Did Job CAUSE His Satanic Attacks Through Fear?
Way back in the ’80s I heard a minister claim that Job opened the door to the devil’s extraordinary attacks through fear (Job 1-2), which he argued is backed-up by this statement from Job:
“What I feared has come upon me;
what I dreaded has happened to me”
This is still taught today as Carol, my wife, heard someone teach it yesterday. However, this theory can be rejected for a few glaring reasons:
1. We already know in plain language from the previous two chapters of Job that he was not being attacked because he opened the door to the enemy through fear. Rather, God praised him as righteous & thoroughly blameless and this is what spurred satan to unjustly bring into question his character, which compelled the LORD to allow the test. Nowhere is it even hinted that Job opened the door for a horrible attack through fear. On the contrary, note what God says:
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
Scripture interprets Scripture.
2. Speaking of that hermeneutical law, the context of Job 3 is of a man relentlessly venting after two horrible satanic assaults wherein he lost his ten children, most of his employees, and all his great wealth; then, after seven literal days of intense silent suffering with a few hushed friends (2:13), Job finally speaks his mind and his verbiage is hysterical: He curses the very day of his birth and argues for non-existence as opposed to life in this troubled world.
3. As David Kirkwood argued in his book Your Best Year Yet, if we are going to dubiously base our entire interpretation of the book of Job on one verse spoken in venting hysterics then we should also be able to argue that Job opened the door to satan by expecting good based on his later statement (when he was a little more rational): “when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness” (Job 30:26).
There are three types of trials that you’ll experience in life: a Self-Inflicted Trial, a Discipline-Intended Trial or a Maturity-Intended Trial. Job suffered the third type. For a brief explanation of all three, go here.
Related Topics:
How to Distinguish 3 TYPES OF TRIALS — SITs, MITs and DITs
TEMPTATION, TRIALS and TESTS — What’s the Diff?
Spiritual Warfare — The Basics
SPIRITUAL WARFARE — Do You Know What You’re Fighting For?
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