Light on Satan's Tactics - Satan's Tactic With Job — Zac Poonen

Satan’s Schemes and the Danger of Spiritual Deception

Yesterday we were looking at that verse in 2 Corinthians 2, where Paul says, we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11. You know, if you knew that there were a lot of counterfeit currency notes going around the town, you would be very careful about every currency note you received, to ensure that it was genuine, because we don't want to lose money.

The Bible says that as we approach the end of time, there are going to be a lot of deceiving spirits flooding the world. And if we are serious about our Christian life, we don't want to be robbed spiritually, we don't want to be deceived, then we must not be ignorant of Satan's schemes.

We must be aware of the schemes and tactics by which he seeks to lead people astray. And yesterday we looked at the way he led astray from God and out of the Garden of Eden. Jesus said that the devil is a liar and a murderer right from the beginning.

He's a thief who has come to steal and to kill and to destroy. And if we read the Word of God, we discover some of his schemes and tactics, as we have details given us of his dealings with different people.

Job’s Godly Character and Care for His Family

Today we want to look at the book of Job, chapter 1, and see something of the way in which Satan attacked Job, because we are given some details of that, particularly in the first two chapters of that book.

Here we read of a very godly man in this book, also a rich man, a man who had brought up his children well. He had seven sons and three daughters. And we see something about his burden for his children in verse 5.

In fact, it's a wonderful example for all fathers to follow. What you read in verse 4 and 5, whenever any of his children had a birthday, he would call everybody together for a feast. And that feast would take a number of days.

It was a birthday feast that lasted a number of days. And when the days were over, Job would call all his ten children. Now these ten children were all grown up people living in separate homes. But Job would send for them, call them to his house, early in the morning, verse 5, and pray for them and offer offerings to God for them.

Reason? He would say, well, we never know in all these days when they drank and ate. Perhaps they may have sinned in their hearts, not externally. Perhaps they may have sinned and offended God or cursed God in their hearts.

And therefore, let me, just to be on the safe side, offer a sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins. Can you see the concern of this man for his ten children? He wanted them to be right with God. I wish there were more fathers like that.

Satan’s Attacks as a Means of Purification

And we can be sure that Satan targets such people. See, when Satan goes around the world, he doesn't target everybody. That would be a waste of time. He doesn't send his demons after all the useless Christians who are living for the world in any case.

He says to his demons, leave them alone. They're okay. They won't trouble our kingdom. Their main interest in life is money. Even though they go to church, leave them alone. And this other group, oh, they're a bunch of gossipers.

They won't be of any harm to our kingdom either. Leave them alone. So a lot of Christians whom the devil leaves alone. And I'll tell you this, if the devil leaves you alone, that's not a compliment. It just means he doesn't think much of you.

He thinks you're a pretty useless believer who's not going to be a threat to his kingdom. One of the greatest compliments the devil can pay you is to really target you and try to attack you in some way.

Of course, the devil, God allows that. God allows that because through Satan's attacks, we can become stronger. You know, just like gold is put into the fire to purify it, the fires of temptation and persecution and the attacks of Satan have always purified God's people if they respond in a right way.

So that's the reason why God allows Satan to attack God's people. Fire is a very dangerous thing. It can destroy. But without fire, gold would never be purified. So Satan also can harm, but God uses him to purify his people.

So that's what he did here in Job's case. See, Job was a very godly man in many ways. But there were certain areas in his life that still needed to be purified even though he was the best, the most godly man on the face of the earth.

Job, the Earliest Inspired Book and a Rebuke to Prosperity Teaching

If you read, I don't have time to show you, but sometime if you read in the middle of the book of Job, chapter 29 to 31, you'll see he was a man who way back, I mean, he lived before Moses because the reason I mention that is there is no mention of the law in this book.

Do you know that this is the only book in the Bible which has no connection with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob? All the other 65 books in the Bible have got some connection with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, except Job.

So which teaches us that he must have lived before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, certainly before the law, and since Moses wrote the book of Genesis, if Job lived before Moses, and Job was then written even before Genesis, because there are so many details in this book of conversations and all that which could not have been written long after Job died or anything like that.

