John Pople - Class 2: Who is Satan?

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Good morning. It's going to be important to figure out who Satan is. Hopefully that's obvious. Because even though his name or the name Satan only shows up in the first two chapters, even if that's his only appearance in the story, and I don't believe that it is, but even if it were, you can see that he's clearly a key character to affecting the entire understanding of the book and what's happening. It's someone God barters with, apparently. It's someone who clearly affects the outcome and the history and the effect of Job. So we need to know who this person is.

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   And if you look into the literature, the extent of Christian literature, you'll find just about every possible answer is supported by someone or other. Is it God? Is it an angel? Is it a supernatural devil? If it is an angel? Is it an obedient angel? Is it a disobedient angel? Some of these suggestions don't really figure in our community, but they're all there in the literature. Is it Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar? Is it Elihu, that strange enigmatic fourth character? Is it Job himself? Is it something else? And so we're going to spend some time, although I've made it perfectly clear that I think it's the heart of man that most obviously evidences itself in the three friends. I think it's worthwhile for me to at least show you the evidence by which I reached that decision. Then you can be enabled to make your own decision about whether that's a good conclusion or whether you think I've followed a fault in logic or in reasoning, and you can come to a different answer. And I guess generally the more common suggestions that we find in our own community is that Satan is either an obedient angel of God performing God's will, or else he is some form of human, either Elihu, Job, or the three friends.

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   In fact, just for interest's sake, if you'd indulge me, who in the room would suppose most naturally that Satan is probably an angel of the Lord? Yeah, good. I thought that opinion would be there. And who would suppose that Satan might be the three friends? About an equal number. And who would suppose that Satan would be Elihu? Uh-huh. And or Job? Interesting. So right away, we've got a diversity of opinion in this room, and that's good news because it means I'm not wasting your time. You may still come to that conclusion at the end anyway, but it's good that we can have these different opinions and meet together and actually consider. So let me show you the evidence, all the evidence that I try to consider, to consider the various options and the conclusion at which I arrive. First of all, let's start off in a reasonably scientific manner. We won't actually start off with a preconceived agenda. We'll just assemble the facts as they appear in the text. We don't get a lot of information about Satan. We have, I think, only really four facts to notice objectively. Number one, he presents himself before the Lord.

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   That's the scriptural phrase that's used. The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. That's our first fact. A second fact, he comes from the earth. The Lord said, where have you come from? Satan answered, from roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it. Okay? Third fact, he knows who Job is. It's a pretty small fact, but we may as well throw it in there. We have so little to work with. We can't afford to be picky here. Job's flocks and herds are spread throughout the land, says Satan. So he's aware of who Job is. And fourthly, he is empowered by God. God grants him authority. The Lord said to Satan, very well then, everything Job has is in your hands. And somehow from this sparsity of facts, we're going to have to assemble some sort of opinion, because it is going to be critical to our understanding of the book of Job, to know who Satan is. Let's look at that first fact. Presented before the Lord, luckily, is a scriptural phrase, a repeating phrase. And when we look up every single use of that phrase, we find that that is a phrase which invariably refers to human beings, invariably refers to mankind. I'll show you just a couple of examples. The Lord said to Moses, a human man, be ready in the morning and then come up on Mount Sinai.

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   Present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. Now, regardless of what we know about whether or not you can appear in the presence of God, in this sense at least, whatever is meant by this, a man can appear presented before the Lord in this form. Here's another example from the book of Leviticus. The priest who pronounces the leper, or the former leper, I should say, clean, shall present both the one to be cleansed and his offerings before the Lord. So this man, this human man, who has come to the priest, is presented before the Lord. Those are two Old Testament references, but that's not to say that this phrase doesn't appear also in the New Testament. And indeed, who can think of a New Testament phrase, this phrase appearing? It actually, we wrote an entire hymn about it in our hymn books. Not that that's desperately important. Anyone familiar with anyone?

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   That little sort of doxology or beatitude that appears at the end of Jude. Now unto him, this is about Jesus. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Remember that hymn, very nice hymn. So whether from the Old Testament or the New, the phrase, if you are presented before the Lord, or you have come to present yourself before the Lord, it is a characteristic of human men. And I have not chosen these in a biased or skewed form, ignoring the ones where angels are presented before the Lord. I have chosen these entirely honestly as a representation of the way that they are, the phrase is used. By contrast, the angels, it is said, and this is Matthew chapter 18, which was only yesterday's reading, was it not? The angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. They are said in some sense or another to always be in the presence of the Almighty Father, whereas the men go in and out of the presence of God. So from that information alone, we would naturally conclude that Satan was a human man or men. But that's not the only information we have to work with. So let's start over from an entirely different perspective. First thing we should notice is that Satan is a generic term. I'm sure you know this, but it's worth establishing this. That is to say, there is no moral pejorative associated with the name Satan. That is to say, in proper English, so that I make sense, Satan doesn't mean

