Chapter 4.9
War Games
Job and God
The
Invisible War, the Accuser, the Watchers
God
and Job’s Hedge of Protection.
First Word
This
story of War Games is centered on THE STORY OF JOB which all the
commentaries say it’s about his patience, but I don’t think the story is about
his patience
at all, I think this story is about his Faith and the WAR GAMES for his soul. The theory was, that when the material things of Job are taken away, that God would no longer be
able to satisfy his spiritual Soul; all
of creation was WATCHING
on the side lines to see if Satan was right.
My mom was sick
a lot in her 40’s and I noticed that in our living room secretary, she kept an eight volume
commentary on Job; she was so interested in how he dealt with his
suffering. I cannot fandom what anyone
could say about Job that would take eight volumes, but as I listen to Job’s
friends talking to him for 30 chapters, I found myself agreeing
with what they had to say to Job until I got to the part where God rebukes and
challenges their BAD
COUNSEL.
My BS, my Belief System was jarred and I felt a need to go back and
revisit the book of Job to try to understand his relationship with God. We are going to skip the entire 30 chapters of
discourse in the book including the hard partying of his kids[1]
and concentrate only on the
SUBLIMINAL WAR GAME MESSAGES.
What sets this story
apart is the revelation by Satan that there was of a Hedge of Protection that was placed
around Job by God Himself and then there’s the second part; the even more
importance of his audience; THE WATCHERS of the War Games.
We are
systematically going to unpack; 1) The Angel Satan,
2) The Watchers, 3) The Man Job, 4) Job’s Hedge of
Protection and 5) The War Game over Job’s Soul.
The
Angel Satan
It’s
okay if your BS, your
Belief
System rejects what I am about to
disclose to you, just run with the concept so you can get the plot of the War Game. You will come to embrace this truth later as
you see how many other things begin to line up like fence post and make more
sense.
I want to take
you back to the creation of the first earth age and look at who was
present. I won’t teach it here, but it
occurred between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 and is called the Gap theory or Lucifer’s flood.
The words “In the beginning” does not refer to the 6 day
creation, but refers to the time before this RE-CREATION began. The earth was called “dry land”; so in the
beginning God created the heavens and the dry land.
In the
beginning
there was only one sovereign will and that was God’s Will, then Satan with his FREE WILL rebelled and
thus we now have Two Wills. Satan sought
to detach man from God and attach him to himself. While he was successful in detaching man from
God; man in his FREE WILL did not attach himself to Satan. Now there are Billions of Wills in the universe.
The Gospel message of Jesus Christ was presented to make it possible for
man to be re-attached back to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Satan in the
first earth age had corrupted the inhabitants of the earth and made them vile, wicked and
evil. At some point in eternity past, there was a JUDGMENT
of darkness and waters flooded the entire dry land.[2]
Understand that when this happened there was no light and without light
everything perished including the creatures of the deep. The earth
became without form and was void.[3]
The first earth
age was the domain of Lucifer, the highest Angel in heaven. He was next to God in authority, he was His Chief of Staff.
What we know is that the earth was
created good[4]
and that it become corrupted by the fall of Lucifer or who we call the Serpent or Satan. There was an audience at the creation of the FIRST EARTH AGE that also witnessed the destruction and then the
new creation of the SECOND EARTH AGE. This destruction and re-creation was witnessed by all
the Angelic beings and other creations which we know nothing about.[5] Often in the Book heavenly
beings or angels are referred to as “stars”.
Un-repentant Satan was given eons
of time to re-construct the earth as all of Creation watched him, but he could not. Then God started over with the heavens and
the earth and created mortal man with FREE WILL and made him a
little lower than the Immortal angels who also had FREE WILL; man was then given dominion over earth as all of God’s
creation watched to see what Satan would do about it.
God
wants a people that love Him because they choose to, not because they were
predestined or created just for the purpose of loving Him. Man and
Angels were both created with FREE WILL, and some angles have already rebelled and have
chosen to follow Satan, and much of mankind has been wounded trying to follow him
too; and if they are not rescued by God through the Holy Spirit and healed,
they too will be Dead Ducks; sadly some will choose to reject the Holy Spirit
and try to heal themselves.