It's probably written soon after he died, which means something you perhaps did not know till today, that the first inspired book of the Bible was the book of Job. I believe that. That when God wanted to write script, He began with the book of Job.

He began with the story of a godly man. He began with the story of a godly man who was persecuted by other religious people. He began with the story of a spiritual man in contrast to three, four religious people.

The contrast between spirituality and religiosity comes right there in the very first book of inspired scripture, the book of Job. It's kept in the middle of the Bible only because it's linked up with the other poetic books like Psalms, etc.

And when God decided to write a book, the very first book He wrote was about a man who suffered. A godly man who suffered and who became a better man as a result of that suffering. And God showed in that book how He watches over His servants who suffer, makes sure they come through to a very glorious end.

And that's why it's a very encouraging book. You see, we live in a day and age where we are taught by a lot of people that if you're a godly person, you'll be rich and you won't suffer. This book proves that to be a lie.

The most godly man on the face of the earth at that time suffered intensely. But it was an education that God was taking him through. God does not allow His children to suffer at the hands of Satan without a purpose.

That's one of the things we read very clearly in this book. God does not allow us to suffer without a purpose. If any of you are going through suffering, you can be pretty sure that God has a purpose in it.

The book of James says, consider Job and see how the whole story ended. You see the end of the Lord in what God allowed him to go through. So, there's a lot of comfort we get from reading this book of inspired scripture.

Satan’s Access, Activity, and Targeting of Godly People

And we read here that this is the man whom Satan targeted. Okay, let's look at Job chapter 1 verse 6. There was a day when the sons of God, that refers to the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came among them.

So we see here that Satan has got access to God. Even though he was cast out of the third heaven, from a lower heaven he can speak to God. And the Lord said to Satan, where are you coming from? And Satan said, from roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.

So there we see what Satan's activity is. Even though he's in the second heaven, he moves around on the earth along with his demons. He visits various places. You think the devil visits Peter Merzberg?

I'm sure he does. I'm sure he visits every little town and wherever there are believers. But he's looking for wholehearted believers who are a threat to his kingdom. He's looking for godly homes to try and destroy them.

He's looking for godly churches to try and destroy them. If you fall in one of those categories, you are a very blessed man or a very blessed home or a blessed church if Satan decides to pick you out.

And I think the greatest insult that Satan could offer this town is to go through this town and say, forget it, there's no danger over here, let me move on to the next town. That would be terrible if the devil left all of you alone and said, well, all these fellows are all compromisers, they're no threat to our kingdom.

He roams around the earth and the Lord said to Satan, okay, you've roamed around the earth, you've seen all the various people on earth and you've seen all the compromisers and the half-hearted people and the religious people who talk about me, says God, but don't have any life.

Okay, I know there are lots of people like that, God says, because there were these preachers. The devil didn't bother them because they were no threat to his kingdom. They just had a lot of head knowledge about God and the devil doesn't bother about such people.

They were religious people, they prayed, etc., but the devil doesn't bother about them. But in the midst of it all, God said to Satan in verse 7, but have you seen my servant Job, that there's no one like him on the whole earth, a blameless man, an upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.

Now that verse has challenged me for many, many years. In this way, I ask myself, can God say that about me? As the devil moves around the earth and he visits Bangalore too, where I live, can God, okay, you've traveled here and there, but have you seen my servant so-and-so who lives there?

Have you seen him? He's not a compromiser. That's what I ask myself, can God say that about me? I believe that's a question you need to ask yourself. Can God boast about you to Satan? That's much more important to know the answer to that question than to know what other people in your church think about you.

Because other people in your church don't know anything about your private life. The devil knows everything about your private life. The devil knows exactly how you talk to your wife at home, the devil knows exactly how you handle your finances, the devil knows exactly how you do your work and all types of details about your private life.

He knows everything. And he is not fooled. God also knows. And God can't point out any one of his children because some of his children God is ashamed. Quite frankly, God is ashamed to point out some of his children to the devil.

He can't, because the devil could point out so many, I don't mean weaknesses, we are all weak, I don't mean where we trip and fall, I'm talking about hypocrisies which the devil sees in so many Christians.

Pretends, pretending to be holy and God says, I can't point out that one, I can't point out that one, I can't. So God looks around and the vast majority of people he can't point out, but then he finds one.

And can you imagine the delight God has in his heart when he finds one among his children whom he can point out to the devil. And say, OK, Satan, I agree with you, a lot of my children are hypocrites, a lot of them live double lives, but what about this one who lives in that town?

Have you seen him? Have you seen how he lives at home? Have you seen how he fears me? Have you seen how upright he is? Now, I'm sure there are a lot of other things about Job. Job may have been a very intelligent man, but God doesn't say, have you seen how intelligent he is?

He's not bothered about intelligence. Job may have been a rich man, he was a rich man, but God doesn't point out that to Satan and say, see what a rich man is, God doesn't care about riches. Notice the things that God points out in Job in verse 8.

A blameless man, an upright man, one who fears God, one who turns away from evil. Those are the important things. Not how tall you are, or how smart you are, or how clever you are, or how rich you are, or how influential you are, or how much people respect you.

These things matter nothing to God, and God's not going to point out those things at all. But what He wants to point out is whether you are blameless, according to your understanding, upright, without compromising, and one who fears God and turns away from evil.

That was, Job was like that. If you read, as I said in chapters 29 to 31, you see there a man who did not lust with his eyes. Amazing. He says in Job 31 .1, I made a covenant with my eyes never to lust.

Now he was a grandfather, and he was still careful with his eyes. And he had that attitude long before Jesus spoke about it in Matthew chapter 5. He didn't have any Bible. This man was blameless and upright without a Bible, without a church, without meetings, without tapes, without books, without fellowship, without anything that we have.

What a man he was. I tell you, the Bible says to whom more is given, more will be required. And wouldn't you all agree, wouldn't all of you sitting here agree with me, that God has given us a lot more than He's given Job?

What do you say, yes or no? The Bible, the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, what He did for us on the cross, conferences, meetings, books, tapes, Christian brothers and sisters, fellowship, examples of godly men.

What a lot of things God has given us that Job never had. Well, if that's the case, to whom more is given, more will be required. God's not going to judge Job in the same level as us. He's going to judge us by a much higher level because He's given us so much more.

If Job could rise so high without a Bible, without the Holy Spirit, without fellowship, without books, tapes, everything, can you imagine how high we can rise? Why is it we don't? Job was a radical, wholehearted man.

Perhaps we're sluggish, but we read there in those chapters, in chapter 29 and 31, that he was a man who helped the poor, he would help blind people to cross the street. If he saw an orphan, he cared for him.

He never worshipped gold, he never ran after money. And many, many good things. He would care for strangers and do so many good things. He was a godly man whose godliness was not just in prayers. As we saw, he prayed for his family.

But more than that, it moved over into practical life, in daily life. He was a godly man. And that is the person whom God could point out to Satan, and Satan says, Yeah, he says, I've met Job, but I know he fears you because of certain reasons.

Satan’s Accusation: Serving God for Prosperity

The Bible says that Satan is an accuser. And he always tries to find fault even with the most godly people on earth. When you find other believers finding fault with you, don't be surprised. You read in the book of Job that other religious people found so many faults with him.

They blamed him, they said your children must have died because of some sin in their life, and all types of accusations. So godly people have been accused right from the very first inspired book of the Bible.

Jesus Christ was accused. And if you're a godly person, other religious people will accuse you because they don't like your uprightness, they don't like your blamelessness. And the devil inspires people to accuse you as part of his tactics.

And he accused Job of serving God with wrong motives. He said, well, Job serves God because he's benefiting from it. You have blessed him. On every side you have blessed him. You have blessed his possessions.

You have increased his wealth. In other words, Satan was saying, well, you know, Job serves you, God, because you've made him a rich man. You take away his wealth, then let's see whether he serves you.

And that's very often what he tells God even today. Those people out there, yeah, they've got a comfortable life. Everything's going well. They've got a job. They've got a house. They've got a car. They've got this.

They've got that. Yeah, they've got everything. No wonder they serve you. But take it all away, verse 11. Then let's see whether they serve you or not. I tell you, he says, he will curse you to your face.

And there are believers like that. As long as they are prospering and happy, they are praising the Lord and rejoicing in Him, singing praise to God. But when God doesn't answer some of their prayers, when difficulties come, when trials come, when sicknesses come that are not healed, when financial difficulty comes, the song of praise is gone.

And the devil says to God, see, I told you, these fellows won't praise you when you take away their money, you take away their comforts. Let me ask all of you sitting here, can God say to the devil, like He said concerning Job, okay, Satan, try it out on that person.

Try it out on that sister. And you'll see that he and she still praise me no matter what happens in their life. Can God say that about you? It's a very searching question. Can God trust you not to let him down in the time of trial, in the time of difficulty, suffering, sickness, that you will still praise Him?

Or is what the devil says true about you that you praise Him only when everything is going well? Then we have to say the devil was right. And God's mouth is shut. What a shame. That's the challenge that comes to us from the book of Job.

And if Job could shut the mouth of the devil without a Bible, without the Holy Spirit, without any knowledge of Christ, why can't we? I believe that should be the challenge that comes to every one of us.

Lord, the devil is not going to accuse me of serving you only when everything is going well. I'll serve you no matter what happens. I love you because you first loved me. It's tremendous when God can find a person like that whose devotion to Christ is not dependent on prosperity or comfort or help.

So the very first book of the Bible denounces this gospel of prosperity and health. No, on the contrary, it speaks about a godly man's suffering and becoming poor because he was godly and thereby proving to the devil that even if I don't have health and even if I don't have wealth, I will still serve God.

Because in the book of Job, do you know what Job lost? He lost two things, health and wealth. The very two things that are being preached today. So we can say that the very first book of inspired scripture is refuting the health and wealth gospel.

Isn't that interesting? The very first book of inspired scripture speaks of a godly man who did not get health and did not get wealth. Have you read it? Have you understood what scripture says? Or are you being fooled by all that is being preached today?

But the other thing I want you to notice here is that the devil says something about Job which is an eye-opener to all of us believers. He said about Job, he said to God in verse 10, God, you have made a three-fold hedge around him.

A hedge around him, number one hedge, a second hedge around his family, and the third hedge around his finances and his property. Now that's the one verse, the only verse in the Bible that teaches me around every child of God there's a three-fold hedge.

It's wonderful to know that. I'm very thankful that Satan mentioned it there because otherwise I wouldn't have known it. What is that? That around me there are three hedges. One is around my body, my physical body and myself.

The second is around my wife and children. And the third is around my property and my bank account and my finances. God is interested in all three. He's not just interested in me. Do you know that God's interested in your wife and children?

God's interested in your property and your finances and your bank account? Sure. And there's a hedge around them. And the devil is not permitted, he cannot go through these hedges. It is impossible for him to penetrate these hedges unless God opens them up to him.

And that's what the devil tried to get permission from God for. So the Lord said to Satan, OK, I'll prove to you that my servant Job will be faithful to me even if you go and attack him. And then the Lord told him, All right, I'll open up hedge number three and hedge number two, but you won't be able to go to hedge number one.

That will be closed. Hedge number one was around his body, himself. He told Satan, you can't touch him, sorry. Don't put your hand on him, verse 12. But his wife and his children and all his property, I open up to you.

Go ahead and do what you like. You know, once the Lord told Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, to sift you like wheat. And God has permitted him. It's a wonderful encouragement to us to know that anything that comes into your life, if you're a child of God, anything bad, any attack of Satan, cannot come without God's permission.

That's a tremendous encouragement. Just imagine, for example, I don't know what's going to hit me tomorrow, next week, next year, ten years from now. But one thing I know, not the smallest little thing, not even the smallest wee tiny thing can come into my life without God's permission.

Not me, not my family, not my finances or property. It cannot be touched without God's permission. Okay? Maybe my business will suffer. Job's business was ruined completely. Okay. But if my business suffers, it'll be because God has opened up that hedge number three to the devil and says, go ahead.

Destroy his business and I will sanctify him through that process. Do you know sometimes we get sanctified when our business gets destroyed? I know so many cases of people like that. And God may even allow Satan to attack our family.

Satan’s Use of Job’s Wife and the Call to Spiritual Alertness

That's what we see here. That in one moment he went and destroyed all of Job's property. Job had such a lot of wealth. 7 ,000 sheep and 3 ,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys and the richest man in the East and everything.

