Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
There was a day when the angels, the sons of God, came by summons to present themselves before the Father to have each case decided, and Satan came also among them. He came not to bow before the Eternal King or to worship Him, but to further his own malicious designs against the righteous and to accuse God's faithful servants before the angels. What happened there holds true through the whole controversy, for when and where God is especially at work for the salvation of souls, just there Satan opposes with especial efforts as the accuser of the brethren. With that same object he attends hidden when men assemble for worship to control minds and keep the message from reaching those who most need it, pushes the unguarded into fanaticism to bring reproach on God's cause, and inspires men to watch for and exaggerate the defects of the Lord's people while passing by their good deeds. In Job's case this meant God permitted Satan to strip him of possessions, family and health though he had not lived a perverted life, proving not all suffering is the result of sin, yet Job did not swerve from loyalty but rested in God in the darkest hour and was rewarded.
The Heavenly Assembly
The day was one when the sons of God, the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. That coming together is shown as Satan appearing among the heavenly beings who present themselves before God. It was a summons when all the angels were to appear before the Father to have each case decided.
He did not come to bow before the Eternal King or to worship Him, but to further his own malicious designs against the righteous.
At that meeting he openly made known his discontent that Christ was preferred before him and taken into close conference with God while he was left uninformed of the result of their consultations. He was told that he could never know those things, that the secret purposes would be revealed to the Son, and that all the family of heaven, himself included, were required to yield implicit obedience. He then boldly spoke out rebellion, pointed to a large company who thought God unjust in not exalting him to be equal with God and in not giving him command above Christ, declared he could not submit to be under Christ's command but would obey God's commands alone, and despised following Christ's direction, while the good angels wept to hear his words. In that setting he watches for human failures and uses them to accuse God's faithful servants before the angels.
Satan's Opposition to Righteousness
What took place there holds true through the entire controversy between Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels, for as the accuser of the brethren he is always active when God is at work for the salvation of souls, and when and where God especially works for His people, just there is the time and place for him to oppose with especial efforts. In every revival he is ready to bring in those who are unsanctified in heart and unbalanced in mind, and when they have accepted some points of truth and gained a place with believers, he works through them to introduce theories that deceive the unwary. He practices his impositions by pushing unguarded, overzealous and ill-balanced souls into fanaticism, driving them to fanatical extremes and bringing reproach on the cause of God. The same experience runs through the history of the patriarchs and prophets and the church afterward, as when reformers like Luther and the Wesleys were perplexed and annoyed by fanatics at every step.
With the same object he attends, though hidden from sight, when men assemble for the worship of God, working with all diligence to control the minds of the worshipers. Like a skillful general he lays his plans beforehand, watching the messenger of God searching the Scriptures and noting the subject to be presented, then using cunning to control circumstances so the message will not reach those he is deceiving on that very point. He urges the one who most needs the warning into business requiring his presence or other hindrances so he will not hear words that would prove life to him. When he sees the Lord's servants burdened by the spiritual darkness enshrouding the people and hears their earnest prayers for divine grace and power to break the spell of indifference, carelessness and indolence, he plies his arts with renewed zeal, tempting men to indulgence of appetite or other self-gratification to benumb their sensibilities so they fail to hear the very things they most need to learn.
As accuser his spirit inspires men to watch for the errors and defects of the Lord's people and hold them up to notice and exaggerate them, while their good deeds are passed by without mention. No man is proved to be a true Christian because he is found in company with the children of God, even in the house of worship and around the table of the Lord, for Satan is frequently there upon the most solemn occasions in the form of those whom he can use as his agents. He will profess anything to gain adherents, but he is not changed in character; even if he could enter heaven and associate with the angels, while true worshipers bowed in adoration before their Maker he would be plotting mischief against God's cause and people, devising means to ensnare souls and considering the most successful method of sowing tares. The events of that heavenly court are repeated on earth when he joins himself to people who profess the truth, deceives them, and accuses others.
He intruded into the General Conference and used deception to hinder a work God wanted carried to the churches. The work began with earnestness and received God's blessing as far as it went, but his interference quenched the Spirit's work for many, especially people in positions of responsibility, and the intended work was left incomplete. The account shows he was permitted to reveal his indignation against God's servant, so his violent efforts to hinder God's work should not be treated as unexpected, and greater violence may come as that work advances.
Job's Trial and Faithfulness
Job 1:6 belongs to the account of Job's testing and shows that his trials came within the Lord's dealings with him. It opens his trial as one of God's appointed witnesses exposed to reproach and persecution for truth's sake. God permitted Satan to afflict Job though Job had not lived a perverted life, proving that not all suffering is the result of sin. God did not prevent the plotting against him but caused it to work for good.
Satan stripped Job of all he possessed, broke his family ties and took his children from him, and deprived him of worldly possessions. For a time he covered his body with loathsome sores that caused him to suffer greatly, so afflicted in body that he was abhorred by his relatives and friends. Job's friends tried to make him see that his afflictions came from his own sinful course and sought to prove him guilty before God and deserving of punishment, bringing a grievous test upon him and placing God in a false light. But Job denied the charge and called them miserable comforters.
Job maintained faith, loyalty, virtue and integrity, did not swerve from his loyalty, and rested in God in the darkest hour, and God rewarded His faithful servant. His steadfastness bears witness to the faithfulness of God's promises, to God's abiding presence and sustaining grace, and to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world. The experience gained in the furnace of trial and affliction is worth more than the pain it costs because God brings His children near to show them their weakness and His strength and to teach them to lean on Him.