Satan was the
anointed cherub that covered the throne of God and had
been given the responsibility of the government of the entire universe and the setting
forth of the righteousness of God. He
was created immortal, powerful and with FREE WILL, he was Prophet, Priest and King of the Universe, there was no angel higher than him including Michael the Archangel.[6] When Satan first rebelled, he lost the office
of prophet
as God no longer spoke through him.
When the members of the heavenly court
convened, God singled out Satan, and asked; where have you come from? Satan in his role as king of the universe pretended
that he had been industriously active on God’s behalf, patrolling the earth
dispensing justice with the interests and glory of God. Then in his office of Priest, Satan specifically and
craftily wanted to present that today’s main concern was to protect God from
the EVIL
that was in the heart of one specific man; a man called Job.
God seeing the end from the beginning, already knew
what the slithering serpent had been up to. The Omnipotent all-knowing God and all the WATCHERS had witnessed that Satan’s minions had
been in Job’s backyard trying to do him harm, but their every attempt was
thwarted because God had placed a Hedge of Protection around Job.[7]
Genesis 1:1 – The First Earth Age created
1 In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth. NIV
Genesis 1:2 – The First earth age became without
form and void
2 And the earth was (“hayah” became) without form, and void; and DARKNESS (judgment)
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters. NIV
The Watchers
We pick up the story of the watchers in the story of
Job and the Hedge
of Protection that God had put around
him. There are two things going on here;
Hedges and
Watchers. This story is actually more about the
audience than Job; THE WATCHERS.
This is what I want you to get,
there is an audience of Watchers for all of history of what Satan has
done, is doing and plans to do and is made clear in the Book of Job as Satan is summoned to appear before God and WATCHING are all the angels both good and
bad plus all the other creations.
The Sovereign
God called
for the members of the “Heavenly Court”
to appear before Him and give an account of what they had accomplished. The highest ranking official was Satan and was
singled out to report on his activity. Now I know this is going to mess with your BS, your
Belief System, but you must get this, all of the members
of the court were WATCHING the proceedings
as well as all of the other lower ranking angels. They are referred to as THE WATCHERS, those who have witnessed the actions of God and
Satan ever since the FIRST EARTH
AGE.
They Watchers had witnessed the rebellion of Satan eons
ago and how one-third of the heavenly creations followed after him.[8]
They watched the
judgment come upon the earth that caused it to become void. Satan, the highest ranking official had
rebelled against God and as all creation watched and witnessed, they saw that he COULD NOT re-create the
earth.
Satan was created immortal and God in his
mercy, grace and Love allowed him to continue in His presence, giving him eons
of time with opportunity to change his ways, but Satan knowing the Watchers
were
witnessing his every action; let
his PRIDE
get in the way, and just DOUBLED DOWN on his rebellion.
You might remember that before God flooded
the earth the second time with Noah; in love, mercy and grace, God left the
door on the Ark open for a week, just in case some would repent and
come into the ark and be saved; then HE shut the door. Satan
had been given eons of time and now THE DOOR HAS NOW BEEN SHUT FOREVER ON SATAN and the angles that followed him. Their fate is sealed, they cannot be
redeemed. The demons, fallen angels and
Satan all know their fate and are ready for their LAST
HURRAH, before their destination in the Lake of Fire. This is what the Watchers
are watching; to see if Satan’s new plan will save himself.
Job 1:6 - The Heavenly Court was summoned
by God
6 One day the MEMBERS OF THE HEAVENLY COURT came to present themselves before the LORD, and
THE ACCUSER, SATAN, came with them.
NIV
Daniel
4:17 – The Watchers are Heavenly Court beings
17 he sentence is by the decree of THE WATCHERS,
the decision by the word of THE HOLY ONES, to the end that the living may know
that the
Most High rules the kingdom of men and
gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’
(ESV)
The Man Job
The Book records that Job was blameless; a man of complete
integrity that feared God and stayed away from evil. The Book of Job is considered to be the
oldest book in the
Bible, so Job’s faithfulness and his righteousness did not come from
reading the
books of the prophets, there wasn’t any, I believe he had his own
special spiritual encounter with God like
Moses did.
