A messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” (Job 1:14-17)
It is often said that, every robber has a trademark. The mode of the attack, the approach, the timing and everything usually reveals who or the identity behind the attack. Others call it the ‘fingerprints’. In the same way, before the enemy finally crashes a Christian individual, there are signs. When you hear bad news after bad news, it suggests that something destructive is on the way.
The ‘Scripture and Power’ website (scripturesandpower.com) unveils something significant about the devil’s attack on the believer. The website brought to light that, the enemy’s attack on the believer is in the form of a pattern. The devil first disables the believer’s possessions and then his family before his health is a ‘final nail on the coffin’. Indeed before the devil’s attack on Job’s possessions, scripture revealed that, Job was happy with his family, made merry and offered sacrifices.
It is important to note that the enemy does not like good things. Anytime something good is happening in the life of a believer, the devil hates it. I have never seen anyone with true success that did not go through test. So it was need that, the enemy brings Job’s case up for him to be probed. It looked like a deliberate test and that’s what happens to some good homes. You see a man happily married to the wife then the next minute, the man is furious, finds fault with his wife and wants to throw her out.
Men really get worried when their finances are attacked because the pride of every man is his possession or wealth. And so the enemy touched the root of Job’s success- his possession. Could you imagine these animals have been grazing at the same spot for weeks and months and nothing happened to them? There wasn’t a single day of calamity because bible made us to understand that, Job was a righteous man- this was what angered the devil to attack.
If you drive through the same spot always and your car had never faulted but on a particular day, you heard a click in the engine as a spark and when your instinct asked you to get out, the car caught fire and burnt within minutes. You could have heard the click and it could have been normal or just one of those days. But why did the car burn this time? It’s a bit to the extreme if you think carefully about it. Putting Job’s servants to the sword was extreme. Couldn’t the Sabeans had just made away with the oxen and left the human beings alive? Why the killing? Wasn’t it cruel? Why was one left to report the misery? They left Job with nothing save one herdsman. The devil leaves us impoverished in severe attacks.
Remember it was the devil who pushed God to test Job and so God’s hand was in it. The fire that came from heaven to burn the sheep was actually coming from where God is and that explains a lot. It’s not everything we can blame the devil. Sometimes God himself unleashes the attack. If you’re convinced you haven’t offended God in anyway and begin to experience abuse or adverse attacks don’t panic. Relax. Don’t try to fix things immediately. Allow time and when the dust settles, you will begin to understand the whole incident. Then you can interpret well. If it’s a test, you usually will not be able to save anything if you try.
The possessions of the believer is part of the things the Lord protects. Job’s case was a test but this may usually not happen to a believer. It’s in rare cases. And so what the believer must do is to daily commit his possessions into the hands of God and keep a lifestyle of thanking and praising Him, acknowledging God in all his achievements. Make God big and chief in what you have achieved and he will always be lifted and proud as God to protect your possessions. Under normal circumstances, God protects us.
