RTW 2022

“Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan. Satan answered the LORD, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”
Job 1:7

It still astounds me that God will converse with Satan.

Job has basically, three parts

• Job’s trials.
• The speeches.
• God’s response to it all.

The theme of Job is obviously suffering.

• Suffering not always a punishment for our sin.
• Suffering is sometimes a tool for Satan to use to tempt us.
• We don’t and will not ever understand God’s power and His way.
• It is possible to endure suffering because God’s grace is sufficient.

Satan is real.

• Satan is a personal being, with a mind, emotions, and a will.
  (Job 1; Matthew 4:1–12)
• He is a created being and is not equal to God.
  (Ezekiel 28:15)
• Satan does not rule hell. Hell was created as a punishment for Satan and his demons.
  (Matthew 25:41)
  Neither does Satan live in hell, as the Bible describes how he can enter heaven and roam the earth.
  (Job 1:6–7)
• The devil can only do what God allows.
  (Job 1:12)
• Satan is not omnipresent. But he does oversee a horde of demons, called “the powers of this dark world and . . . the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” He uses this network to tempt and deceive people.
  (Ephesians 6:12)
• He actively works to nullify the effect of the Word of God in people’s hearts, and he blinds the intellect of those who do not believe so they cannot understand the gospel.
  (Matthew 13:3–4, 19), (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Who is Satan?

Satan is real, and deals with real people.

• Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.
  1 Chronicles 21:1 NLT

• That does not surprise us, because even Satan changes himself to look like an angel of light. So, it does not surprise us if Satan’s servants make themselves look like servants who work for what is right. But in the end those people will get the punishment they deserve.
  2 Corinthians 11:14-15 ERV

• Wear the full armor of God. Wear God’s armor so that you can fight against the devil’s clever tricks. Our fight is not against people on earth. We are fighting against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness. We are fighting against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly places.
  Ephesians 6:11-12 ERV

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Don’t underestimate our enemy; overestimate our God.