03. The role of Satan
The role of Satan The veil of the invisible world, so to speak, is now drawn aside. Satan comes amongst the sons of God. He comes from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. This is that great adversary of whom Peter tells us, he walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). The Lord, in order to let us see what an adversary we have, puts a question to Satan: ’Hast thou considered my servant Job?’ And Satan had considered the case of Job. Often when we little suspect, Satan may be watching us and considering, with all the experience of ages, what temptations may be most suited to our particular case. Your door may be shut and you may forget, but there may be watching you, with the deepest malignity, that real person, that real adversary, Satan. He would be no more real if we saw him.
God had blessed Job, and that was quite enough to fill the heart of Satan with hatred. And so began the permitted trial of Job. There was a needs be. And never are we permitted to be sifted by Satan, but there is a needs be. With the real child of God, Satan is sure to outwit himself. God will make all work for the believer’s good. Who would have thought it possible that Satan could have such power, if God had not thus revealed it to us in this book. Job’s sons and daughters were eating, and drinking wine, like the world in this day, little thinking of the sudden destruction that awaited them. The oxen were ploughing, and the asses feeding beside them — everything going on its usual way. Happy-looking world! there might be no tempting devil in you.
How quick and how well did Satan do his work. The Sabeans fell upon the servants and slew them with the sword. One servant alone escaped to tell Job. We hear of a dreaded invasion, and men talk about the emperor, and the press, and the people; but how few remember the great adversary Satan, the ’prince of the power of the air’ (Ephesians 2:2), ’the god of this world’ (2 Corinthians 4:4), the great mover in the last scenes of human wickedness (Revelation 13:4).
It was Satan who brought the Sabeans to invade Job. He is a murderer from the beginning. And whilst the servant was telling him, there came another and said, ’The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee’. Strange as it may appear, Satan will again use this very same power. ’And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men’ (Revelation 13:13).
’And whilst he was yet speaking, another servant came and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped to tell thee’. Fearful as all this was, yet still more fearful tidings were at hand. ’While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house; and there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee’.
Thus, as it were, the battle began with a running discharge of musketry. Oh, what a pang it is to a parent’s heart when tidings come of the death of one child; but sad as it was to Job, and fearful as was this first part of the conflict, Satan’s heavy artillery was not yet brought up. So far Job held his ground. ’The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’.