Don’t be Fooled by Mimicked Truth | Understanding your enemy is crucial (Job 1-7)

Don’t be Fooled by Mimicked Truth | Understanding your enemy is crucial (Job 1-7)

I am sure we all have that friend, the one who passes on information as fact, with slight embellishments and half-truths. Those relationships often suffer from a lack of trust and mutual respect. Satan is much the same, we often think he will be boldly defying the Lord or the Bible. Instead, he often subtly twists truth so it is much less noticeable. Understanding your enemy is crucial!

It is an uncomfortable truth. We have an enemy. One who wants nothing more than for us to defy the Lord.

In fact, we have many enemies, but we do not always like to admit it. There are many out there who do not want for you to have a true relationship thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection, are unnaturally jealous of your relationship with God, or even who just want you to suffer.

It’s never too late to start….

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The marital relationship…

We cannot truly understand the grace offered to us if we do not first understand the depths of our sinful nature. Similarly, we gain a deeper relationship with God when understanding our enemy who is actively trying to separate us from God.

Much the same as a marriage relationship, there are certain boundaries (that ought to be) put into place to protect the marriage. If one keeps whispering half-truths about your spouse, it reveals their heart toward your relationship. It is not healthy, it is not helping, and it should have no strong presence in your life. Sometimes, the boundaries need to extend past that point to protect each other and the Bible speaks openly about the importance of preserving marital relationships.

Lest we forget, a marital relationship reflects a worldly version of our relationship with Jesus. We are His bride, and He is our groom. In much the same way, this marriage needs preservation, protection, and an awareness of those who seek to destroy it. In fact, it needs us to commit to an even higher standard of accountability and protection! You see, our most important earthly relationship mirrors the same type of care we ought to show our Savior. If it does not, serious examination needs to be considered as to why.

The cycle of abuse…

Take care to focus on Satan and his antics. Understanding our enemy and how he works helps to nullify any effect he may have on our lives. Recognizing his tactics aids in our ability to resist temptation.

If you have ever dealt with a toxic individual, you may have undergone a season of learning the behaviors and methods they use in order to defend yourself or others from their barbs. Just as our earthly marriage reflects our Heavenly marriage, a toxic individual reflects Satan’s methods.

A narcissist for example, utilizes a series of techniques that narcissists worldwide are guilty of using. As if there were a playbook, they tend to all mimic the same patterns. That is not a coincidence!

Study if you will, trauma therapy and the process one goes through to escape the mindset of a victim to a pimp/gang leader/narcissist/etc. It is all a version of the same cycle of abuse.

One of the most intriguing facets of the [trauma therapy] class was to understand the trauma bonding that occurs between a pimp and ‘his’ prostituted woman. A gang leader follows the same structure set up. As well, it is also the same structure of a Narcissist and their enablers/co-dependents/etc.

This sure got me thinking. God is a God of order–He is very orderly and logical. He gave us commands, and we know what is expected of us. He is perfect and holy and we are to live our lives as close to that as possible.

On the other hand, Satan is also very orderly and uses clever “logic”. He offers us commands that sound good but are actually baby steps leading us away from the Truth. Once we begin to follow those misguided steps, we head down flights of stairs, then mountains, and so on until we are in the depths of a valley unable to pinpoint what happened because the first steps were so subtle.

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What was he doing…

The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Job 1:7

The Bible warns us about the lengths Satan will go to in order to divide us from God. Too often, it seems, we ignore the bold warnings and put most of our focus on the good part of our relationship with God. A question you may want to ponder is, “How do you protect something if you don’t know what to protect it from?” Likewise, if we only focus on grace, we won’t truly understand the glorious gift that it truly is, unless it is in relation to our understanding of sin.

So what was he doing? Satan was roaming the earth.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

Do you really think Satan has stopped this practice?

The sad reality, is his methods often work, why would he pause his efforts when they work so well?

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Matthew 7:13-14

A limited viewpoint…

Look at how God defines Job, “my servant Job, …there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

The reality is, Satan was not actively attacking Job until that point. God had to point it out. He was defined as one who feared God and turned away from evil. Would you be characterized that same way? If not, you may need to reflect on your answer and the deeper implications as to why not.

The answer Satan gives reveals a lot about who we are dealing with. Also, to whom he is quickest to attack.

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

Job 1:9-11

His paltry view of Christians, rather “Christians”, rested on the viewpoint that blessings were what brought Job to fear the Lord and shun evil. In other words, one who has material blessings or seeks them and is not receiving them, are more apt to deny God when material things are withdrawn or kept away.

