And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
For further study - Job 2:1-10
In a future reading for our daily devotions from the book of Job, we will discuss the creation of "angels" that took place on the first day of Creation, between the time the Lord created the "heavens" and then the "earth", Job 38:4-7. In today's extended reading, we eavesdrop on a conversation between God and Satan.
They are discussing Job, and the Lord speaks of Job as one like none other on the earth. Job is an "upright man", one "who feareth God and escheweth evil". He is a man who "holdeth fast his integrity". All of the above characteristics could be found in Job.
Satan responds that God is protecting His servant Job. The Lord then allows Satan to test Job to the point of death saying to Satan, "he is in thine hand; but save his life", verse 6. Satan went from the Lord to Job and began to severely test God's servant.
Notice that in the testing, even Job's wife told her husband to "curse God and die", verse 9. I love the last 10 words of our reading, found in verse 10, "in all this did not Job sin with his lips". What a testimony, which has echoed down through the centuries of time, all the way to us today. In this present-day world, we need that same kind of integrity.
Please notice before we leave this devotional reading the pattern that Satan follows which will be his "trademark" throughout his time as the "ruler of this world". Satan will attack and test the believers in an effort to turn them against the "Most High God".
There is a New Testament passage that is key to our understanding of Satan's devices in the end times, which are revealed in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to put on the "whole armor of God" so that we can stand against the "wiles of the devil".
Paul warns us that in the last days we will not wrestle against flesh and blood, Ephesians 6:12, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies".
Paul, in this passage, defines all that is a part of Satan's "kingdom of darkness". He describes the same attack by Satan today as Job described over 4,000 years ago. As we get closer to the Lord's return the more intense will be the Satanic attacks. As then, so now also, the Lord is our "protector" from Satan.
The exhortation from Paul to "put on the whole armor of God" in these the "last days" is an absolute must do activity that we cannot fail to do as soon as possible. The Devil, and his evil angels, will be very active as the time draws closer to the Lord's return.
In order to be prepared for the life we will live leading up to the Rapture, at least seven years before the Lord's return, we must be "dressed" properly, with the "whole armor of God" so that we can withstand all the wiles of the Devil and his evil angels.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, help me to pattern my life after Job, a life of integrity. And at the same time, thank you, Lord, for the "armor" that I can put on to fight the "wiles of the devil".
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