And this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome in the Savior's name to our Gospel Broadcast. I'm glad you're joining us today and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend John Greer. Once again we want to give you a very hearty welcome and may I say that it is my joy and privilege to address you once more.

This program goes out at the same time every week as you are aware and we appreciate all of our listening audience. We thank you for tuning in today and we pray that the word of the Lord will be a blessing to your heart, to your soul. It's our desire through this broadcast to instruct Christians concerning the things of the Lord, to bring to them messages that will build them up in the faith.

It's also our purpose to see those who do not know the Lord brought to know him, brought to faith in Jesus Christ and we pray that the Lord will take his word today and he will use his truth to these great ends. In the book of Job chapter 1 and the verse number 8, we have the Lord putting a question to the devil, to Satan. It says the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and astuteth evil.

This question tells us that the devil had already considered Job. The question does not mean that the Lord did not know what Satan's movements had been but rather in order to extort from him a confession, he put these words to Satan in the form of his question, hast thou considered my servant Job. Therefore, the Lord's interrogation of the devil was not an admission of ignorance, rather it was the divine method of causing the guilty individual to confess his sin and his guilt.

The same as was done when the Lord asked Adam the question, where art thou? The Lord knew exactly where Adam was and what he had done just as he knew every movement and intention of the devil on this occasion. But the Lord asked the question to draw from Satan a confession of his evil designs against the Lord's servant Job. For some time obviously, the devil had been longing to attack Job.

In verse 7, Satan confesses to the Lord that he had been going to and fro in the earth, walking up and down in it. You will notice immediately the similarity between this language and what is found in 1 Peter 5.8, your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Notice that the devil is described as an adversary and the original word means opponent, which is also the meaning of the name Satan, both in Hebrew and Greek.

Zechariah 3 verse 1, for example, where we read of Josh the high priest standing before the Lord. Satan was also standing at his right hand to resist him, which means to be his adversary or even to be Satan toward him because the word also means Satan. The devil is the great adversary of God and the heavenly hosts, but he is also the opponent of the saints of God on this earth.

The language of Job 1 verse 7 and 1 Peter 5 verse 8 reveals the nature of the adversity that Satan displays against the Lord's people. It is the adversity of one who is described as a roaring lion. You will notice in Job 1.7 that Satan speaks of having gone to and fro, of having walked up and down in the earth.

The idea of the lion prowling is surely contained in those words. They indicate very plainly the image of the lion stalking its prey. This image is certainly very striking.

It vividly conveys the strength, the subtlety, the ferociousness, even the mercilessness of the lion. The evil, spiteful, malignant nature of the devil is plainly revealed in such a description. So it is undoubtedly true that Satan is a formidable adversary against whom the child of God is to be on his guard.

The question in verse 8, hast thou considered my servant Job, literally means hast thou set thy heart on my servant Job. The inference of the question is that Satan had already set his heart on Job. He had begun to consider Job with a view to destroying him, teaching us that the devil does set the focus of his evil intentions on the Lord's people.

He considers them, he sets his heart on them, he focuses all of the energy of his wicked being on them with the single goal in mind of attacking them in every possible fashion to bring about their spiritual downfall. Therefore the believer must arm himself for the conflict with Satan. And one of the ways of doing so is by studying the experiences of the saints of old in the attacks that they suffer from Satan.

God has graciously and wisely recorded in his word the experiences of the Lord's people of ancient times as they came under the baleful views of the evil one that we today might be instructed with regard to our own battles with the evil one. To sum up therefore before us is a text that warns us that the evil heart of the devil is set upon the people of God, but in giving us such a warning it serves to put us on our guard that we might stand

“In this broadcast, Reverend John Greer addresses listeners on the spiritual significance of Satan’s interest in attacking Job, as described in the Bible. The focus is on the question God poses to Satan in Job 1:8, asking if he has "considered" Job, a question revealing Satan’s intention to harm this faithful man. Reverend Greer explains that Satan views believers, like Job, as adversaries due to their godliness, redemption, and alignment with God’s grace, which makes them targets of spiritual attack. Job's role as a “servant of God” implies his salvation and devotion, qualities that provoke Satan’s animosity. Greer notes that Satan's continuous hostility toward believers stems from their godly nature and ministry, as these characteristics signify the erosion of his influence and are a threat to his kingdom. Greer encourages believers to remain vigilant and steadfast, understanding that Satan's malice is a response to their faithfulness to God and their potential to disrupt his schemes.”