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   that you're a bad person, believe it or not. It is a very innocent word. It simply means opponent. If you and I were to sit down and play chess together, I would be your Satan, and you would be my Satan. So there is no moral prerogative associated with that word necessarily. It simply means opponent. And therefore, we can find Almighty God Himself, angels, or humans can all wear this title in very different circumstances, of course. Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census. And by comparing that with the parallel passage, we realize that that is actually God who is acting in opposition to Israel at that time, simply their opponent. Likewise, the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as Balaam's Satan. And Balaam was riding on the ass, he and his two servants with him. So there's where an obedient angel of God is indeed wearing the name of Satan.

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   And likewise, humans, a very well-known case from the New Testament, Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Okay? So it could be God, it could be angels, it could be humans. This term alone does not allow us to discriminate between them. So we don't need to come to the conclusion it's humans from this term. Furthermore, we know that God is the one who causes supernatural calamity. And we also know that specifically within the case of the book of Job, it was God who did everything, not anybody else.

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   It makes this perfectly clear in a couple of places. I've chosen just one from the end of the book. Job's friends comforted and consoled Job over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him. So we're not left in ambiguity. It was God who acted to afflict Job. And there's another passage a lot earlier in the book which substantiates that. And I'm out of range of this little guy.

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    In fact, that's a principle we know throughout scripture from Isaiah 45. I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. So this is entirely in harmony with the broader picture of scripture that it is God who afflicted Job. And when God acts, he frequently acts through his angels.

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    And this is true when God sends acts of salvation or equally true when he performs acts of destruction. In acts of salvation, Daniel records, My God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me. But contrarywise, in Psalm 78, God unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility, a band of destroying angels. So whether God is making peace or creating calamity, he does so most frequently in biblical language through his angels. And so our second conclusion is that Satan was an angel. That's unfortunate because that's a contradiction of our first conclusion. What I'm trying to show from that is merely by taking different parts of the available evidence in their most natural interpretation, it is very likely, it is very possible to come to completely contrasting conclusions. So it's very reasonable that we have a diversity of opinion in our community, just because the data itself does not naturally converge on a single answer. Nevertheless, if our studies in the book of Job are going to move forward, we do need to find some sort of resolution between these apparently or these evidently contradictory opinions. And to do that, we will need to bring further information to bear.

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    So let's take the trouble to do that. First thing to notice, it's God's Satan. It's God's opponent. Satan in the book of Job is not the opponent of Job. Read the text. It's the opponent of God.

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    You can see that in chapter one. So in this case, Satan must necessarily be wicked. It is not Job who is opposed, even though it is Job who is afflicted. God makes a statement. Have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him. He is blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil. And someone or something says, no, sir. No, sir. You, God, are wrong. You have misunderstood that Job is only good or appears good by reason of the blessings that he enjoys. That's God who's being opposed. So in this case, it must be a wicked thing.

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    That is, that is forming Satan. And so already, I fear that I have to conclude, and I don't want to try and impose my, my wills aggressively on you, but I fear that I must conclude even at this stage, we cannot be talking about a divine angel. We cannot be talking about a divine angel that would contradict the living Lord God. Here's another thought to consider. The Lord said to Satan, where have you come from? Always interesting to listen to God asking questions in scripture.

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    Why is it peculiar that God is asking questions in scripture or anywhere? Because he knows, so he knows the answer. So when God asks a question, he's not soliciting an answer, for himself at least. He's doing one of two things and possibly both. He's either saying as a teacher might in front of his students, you know, why don't you tell the class why you've shown up late? It's always wonderful when someone walks in just at that point. I always enjoy that bit. It was not to be. Whatever.

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    Right? He's getting someone to confess or to make an explanation for the rest of us to learn from. Or he's making a statement, an actual pronouncement. And there is a sense of pronouncement in the idea of where have you come from. The emphasis that God is making, it's a form of statement that says, you're not with me. Right? Think about it. If I rode up here in your car, for those of you who drove with you, I wouldn't, when I got here, say, well, where did you come from? Because you'd think, your short-term memory is worse than I'd supposed. We traveled together. But if I didn't travel with you, I might say, where did you come from? You might suddenly appear. And I'm not sure. And what I'm emphasizing is, you and I were not in company. You've come from a different place. Think about how you do that metaphorically with ideas. Someone suggests a really crazy idea. And the metaphor you use is to say, where did that come from? And what you're saying is, my thoughts and my ideas and my feelings can all be described here. And then in left field, here's that crazy idea from you.

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    Where did that come from? That's a phrase we commonly use. And so the Lord is making the same emphasis. Where did you come from? What's that about? That's not part of my thinking. Notice how that happened in Eden. The Lord God called to Adam. Where are you, Adam? The answer physically is he's 180 yards to the northeast, hiding behind a bush. God knows that bit. What he's saying to Adam is, has there been a divorce in our company? There has, hasn't there? That's what God is pronouncing and beginning to teach. And the same thing is coming here. The Lord said to Satan, where have you come from? You are not with me. And the answer from roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it, I'm from down here, says Satan. And finally, a very convincing passage. Angels do not slander.

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    This is absolutely explicit. Oh, the reference doesn't appear on the page. But it says 2 Peter 2, verse 11 down there. And I'll read it out. Angels do not bring slanderous accusations against righteous men in the presence of the Lord. There can be no more useful verse in the entire Bible for trying to make a decision in this particular matter. Angels do not bring slanderous accusations. And Job has been slandered. You notice that. Satan has said, you think that's a good guy? That's not a good guy.

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    That's a very rich guy. That's why he likes you. That's why he turns up in your church and sings hymns to you. Because he's got a lot of nice stuff. You take that stuff away, you'll see his real character. That's a slander. Angels do not bring slanderous accusations against righteous men in the presence of the Lord. Period. And I think that's a very definitive verse in helping us interpret what's going on in the book of Job. Furthermore, we could have taken a rather, that's some necessary verses and details. We could have taken a more big picture approach. It's always nice to do this in Scripture.

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    See if there's a template. See if there's a kind of a characteristic pattern of interaction or whatever. Some sort of characteristic pattern that pervades Scripture that you can grab hold of, because you now know what the template looks like, and then hold it over the difficult bit of Scripture that you're trying to figure out, and see if that helps you slot things into place where they should be.

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    And there is in Scripture a characteristic interaction between God and Satan. You might say, well, just God destroys his enemies. Well, that's true. It's a little more complex than that. Not much more complex. It is a very simple template. But it has a few twists to it, which give it a little character by which we can come to recognize other interactions in the same way. It has three parts to it. Number one, God pronounces a truth. Number two, Satan opposes that truth. And given that this means opponent, Satan by definition, opposes the truth that God has revealed, and declares, contrary-wise, of course, a lie. This is all fairly basic stuff. A nice addition to that, often this lie is an accusation against a righteous man. That's part of the characteristic template. I've got not really a point in its own right, because it's part of the statement Satan makes. So I kind of call that to be. And then finally, three, this is important, God rebukes Satan. In God's own time, and at the point of his own choosing, he says, enough. It is time, Satan, for you to be rebuked. And this is the complete template that we see in the interaction between God and Satan. Let's look at a couple of examples from outside of the book of Job, way away from the bit that we're trying to figure out.

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    And then when we've got the template set, let's put it over the book of Job and see how things drop out. So then, oh, I just looked straight into the lens. You've all disappeared. Please don't leave your seats. In Eden, you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die. That is a pronouncement from Almighty God. It's a truth. And then the serpent produces a lie. You will not surely die, the serpent said. And that is Satan. We know that that's the origin of what the Bible is going to mean by Satan, because the Bible tells us so. You have to go to the last book of the Bible to get that. That ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver. And look at this, the way this is thrown in. The accuser of our brethren. So there is a slanderous accusation associated with the lie that Satan has created. That's interesting. That's part of the template. And then, of course, to complete the template, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals. So there's the completed interaction, first time through. That makes us feel comfortable about the template that we've got. Let's take a second example. Now we're in the New Testament. Again, very simple interaction, very well known. Peter's rebuke. From that time on, Jesus began to explain that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. And those were God's words. He told us that.

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    He said, I don't chatter along about my own thoughts and feelings. He said, I only speak what the Lord God gave me to speak, tying in with what our brother John is saying. He's saying, I am the medium by which God's words come to you. I am the mediator, the medium by which that transmission arrives in your ears.

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    These are God's words. And so, unfortunately, Peter took him aside. And please understand, I impute no evil motives whatsoever to Peter in this instance. He is a far better apostle of his Lord, disciple of his Lord, than I can ever be. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said. This shall never happen to you. That's an untruth. And unfortunately, it also necessarily forms an accusation. Because at the very least, whether you like it or whether you don't, it means that Peter is saying at the very least to Jesus, gee, you're kind of getting blowing this out of proportion, aren't you? You know, what do you mean you're going to be killed?

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    What do you think I am? Nothing. I've got a sword too. I'm going to be using it later. I'll look after you. You're making too much out of this. And of course, he's not. Jesus is not exaggerating. He's not drowning in melodramatic self-pity. That's the necessary, although doubtless, unintended accusation that Peter is bringing. And so, the template is completed. Jesus turned and said to Peter, and doubtless without anger, I believe, get behind me, Satan. Move out of the way.

