Lesson 3: Watch & Pray Against Satan’s Attacks (Job 1:13-22).

Prayer

Reading: Job 1:13-22.

Meditation

In the third scene, it all unfolds: raiders kill his workers and steal his livestock, his barns and sheep are struck by lightning and burned to the ground, all his camels are stolen by another raiding party, his wealth crashes down to nothing in the space of a moment, and then a tornado rips into his house and kills all his children at once – seven sons and three daughters, all dead. Can you imagine if this happened to you? Let’s try and paint the picture.

You’re out for a walk one day. You get a notification on your phone: your bank has just gone into receivership, and you open up your banking app to find that all of your money has evaporated. Your balance is at zero. In panic, you console yourself with the knowledge that you have a lot of stock in the stock market, and you can replenish your funds if you sell some shares. As you log on to your stock exchange app, you find that all your companies have all gone bust, and your shares have plummeted to zero. You’re really panicking now, so you call your wife. She picks up the phone, and she’s hysterical. The house has burned down, and all of your children were caught in the fire. They are all dead. You now have no money, all your possessions have burned, and the only thing you own is the clothes on your back. What would you do in that scenario?

It’s hard to even process what that would be like, isn’t it? But remember: we need to be aware of the physical causes of our suffering, and – in this case – we see Satan is the instigator. That will the focus in this meditation. We see a couple of things about Satan’s devices here.

Firstly, we see that Satan takes no holidays. Notice how relentless Satan’s attack is. It’s one thing after another. His malice is so great, that he would destroy everything in a moment if he could. If he had the power, he would take your money, burn your stuff, kill your family, and then kill you in an instant. Without hesitation. Such is the malice of our enemy. Be aware of this in your sufferings. If you have a bad day, he won’t give you a few days to recover. He’ll be on your back the same night if God allows it. He will always seek to press the advantage. This is why it’s so important to watch and pray, because your adversary the devil will not relax his relentless attempts to destroy and kill.

Secondly, we see that Satan uses second causes. I don’t watch horror movies from Hollywood, but from clips I’ve seen, they like to give pictures to the supernatural. Again, I haven’t watched it, but in a Stephen King movie, for example, the demonic entity might be portrayed as some shape-shifting monster or some such. But Satan is a spiritual being, and we learn here in Job that he uses much more mundane and secondary causes to accomplish his ends. Somehow he influenced those raiders to attack and steal from Job’s flocks. He has the power to influence people’s thoughts, that’s why Jesus said to Peter at one point: “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter was under Satan’s influence at that point. And Satan uses disasters: storms and lightning. Later on he will use sickness to afflict Job. So consider this: when people inflict suffering on you, or some disaster is unfolding, be aware that these things may well be, in that moment, satanic instruments. Real world events are not disconnected from the spiritual realm.

People talk about conspiracy theories sometimes, and I can’t say much about them. But I can say this: there is a powerful, global, spiritual conspiracy unfolding right now. There are dark forces, an organised system of evil beings, manipulating pieces on a global scale. This conspiracy is directed by a supernatural and malevolent intelligence, and most people are ignorant of it and in bondage to this evil cabal of demons. It is a conspiracy of epic proportions beyond any conspiracy known to man, and it is fueled by hatred and malice, and it is constantly working to destructive ends. It is the kingdom of darkness. We need to star