We are looking into the sovereignty of God as it applied to Job and you can also expect that it applies to you. God is always the same, Hebrews 13:8. I don’t believe there is one God of the Old Testament and another God in the New Testament.
As I had written about it in (Part 1), Job’s fear is what gave the Devil a chance to attack him, his family and his livelihood. It wasn’t God’s sovereignty that allows Satan to attack Job. God did everything that He could to limit the devil but Job opened the door and kept it opened. God could not stop what Satan was about to do.
You see, as noted in the last article, Adam turned this world over to Satan’s perverted authority, and even God noted that in Job 1.
12 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
The bad things happening on the earth are always linked to sin. Satan is the god of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4. He reigns over the people of earth who do not know Jesus and believers that do not exercise authority over sin and Satan.
Jesus didn’t refute the devil when he said that he could give Jesus the kingdom’s of the earth in Matthew 4:8-11, why? Because it was true, Jesus had not defeated the devil yet.
Keeping all this in mind, we can begin to unravel what was really going on in the conversations between the Lord and Satan. We can build an understanding of both God and the devil, which are gold nuggets of truths that we can glean from this part of Job’s life and conflict.
What is going on here is that Satan’s lies, even to God’s own face, are maligning God’s good character in the minds of men. Satan is simply a liar and the father of all lies, John 8:44.
The other truth that you have to keep in mind is that God knows everything, including the thoughts of the Devil: Isaiah 46:10, Hebrews 4:13 & Revelations 1:8. These are only a very few Scriptures that I’ll use to prove biblically that God knows everything.
Let’s look at Job 1:7 and understand what’s really going on here.
7 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
Question: does God know where the Devil’s been and what the Devil is thinking? The answer is yes, so why did He ask this question? When you are talking to a person who has a free will, you engage them in a way that honor’s there will in having a conversation with you. Do you think that God didn’t know what was going on with Adam and Eve after the fall? Of course He did but to honor their free wills, He asks them the questions.
Let’s continue on to Job 1:8 keeping in mind the same train of thoughts that we have already gone over.
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
Previously in the past when I’ve read these verses, I thought to myself, why is God throwing Job out to Satan like that? Does God want to test Job and get the Devil to do His dirty work for Him? Of course not, because God is good and there is no variation or shadow of turning, James 1:17. God never tempts anybody, James 1:13.
I was puzzled about this until the Holy Spirit said to me, “I knew what Satan was thinking before he even approached me. I knew and I got right to the point.”
You see the same scenario done in Job chapter two, however verse 3 puzzled me as well because God said that Satan had incited Him against Job.
3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”
How did Satan incite God against Job? The Spirit said, “This is character defamation because Satan has lied to people about my sovereignty. He3 makes it sound like, because I’m sovereign, I am responsible for both the good and the bad things that happen in people’s lives.”
The devil is a liar and Job believed that lie, which says that God was behind these attacks for some reason. We know that God never lifted a finger against Job. You clearly see that it was Satan who attacked Job. This is a golden nugget of truth that we can see in the book of Job. Satan has gotten into people’s heads that God is in control of everything both the good and the bad things that happen in our lives. This is simply not true about the Sovereign LORD.
Our sovereign God has chosen for us to exercise free will. He may limit the things we choose, like the choice between Heaven or Hell, but it is still our choice that we exercise in the matter.
Knowing these truths about God’s sovereignty will help you enjoy His love and goodness in your life. God wants to bless you and do well in your life.
John 8:32 (NKJV) 32
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”