0161. Satan's Slander Against Job

Satan’s Slander Against Job

"Put forth Thy hand and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face" (Job_1:11).

"Put forth Thine hand now and touch his bone, and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face" (Job_2:5).

Satan is correctly named, "The Accuser." He accuses the saints day and night, before the Lord. He slanders every good they do, and magnifies their evil.

In the case of Job, the devil shows his hand. His charges against Job, were also a horrible thrust at God. Satan said something like this to God: "You think job loves You, and serves You; but Job does neither the one nor the other. The fact is, that Job serves You wholly because You have blessed him, hedged him about, protected him. Job does not care a snap of his finger for You; he is only after what he can get out of You. Just touch what he has, take away Your hedge, destroy his goods and impoverish him; and he will curse You to Your face."

This is just what we hear today on every hand. The wicked world has caught the idea of the wily devil. The world is saying that the preachers all preach for what they get out of it. It says just touch the pocket-book and the preacher will quit the pulpit.

Of the unregenerate and of the worldly this may be true, but it is never true of the real saint.

God turned all that Job had over to satan, and soon one catastrophe was quickly followed by another; and still another came sweeping down against this saintly character, and all he had was gone. Then Job cursed God? Not he. He "arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped, and said, Naked came I from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Satan was compelled to acknowledge Job’s integrity and his own defeat; but he slandered God and Job the second time and said something like this:

"I grant it that Job is an unusual man. He has held fast his integrity; but, put forth now Thine hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face; for it is true that skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life."

God accepted satan’s challenge. He permitted satan to touch Job’s flesh. The whole Book of Job gives the story of Job’s experiences; as satan not only smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his feet to his crown; but as he also moved upon his wife and his supposed three friends to continually nag him.

Never was man more sorely tried. And the inexplicable thing to Job, in it all, was that he was left alone without one ray of light from Heaven to soften his misery. He prayed and pled for a sight of God’s face, or a touch of His hand; but all alone he passed through his days of bitterness.

The sum and substance of Job’s attitude during these dark hours may be expressed, by the words that Job spoke; "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

Satan’s slander was false. Job loved God for Himself, and not because of what God had done for him.

Time and again this slander of satan’s has fallen to the ground. Thousands of saints have lost all, even life itself for the Lord; and they have never quailed.

"I saw the martyr at the stake,

The flames could not his courage shake,

Nor death his soul appal;

I asked him whence his strength was given,

He looked triumphantly to Heaven,

And shouted, ‘Christ is all.’"

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR