Spiritual Warfare or God’s Discipline?

I have talked to several people a lot this week about spiritual warfare. It’s caused me to take a step back and get a wider picture of this suffering that Job endured. So today our homework is over Job 27-37, but I’d like to zoom out a little bit and talk about the difference between spiritual warfare and God’s discipline and why it’s important to know the difference.

We know that the story of Job is a story about intense spiritual warfare happening in the heavenly realms between God and Satan. Sometimes we’re tempted to view Satan as God’s evil-equal, but it’s important to note that’s not the case at all. Satan definitely is evil, but he’s not at all equal to Almighty God. God is so much greater, so much wiser, so much more powerful than Satan ever could hope to be. Satan is a created being (created by God!) and he is pure evil. He roams the earth seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). He hopes to cause us so much suffering that we curse God and die, as suggested by poor Mrs. Job. But he is definitely not as powerful as God, nor is he omnipresent like God (able to be present in more than one place at a time), or omniscient like God (knowing all things).

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 says:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds."

We got a glimpse into a part of this spiritual war that Paul tells the Corinthian church about when we read about Satan’s conversation with God in the book of Job so we can actually picture the negotiations between God and Satan. We know that Satan asked permission from God to attack Job and that he only got to do it because God allowed it to happen. This is a battle for Job’s faith, a battle for Job’s life. Job was able to stand firm in the middle of it because his faith in God was solid. And God, in his sovereignty, knew it would be.

Sometimes the suffering we are enduring is because of an attack from the enemy.

While there’s no debating that Job’s attacks were grounded in a spiritual battle in the heavenly realms, there is another form of suffering we sometimes face that is worth mentioning here. This form of suffering is God’s discipline. We must be able to distinguish between a spiritual battle being waged against us and the firm and gentle hand of discipline of a loving Father.

Hebrews 12:5-11 says:

              "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when   reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." 

Sometimes the suffering we are enduring is because God is disciplining us.

How can we tell the difference?

The first question to ask is “Am I submitting my whole life to the lordship of Jesus Christ?” If you can genuinely answer with a “YES” (not a yes because you go to church a lot or follow lots of rules, but because you are genuinely walking in fellowship with the Lord), then it’s likely that you are experiencing spiritual warfare. But if you answered “NO” to the above questions, the suffering you’re experiencing could possibly be due to the discipline and correction of the Lord. Often when a person comes to Christ, she readily accepts Him as Savior but is hesitant to make him Lord. I remember my mom putting it to me in terms an eight-year-old could understand – Jesus wanted to be my boss. If Jesus is truly your boss and you are submitting every part of your life to him, when bad things come your way you’ll be suited up in the armor of God, able to take your stand against the schemes of the devil. But if you’re struggling with the idea of making him your Lord, your boss, the struggles you’re facing could very well be the hand of the Lord’s discipline on you.

So what do we do when we know that we’re being attacked?

Ephesians 6:10-20 says:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

If we want to have any hope of standing firm against the schemes of Satan, we must have the full armor of God. We need the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit (which is God’s Word). When we are fully equipped and prepared, we are able to stand firm when the flaming darts of Satan’s arrows fly.

So why is it important to distinguish between spiritual warfare and discipline? The answer is simple – We must stand firm against Satan’s attacks but we must willingly submit to the Lord’s discipline. If we submit when we should be standing or stand when we should be submitting, we may miss the lesson God has for us or even worse, give the devil a foothold in our lives.

James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee.” This submission requires us to die daily to ourselves, meaning that we no longer just go around doing whatever we feel like doing, whenever we feel like doing it. Total submission to God means that every morning we wake up and we surrender our days to His guidance. We walk through our days asking him to point us to the jobs he has for us and obeying when he tells us what to do. It’s a radically different way to live life because it requires a complete change in perspective from one that is self-centered, to one that is completely unconcerned with self. When we submit ourselves to God and then see trials come our way, we can easily be shaped into the women that God wants us to be because we can recognize the hardships as God molding and shaping us to look more and more like Jesus Christ.

John 15 compares us to branches growing on the vine of the Father. Jesus tells us here that any branch that does not bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Learn to recognize the pruning process in your life. (Now is a good time to remind you about Job’s wife – remember her trials were due to the testing of her husband. God certainly was at work in her life as well, pruning her, molding and shaping her, even though the test of faith was specifically for Job. While we do know that her first response to curse God and die was not a “submissive” response or even a “stand firm against the devil” response, we have to wonder if old Mrs. Job ever had a change of heart as she watched her husband resist the devil. Who knows?)

We’ll need that full armor of God to be able to resist the devil. A soldier doesn’t quickly throw on his armor when the enemy arrives and expect to win. In order to effectively resist Satan’s attacks, we must already be dressed! Interestingly enough, if we ever hope to submit ourselves to God, the same amount of preparation is needed.

The preparation required to resist the devil is the same as the preparation required to submit to God.

Both acts of preparation require us to spend time in God’s Word and in prayer every single day, not just when the trials come. How can you be ready to submit to God and his discipline? How can you be ready to resist the devil when the attacks come? By spending time with the God of the universe every day in prayer and in His Word. Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee.

(Please also consider that sometimes we suffer due to medical problems - a condition that happens to every one of us because of the fall of man. Our bodies are our temporary homes, not meant to last forever. Sometimes our physical suffering has nothing to do with spiritual warfare or with the discipline of the Lord but from the very fact that this world is not our home.)

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^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), Heb 12:5–11.

How Good Is Good Enough?

When we pick back up in Job 2:11, Job is sitting in the dirt, covered in sores all over his body, mourning the loss of his ten children and all his livestock and possessions, having shaved his head in grief. His wife has just told him to curse God and die because she too has just experienced the same losses. We are privy to the heavenly conversation between God and Satan, but Job and his wife were not. They don’t know why any of this tragedy has struck. They are dumbfounded.

Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar come to visit Job to show him some sympathy and comfort. They wailed and wept and tore their robes and sat in ashes in silence next to Job for seven days. These are some dedicated friends – not just acquaintances that offer Job a few platitudes, but true friends who mourn with Job in his greatest despair.

In chapter three, Job curses the day he was born, wishing that he had died at birth instead of going on to live a life in which he would lose everything precious to him. Then in the following chapters, Job’s three friends take turns telling him why they think he has suffered so much. They all three agree that Job’s suffering must be due to some sin in his life. As they argue back and forth, Job insists that he is righteous, that he has done nothing wrong.

We know the truth. Job was a righteous man and God had full confidence that Job’s faith was strong enough to withstand the tests that he endured. Even God called Job blameless and upright! We also know that in all of Satan’s efforts to get Job to curse God and die, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. But we also know that Job wasn’t perfect – there’s only one man who has ever been perfect. So what was the standard by which God judged Job as “blameless and upright”?

Job was judged against the Law. He kept most of God’s commands and laws and made sacrifices continually for him and his children in case any of them had sinned. Job worked really hard to stay in right standing with God because he loved God and wanted to please Him.

This leaves us wondering if we too have to work hard to meet God’s “acceptable” standard. Job was good – do we have to be as righteous and blameless as Job in order for God to deem us righteous?

The answer is NO!

So what’s the difference? The difference is Jesus.

God is perfect and He cannot tolerate sin, but all of us have sin! Romans 3:23 says that we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So back in the Old Testament, people had to follow the law and make sacrifices for their sins in order to atone for them. They could even make sacrifices for the sins of other people! (Do you ever wish you could do that???) Job sacrificed for his kids in case any of them had sinned! Sin requires punishment. It requires a sacrifice. This is the good news! God’s plan all along was to show us our need for redemption and for Someone to pay the price for our sin. He did that by giving the people of the Old Testament the Law. It shows us that we can never measure up. We can never be good enough or do enough good things to be righteous on our own. We need another way!

So the GOOD NEWS is, the GOSPEL is, that God provided another way. He sent Jesus to pay the ultimate price for our sins – to make the sacrifice once and for all so that we wouldn’t have to follow the law and make the sacrifices any more. Jesus paid for all of our sins when he died on the cross. But there’s more – Jesus didn’t stay dead! He rose from the grave on the third day and revealed himself to his disciples and many others as he walked the earth. Then he ascended back into heaven.

So Jesus paid the price for all of our sin. We know that. So why do we still feel the need to be good all the time? To make sure we’re checking off all the boxes and doing all the right things? God created each of us with this desire, so it’s not an accident. This desire, instead of pointing us to work work work work, is supposed to point us to our desperate need of Jesus. When you feel the urge to do good and be good and say all the right things, when you beat yourself up because you’re just not getting it right, remember that this is supposed to remind you to look to Jesus!

Job was a righteous man because of his sacrifices under the law.

We are righteous women because of the sacrifice of Jesus!

Blessed Be Your Name: Job 1:6-2:10

As you're cracking open your Bible in preparation to study Job today, you may be tempted to try and figure out just how this book applies to your life. You might be tempted to make it personal and draw some parallels. But before you do, remember to ask yourself, "What does this say about God?" I hope that you'll be encouraged by the two clear attributes of God that we find in this passage. Remember, the Bible is about God! Now go ahead and read Job 1:6-2:10 and then keep reading here.

