One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan the Accuser came with them. "Where have you come from?" the Lord asked Satan.
And Satan answered the Lord, "I have been going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that's going on."
Then the Lord asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil."
Satan replied to the Lord, "Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!"
"All right, you may test him," the Lord said to Satan. "Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically." So Satan left the Lord's presence. (Job 1:6-12 NLT)
Talk about having friends—and enemies—in high places! God was so proud of Job He was bragging on him. Look again at verse 8. "'Have you noticed my servant Job? The finest man in all the earth—a man of complete integrity.'"
When I read that statement and then go on to read what happened to Job immediately after God made it, I feel a little nervous about the idea of God ever bragging on me! I almost feel like saying, "Lord, if You're ever feeling proud of me just for a fleeting moment, could we kind of keep it between the two of us?"
I wonder if God would ever boast of His servant Greg, or would boast of you with all the angels standing around. I would tend to doubt it in my case. We often will see ourselves one way—maybe in a quick surface way—while God knows us through and through. Over in the book of 1 Samuel, we're told, "The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV).
You and I can be way off in the way we evaluate one another. We might be in a worship service and find ourselves drawing conclusions about how spiritual that person next to us might be. If he's singing loudly, closing his eyes, and raising his hands up high, we might conclude, "Now that is a spiritual person." Then we look around a little more and see someone else who isn't singing at all. Maybe her head is bowed a little, but she's simply holding the chair in front of her and doesn't seem engaged in the worship. And we conclude, "She's not a very spiritual person. I wonder if she's even a believer."
The truth might be the very opposite of what we think!
We don't know what's going on in the heart of another person. So . . . we had better leave all such conclusions and evaluations with the Lord Himself, where they actually belong. We need to just concentrate on seeking to live a godly life.
So here is God, bragging on the man from Uz. "My servant Job." There could be no higher endorsement, and no higher job description: a servant of the living God.
We're also introduced to Satan in this passage. We have to get rid of the world's stereotypical caricature of a devil in a red suit and pointed ears, wearing a goatee and carrying a pitchfork. (I especially take issue with the goatee part, as I have been known to sport one myself from time to time.
I'm not sure where that came from, but it bears no resemblance to the description of our adversary in Scripture.
Satan is a powerful spirit being . . . not a myth, not a cartoon character, and not "the dark side of the force," lacking identity or personality. He is real, and Scripture calls him by name.
- "Satan the accuser came . . . " (Job 1:6).
- "Satan answered . . . " (Job 1:7).
In verse 7, he describes his activities to the Lord, "going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that is going on." Then in verse 12 we read that Satan left the Lord's presence. You see, we're talking about an active personality with an agenda here, not an impersonal force. Satan has something he very much wants to accomplish.
And what is that? The devil's single, consuming ambition is to turn you and me away from God and all that is good. His ultimate agenda can be summed up in the statement of Christ in John 10:10, where Jesus said, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness" (NLT).
You can immediately see the contrast. Jesus is in effect saying, "I have come to give you life. Satan has come to give you death. I have come to give you freedom. He has come to give you bondage. I have come to build you up, to save you, to restore you. He has come to steal, kill, and destroy." And that is what he wants to do with you to this very day, this very hour.
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