It's like a man who's got so many businesses and everything gets blown up in one day. One day, the whole thing was gone. He came from heaven. You know, the devil's got tremendous power. Tremendous power.

He could stir up the Chaldeans to go and attack Job's people. He could even send fire from heaven to destroy Job's property. All his children, he could have killed Job's wife. Can you tell me why he didn't kill Job's wife?

He said, she is more useful to me alive than dead. I can use her to nag Job and needle him and trouble him and that's why he kept her alive. God had given Satan permission to kill her. But he didn't kill her.

Just like he used Eve, Adam, into sin. He kept Job's wife alive to try and use her to drag Job down into sin. You know, later on in chapter 2, she goes to Job and says, why don't you commit suicide? Curse God and commit suicide.

She was actually telling Job to commit suicide in chapter 2, verse 9. Curse God and die. What does that mean? How can you just die? It means commit suicide. Curse God and commit suicide. Please remember that the first two recorded instances of wives in the Bible, Adam's wife and Job's wife are both women whom Satan used to lead their husbands into sin.

Please take a warning from that. I'm not saying there are no godly women in the Bible. There are many, many godly women who helped their husbands, like Esther and Sarah and Priscilla and many, many others.

Praise God for them. Follow their example, but remember that the first two women in the history of humanity mentioned in scripture are women who tried to lead their husbands into sin. In Eve's case, she succeeded.

In Job's wife's case, she did not succeed. But the devil used them. We must be alert. You sisters must be alert that Satan does not, that you don't without knowing it perhaps, become unconsciously a weapon in Satan's hand.

An instrument in Satan's hand to make life difficult for your husband. Please take that as a warning. Because there are a lot of religious women. I'm sure Job's wife was a very religious woman. But a lot of religious women are a real pain in the neck to their husbands.

They're not a help to their husbands. They become instruments in Satan's hands to needle them, nag them, accuse them. They're already going through so much difficulty make life even more difficult for them.

Those are Satan's tactics. I'm just telling you what's recorded in the scriptures. Now the wonderful thing we see here is that even though he took all of Job's children and I've never in my life met anybody who has suffered so much at the hands of Satan in one day to lose 10 children and to lose all your business in the history of the world.

I wonder if there was ever a man who went through so much in one day. And it says when Job heard it he fell down, verse 20, and worshipped God and said when I came from my mother's womb, I was naked. I had no possessions.

I had no children. When I die, I'll die naked, without possessions, without children. All that I had, 10 children and my business, my prosperity, God gave me. God has every right to take it away. And the Bible says in all this Job did not sin, nor did he blame God.

Loving God More Than Family, Possessions, and Comfort

Now what I want to say to you is if you want to overcome Satan, if you don't want to be ignorant of Satan's tactics and schemes, remember this, that you can overcome Satan only if you have the same attitude to your possessions and your family that Job had.

He obviously loved God more than he loved his children, and he loved God more than he loved his possessions. Because he said my children, the Lord gave them to me, the Lord has every right to take them away.

I want to ask you, will you say that about your children? Think about it. It's not easy. But if you want to love Jesus, you've got to say, Lord, you mean more to me than even my children. Otherwise the devil will have power over you.

If you've given them over to God, then Satan can't have power over you. Many, many of God's servants, God's people, they love their children more than they love God. You know, when I started building the church and God had called me to serve Him, I mean, God called me to serve Him many years ago, about 38 years ago, but particularly to build the church, it was about 27 years ago, and I realized that I would now be the target of Satan, and I have been in many, many ways through the years.

And I knew my salvation, if I want to overcome Satan, would come only through one thing, that I must love God more than everything on earth. More than my family, more than my house. I remember I never in the world, in my wildest dreams, imagined that I would ever have a house of my own to live in.

And by some amazing miracle, I got this house in which I live in today. But I was scared when I got it. I said, Lord, I don't want this house to be an idol to me now. I never imagined I'd ever have a house to live in, but here, give me a house, and I am never going to worship this house of mine.

This is a place to live in, and if you want to burn it up, you can burn it up. I don't care. And for the first six months after I got that house way back 30 years ago, every time I turned the corner to my house, I thought I would see it in flames.