He was like a Chief or a King; the city
gate was where court was held and justice was dispensed. When Job approached the gate, the aged rose
in respect and the young men stepped aside when they saw him coming. The Highest Officials and the Princes stood in
silence as he took his place among the honored leaders; new honors
were constantly being placed on him.
When he smiled, his look of approval was
precious to everyone because he was like a father to the poor and the orphans;
he helped generously with their needs. He comforted those who mourned, and was like
eyes for the blind and feet for the lame and assisted the stranger. They longed for him to just speak so they
could drink in his words. He
dispensed honest and righteous justice and broke the jaws of godless oppressors
and rescued their victims.[9] FAITH full of Works
was Job’s reputation; he HELPED those that were WITHOUT HOPE.
He was a farmer
that had done well in life and had become the richest man around.[10] He owned thousands of sheep and camels and
hundreds of teams of oxen. He was
blessed with seven sons and three daughters, many servant and a Messed Up Wife. Mrs.
Job was a different duck, she was just the opposite spiritually of that of
Job; in fact she seems like she had already jumped into Satan’s Dead Duck Bag.
God created a man’s wife to be help
mate, to support and encourage him, but Mrs. Job was far from that. The Book records that
when Job was at his lowest point and needed her moral support the most, she
told him to CURSE
GOD AND DIE. [11] Good Grief -
Is there any wonder why Satan would be so
aggravated with God; there was a blameless man living right in his principality
that he could not touch, and it was because God had placed a HEDGE OF PROTECTION around him. Besides that, embarrassingly all of creation was WATCHING
to see what he was going to do about it; so Satan hatched a plan to bring
accusations of LIES about Job’s character. If you can’t find fault with someone in their
actions, then tear down their character.
It should be noted as we study Job that nowhere in the Book are we told that life will be better because we
are Christians, in fact it says just the opposite, it says life will get
harder. The reason that Christians seem
to have so much conflict is because Satan is only interested in ducks
that are still flapping around, even if they are wounded. His fiery darts knocks the Christian down, but
they get right back up because God has given them personal Angels to care for
them and a FAITH
that places a HEDGE OF
PROTECTION around
them and the Holy
Spirit to direct them.[12] The Dead Ducks like Mrs. Job are already in Satan’s Dead Duck Bag,
so he is not worried about them.
It’s in the Book
The Hedge
This is where we pick up the story as the counsel
has convened and Satan has been singled out to report on his work. God already knowing what Satan’s minions had
been up to, asked Satan if he had NOTICED one of the
Lord’s finest servants named Job who was a blameless man that stayed away from
evil?[13] Satan
responded; well, there is a very good reason for him to be a blameless
person; it’s because you have placed a HEDGE
OF PROTECTION around him.[14]
I think it is so interesting, that it is
Satan that discloses that there is a Hedge of Protection around
Job and his household and the work of Job’s hands. You have to stop and ask, HOW DID HE KNOW? He knew because
his evil minions had already been trying to get in Job’s backyard to attack his
goods, but had failed every time and God knew it too.
Satan Says to God; if you reach out and take away everything he has, he will surely curse you to your
face!”
and God
responded; “BEHOLD, EVERYTHING HE HAS IS IN YOUR HANDS.
“Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but DON’T HARM HIM PHYSICALLY.”[15] So
Satan left the LORD’s presence.
Did you see it? While Satan has
access to Job, he has limitations, or I will say it another way; Satan is
nothing but a dog on a leash, going only as far as his chain will let him. I will say this; that after the Millennial
Reign of Christ is over, the chain comes off of Satan for one last Hurrah and then BAM; the lake of fire. It’s in the Book
I want to stop here for just a moment and report what
the Book says about Job.
In everything that he did, HE DID NOT SIN WITH HIS LIPS.
But Job did have a flaw in his character
and it was FEAR
which he confessed with his own mouth.
