The lesson continues the Christian Life series on Satan and demons by distinguishing Satan’s attacks from the campaign of the sin nature. The flesh campaigns against the soul through appetites and emotional appeal, as listed in Galatians 5. Satan and his demons typically present a thought or line of reasoning aimed at the rationale. The method is not necessarily appealing; Job’s losses were not desirable. Scripture describes Satan as walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Handling an attack from Satan differs from handling an attack from the flesh.
Satan and demons ordinarily work through a thought put before a person; the person is not mind-controlled. Three attacks are assembled from different passages: independence from God, disappointment, and discouragement.
Independence from God is at the center of Satan’s own fall and of his first recorded dealing with mankind. In Genesis 3 the serpent questions what God has said, contradicts the warning of death, and offers the prospect of being like gods, knowing good and evil. Eve is beguiled and eats; she later says the serpent deceived her. Adam is not deceived. First Timothy 2:14 states that Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression. Romans 5:12–19 traces sin and death entering the world through one man, Adam, who knew what he was doing. The attack is to know God’s command and act independently of it.
James 4:13–17 addresses the same independence in planning: those who say they will go, stay a year, buy and sell and gain ought instead to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” To know to do good and not do it is sin. Acts shows the contrast in Paul’s travels. In Acts 16:6–7 the Holy Spirit forbids preaching in Asia and does not allow them to enter Bithynia. In Acts 18:21 Paul says he will return to Ephesus if God wills. In Acts 19:21 Paul purposes in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. In Acts 21 disciples speak through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem, and Agabus binds himself with Paul’s girdle, saying the Holy Spirit declares the Jews will bind the owner of the girdle. Paul is not persuaded and continues. The pattern illustrates the danger of setting one’s own course apart from the Lord’s will. Satan peddles independence from God; believers are dependent on God.
Job supplies the examples of disappointment and discouragement. In Job 1 the Lord points to Job as a blameless and upright man. Satan answers that Job fears God only because of the hedge and blessing, and claims that if all Job has is touched he will curse God to His face. Permission is given except against Job’s person. Messengers report the loss of oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, and Job’s sons and daughters. Job tears his robe, shaves his head, worships, and says, “Naked I came… the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job does not sin or charge God foolishly.
In Job 2 Satan returns and claims that if Job’s bone and flesh are touched he will curse God to His face. Job is struck with boils from sole to crown. His wife says, “Curse God and die.” Job answers that they should receive evil as well as good from God; he does not sin with his lips. After seven days of silence with his friends, Job opens his mouth in chapter 3 and curses the day of his birth, wishing he had died from the womb so as to be at rest. The attitude has shifted from blessing the Lord to disappointment that events do not match his expectations.
The friends then press a reasoning that such calamity cannot fall on the righteous. Eliphaz asks who ever perished being innocent (Job 4:7). Bildad says God will not cast away a perfect man and that Job should seek God so his habitation would be prosperous (Job 8). Zophar says God exacts less than Job’s iniquity deserves and that Job should put iniquity far away (Job 11). Job is bewildered. In Job 10 he asks God not to condemn him and to show why He contends with him, insisting he is not wicked. In Job 19 he says God has overthrown him, fenced his way, stripped his glory, kindled wrath against him, and counts him as an enemy. The attitude moves from disappointment to discouragement—the sense that God has turned against him. The opening chapters show that God has not abandoned Job; Satan’s aim is to bring Job to curse God.
First Thessalonians 2:17–18 records that Paul desired to see the Thessalonians again but Satan hindered him. The Thessalonians themselves were in tribulation, and some were teaching that they were already in the Day of the Lord. Paul sent Timothy lest the tempter have tempted them and the labor be in vain. Timothy brought good news of their faith and love. Believers can pass through suffering without falling into disappointment, discouragement, or the conclusion that God has abandoned them. Christians do not face wrath from God as Job described. Satan remains permitted to hinder and to present reasoning that would produce a wrong attitude and a wrong action. Further lessons will treat the armor of God.
