The View from the Caildron (II)

Job 1

I sat in a courtroom for three hours this week and watched a passing parade of people stand before the judge, no one of whom was over 30.  They were in handcuffs and their legs were chained.  They were each wearing the official issue of the county jail.  They stood respectfully before the judge answered, “Yes, your honor,” to his questions.  They were male and female, one an expecting mother another, a fellow with “some college” as he said when asked by the judge. 

There was a word which came to mind, a name in Rev. 9:11: “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”  It was an appropriate word for what I saw that day because “Apollyon’ means “destroyer.” 

Not even thirty and the lives that could have been were being destroyed in that courtroom.  Whether Rev. 9:11 is referring to Satan by that name, it’s an appropriate name for him. 

Satan?  Sounds medieval, doesn’t it?  Brings to mind horns, hooves, and pitchfork.  Sounds rather quaint.  He’s dismissed today, but as someone famous said, “The greatest trick the devil ever played was to make us think he doesn’t exist.” 

[Look at it this way—if Satan doesn’t exist, why are we the way we are and the way the world is?  If Satan doesn’t exist, where does evil come from?  If it’s just the way things are, then there’s no hope.  If a person says, “We’re getting better,” there’s no evidence of that.] 

When we come to the view from the cauldron, not we have to include the suffering and the problems that are satanic in origin.  All problems, all suffering are either directly or indirectly caused by him.  I say that because he tempted Adam and Eve with a promise he knew was a lie.  The entire fallen race and earth was at his temptation.  As I watched that courtroom parade of lives which might have been, I remembered that Satan’s lie promised each of Adam’s descendants a life that was so different.  

I don’t know much about military affairs, but one thing I do know is that if an army finds itself fighting a battle on two fronts, things are bad.  But what you’re being attacked on more than two fronts?  That would be really, really bad. 

Job came under attack on multiple fronts, fronts still available as points of attack by Satan today:

1. In the cauldron, he attacked and destroyed his possessions.  Job 1
2. In the cauldron, he attacked and destroyed his sons and daughters. Job 1
3. In the cauldron, he attacked and destroyed his health. Job 1
4. In the cauldron, he attacked and weakened his marriage.  Job 1

Attack and destroy.  Attack and destroy.  Attack and destroy.  All this from the one who promised us such a wonderful life.  And the attacks on Job came from those four fronts.  We could add other points of attack: destroy friendships, destroy tranquility at home, at work, at school.  Also to destroy any ministry you have.  Add to that, the attack on your reputation.  Then there was the attack on his health.  Those are multiple fronts. 

[A word of caution: every problem, every suffering is not an attack from Satan.]

The destruction wasn’t over a period of time; Satan scorched Job’s earth on the same day!  It was like what Sherman did to the South, hitting the south with his scorched earth policy in which he destroyed everything which would be of value to the Confederate States.  (This is forbidden today by the Geneva Convention.) 

Satan doesn’t scorch your earth just to be doing it.  He has a purpose.  Job 1:11: “But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."  This is the ultimate purpose of the scorched earth policy—to destroy your walk with the Lord. 

Haven’t we seen the success of his attacks?  We’ve seen the doubts the attacks can cause about God’s love (Gen. 3).  I’ve seen people under attack get angry with God.  That’s what he wants to get you, to get you angry.  If you get angry and frustrated with God, chances are you’ll begin to drift away from church, your ministry, your Christian friends, reading the Bible, and praying. 

I think Satan has two goals for the human race.  For the unbeliever, he wants to keep him blinded to the gospel through religion.  (II Cor. 4:4)   He also wants to snatch the gospel from the unbeliever (Lk. 8) because he knows that if the unbeliever believes in Jesus, that person will be saved.  Satan’s goal for the unbeliever is to produce a good moral man, in a good marriage, proficient in his profession and dressed in a three-piece suit, all without Christ.  The drunk in the gutter isn’t a good advertisement any more that the courtroom parade was a good advertisement.  Look at it this way, was the Manson clan a good advertisement for Satan.  No.  He wants to produce people like a Tony Robbins product, as long as they’re without Christ—they would be a good advertisement.

But you’re different.  He can’t get you unlocked from your salvation: Rom. 8:38-39—“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, since he can’t do that, he tries to be successive at turning you into a I Cor. 3:3 believer: “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

Satan wants to attack you so hard that you quit the faith and begin to live like the unbeliever.  He has been successful in too many cases. 

This is a hard concept to wrap our minds around because we’re dealing with a realm that’s beyond us: Rom. 11:33—“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

As we look at this view from the cauldron, we do see some encouraging things in Job 1:

1. Satan has to ask.
2. God sets limits—Job 1:12; 2:6
3. God is aware of our suffering.
4. God will not permit more than we can take ( I Cor. 10: 31)

In this view from the cauldron, we understand that the scorched earth policy tests our faith and maturity in the faith.  It’s like for the athlete.  He wants to play in the “big game” when the pressure’s on.  When there’s two minutes left in the game and he’s on his own 20.  That’s when he shows what he’s made of. 

There’s also something else about this particular cauldron: James 4:7: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  This is one of those sentences that’s left undefined.  How do you “resist.”

Remember that is goal is to get you to doubt God’s love and disregard God’s Word, just like he did with Eve.  You are to resist doubting His love and resist disobeying.  But he’s more skillful and powerful than you are, how do you hope to do that?  That’s the next verse: “Draw near to God. . .” 

How do we draw near to God?  You draw near like the Old Testament priests drew near—you wash up, that is you confess your sins to Him (I Jn. 1:9).  This is a change of mind about not following the emotions which are leading you doubt, deny, disregard, and quit. 

Peter pictures Satan’s intent for us: “to devour us.”  (I Peter 5:7) Peter intends for us to take this seriously—he didn’t and wound up sleeping in Gethsemane , denying Christ three times, and cutting of a soldier’s ear.  How easily we can succumb. 

In India they have a custom of kissing the cobra. in Burma , a woman desirous of offspring is required not only to approach the King Cobra but to plant a kiss on its mouth. If she is successful in doing so she will bear many children; if she fails, obviously none.

When you doubt the love of God and deny His Word, you wind up kissing the cobra.  To reverse James 4:7, you wind up resisting God and submitting to Satan.

* = Free Grace Teacher or Ministry