Hell’s Fury Unleashed on a Good Man
- Scripture: Job 2
- God at a Distance, Kerry Duke
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Job was a good man. He was also a very wealthy man, and in Job chapter one, we read about the devil taking away what Job had. The devil took away his livestock, which was his income and also his wealth to a large extent, and the devil also took away his ten children in one day. But that didn’t shake job. The Bible tells us that he held on to his faith.
You see, the devil had told God that if he took away everything that Job had, Job would curse him to his face. But he was wrong because in Job chapter one, verse 21, the last words that we read in this story in Job chapter one are that Job said this: “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
But the devil does not give up easily. He keeps trying. He is absolutely relentless. I heard a preacher say years ago in a sermon that he entitled “Good Things about the Devil,” (and you have to put that in quotation marks, of course) that one of the marks about the devil is that he does not give up. He is very persistent.
In the Bible, as an illustration, you read about Delilah who kept trying until she found Samson’s weakness, and then she used that against him. Well, the devil attacks you. He attacks us, and he keeps doing that until he can find a weakness and until he can hopefully, on his part, destroy us.
First Peter, chapter five, verse eight. The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.” A lion keeps stalking. A lion does not give up until he gets his prey. That’s what the devil does. So in Job chapter two, the devil comes back and he comes back with a vengeance.
He is not done yet. He has not given up on Job. He’s going to try to get Job to curse God to his face. So in Job chapter two, verses one and two, we find a familiar scene and we also find some familiar words. “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?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth and from walking back and forth on it.’” Now that is exactly what you read the first time in Job chapter one, verses six and seven. It says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. God said to Satan, “From where do you come?” And then Satan said [00:03:00] the same thing that he says here in Job chapter two. So this is a second time. This is a second situation. The Bible says in verse three. Then the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant job that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.
Now again, that is exactly what he said to the devil in chapter one, verse eight. But here he says something else here in Job chapter two verse three, notice that he adds and still. He that is job holds fast to his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without calls. This is interesting.
Here’s what the devil is best at doing. He tried his best to turn God against job. So notice this, God said to the devil, job is holding fast to his integrity. He has not given up. He didn’t curse me to [00:04:00] my face even though you, that is the devil. You incited me against him. The King James version says, you moved me against him.
You tried to do that. You tried to turn me against Job to destroy him without a cause. So in this book of job, what is the devil doing? He is doing the same thing that he has always done and the same thing that he is doing today. And that is he is trying to turn everybody against each other. He’s trying to turn man against God, God against man.
He’s trying to cause havoc and chaos. Now that’s Satan. He uses people’s tongues to gossip, to back bite, to criticize, to cause division, to separate family and friends and brethren. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter six, verse 19, he hates those who sow discord among brethren. In Proverbs 16, verse 28, the Bible says that A [00:05:00] whisperer separates the best of friends, and the devil tried to move.
He tried to incite God to destroy Job, to ruin job, to not only take what he had, but to crush his spirit and to take his life. Now Satan is out to destroy you, your family, your reputation, and especially your soul, and take away your salvation today. That’s what he does. And notice, God says, you tried to move me against him to destroy him without cause.
There was no reason for that. He didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to be destroyed. And yet you tried to get me to do that. So wouldn’t we talk about unfairness? When we talk about the problem of evil, we need to look to the devil. He’s the one who’s the author of that you try to get me to destroy him without cause.
You see, the devil doesn’t have to have a valid reason or a cause. He just [00:06:00] causes trouble. He doesn’t care if there’s a reason for it or a just cause or adjust calls or not. In Matthew chapter five, verse 22, Jesus warned about being angry with your brother without a cause. In John chapter 15, verse 25, Jesus said that the Jews hated him without a cause.
There was no cause. There was no just reason. Job didn’t deserve this. It was not fair. And yet the argument in this book is why? What caused all this to happen? If it wasn’t fair, if you didn’t deserve it, then what is this book about? And that’s why we’re studying it now. You find a typical response from the devil in verses four and five.
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 remember, he’s talking to God, stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse you to your [00:07:00] face. So now the devil tries something else.
This is exactly what he does today. If he uses one temptation to try to take you down and that doesn’t work, he’ll try something else or he’ll try the same thing. 10 or 20 times. And if that doesn’t work, he’ll try it 30 or 40 times until we finally give in. This is the persistence of the devil. Don’t underestimate him.
So God said to the devil in verse three, you were wrong. You tried to get me to destroy him, and it didn’t work. You were wrong about me and you were wrong about job, but the devil won’t back down. He’s argumentative. He’s rebellious. He knows people. What he says here in verse four is generally true of mankind.
He says, skin for skin. You say, what does that mean? It means that generally speaking, a man will give anything to save his own skin. As we would say to save his own hide, to save his life. A man will give everything he has [00:08:00] if it means that he’s going to live instead of dying. If a man pulls a gun on you and he wants your car or your wallet, and if you don’t give it to him, then you’re going to die, then you’ll give it to him.
Whatever it takes, you will give it in order to live. If a man has cancer, he will spend everything that he has oftentimes to live a little longer. That’s generally speaking what happens. Why? Because we want to live. So Satan told God, sure, job gave up everything, but a man will do that just to save his own hide.
He’s still trying to save. That job is not sincere. He’s saying he’s never really been tested. And I’ll tell you a real test of his character. The devil says, job thought, if he cursed you, he’d die. And the only reason he didn’t is because he wanted to live. He wanted to save his own neck. He’s hiding his real feelings.
He. So in verse five, the devil said, here’s what will show his true colors. You touch, that is [00:09:00] you afflict his body, you put him in enough pain, and you’ll see what his religion was. You’ll see that he was a fake. The devil is saying it’s one thing for a man to lose his property and even his children. But it’s another thing for him to suffer, really suffer a lot of pain, excruciating pain, especially in his body, in his flesh, and in his bones.
God made our bodies to feel pleasure and pain, and the devil knows this. He tempts us with both of these. Both of these feelings bring out what is in our hearts so the devil can torment us or he can tempt us with the feelings in our body. He can use pleasure because it will either bring out gratitude in our lives.
We can either thank God for that, or it will bring out the selfish, greedy side of mankind, and that’s what the devil wants. And the devil knows that pain has an effect on us. It will either cause us to be submissive and humble before God, or it can lead us to be prideful. Turn to anger and be [00:10:00] rebellious.
Satan said, if you put job in enough pain, he’ll curse you to your face, not behind your back, and not just in his heart or in his mind, but he will curse you to your face. So God accepted the challenge, and here’s what we read in Job chapter two, verse six through eight. 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, and he took for himself a pot shirt that is a broken piece of pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. The Lord permitted Satan to have some power over Job again here in verse six.
Now, the first time was back in chapter one and in chapter one, verse 12, God said, okay, you can have what he owns. You can do what you want to with his possessions, even his children, but don’t [00:11:00] touch job himself. Now, this time, verse five says, his flesh and his bones, but the limit is this. You can’t kill him.
Now, job later wanted to die, but God had already decided that he was not going to die at the hands of Satan Job didn’t know that. We have to remember, again,