God has commanded us to NOT FEAR and that was the vehicle that allowed
Satan into Job’s life.[16] God did not give Job to Satan, God said that “everything he has is in your hands”. Job himself had already opened the door with
the sin of FEAR and Satan just didn’t know it. Satan is not all knowing, he only knows what
we speak with our LIPS; therefore speak the word of FAITH.
The Book says EVERYTHING
THAT DOES NOT COME FROM FAITH IS SIN.[17]
The
War Games
The War Games begins the same day
when Job’s kids are partying; a servant runs in and tells Job that some Sabean soldiers had
raided their farm and stole all their livestock and killed all the farm hands. Before he finished speaking, another servant
ran in and said that lighting had struck and killed all his sheep as
well as his servant shepherds. Right
behind him as another servant came in and told him the bad news that Chaldean solders
had stolen all his camels and killed all the workers. Then another servant came in and said a strong wind had
blown down the house and killed all his children and then Job said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the
LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” and in all of this, JOB DID NOT SIN BY BLAMING GOD.[18]
The
WATCHERS
took note that on Satan’s first play against Job, Satan had fumbled the ball, and they watched
as he re-grouped for another play as the Invisible War of
life continues.
NOTE: Job was totally un-aware of the WAR GAMES
and he THOUGHT it was God that had taken his goods away,
BUT IT WAS NOT; it was Satan
that came to Kill Steal and Destroy.
JESUS CAME TO GIVE LIFE AND TO GIVE IT MORE
ABUNDANTLY.[19]
War Games Continue
One would think this invisible war was
over,
as Satan had suffered defeat at the hands of Job, but it’s never over, there is
no rest, no breaks, no peace treaties and no time out. Satan, his minions and his demons conspire and
mount attacks day and night. It should
be noted here, that this is the reason each believer has a personal angel, a WATCHER that provides a HEDGE OF PROTECTION for him.[20] It’s in the Book
The War Games continue as God AGAIN
summons the Heavenly
Court to assemble and He AGAIN
singles out Satan and without mentioning that He knows that Satan and his
minions have killed all of Job’s livestock, most of his servants and all his
kids, and asked him calmly; just as He did before; by the way, Have you
noticed my servant Job, he is blameless and a man of complete
integrity. I can’t
help but smile; God with his question, has got Satan’s goat.
Prideful Satan
still pretending to be acting in the role of God’s PRIEST;
implies his actions are only to point out EVIL in the heart of
Job and then becomes
agitated and speaks very disrespectful to God and says… “Skin for Skin
(or Tit for
Tat), a
man will give up everything he has to save his own life. But you just reach out and take away his
health, and he will surely CURSE YOU TO YOUR FACE!”
God smiles and says; “All
right, do with him as you please, but you cannot take his life. NOTE: Did you see it again; THE CHIEF OF STAFF, the POWERFUL
SATAN has restrictions placed on him by God.
So
Satan left the LORD’s presence,
and he struck Job with TERRIBLE
BOILS from head to
foot. All the WATCHERS observed what had just
taken place and pondered how Job will react; perhaps Satan will win this Invisible War.[21]
Get
this; Job does not even know that an Invisible War is
going on and the battle is over his soul and that all creation is watching and BETTING on how he will
react. Satan’s plan is to prove to God
that even His very best man has EVIL in his heart.
As Job
is scraping his boils with a piece of broken pottery, his supporting
WIFE; his help mate comes
in and abetting Satan, tells him to CURSE GOD AND DIE.[22]
(Wow; what a wife.)
Job responds and says “You talk like an INSANE woman.
Should we accept only good things from
the hand of God and never anything bad? God will do to
me whatever he has planned, He controls my destiny; IN ALL THIS, JOB SAID NOTHING WRONG. [23] Satan
loses the invisible war for the second time as witnessed by the WATCHERS
and all of creation. Satan tells his
minions, it’s not over till the FAT lady sings; WHAT? Maybe not.
Daniel 4:13 - A WATCHER is God’s holy angel from heaven
13 "I saw in the visions of my
head while on my bed, and there was
a WATCHER, a holy one, coming down from heaven.
