Page 37 - Job

Now, I have only mentioned spiritual things. What about physical things?
What if He took your health? What if He took your family? What if He
took your home, your job, your security? What if you went blind or deaf?
You went senile? Your mind was deranged? You see, it is easy to be
critical of Job. What God is saying is Satan is an accuser, and he does not
have many ways to accuse. He always accuses the same way. He always
says, “Does Job serve God for nothing?” So that is the first area of his
accusation. Satan is an accuser of man.

But here is the other side. Included in that accusation, was an insinuation
toward God. He not only accused man before God, but he accused God
before man. Now let me illustrate that for you. Chapter 1, verse 11. It
says: “He will surely curse You to Your face.” Chapter 2, verse 5:
“He will curse You to Your face.” It seems to me as I read this that
Satan was not as concerned to see man squirm around in suffering and
poverty as he was to see God cursed. I think that is the thing that he
wanted. He wanted man to curse God to His face. Do you know what is
implied in verses 9-11? Let me read them again. Then Satan answered the
LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Have You not made a
hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side?”
You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have
increased in the land.
“But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will
surely curse You to Your face.” I believe what Satan was saying about
God was this. “You are not wonderful enough, apart from Your gifts, for
anyone to trust You. You are not precious enough just in who You are, to
have anybody trust in You”. You need Your gifts. If You did not bless
people so much, You would never be trusted. Nobody would ever turn to
You, God. That is the insinuation there. There is not enough in Your
personal beauty to have man serve You for who You are.
Now, once again, we are not discussing the accusation. We are just trying
to say, who is he? He is the accuser. But again, what a penetrating
application can come from this. How would you respond if those
accusations were made about you? Now they are made about you every
day. Satan always goes before God and says, if it were not for gifts you
would never serve Him. And He is not good enough, by Himself, to be
served, to be worshiped, to be praised, apart from His blessings.
One of the things that God is going to demonstrate when He allows Satan
to tear down your hedge, is that He is lovely enough to be loved apart
from anything that He does or anything that He gives you.

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