Page 33 - Job

like Him.” That has a present truth as well as a future.
What is God’s partial answer to the mysteries of life? It can be
summarized in these questions. Why do the godly suffer? Why are there
mysteries in life? Why do circumstances go against me? The first two
chapters give the answer in a single word. Satan. That is the partial
answer. Why do these things happen in your life? Because there is a real
devil. Because there is a real Satan who hates your guts. He hates the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he hates the Lord’s beloved. We would have the shock
of our lives if we could ever get even a passing glance of how much Satan
hates us.
Job, chapters 1 and 2 give more about Satan than any other place in the
Bible. Therefore, since it is the full mention of Satan in the Old
Testament, we are going to study Satan in a Christ-centered way. Now do
not study Satan in a Satan-centered way. That is what people are doing
today. They take their eyes off the Lord. Everything the Bible says about
Satan is designed to turn your eyes to Christ, so we are going to look at
Satan in a Christ-centered way.

There are thirty-five different titles for Satan in the Bible, and none of
them are bogeyman. From the time we are nursing we are taught to think
of Satan as some kind of hideous, disgusting creature – a contemptible
person. Misshapen, with a half human, half animal body. Sometimes, with
the limbs and appendages of animals. Frightful, with a grimacing face.
Bright red, and a pitch fork in his hand. A compound of everything that is
ugly. And he just stands around stoking the fires of hell and stabbing
sinners and stuff like this. That fabulous image that registers in our mind
bears the mark of Satan’s own creation. That is what he wants us to think.
He wants us to believe that we can outgrow him, and we throw it out as
fantasy, and so we throw him out as fantasy.
We are going to ask questions. Who is Satan? What does he do? Where is
he now? How can he do what he does? The next chapter will look
carefully into these questions.

33