(NKJV)
Job 2:8-10 – Mrs. Job took Satan’s side in
the Invisible War
8 Job scraped his skin with a piece
of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.
9 his WIFE
SAID TO HIM,
“Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? CURSE GOD AND DIE.”
10 But Job replied,
“You talk
like a foolish (insane) woman.
Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”
So IN ALL
THIS, JOB SAID NOTHING WRONG.
(NLT)
Game Over
The
War Game is over for now with Job; God TWO, Satan ZERO; but it always starts up again somewhere else
and the minions always come back, but our Faith keeps up the hedge. God finishes setting Job’s three friends
straight; they offer sacrifices and Job prays for his friends and his prayer is
accepted by God. Then God restores
everything DOUBLE
that Job had lost, giving him seven more sons and three more daughters and when
we add them to his children already in heaven, he now has DOUBLE the children;[24]
can you say GLORY!
The Take
Away
Three of Job’s friends drop by to
comfort him and for 30 chapters give him advice that only the world can give. They spent their time trying to methodically
prove that for all these calamities to have happened, Job must have offended
God in some way. Then God interrupts and
says “Who is
this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?[25]
With my BS, I had found myself agreeing with
his three friends until God spoke and then I felt myself shrinking down into my
chair. The three friends spoke with
worldly wisdom and God said; I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard
the intelligence of the intelligent.
Every Believer will be attacked in the Invisible War and the believer’s FAITH gives them not only a Hedge of
Protection around them, but they also have the protection of a
personal angel. The WATCHERS are betting that you will
win; they rejoice over just one soul that is saved.
In the Invisible
War, Satan wanted to sift Simon Peter like wheat and HE DID. Simon was
who he used to be, and Peter was who he had become and
what was left after the sifting was more of Peter and less of Simon. In this Invisible war, God allowed Satan to send Paul a Thorn in the Flesh
to buffet him, but it was for his own good.
All the WATCHERS saw Peter[26]
and Paul[27]
lift up the name of Jesus and glorify God.
This is our example, we are a part of the Invisible War and the Angels are betting on us to win.[28] We have the Holy Spirit within us to show us
what to do and say. Today the way that
God speaks to us is through the Holy Spirit as
we study what He has already written in His Book.
In the Invisible War, it is not
necessarily Satan that causes your hardships.
The
Book records instances of a man
being blind and even someone dying so that in time, God’s power would be
displayed and He would be glorified through it. Such was the case with Lazarus and the man
born blind.[29]
When stuff happens to you, pray that
your actions will glorify God and display His awesome power. I ONCE WAS BLIND AND NOW I SEE.
There is a teaching error that says that
once you have prayed for something, that to pray again is operating in doubt and unbelief. This
is just not what the scriptures teach; throughout the scriptures Satan’s quest
in the Invisible
War is to cause the Believer to give
up praying thus stopping the promises of God from reaching them, thus keeping
them from receiving.
Your
prayer is heard before you even start to utter it. The
answer is dispatched before you finish and the Invisible War [30]cranks
up immediately to prevent you from receiving your petitions.
Keep praying
even if it takes THREE
WEEKS. Don’t stop; it’s in the Book
Daniel 10:12-14 – Satan tries to sidetrack
your promises.
12
Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for
FROM THE
FIRST DAY that you set
your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, YOUR WORDS WERE HEARD; and I have come because of your words.
13
BUT THE PRINCE OF THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA
WITHSTOOD ME TWENTY-ONE DAYS;
and behold, Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone
there with the kings of Persia. NKJV
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 – Pray every
chance you get
17
PRAY CONTINUALLY; GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES,
for THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR YOU in Christ Jesus.