I thought God would take me at my word and burn it up. For about six months, I thought He would take it away because I said, I don't want this to be an idol. And in my mind's eye, it had already gone up in flames.

After that, it never bothered me whether I had it or didn't have it. And if you don't have that attitude to your possessions, Satan will have power over you. That's what we can learn from here. But if you can take Job's attitude, well, when I came to earth, did I have a house?

Did I have property? Did I have a business? Did I have possessions? Nothing. God gave it to me. God has every right to take it away. Satan cannot have power over such a man. The other thing I did was, in my mind's eye, way back then, 27 years ago, I saw five coffins.

I think I had only three children then. Anyway, the number of coffins where my wife and children were all lying there, dead. I said, Lord, they're yours. That doesn't mean they're going to die. It means that as far as I'm concerned, I've died to them, they've died to me, I belong to God.

I'm willing to accept. Are you willing to accept it? Are you willing to give up your wife and your children to God? Otherwise, I'll tell you, Satan will have power over you and your service for God will be limited.

Are you afraid that if you do that, God will actually take them away? I'll tell you, he never took away my house. He never took away my wife. He never took away my children. But I became free from them.

And I could serve God. Many people are not free. They're bound to their family. They're bound to their property. No wonder their earthly life is lived in a useless way. They just go to meetings, attend a church, go to meetings, and what have they accomplished for God in their life?

Zero. Pretty close to zero. All that they can say when they stand before God is, Lord, I attended 247 meetings or 1 ,247 meetings and I sang so many hymns and all that. Is that what you're going to say to God for all that Jesus did for you on the cross?

That all the numbers of meetings you attended and all the hymns you sang? What about your life counting for God, my brother, sister? If you want your life to count for God, love Him more than everything on earth.

More than your possessions. More than your business. More than your job. More than your property. More than your family members. More than everything. And say, Lord, you can have all of them. I came into the world naked and I will one day go away from this world naked.

Everything you give me on this earth, it's yours. I will never complain if you take any of them away. You have every right to take them away. I will serve you. Then you can be a person about whom God can boast to Satan.

Have you seen when you went to Pietermaritzburg, did you see that man? I know there are a lot of hypocrites there, but not that one. Did you see that one? Did you see that family? Boy, imagine if God could say that about you.

What a tremendous honor. That would be the greatest thing I could long for. I don't want all the empty honor of Christendom. That's what I want. I hope that's what you want. And we read a little later that again, Satan came before the Lord in chapter 2.

Job’s Integrity, the Fear of Death, and Christ’s Victory

And the Lord said, see, without any reason, you incited me to ruin him. I allowed you to go through hedge number 3 and hedge number 2. You have killed his children. You have taken away his property. Chapter 2, verse 3.

And he still holds fast his integrity. He's a man of integrity. That's the word used in verse 3. Chapter 2, verse 3. Do you know what God looks for? Men and women of integrity. And Satan said, yeah, I know.

He's always got some excuse. Even when he loses and he's lost the battle, he's still got some excuse. He says, I know why he's serving you. Because I tell you, he didn't care much for his wife and children, his property in any case.

What he really cares for is his body. You touch his health and I tell you, he'll curse you to your face. Because all human beings, he says, they all love themselves first of all. They don't love their wives and all so much.

But they love themselves. They love their physical health. You've just taken away his wealth. What about his health? He's got his health. He's okay. So he's not bothered. So Satan is trying to get permission to go through hedge number 1 also.

And God says, okay. I give you permission to go through hedge number 1 but with one condition. You cannot kill him. Verse 6. You cannot kill him. Do you know that if you're a child of God, you can't be killed.

You can't die before God's time. God has to give permission. Jesus said, I have the keys of death. Keys of death means only he can open the door for me. God's children can't suddenly die of cancer or road accident or any such thing without Jesus opening the door.

There's no such thing as accidents in God's eyes. He plans something on a particular day. He has planned that the door should be open for me or for you. That's the day. If I do the will of God, that's the day I'm going to go.

I won't go before that. I won't go after that. But if you're a person who's living for yourself, then I don't know when you'll go. But I'm talking about if you're one who's living for the glory of God, the date of your arrival on earth was determined and the date of your departure is also determined because the key for death is in the hand of Jesus Christ.