear concerning the activities and operations of Satan and his vast army of demons. They have but one goal—to destroy as much of God’s creation as they can before their own destruction.

Since humanity is the greatest creation of God, and since we are created in God’s own image, Satan has placed us at the top of his hit list. He hates us almost as much as he hates God. But he can’t directly assault God. He can only hurt God by hurting us. This is where his efforts are directed. Peter tells us plainly that this is the case:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,” (1 Peter 5:8).

Whether we like it or not or admit it or not, we are in a warfare. This warfare is with an invisible enemy whose only goal in life is to destroy us. The picture God gives us is of a hungry lion, walking about, looking for someone to devour. That someone is you.

When Satan Attacks the Innocent: The Case of Job

The book of Job reveals him as one of the greatest men of the Old Testament. He had abundant qualities of love, mercy, gratitude, and unselfishness. He faithfully prayed for his family, gave to the poor, and helped the widows and fatherless. He was the perfect example of a servant of God. For his faithfulness, God blessed Job with abundant riches and a great name.

One day the angels of God presented themselves before God. For some reason, Satan appeared also. The conversation between God and Satan is fascinating:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord, and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord,” (Job 1:6-12).

This conversation is the greatest and most direct Old Testament proof that Satan is evil beyond reason. It also firmly establishes him as our enemy. When asked by God from where he had come, Satan truthfully answered that he had been going around the world.

When you couple that Scripture with 1 Peter 5:8 above, we graphically see how Satan prowls the earth in search of someone to victimize. Often, he’s able to do considerable damage despite his victim’s goodness.

A brief study of Satan’s attack upon Job will reveal some activities and operations of Satan and his demons.

Sickness and Trials Not Necessarily Proof of Fault

First, from God’s own mouth we find there was none like Job in all the earth. He was a perfect and righteous man that feared God and hated evil. God also said that Job’s trial was “without cause,” (Job 2:3). This is the man who was singled out by Satan for attack. This proves that trials are not necessarily proof that the victim is at fault.

Satan is a Limited Being

Second, Satan is not all-powerful. He is a limited being. He can only do what he is allowed to do—either by God or by humans. In this case, God gave Satan permission to attack Job. God gave permission because Satan needed permission. An all-powerful devil would not have needed permission.

Satan’s Attacks Often Appear as Natural Occurrences

Third, the methods Satan used to attack this righteous servant of God in his first assault were not obviously supernatural. Each attack appeared as normal, everyday occurrences:

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

If Satan Killed Job’s Family with a Storm, What Might He Be Using Against Us?

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone haves escaped to tell you!” (Job 1:13-19)

Successful spiritual warfare requires us to know with certainty that every part of life may be influenced one way or another, directly or indirectly, by spiritual forces, whether good or bad. This is all within the context of God’s sovereignty, His immediate and ultimate plans, and humanity’s submission to or rebellion of His rule.

Is It Possible that Your Natural Problem May Actually Be Supernatural?

As a seeker of healing, it’s critical that you understand the significance of what’s revealed in Job. Satan attacked this righteous and blameless man not because he was bad, but because he was good! The tools Satan used were crime and weather:

• First, the Sabeans robbed him of property and killed some of his servants.
• Second, lightning fell from heaven and destroyed some of his property.
• Third, the Chaldeans robbed him of property and killed some of his servants.
• Fourth, a tornado-like wind hit his children’s home and killed them.

Had this happened to someone in our day, we would declare this man the most unlucky man in the world. Yet luck had nothing to do with this series of tragedies. The appearance of the events seemed to be common, explainable tragedies. But the Bible clearly shows that behind these seemingly natural events was the supernatural influence of Satan. He directly caused two groups of bandits, a tornado, and a lightning bolt to hurt Job.

What do we do with this information? Do we treat it as interesting trivia only to be forgotten? Or will we allow it to give us insight into the affairs of God and people? Will we allow it to increase our understanding of spiritual warfare?