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against the wiles of such an enemy. Now we must consider some reasons why Satan considers the saints of God or sets his heart upon them.

In the text and in its context there is a variety of reasons as to why Satan set his heart upon this man Job and therefore we are shown why he will set his heart upon believers to this very day. The key to it all is the description that the Lord himself gives of Job. My servant Job.

Notice the repetition of this divine description of Job. It's found in chapter 2. It's found also at the very end of the book in chapter 42 in verses 7 and 8. In fact in those two verses it's found four times. Job was the servant of God and there is no doubt that his being the servant of God gave rise to Satan's setting his wicked heart on Job to do him evil.

This title signified that Job was an object of God's grace. Notice the personal possession of Job that the Lord claimed. My servant Job.

Job belonged to the Lord. He was the Lord's servant. He had become an object of God's saving grace which is true of course of every child of God.

Ephesians 1 verse 6 says he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That literally means he hath made us the object of grace in the beloved and therefore Job had obviously been delivered out of the kingdom of Satan. A fact to which Job himself testifies in Job 19.25 I know that my redeemer liveth.

Note how he uses that possessive pronoun. My redeemer. He was the Lord's servant therefore because he had been redeemed which means that he had been released from satanic bondage to become the willing bond servant of the Lord.

Such a transaction will always provoke the anger and the hatred of Satan. The devil wishes the damnation of all men. He has no desire for divine mercy himself and he hates to see men whose fall he instigated become the objects of grace.

So he will always resist that divine work. We find in Luke 9.42 in the account of the healing of the young man who's possessed with the devil these words as he was yet a coming the devil threw him down. There's a portrayal of the resistance of the devil to a soul being brought to Christ to be his servant and to be his subject.

And when that glorious transaction does occur the vehemence of Satan does not diminish. Even in forward and afterwards in times beyond conversion after conversion the devil will still seek to ensnare those who are the Lord's. Luke 22 verse 31 the Lord told Peter Satan hath desired to have you.

So the enemy continues to rage against the Lord's people to ruin them if he could. We find in Matthew 24 and verse 24 there shall arise false Christ and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders and so much that it were possible they shall deceive the very elect. So Job was God's servant and therefore was an object of God's grace.

Furthermore this title servant signifies that in Job there was the very image of God. God's description of Job as a servant meant that Job served the Lord in the ways of godliness and that of course is the testimony that he had as we see in his story. But being the servant of God meant that there was a new nature in Job.

There was the very image of God in Job. So in striking at Job Satan was striking at the Lord himself. In the genuine believer the devil sees the image of God and constantly sees the divine likeness in the Lord's people and this fills him with rage.

So he moves against the Lord's people for that reason because of the likeness of the Lord that he sees in them. You see that likeness signals the destruction of Satan's power in their lives. It's a token of the reversal of the results of the work of the devil in the human race.

Job's godliness, uprightness, fear of the Lord, the fact that he eschewed evil were all the results of the miracle of the new birth and the restoring of the divine image of God in him and therefore the devil hated him. And then again this title my servant Job meant that Job had a ministry. It was a threat to the devil.

It's very important to notice that in this chapter Job exercises a ministry. In verse 5 he prayed for his family, offered up sacrifices which meant he shed the blood of atonement so he was setting forth the gospel. The only way in which sinners can be right with God and right after the reference to his ministry the attack came and we find therefore that the devil fears the Lord's people, hates the Lord's people because they are a threat to his kingdom and to his purposes.

The devil feels threatened by a faithful Christ-centered ministry and we must keep that in mind and serve the Lord therefore faithfully and not be surprised when the devil attacks. But let us pray to have a ministry that will be known in hell and will be a bother to the devil and will be a threat to his kingdom. My servant Job, this is why the devil attacked Job.

May you and I be known as those who are God's servants even though we suffer the enmity and the malice of Satan.