Circumstance Four: Satan’s Assaults
Job was assaulted by Satan twice. The first time, Satan used storms and marauders; and through this Job lost his belongings and his family, save his wife. The second time, Satan broke his health. Twice when Satan presented himself before God, he came, “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (Job 1.7; 2.2.) This action agrees with what the New Testament warns us of: the “adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5.8.) There was nobody on earth that Satan wanted more to devour than Job, the servant of the LORD, because Job served the LORD the best. He was the holiest man on earth in his day, and for this reason was approved by God in the very face of Satan. And this laid the trap for God to make Satan a righteous mockery of through the holy strength of Job. God used his servant to put the devil down, and he used the hand of Satan upon his servant to do it. Job was not aware of any of this. And, depending on who wrote the book of Job, it may be that he never found out until his entry into Paradise. We must learn a lesson from that. We might not, in this life, find out what afflicts us and why the affliction is allowed. If our drama may be likened to a paint-by-number canvas, Job’s was painted in plenty of spots, but ours is colored in to reveal a fuller picture. Who among us, notwithstanding, has more than weak faith when compared to the faith of Job? Do we know enough to resist the devil so that he will, according to God’s word, flee from us?
A direct attack from Satan must be devastating, if anything is. Satan is the most ancient, most persistent, most experienced persecutor. Having taken away Job’s possessions, his servants, and his sons and daughters, Satan wanted more because as long as Job remained faithful to God, the devil remained unsatisfied and defeated. Satan took all that he could, by the permission of God, get. So, accepting whatever grant that God would give, he took Job’s health. He would have taken Job’s life, but God forbad him. God gave Satan the power to take nearly everything from Job. But the old serpent is cunning. He did not kill all of Job’s servants; neither did he kill Job’s wife. His plan was to use the remaining servants to make Job’s life as miserable as possible and to use the wife to tempt him to curse God (Job 19.16; 2.9.) Though Satan accused Job to God, he did not ask God for anything—at least the narrative does not tell us that he did. Rather, God goaded the devil with the story of Job’s uprightness; and, in turn, the devil goaded God to stretch out his hand against Job. The devil wants nothing more than to set God against his saints.
Job was unaware of Satan’s involvement. He attributed his sufferings to the hand of God: “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me” (Job 19.21.) And he did not see this as the sovereign hand merely, but a punishing hand: “Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposeth thyself against me” (30.21.) He wished for God to go all the way and ‘loose his hand’; that is, kill him (6.9.) Though Job believed that the hand of God had struck him, and he sometimes wanted God to finish him off, he vacillated. He was unable to figure out what God was doing and why he was doing it: “Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee. Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid” (13.20, 21.) Job was made to feel irredeemably condemned, even though his treatment was filtered through grace.
God was behind the miseries that Job endured, for he had given Satan permission to lay his hand on Job. That is to say, Job’s hardships did not come from God directly. Satan urged God to lay his own hand on Job, for he would have enjoyed watching God strike down his most faithful servant. The adversary looked for a reason to accuse God of wrong. Failing this, he would try to get Job to curse God.
Satan is not mentioned after chapter two. He did not present himself before God in the epilogue because that is where Job gets the victory and where God gives the blessing. Why didn’t Job and his friends mention Satan as a possible cause of all that Job endured? It may be that the subject of Satan had come to neglect in that region in Job’s day. This is quite possible because that is what happens to doctrines throughout history. When certain doctrines are emphasized, others suffer neglect. The supremacy of God was so emphasized that the arch-demon wasn’t even thought of. On the face of it, this seems regrettable because if the devil had been considered, Job’s losses would have been easier to bear. But this ignorance was the plan of God because it elevated Job’s example of perseverance. Job was attacked by Satan, he thought it was all of God, and yet he still persevered. He continued to trust an afflicting God. Incidentally, it is a much better situation when events are traced up to God than up to Satan, even if Satan is entirely out of view. The authors of the Bible, under the Spirit’s leading, do not leave the ordering of things to the devil—not even the wicked act of putting Jesus on a cross. Even the worst act of wickedness that was ever committed is traced up to God. It is true that wicked men ‘took counsel together for to put him [Jesus] to death’ (John 11.53.) But it is also true, and more fundamentally true, that Jesus was ‘delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God’ (Acts 2.23.) Since foreknowledge is knowledge, not possibility, this foreknowledge amounts to predestination. Had the doctrine of divine sovereignty been neglected in Job’s day in place of that of Satan, it had been more difficult to persevere, and less likely that he would have done so. Though it is tormenting to think that God may be chastising us or might even have turned against us, yet we feel hopeful because of our belief that he is behind it all. Thinking the devil is in charge engenders hopelessness because, unlike God, he has no history of being merciful. The devil has no mercy to grant, and no desire to extend any.
To be directly attacked by the great adversary is an ominous circumstance. It is something that few of us would, or could, endure. While we must never discount the possibility of such an attack, it is unlikely that many of us have had the displeasure of drawing that much attention. Only the most pious saints who pay great reverence to God are able to make the devil take particular notice. Moreover, even the chief of fallen spirits is not able to be everywhere at once. He does not know our thoughts. And his power is limited to what God allows him to exert. He is not omnipresent; he is not omniscient; he is not omnipotent. It is apparent from the first chapter, however, that he observes the characters, actions, and situations of men. He had studied Job before God pointed him out. We know this because of his rhetorical question: “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?” (Job 1.10.)
The devil’s demons, the remnants of sin, and the worldly culture are sufficient creatures for the average Christian to be oppressed by and disturbed with. We are blessed not to encounter the devil as directly as Job did. Maybe it should be said that we are not so blessed because in the end, Job was greatly blessed to have been chosen by God to exemplify perseverance through attacks by the devil. He was blessed to have been so sorely tempted.
How much we suffer depends a lot on the circumstances involved. These four circumstances, then, make Job’s sufferings more than compete against our own: he was more upright, he lost more, he had less revelation to go on, and his afflictions came straight from the devil. Our circumstances are unique, but are they as dreadful? They are not nearly as dreadful. We must be shored up by this. Job was dedicated to holiness and righteousness before he was singled out for testing. We must learn from that.
Job did, at times, lose hope for his life on earth; but he continued to trust. When he finally got to speak to the LORD, he wisely spoke briefly and regretfully, repenting in dust and ashes. He did not dare ask any of his own questions, having been humbled by his inability to answer the ones posed to him by the LORD.
Early on, Job came close to defining his trial as a test, though he may not have been aware of how near he was to the truth: “What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?” (Job 7.17, 18.) The love of God and the blessing of God come with trials from God. Job also predicted the outcome of his test: “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (23.10.)
Though the central theme in the book of Job is the question of suffering, the lesson is perseverance. The thrust of perseverance is unmistakable when the book is looked at as a whole. Job repeatedly persevered to honor the LORD during his lamentations. To sum up, God glorified himself, made a righteous mockery of Satan, made a better man of Job, humiliated his critical friends, and teaches us perseverance—all through suffering.
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