Satan Often Directly Attacks Our Physical Body through Sickness, Disease, and Torment

Job’s trial was not limited to simply losing his property and family. Once Satan saw that his plan to pressure Job into cursing God had not worked, he sought permission of God to do even more damage. The conversation between God and Satan follows:

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life”

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:1-7).

It is conclusive from the above that Satan caused the boils. According to Job 2:11-12, his disease was so bad that it made him literally unrecognizable to his friends. And later in Job 7:5, 13-14, he states that “my flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome…When I say, my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; Then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions.”

The picture we have here is one of pure agony. This poor man had been unmercifully hit with a series of unimaginable tragedies that wiped out his enormous wealth and killed many of his children. And while his gaping emotional wounds were still raw with shock and bewilderment, Satan hit him with a repulsive disease that bred worms. His suffering was so great that he wished for death. When death did not come to mercifully end his misery, he tried to escape the pain by going to sleep. Yet, even there Satan tormented him. Terrifying dreams and nightmares interrupted his sleep.

Our point in recounting this event is to show you that Satan can and does attack people. It’s to reveal some of the ways in which he does so. You’ve seen that he is able to use people, weather, and disease. For the purposes of this book [this article is an excerpt], I’ll deal only with the tool of disease.

Why Did Job Have to Suffer?

Are You Following Spiritual Truth or Religious Tradition?

Generally it is believed by most serious students of God’s word that Job’s entire trial lasted about 9 – 12 months. That is a long time to be in such a terrible trial. The reasons given for his trial by various Christian factions are varied. I know of at least two that I consider totally unsupported by the Bible. We’ll discuss these two reasons because what you believe about Job and his trials could help or hinder your search for healing.

Unsupportable Reason One: God Decided in His Wisdom to Afflict Job to Teach Him Something

The first reason is one usually held by traditional denominational Christians. It’s assumed that Job suffered because God in His mysterious wisdom simply decided that it should be done. The reasoning goes that God is sovereign over His creation. Thus, He can do whatever He desires. If in His mysterious wisdom, He saw a need to afflict Job, then so be it.

This is a position that appears to be motivated by humility and unquestioned submission to the will of God. But upon closer observation, it’s seen to be a religious safety net to those who are unaware of Satan’s abilities and activities. Whenever an unexplainable tragedy hits, God is automatically assumed to be the author.

I Hurt You Because I Love You

In this scenario, the pastor puts on his best I-feel-your-pain face and explains how God is somehow using the tragedy to teach us a lesson. We normally are not told what this lesson is. Stunned and devastated by the loss, we desperately try to hold on to the unlikely possibility that our loving God is behind the attack.

Some are better able to believe this than others. Those who do have the ability to shut down their thought processes to such a degree that they can believe something even if it’s unsupportable or ridiculous. They tenaciously cling to this belief because they’re desperate to make sense of the tragedy. No Christian is eager to believe that a horrible tragedy in her life is without benefit—even if it requires her to blame the event on God’s mysterious sovereignty.

Yet, some minds won’t shut down simply because tragedy strikes. They were keen and thoughtful before the tragedy, and they’re the same during and after the tragedy. These Christians won’t bite the first religious worm they see on a hook just because they’re hungry for an answer. They have a hard time believing that a brutal rape, a killer cancer, or a dreadful accident is God’s way of saying I love you.

Unsupportable Reason Two: Satan Attacked Job Because He Opened the Door of Fear

The Charismatics and Word of Faith people correctly reject the default position that says God causes calamities and diseases as a teaching tool. But we also offer a fully indefensible explanation. Our answer for Job’s trials is that God allowed Satan to strike Job because Job had broken down the hedge of protection by harboring fear in his heart.

Having cast demons out of many people, I know that certain types of fear can open the door to Satan. However, having read the book of Job, I can also say that it doesn’t appear that Job opened the door to Satan’s attack. And it doesn’t appear that his fear was of the fleshly sort that results from not believing God.

