One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Job 2:1-7
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
I will need to first of all apologise for the very long interval between my last post and this one, I have been held up with editing my books for publishing. I have six books in all that I am working on and I discovered that even the ones that had initially been published required re-editing so I needed to withdraw them and start work on them all over again. It will take a while to complete though, but the journey has began and at least two out of six are almost back on the book shelve for sale.
That said, my message in this post requires that we take a pause in our life’s activities and reflect on our relationship with God. While re-editing one of my books “Gleanings From The Throne of God,” I came across a message I wrote about four years ago and I felt a strong need to share same on this blog. On several occasions I had wondered what was it that God had in mind when He created man? I thought that perhaps if we who long to do the will of God will understand better what His intension was when He created man, we can better understand how to fulfill the purpose of God for our lives and do His will.
In answer to my questions, the Lord opened my mind to the book of Job chapters 1 & 2. What I learnt from this two Bible passages was that in truth satan appears before the Lord from time to time, though he might not have been invited but still he was always not turned back when he does. Another lesson there is the purpose of his appearance before God, and from what we read in this passages, his mission is primarily to accuse those whom the Lord loves.
I also discovered that God delights in making a proud declaration over the life of a man who has lived right before Him and has fully obeyed His commands and requirements, this He did over the life of Job with confidence in the two passages above. With this discovery came the answer to my question that one of the purposes that God had in mind when He created man was to use man as an example of righteous living to satan. God created man, made them a little below the angels that they might obey Him and follow His commands even though they have not seen Him in the physical form thereby using them as an example of righteousness, something that was impossible for satan to do and so justify the eternal condemnation that has been earmarked for satan. And I believe that is why though satan has been sentenced to eternal condemnation, his sentence still awaits execution. And for as many lives that is able to fulfill this purpose for God, He makes a boastful declaration of such a life before satan and also before the host of heaven.
In moving forward with this study, we also need to realize that for every life that God makes a boastful declaration of, satan tries to accuse or tempt such a life to sin thereby calling God a liar. And so satan tempted Job. Also looking at the life of Jesus, in Matthew 3:13 - 4:11, immediate the Lord declared over Jesus saying “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased,” He was led to the desert to be tempted by satan. David was a man that the Lord called “a man after His heart,” still he was tempted by satan. So we can conclude that for every life that has walked right before the Lord, God makes a proud declaration over such a life and satan also tempts such life to challenge the words of the Lord.
But we need to understand that for any life that God is unable to make a proud declaration over due to unrighteousness, sstan is making a mockery of such life and the judgement that awaits satan also awaits such a life. In Matthew 3:12, John the Baptist says “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing-floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” So all the lives that have not fulfilled the purpose of God through their obedience to the word of God and righteous living, the Bible says they will be burned up with unquenchable fire.
We need to come to the full realization that satan appearing before the Lord in the days of Job was not a one-off situation, when David sinned and Prophet Nathan was sent by the Lord to rebuke him in 2 Samuel 12:13-14, and he had this to say. Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” The enemies of God mentioned here refers to satan and his demons. If our lives is not making God proud, then it sure is making the enemies of God show utter contempt. Satan is having a filled day before the Lord as a result of your sinful life.
If satan appeared before the Lord in the days of Job, and he appeared before the Lord in the days of David and also had the confidence to appear before the Lord in the book of Zechariah 3:1-4 in the days of Joshua the high priest, then he is still appearing before the Lord till date.
The food for thought is this: Over your own life and deeds will it be God making a proud declaration of your life due to your obedience to His words and righteousness on the face of the earth, or will it be satan showing utter contempt to God due to your unending sins? Even in the face of great trials are you willing to stand for God and silence the accuser of your life for good? Job did get his glory back in multiple fold after standing firm on the side of God and so will you when you stand firm for God.
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