NIV
[1] Job 1:1 – Job revered God and stayed away from Evil -- Job 1:4 – Job’s kids
liked to have fun and PARTY -- Job 1:5 – Job regularly prayed for his children after they partied; for
any sin
[2] 2 Peter 3:5-6 – The world
that was then overflowed with water
[3] Jeremiah 4:23-26 - The
earth was formless and empty; the people had perished in the first flood
[4] Colossians 1:16-17 – God
created everything for Himself
[5] Job 38:4-7 – The
Watchers; the Angels were there at earth’s creation
[6] Jude 1:9 – Michael did not dare rebuke Satan concerning Moses’ body
[7] Job 1:7-12 – Have you noticed my servant Job? There’s a wall of protection
[8]
Revelation 12:4 – One third of the Angels
followed Satan -- Matthew 28:2-4 – The Watches fell
down at the angel of God
[9] Job 29:7-25 – Job was an honored leader; like a king
[10] Job 1:1-3 – Job feared God and was blameless with complete integrity and
very rich
[11] Genesis 2:18 – Wives were created to be help mates -- Job 2:9 – Job’s
wife was a spokesperson for Satan; CURSE GOD AND
DIE
[12] 1 Corinthians 10:13 – God will give us a way out so we can endure --
Ephesians 6:16 – Our Faith quenches Satan’s fiery darts)
[13] Job 1:8-9 – Satan, have you noticed my blameless servant Job –- Job 1:4-5 – Job FEARS the worst for his
partying children; that they may sin -- Romans 14:23 – Do not doubt EVERYTHING THAT DOES NOT COME FROM FAITH IS SIN -- Philippians 4:6 – DO NOT BE ANXIOUS but give thanksgiving -- Genesis 50:21 – DO
NOT FEAR, I will provide for you -- Job 3:25 – Job was
operating in fear; WHAT I FEARED HAS COME UPON ME -- James 1:6 – Believe and not doubt
[14] Job 1:10-11 – Satan confesses; knows Job has protection hedge, But reach out and TAKE
AWAY EVERYTHING HE HAS, and HE
WILL SURELY CURSE YOU TO YOUR FACE
[15] Job 1:12 – BEHOLD, ALL THAT HE HAS IS IN YOUR HAND; only against him do not
stretch out your hand
[16] Philippians 4:6 – DO NOT BE ANXIOUS but give thanksgiving -- Genesis 50:21 – DO NOT FEAR, I will provide for
you --James
1:6 – BELIEVE AND NOT DOUBT -- Job 1:4-5 – Job FEARS the worst for his
partying children; that they may sin -- Job 3:25 – Job was operating in fear; WHAT I FEARED HAS
COME UPON ME
[17] Romans 14:23 – DO
NOT DOUBT
EVERYTHING THAT DOES NOT COME FROM FAITH IS SIN
[18] Job1:14-22 – The War
Games begin; Satan strikes, kills, steals and plunders everything he owns.
[19] John 10:10 – Satan comes to Steal, Kill and Destroy; Jesus came to give
life and give it more abundantly.
[20] Matthew 18:10– The Believer has Personal/Guardian Angels -- Hebrews 1:14 – Angels are sent to care for
the Believer
[21] Job 2:1-7 – Second attempt to discredit Job; Satan afflicts Job with
boils and sores
[22] Job 2:8-10 – Mrs. Job took Satan’s side in the Invisible
War
[23] Job 23:14 – Job said God will do to me whatever He has planned for my
destiny -- Job 42:5 – I HAD ONLY
HEARD ABOUT YOU BEFORE, BUT NOW I HAVE SEEN YOU WITH MY OWN
EYES.
[24] Job 42:7-13 - WHEN JOB PRAYED FOR HIS FRIENDS, THE
LORD RESTORED HIS FORTUNES; TWICE
AS MUCH AS BEFORE
[25] Job 38:2 - Who is this that questions my wisdom -- 1 Corinthians 1:19 – I will make the
intelligent look foolish
[26] Luke 22:31 - Satan has asked to sift each
of you like wheat
[27] 2 Corinthians 12:7 – Paul’s thorn in the flesh was from Satan
[28] Luke 15:10 – The angels rejoice over just one soul saved
[29] John 11:4 – Lazarus death and resurrection was FOR THE GLORY OF GOD -- John 9:1-25 – The man was born blind; THIS HAPPENED SO THE POWER OF GOD COULD BE SEEN IN HIM
[30] Ephesians 6:12 – We are
in an invisible war
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