The Charismatic and Word of Faith explanation that Job opened the door to Satan’s attack is also a religious safety net. Folks in our faith circle have a desperate need to believe they are always in control of their situations. They have a desperate need to believe they can absolutely control what happens to them by using the right spiritual formulas.

This takes the uncertainty out of serving God. When tragedy strikes, they are able to assert with God-like certainty that it occurred because you did this, none of this, too little of that, or too much of the other. Everything good or bad, they contend, has a direct linkage to our actions.

Recently I learned a new word: specious. It means to appear good while lacking merit. That’s what this doctrine is; it’s specious. Don’t get me wrong. There’s much truth to certain elements of this doctrine.

Yet, the dogmatic application of its inflexible rules to every situation has turned it into a doctrine of pride and presumption. For instance, according to some, financial adversity, sickness and disease, and other trials can always be linked to our action or inaction. (Hmm…did Jesus die on the cross because He had a lot of faith or a lack of faith?)

There is no place for the sovereignty of God—except for good—in the minds of many Christians. Neither is God capable in their thinking of doing anything that could be considered negative. My opinion is this is ignorance and immaturity on a rampage.

Life is not always so simple. Every event doesn’t fit neatly within the boundaries of our favorite religious doctrines. It’s wiser to buy a larger pair of shoes than to stubbornly cram our feet into a smaller pair that doesn’t fit.

If we force ill-fitting doctrines upon situations larger than our understanding or experience, we will only injure ourselves and the cause of Christ.

When we blame Job’s fear for his situation, we reveal huge gaps in our understanding of life in general and God in particular. It is true that Job had fear, but we need to understand that not all fear is bad.

An Examination of Job’s Fear

After Job’s great calamities came upon him, he uttered these words:

“For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me,” (Job 3:25).

This Scripture is the main reason why many accuse Job of bringing his calamities upon himself. But we don’t realize that when we join this crew, we join those accusers who visited Job in his misery. We won’t examine their accusations in great detail. It’s sufficient to say that very much of the entire book of Job is filled with the accusations of Job’s three so-called friends.

I refer to them as his Charismatic and Word of Faith friends. (I don’t mean to be insulting, but this, unfortunately, is the attitude of many of us so-called faith people.) They believed that Job brought evil upon himself. Yet, in the last chapter of Job, God justifies him and condemns his three friends!

“…the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as My servant Job has,” (Job 42:7).

This is a rebuke against everyone who ignorantly or arrogantly thinks he has the innumerable complexities and variables of life reduced to a few simplistic faith formulas. It’s a rebuke against everyone who presumptuously points a finger at those who suffer and blames victims for their problems.

Did Jesus point an accusing finger at sick people and blast them for their lack of faith? Even when He was rejected in His own home town (Mark 6:1-6), and the level of unbelief was so strong that “…He could do no mighty work there…” we don’t see Him taking the condemning attitude of Job’s friends and many so-called faith people.

For the record, the last thing a suffering person needs to hear is, “If you had stood in faith, this never would have happened.” You say, “But it’s true! That rascal should’ve believed God.” (Remember that the next time you need help from God, okay?)

Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. There is a time, a place, and a way to say everything. And sometimes it is the wiser part to say nothing. But if we are to speak, the Bible tells us to speak the truth in love. It also tells us that if we see a brother in error, we are to meekly restore him. Meekly.

Job’s friends didn’t come to console him, but to judge him. And this is the same haughty spirit that works in the hearts of many of those who blame Job’s trials on his fear.

Job Had the Kind of Fear We Are Commanded to Have

I stated earlier that not all fear is bad. There are hundreds of Scriptures that command us to fear God. Just to quote one, Jesus commanded us to fear God:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Matthew 10:28).

Job’s fear was not a fear of material loss. According to Job 1:1, his fear was the kind you and I are commanded to have.