There was a day when the angels, the sons of God, came by summons to present themselves before the Father to have each case decided, and Satan came also among them. He came not to bow before the Eternal King or to worship Him, but to further his own malicious designs against the righteous and to accuse God's faithful servants before the angels. What happened there holds true through the whole controversy, for when and where God is especially at work for the salvation of souls, just there Satan opposes with especial efforts as the accuser of the brethren. With that same object he attends hidden when men assemble for worship to control minds and keep the message from reaching those who most need it, pushes the unguarded into fanaticism to bring reproach on God's cause, and inspires men to watch for and exaggerate the defects of the Lord's people while passing by their good deeds. In Job's case this meant God permitted Satan to strip him of possessions, family and health though he had not lived a perverted life, proving not all suffering is the result of sin, yet Job did not swerve from loyalty but rested in God in the darkest hour and was rewarded.
The Heavenly Assembly
The day was one when the sons of God, the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. That coming together is shown as Satan appearing among the heavenly beings who present themselves before God. It was a summons when all the angels were to appear before the Father to have each case decided.
He did not come to bow before the Eternal King or to worship Him, but to further his own malicious designs against the righteous.
At that meeting he openly made known his discontent that Christ was preferred before him and taken into close conference with God while he was left uninformed of the result of their consultations. He was told that he could never know those things, that the secret purposes would be revealed to the Son, and that all the family of heaven, himself included, were required to yield implicit obedience. He then boldly spoke out rebellion, pointed to a large company who thought God unjust in not exalting him to be equal with God and in not giving him command above Christ, declared he could not submit to be under Christ's command but would obey God's commands alone, and despised following Christ's direction, while the good angels wept to hear his words. In that setting he watches for human failures and uses them to accuse God's faithful servants before the angels.
Satan's Opposition to Righteousness
What took place there holds true through the entire controversy between Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels, for as the accuser of the brethren he is always active when God is at work for the salvation of souls, and when and where God especially works for His people, just there is the time and place for him to oppose with especial efforts. In every revival he is ready to bring in those who are unsanctified in heart and unbalanced in mind, and when they have accepted some points of truth and gained a place with believers, he works through them to introduce theories that deceive the unwary. He practices his impositions by pushing unguarded, overzealous and ill-balanced souls into fanaticism, driving them to fanatical extremes and bringing reproach on the cause of God. The same experience runs through the history of the patriarchs and prophets and the church afterward, as when reformers like Luther and the Wesleys were perplexed and annoyed by fanatics at every step.
With the same object he attends, though hidden from sight, when men assemble for the worship of God, working with all diligence to control the minds of the worshipers. Like a skillful general he lays his plans beforehand, watching the messenger of God searching the Scriptures and noting the subject to be presented, then using cunning to control circumstances so the message will not reach those he is deceiving on that very point. He urges the one who most needs the warning into business requiring his presence or other hindrances so he will not hear words that would prove life to him. When he sees the Lord's servants burdened by the spiritual darkness enshrouding the people and hears their earnest prayers for divine grace and power to break the spell of indifference, carelessness and indolence, he plies his arts with renewed zeal, tempting men to indulgence of appetite or other self-gratification to benumb their sensibilities so they fail to hear the very things they most need to learn.
As accuser his spirit inspires men to watch for the errors and defects of the Lord's people and hold them up to notice and exaggerate them, while their good deeds are passed by without mention. No man is proved to be a true Christian because he is found in company with the children of God, even in the house of worship and around the table of the Lord, for Satan is frequently there upon the most solemn occasions in the form of those whom he can use as his agents. He will profess anything to gain adherents, but he is not changed in character; even if he could enter heaven and associate with the angels, while true worshipers bowed in adoration before their Maker he would be plotting mischief against God's cause and people, devising means to ensnare souls and considering the most successful method of sowing tares. The events of that heavenly court are repeated on earth when he joins himself to people who profess the truth, deceives them, and accuses others.
He intruded into the General Conference and used deception to hinder a work God wanted carried to the churches. The work began with earnestness and received God's blessing as far as it went, but his interference quenched the Spirit's work for many, especially people in positions of responsibility, and the intended work was left incomplete. The account shows he was permitted to reveal his indignation against God's servant, so his violent efforts to hinder God's work should not be treated as unexpected, and greater violence may come as that work advances.
Job's Trial and Faithfulness
Job 1:6 belongs to the account of Job's testing and shows that his trials came within the Lord's dealings with him. It opens his trial as one of God's appointed witnesses exposed to reproach and persecution for truth's sake. God permitted Satan to afflict Job though Job had not lived a perverted life, proving that not all suffering is the result of sin. God did not prevent the plotting against him but caused it to work for good.
Satan stripped Job of all he possessed, broke his family ties and took his children from him, and deprived him of worldly possessions. For a time he covered his body with loathsome sores that caused him to suffer greatly, so afflicted in body that he was abhorred by his relatives and friends. Job's friends tried to make him see that his afflictions came from his own sinful course and sought to prove him guilty before God and deserving of punishment, bringing a grievous test upon him and placing God in a false light. But Job denied the charge and called them miserable comforters.
Job maintained faith, loyalty, virtue and integrity, did not swerve from his loyalty, and rested in God in the darkest hour, and God rewarded His faithful servant. His steadfastness bears witness to the faithfulness of God's promises, to God's abiding presence and sustaining grace, and to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world. The experience gained in the furnace of trial and affliction is worth more than the pain it costs because God brings His children near to show them their weakness and His strength and to teach them to lean on Him.