Have You Considered My Servant?

  1. The angels seem to be all called to a meeting. It’s time to give a report. Satan is just one of many. He doesn’t get a special audience with God. He has to come when beckoned and has to wait to be called on to speak.
  2. God asks Satan where he’s been. Surely God must know. Satan gives a vague answer. He says he’s gone to and fro on earth and has been walking up and down on it.
  3. The thing I like about the answer is that is shows Satan’s limitations. He has to walk around on earth.
  4. God is everywhere. Compare Satan’s response to this verse about God. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
  5. Do you see the difference? Satan is walking back and forth. He can only be one place at a time. God can sit on His throne and scan with His eyes and see everyone on earth.
  6. Who is God looking for when He searches the earth? He’s looking for someone with a blameless heart. He wants to strengthen that person.
  7. There’s a reason to want to walk blameless before Him!
  8. God asks Satan if he’s considered Job. He calls Job “My servant,” another great way to be known by God.
  9. God, the one out to strengthen a heart like Job’s, is calling Satan’s attention to him.
  10. Why?
  11. It sounds like a punishment to be handed over to Satan. Paul does it in 1 Corinthians 5, saying that the sinner in their midst should be handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Why does Paul say that? The rest of verse five says that it’s so his spirit can be saved in the day of the Lord.
  12. God only acts out of love and out of His goodness. He is also holy and just, which is why sin can never be overlooked. But sin can be dealt with. God made sure the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
  13. Paul only says “hand him over to Satan” because he wants the man to be saved. In his sin, he’s not saved.
  14. God’s will is our salvation. He desires all men to be saved and all come to repentance. (I’m referencing 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9.)
  15. If God hands us over to Satan, that’s His heart behind it: our good, our salvation, His love and desire to be with us for eternity.