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.”

His fear was the fear of the Lord. It was the kind of fear that is the beginning of wisdom. Does this kind of fear put us at risk of Satan gaining an advantage? It’s a ridiculous question unworthy of serious consideration. But, you say, his fear was of something coming upon him. Yes, you’re correct.

But we know from his attitude and words during his trial that the something he was afraid of was not the loss of things, people, or health. It was the loss of God’s favor. There is a world of difference in the two.

Jesus had this same concern as He got closer to fulfilling His mission as the sacrifice for our sins. He was to literally become sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God in Christ. This prospect of being separated from His Father’s fellowship—even for a little while—brought great distress upon Him. He prayed fervently that God would remove this requirement.

Finally, after a few hours of agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, He received heavenly encouragement to go to the cross. Nonetheless, when the full weight of the trial of separation hit Him, even though it was to be temporary, He prayed, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Nothing Wrong with Godly Fear

You see, for those of us who have grown accustomed to not living in deep, unbroken fellowship with the Lord (God help us!), we find it difficult that Job and Jesus had such a concern. We call it spiritual immaturity to fear offending such an unfathomable loving Father.

But it is a consistent, biblical theme that fear of offending God is a good thing. It’s godly. It’s the beginning of wisdom: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Proverbs 9:10). And lack of this fear is why so many “Christians” find it surprisingly easy to consistently sin against the One whom Jesus said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:5).

The apostle Paul commanded the Philippians to have this godly fear:

“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12).

So you see, there’s nothing shameful or dishonorable about fearing God. There is nothing wrong with fearing God’s hand of discipline. Neither is there anything wrong with being concerned that one does not offend God. It is this present day lack of concern of offending God that has caused the church to declare its holiness and righteousness with its mouth, while it serves the world and its flesh with its behavior. It’s the Sardis church all over again: “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1).

Yes, Job had a great fear of offending God. (Oh, that we all had this kind of fear!) This is part of the reason for his great success at pleasing God. When sudden calamity struck him in such an obviously supernatural way, he was absolutely sure that God had withdrawn His blessing from him. Why else would two separate groups of bandits, a tornado, and lightning strike him in one day?

And why else would a disease of boils erupt all over his body so severely that even his close friends could not recognize him? This obviously was God, and he had obviously committed a sin or sins so callous and evil that he had provoked God to severely discipline him.

Some Reasons God Allowed Satan to Attack Job

Job believed his protective hedge had been lowered because he had angered God. Yet there is nothing in the Bible to suggest this. In contrast, we could very easily offer that he was attacked because it’s the nature of war. In war, no one is immune. Everyone is attacked.

Joseph was attacked.

King David was attacked.

Jeremiah was attacked.

Daniel was attacked.

Peter was attacked.

Paul was attacked.

Jesus was attacked.

And to sum it up, “Yes and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” (2 Timothy 3:12). This means you and I will be attacked.

Nonetheless, in light of the entire Bible, it appears that Job’s attack did involve more than simply being one of many who are attacked. His assault was permitted for several reasons.

First

Satan presented himself to God as did the other angels. Yet, it was God who issued the challenge to Satan regarding Job’s righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord had chosen Job to graphically prove several truths.

Second

One of those truths was to show in story form that God is good and Satan is evil. This seems elementary. Yet the strong tendency of people to blame God for all the evil in world, while blaming Satan for nothing evil, proves that it was needful for God to do such a thing.

Third

The book of Job is one of the oldest in the Bible. Up to that point, there was very little that was popularly known about Satan and his evil abilities to affect the material world. This written confrontation provided spiritual understanding to saints for ages to come.

Fourth

The book of Job graphically establishes God as sovereign. The Lord stated and demonstrated conclusively that Job was perfect, righteous, feared God, and hated evil. He even went so far as to declare him to be the most perfect, righteous, and faithful man in the entire world. And when he allowed Satan to attack him, God was sure to say that the attack was “without cause,” (Job 2:3).