This portion of chapter one opens in God’s heavenly throne room when the sons of God (angels and other divine beings), and Satan come before the Lord. God asks Satan where he has come from and he confesses that he has been wandering around the earth. And then the strangest conversation happens. Check back to 1:8. 

Who suggested that Satan should consider Job?

God. Not Satan. God suggested that Satan consider Job.

John Piper explains it this way: A robber goes into a jewelry store with a gun and a mask, demanding all of the fine jewels and precious stones. The jeweler says, "Well how about this one, my biggest and best diamond? Would you like to have that one?" Now logic would lead us to conclude that if we were being robbed, we would not want to give the robbers suggestions about more things they could take from us. How interesting that all of this was God’s idea, not Satan’s. 

In 1:9, Satan brings an accusation against Job, saying that the only reason he remains faithful and fears God is because God has protected him and blessed him. He challenges God by saying that if he took all of that away from Job, he would curse God to his face. So God gives Satan permission to take away all that Job had as long as he didn’t touch Job himself. This brings us to the first thing we learn about God in this chapter:

God is sovereign.

He is completely in charge of every bit of what happens. Does this mean that God sometimes allows bad things to happen to us? Yes. He did it when he sent the flood that killed everyone but Noah’s family. He did it when Jonah got swallowed up by the great fish. He did it when Job lost everything he had. We don’t always know WHY, but we do know that God causes all things to work for good for those who love him.

In 1:13-19, Job loses everything he has because unbeknownst to him, God has placed him and all of his possessions and family in the hands of Satan. In verse 20 we see that Job grieved and then he fell on the ground and worshiped. Job had this interesting perspective that the name of the Lord should be praised when He gives and when he takes away.  In all of it he didn’t sin or blame God.

As if all this weren’t enough, it happens again! The angels and Satan come before the Lord and God has the same conversation with Satan. Only this time Satan accuses Job of remaining faithful only because he wasn’t allowed to touch his actual body. So God, in his sovereignty, tells Satan that he can touch Job’s body, as long as he spares his life.

So immediately Satan goes out and strikes Job with a terrible skin disease.

Some of you may remember when I battled 9 months of chronic hives. I was covered from head to toe with incredibly itchy red welts that nearly drove me out of my mind. I saw every specialist possible, changed my diet, went through all kinds of tests, including skin biopsies, blood tests, and allergy tests. Nothing worked. The only thing that gave me any relief was a steroid that had terrible side effects. I was miserable and itchy and in pain. One day it stopped and hasn't come back since. I still don't know why that happened, but I know I can trust that God does!

Now Mrs. Job is another important character in this story, but we are left mostly wondering about her because Scripture doesn’t tell us much. In fact, it only gives us a few lines of what she has to say. This woman has also lost all of her livestock, her livelihood, her servants and worst of all, every single one of her children. She doesn’t have the same response as her husband because she tells him he should curse God and die.  Job refuses to do that, of course. Mrs. Job had to suffer all of the consequences of her husband's test. She wasn't privy to God's conversation with Satan. She didn't even have any idea that it was her husband's test and she sure wasn't passing it if it had been hers. She was just suffering through a test that was meant for someone else. Sometimes that happens to us too.

So this week we leave Job and his wife, possessionless, childless, bald-headed and in ashes, scraping his skin and worshiping. Quite a place to be.

But this leaves us with one looming question. If God, in his sovereignty, allowed bad things to happen to Job (and Jonah and Noah and so many others), could he do that to me too?

The answer is our second point.

       God is unchanging.

Malachi 3:6 says “For I, the Lord, do not change;”. James 1;17 tells us that the Father of lights does not change like the shifting shadows. Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So the fact that God is unchanging means that the same God that allowed Jonah to be thrown into the ocean and sent a flood to destroy the earth is the same God that you and I serve today. He has not changed. If he wants to allow struggle and pain and hardships in your life, he will do it. If he sees fit to allow suffering to come upon you, for sickness and disease to ravage your body, he can do it. He has not changed.

But here’s the kicker: The same God that allowed Jonah to be thrown into the ocean is the same God that sent the whale to carry him safely to shore. The same God that allowed the earth to be destroyed by a flood also sent the ark to carry Noah’s family to safety. The same God that allowed sickness and disease and suffering and disaster to come to Job is the same God that (SPOILER ALERT!) will reveal himself in a mighty way to Job at the end of the book, restoring his home, his wealth and his family.

The same God that allows suffering and pain is the same God that gives grace in the midst of it.

He is Sovereign.
He is unchanging.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Now listen and worship!  Sovereign and Blessed Be Your Name