I am sure you are
familiar with what a lot
of preachers teach about
him...but sadly most of
the time it is
completely inaccurate.
There were reasons
for the things that
happened to
Job...and they are
not what you have
been told.
So...What About Job?
This second lesson is going to show us how we let
the devil into our lives to cause havoc and
disaster, because of fear and unbelief. A lot of
people have heard teaching about Job and never
actually read the story. They never have looked for
themselves to see exactly what happened to him and
why. They use the excuse of things happening to
them, by saying, well look at Job, he loved God and
all the disaster that happened to him. Well what
about Job? Did these things just happen to him, or
was there a reason? Let’s turn to the story and go
from there.
Job 1:1-3 Here we see that Job was a "perfect and
upright man that feared God and shunned evil. He had
seven sons and three daughters. He had much
livestock and wealth. He was the greatest of all the
men of the east.
Verse 6- 12 Satan comes before God and says he has
walking back and forth across the earth.
God says to him. "Have you seen my servant Job? He
is a perfect and upright man, he Fears God and shuns
evil."
Satan answers and says "Of course he fears you. Look
at all you have given him. You have put a hedge
around him to protect him and his house, and
everything he owns. You have blessed him in every
way. But if YOU were to put out your hand and harm
him, he would curse you."
God said to him. "Look, behold, everything he has
already in your hands. But you can not touch his
life."
Now most people stop here and do not search any
further. "See God allowed Satan into Job’s life to
do all this!" Did He? Let’s look into that.
Let’s go back to verses 4 & 5 of Job 1.
Job’s
sons and daughters were all grown up and in their
own homes, and liked to drink and party. And not
just for a night, but for days. So what did Job do?
Instead of trying to get to them realize that they
were responsible for their behaviour before God,
since they were adults and out on their own, he went
and did sacrifice for them because "it may be that
my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts."
And he did this "Continually".
Once your
children have grown up and left home, they become
responsible for themselves. Yes you pray for them,
but you cannot make sacrifice, or repent for them.
These people were responsible to God to repent
before the Lord. By continually repeating the
sacrifices, Job did not leave them in God’s hands.
He was operating in unbelief. His sacrifices were in
vain. Obviously if he was worried about them sinning
and cursing God, they were not living for God. So
what good would his sacrifices be. They were living
in sin. So God could no longer protect them from the
destruction that befell them. They brought it upon
themselves. Destruction was inevitable, and it came.
They were all killed.
Now as far as the disaster that came upon all that
Job owned, we will have to go further into Job to
see how all that was allowed to happen.
Job 3:25, 26 For the thing which I greatly feared is
come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come
unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest,
neither was I quiet, yet trouble came.
Fear is the opposite of Faith! Have you ever feared
that something was going to happen to you, and then
it did? Fear opens the door for Satan. God had a
hedge around Job. He tore it down, with his own
hands. God didn’t tear it down, Job did! Even though
he loved God and trusted him, he let fear come in
and it destroyed everything around him. Obviously he
didn’t tear it down as far as his own life was
concerned, but as for everything else? Well we see
what happened. By letting fear in, he lost all. But
in all that, he still did not blame God.
Then Satan again came to God and challenged God to
destroy Job and he would curse him. God would not,
but the door was open for Satan to go in and test
him.
Hebrews 8:6 We must bear in mind in all of this that
Job was operating under the old covenant. We have
new and better covenant, based upon better promises.
Jesus bore our pain, and sickness and torment. We
don’t have to. People under the Old Covenant could
only go to God for a healing miracle. It belongs to
us.
Hebrews 9:12-14 Also Satan no longer is allowed into
Heaven. The Blood of Jesus put a stop to that. He
can not enter into the Holy of Holies. Jesus put his
blood on the mercy seat in heaven. He did it once
and that was enough. No longer is Heaven tainted
with the presence of Satan.
He can’t challenge God to harm us. We are under
Grace and Mercy. He has to go through the blood of
Jesus to get to us. He can only harm us if we let
him.
Hebrews 10:19 Therefore with boldness we enter in to
the holiest place by the blood of Jesus. Not only is
Satan not allowed there any more, but we can go
there with boldness and obtain mercy.
So
through all of this we see that Job didn’t
have the same privileges as we do. He only
knew that He loved God and that He wouldn’t
harm him. So he did not blame him. His wife
and his friends told him to curse God and
die. With friends like that who needs
enemies? Job went on believing in God. He
listened to his friends day in and day out,
but still would not curse God. He got weary
and wanted to die, and still no relief came.
Then one day God spoke to him. He said a lot
to him Chapters 38, 39 and 40.Basically He
told him to stop whining and "“Now prepare
yourself like a man;" NKJ version. In other
words...act like the man I know you are. He
wanted him to put the hedge back up.
NKJ Job 40:3-5 Then Job answered the Lord
and said:
4 “Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer
You? I lay my hand over my mouth.
5 Once I have spoken, but I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Job 42:3
New King James Version
3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel
without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered
what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not
know.
Then God spoke to Job’s friends and said
basically that he was angry with them for
telling Job to curse God. He told them to
make a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for
them, because He would hear him. And he told
them to do it or He would "deal" with them
himself. "In that you have not spoken of the
thing which is right, like my servant Job.
Then God spoke to Job’s friends and said basically
that he was angry with them for telling Job to curse
God. He told them to make a sacrifice and ask Job to
pray for them, because He would hear him. And he
told them to do it or He would "deal" with them
himself. "In that you have not spoken of the thing
which is right, like my servant Job.
In other words. Even though Job had not cursed God,
he had sat in his misery instead of doing something
about it. God stepped in and told him to repent.
Then he dealt with the friends and when Job prayed
for them, he was healed! Not only that, God gave Job
back twice as much as he had before. "So the Lord
blessed the latter end of Job more that his
beginning."
Now I truly believe that Job could have ended that
whole ordeal a lot sooner if he had just stopped
complaining and feeling sorry for himself and
decided to do something about it. He could have
repented way before he did and would have saved
himself a lot of grief and suffering.
Sometimes we suffer because we sit in our misery and
do nothing to stop it. We have to take a step of
Faith, and defeat our problem. I am not saying it is
easy, but it won’t happen if you just sit there and
do nothing. We need to stand against the devil. And
having done all to stand STAND!
Ephesians 6:10-19 Finally, my brethren, be strong in
the lord, and in the power of HIS MIGHT!
Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world against spiritual
wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you
the whole armour of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about
with truth, and having on the breastplate of
righteousness; And your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Job didn’t have the New Covenant to stand on. We
don’t have to take anything that Satan would try to
throw at us. We don’t belong to him! We are God’s
children and we have a covenant with him, bought by
the blood of Jesus. Do you want to live in defeat
like Job did or in Victory?
Job
finally repented and received back twice as much as
he had before, but he shouldn’t have lost it all in
the first place. Don’t tear down the hedge of
protection that God has around you. Keep your armour
on every day. Your armour will protect you and God
will be your rear guard! Don’t let the devil steal
from you any more! Take back what belongs to you,
whether it be health, prosperity, a sound mind...
what ever it is, don’t let him defeat you! Jesus
paid the price!
Knock down the hindrances to your faith! If you are
having trouble receiving Victory, ask God to show
you where it came in and repent! Then get ready to
receive!