Then near the very end of the trial, God appeared to Job and said many things. But He never once gave him a reason for his suffering. This is not insensitivity; it’s divinity. It’s God exercising His right as God to do what He pleases without getting permission or granting explanations. And this was done without violating His character. (Perhaps we Charismatic, great faith types don’t know as much as we think we know about God’s character.)

Fifth

God used Job’s faithfulness in the fire of persecution to establish a testimony to the world, to the church, and to spiritual principalities and powers, that faith in God is sufficient to overcome the worst of Satan’s attacks—even when we are seemingly forsaken by God.

“And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith,” (1 John 5:4).

Sixth

God allowed Job to be attacked because Job was an Old Testament type of Jesus. This means that his life was used prophetically to point to Jesus who was to come. There are at least three similarities that Job and Jesus shared:

• They both were blameless.
• They both suffered without cause.
• They both were restored after their afflictions.

Seventh

God wanted to show Job and us how to trust God during Satan’s most vicious attacks.

Is Your Suffering Proof That You Are A Modern Day Job?

Ironically, many people fight their healing by trying to find a reason for God not to heal them. It doesn’t make sense, but they do it anyway. One of their main arguments for rejecting divine healing is that they are suffering as Job suffered.

However, we jump to this conclusion far too quickly. If one were to ask a suffering saint who held such a view to quote three Scriptures that promised divine healing, she probably couldn’t do it. But if one were to ask that same saint why Job suffered, she’d probably tell you what her preacher told her: God was trying to teach Job something.

It’s extremely popular among some Christians to believe God put those trials on Job to teach him something. But it’s critical for us to understand that the Bible doesn’t actually say this. As we proved earlier, it was actually Satan that directly caused the calamities.

Did Job learn something from his experience? Of course, he did. Yet nowhere does the Bible state this was the purpose of his trials. God Himself stated that the purpose of the trials was “to destroy him without cause.”

Did we get that? Let’s say it together.

The trials were not sent by God to teach Job. They were sent by Satan to destroy Job.

So when a Christian justifies his weak faith in God for healing by saying God put the disease upon him to teach him something, he reveals that he knows very little about the character of God and spiritual warfare.

Is the sick person a modern day Job? Well, let’s see. We’ll ask a few questions to determine the similarities between Job and the person who claims to be a modern day Job:

• Is he perfect and blameless?
• Does he fear God, and hate evil?
• Is his level of devotion to God unique in all the earth?

Furthermore, would God trust him above everyone else in the world to prove to Satan, the angels of God, and all humanity, that people will faithfully serve God even in the midst of horribly tormenting circumstances?

And, last, does he know Job was healed? So to be a modern day Job, one must not forget that Job was healed.

Another Compelling Reason We Are Not Modern Day Jobs

However, there is a more compelling reason why we aren’t modern day Jobs. The fact that God chose a man of whom He could say, “There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and hates evil,” proves that Job represented all of humanity in his fight against Satan. When Job proved faithful, he won a victory not only for himself, but for all humanity.

Therefore, it’s unnecessary for God to repeatedly make the same point millions of times by putting diseases and calamities on His children so they can duplicate Job’s achievement.

Instead, God chose to achieve an infinitely greater victory, once and for all, at a much later date. This time he chose Jesus to represent humanity. When Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations and lived without sin, He qualified Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. He became everything to us and for us.

“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption…” (1 Cor. 1:30).

This means we no longer look to ourselves, but unto Jesus. So when Satan accuses us of weakness and failure, we answer not with our own strength and accomplishments. Instead, we remind him that Christ has become our righteousness.

Therefore, when Satan accuses us before God, the Lord answers the accusation by recounting the accomplishments of Christ on our behalf. The matter of our righteousness is settled before heaven once and for all.