Reflect on that, are you one who bases your relationship with God on worldly blessings? Does the prosperity gospel ring as the true gospel for you? It is a false gospel, even Satan knows this. It is merely a mimic of the true gospel, twisting it just enough to be believable, and in turn, makes it false.

Untying your bond…

So what does he do? He attacks the blessings first. After all, it is the tie that often bonds a “Christian” to the Savior. Not a true, impenetrable, double knotted force to reckon with. Satan so often sees a sloppy shoelace, as that of a child just learning to tie his shoes, one that falls apart and drags on the ground at the first hint of action.

With Job being defined by God as he was, the approach chosen was to cause the biggest effect possible and to invoke the biggest reaction ever… to curse God to His face.

Yet, Job hears about the material blessings being stripped away one by one, and only after he hears about the death of all his children does he finally react.

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.

Job 1:20

The Hebrew word for ‘worshiped’, shacah, in essence means to bow down in reverence. He still feared the Lord even though he was in deep despair. Remember, Job was a man who purified his kids after all of their feasts AND made atonement for them on the off-chance that they had sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

Distraction…

Satan’s first attempt at shaming God’s view of Job failed miserably. As true with other trials, he carries on to the next step. Ohhhhh, but now it isn’t just that material blessings keep a man from betraying his faith, it’s now that their health is what maintains it. Gotcha.

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

Job 2:3-5

Do you see what he did there? He shifted the focus away from his abject failure. He does not address the failed attempt that God mentions, but tries to draw the attention away from it by bringing up a NEW tactic. Obviously, God being all-knowing is not subject to this line of ‘reasoning’.

However, how often are we falling prey to it? The next time you feel a pull that something isn’t aligning in the Bible, be aware of the distractions that pull you from verifying and standing in truth!

Diversion tactics can be quite effective, they trickle down from Satan’s playbook and are used unabashedly by those that follow him.

The sole is wasting away…

Here, we see that Satan decided to further his attempts when he failed yet again. Job was in constant pain from his bodily sicknesses and sores… so much so that his friends did not even recognize him.

And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

Job 2:12

Yet, Job did not sin in crying out.

Having just read Esther, we got to experience a relationship that mimicked a healthy father-daughter relationship. Now, we see a contrasting relationship pointed out in that of his spouse. His last earthly ‘thing’ that is often considered a blessing, a wife, was now challenging him to renounce God. Satan’s plan did not work on Job, but it did work on his wife.

Oh, how Satan uses the people around us to further his agenda! This is also probably the best reminder to those who are single, is that it MATTERS who you marry! Do you want someone to cave at the first sign of temptation or hardship? Looking from a different angle, are you strong enough in the face of difficulty to resist temptation even if it’s offered by your spouse?

Job called out his wife’s errors and led her appropriately, he did not let her foolish talk go by without addressing the truth about God.

Fraying the shoelace…

As though not enough, because it clearly wasn’t enough to make Job sin, Satan keeps the attacks coming. He will try to break you! His goal is to have you curse God.

All of this and Job still hadn’t caved! So what next?! His friends of course. Oftentimes, friends have such an influential role that it’s harder to stop from tagging along, even if it’s into sin.

However, no one else defined Job’s faith except himself… not his family, not his wife, not his friends. He was not caught up in the material blessings, God mattered more than his kids, his health caused a despair so deep he wished he were dead, his wife wanted him to curse God, and his friends offered a mimicked view of God’s truths.

Satan not only untied the shoelace, tore away at the sole, but now was trying to fray the shoelace into useless threads.

That is how he works.

Deflecting…

A common ploy used by toxic people (and learned from Satan), is deflection. Whether direct or indirect, the goal is to pass over to someone else that which would have been assigned to yourself.

What is the focus of Job’s friends? It is that God is punishing Job.

Not that Satan is trying his hardest to tempt Job and God is allowing it. Satan brought friends to him mimicking limited viewpoints and inferring God’s ‘intentions’.

His friends did not move past that this was God’s punishment. Satan must have been laughing in the corner, except that this plan still wasn’t working against Job.

Now, can it be God’s plan to allow us to lose blessings or to endure pain and heartache and loss? Absolutely, but it isn’t always attributed to consequences as we see in the story of Job.

Understanding your enemy…

Recognizing these patterns can provide you with a solid foundation for our relationship with God. Understanding your enemy starts with picking out how Satan works and seeing how he has successfully tempted those in the Bible and those in your life. Most importantly, how he has successfully already tricked you so you know your weaknesses and where he might try to attack again.

So strap on those shoes, double knot the laces, flee from the devil, and run the race before you!

Last Week

Esther 4 – 10

What were you born to do? In an astonishing twist, beauty and boldness transformed the fate of a nation.

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