We are not modern day Jobs. Jesus is the modern day Job. And through God’s goodness, we have been given credit for what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. Thank God!

If You Really Want to be A Modern Day Job,
You Need to Be Healed and Restored of All You Have Lost—with Interest!

Yet if we feel we must identify our difficulties with Job’s difficulties, it should be noted that God didn’t leave Job in that condition forever. So to claim to be a modern day Job, and to subsequently plan not to be healed, is inconsistent with the story of Job. I don’t say this flippantly. It’s just an honest observation.

You need to be healed if you want to be like Job.

Finally, there definitely are examples in the Bible of God putting diseases on His enemies, and even on presumptuous or persistently sinful Christians. (Sorry my fellow Charismatics; not sorry you false grace teachers.) But I don’t know of any biblical examples of God putting diseases on His obedient servants. (Even Hezekiah was healed of his death sentence when he cried out to God.) In contrast, the Bible consistently reveals Satan as the destroyer and God as the healer, as the Scriptures below show:

“…How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him,” (Acts 10:38).

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” (John 10:10).

Come on. Wave the white flag of surrender. Admit it.

The devil is the bad guy.

God is the good guy–and He wants you healed!

Lessons Learned

Since this is part of my school of spiritual warfare, it’s time to review what you’ve learned and to think about the questions this post has generated:

Observations

1. The Bible reveals Satan as an evil spiritual being who aggressively prowls the earth in search of someone to attack (Job 1:7; 1 Peter 5:8).
2. Good and spiritually strong people may be attacked. One does not have to do anything wrong to be attacked. The attack may actually be because we please God (Job 1:8; 2 Timothy 3:12).
3. There is a such thing as a spiritual “hedge of protection” that Satan can’t violate without permission from God (Job 1:10). In other words, Satan is not all powerful!
4. Satan used crime, weather, and sickness to attack Job (Job 1:13-19; 2:1-7). Therefore, it is biblical to assume that some crime, weather, and sickness could be a direct attack of Satan.
5. God did not attack Job; Satan did (Job 1 & 2).
6. God sovereignly chose to lower Job’s hedge of protection for several reasons (I don’t claim to know them all.):
   • God used the confrontation to display Job’s righteousness and Satan’s evilness to that generation and all generations, and to angels and demons.
   • God used the confrontation to teach all generations specifics concerning spiritual warfare.
   • God used the confrontation to show us that He is sovereign and can do whatever He in His infinite wisdom decides is best–without consulting us or explaining Himself.
   • God used the confrontation to demonstrate through Job that our faith can overcome Satan’s most fierce attacks (I say this with deep humility and godly fear.)
   • God used the confrontation to prophetically point to Jesus as the One who would truly, absolutely, perfectly, and finally suffer for the world in a way Job never could.
   • God used the confrontation give us an example of trusting God when it appears (due to extreme hardship) that even God is against us, or at the very least has abandoned us.
7. We are not modern day Jobs; neither do we need to be. Jesus is our Job (1 Corinthians 1:30).
8. God severely rebuked Job’s friends for presumptuously blaming him for his troubles (Job 42:7-8). Let’s not make that same mistake. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you,” (Matthew 7:1-2).
9. Job’s story ends with him being healed and restored with much more than he had materially lost (Job 42:10-17).

Questions

Now it’s your turn. What questions does this teaching prompt? Leave your questions and comments in the comment section of this post.

Recommended Reading

• The Gospel According To Job: An Honest Look At Pain And Doubt From The Life Of One Who Lost Everything; Mike Mason

This is an excerpt from my book, Deliverance from Demons and Diseases. The next post in the Deliverance from Demons and Diseases series is Activities and Operations of Demons. Subscribe here and I’ll notify you of new postings.

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Copyright 2017 by Eric M Hill. You may contact me at ericmhillauthor@yahoo.com, Facebook.com/ericmhillauthor, or Twitter.com/ericmhillatl.

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