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    You don't want to be doing that. Okay? And he uses the word Satan, I think deliberately. To allow us an extra completed template from which to work. Let's look at, whoa. Let's look at one more example. The slander of Jerusalem, or the attack on Jerusalem. This is in the time of the exile.

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    This is a pronouncement from the Lord God, this time coming through Cyrus the Persian, the king. The Lord, the God of heaven, Cyrus is speaking. The Lord, the God of heaven, has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem, in Judah. Any one of his people among you, let him go.

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    Go up and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. So, you notice how Jerusalem is mentioned as the chosen city of God. It's in a terrible mess at that particular time. But this is where God begins to pronounce his purpose of restoration of Jerusalem.

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    Here comes Satan. Enter Satan. When the enemies, when the opponents, when the Satans of Judah and Benjamin heard the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans. In particular, they sent a letter to the king, whom they referred to as Artaxerxes. That's just a title. This is a copy of the letter they sent to him. To King Artaxerxes, the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. And there's the slander that's brought on Jerusalem. And they don't stop there. They actually go out and physically attack the builders too. You know that from the writings of Nehemiah, when they've got a trowel in one hand to do the work and a bow and arrow in the other hand, literally at the same time at all times, because they're trying to build a wall and they keep being physically attacked and they have to shoot off their attackers. And to complete the template, this is the commentary from the book of Zechariah at exactly the same time. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. And it's this mention of Jerusalem that allows us to tie with confidence these words in Zechariah, upon whom Jude also comments to that same event. Okay, so there's three examples of the template. That's enough. There's more out there, but that's enough, I think.

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    Now we're ready to say, we know the template interaction between God and Satan. Let's go off to the book of Job and see if we lay this template on the text, what is it going to teach us about exactly who's who and what's what. Here's the same interaction. We expect God to pronounce the truth. Very good. This happens. The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?

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    There's no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And so Satan, of course, by definition, contradicts and opposes. And to help us out, at the beginning of the text, Satan goes by that name, Satan. Does Job fear God for nothing? We've already said this. He's saying, he's not truly a righteous man. He's only worshipping you because you've made him so rich.

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    But what we've also learned from the template is that that lie, that opposing lie against the declaration of God necessarily should and must form an accusation against a righteous man. We've seen that in each of the three examples. Who then forms accusations against a righteous man? Because these lies will come from Satan. Here they are. Is not your wickedness great? Says Eliphaz. Are not your sins endless?

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    Bildad says much the same. The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out. He has no offspring or descendants amongst his people. That's a nice thing to tell someone who's just had all their children killed. The wicked man doesn't have any descendants, you know. What a terrible thing to say. What a horrible thing to say. And Zophar, oh how I wish God would speak, that he would open his lips against you, Job. Know this, God has even forgotten some of your sin. Your sin is so large, God can't even remember all of it. These are the accusations against the righteous man that support the opposition to God's pronouncement that Job is righteous and blameless. There can be no doubt where they come from. Satan is, and I don't want to make it these three humans in history and no one else, it is the spirit, the heart of natural man, most clearly evidencing itself in the pronouncements of these three wicked men who are trying, in fairness to them, to be righteous men, but have gone horribly and terribly misguided. Is not the definition of sin in Hebrew something to miss the mark? And my goodness, how badly these three people have missed the mark. And then of course to complete the template, the template would be incomplete if Satan was defined any other way, because there's only one person or only one group I should say that are rebuked within the story of Job. And to complete the template, God always rebukes Satan at whatever time he determines to be the end. And after the Lord had said things to Job, he says to Eliphaz,

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    I am angry with you and your two friends. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. And I think therefore understanding that broader template, and then seeing that same interaction within the book of Job allows us some confidence in attributing the character of Satan to the three friends themselves. Okay then, if that's true, if that's true, how does the book of Job actually work? Let's just rerun the storyline of Job. It's a very short storyline. It's quite a large book, but it's a very short storyline. Let's just recapitulate the storyline of Job in our heads with that understanding and see if everything fits into place. So we start off, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, going to and fro in the earth, become resentful of Job's wealth. Going to and fro in the earth. Why would they be going to and fro in the earth? We haven't got there yet, because we're going to do this tomorrow. But I really want to suggest to you that this whole time of Job is during the time of Israel's wandering in the wilderness. And that's exactly what Israel are doing. They are wandering for 40 years to and fro in figures of eight or whatsoever pattern takes their fancy. They are wandering to and fro in the earth. And there is a risk with travel. The more you travel, the more you see.

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    If you're tempted by the sight of the eyes, the more you travel, the more you see, the more you're tempted. The more you are likely to finally run into that one vision in front of you that says, Oh, that's, I'd like that. That's nice. And by going to and fro in the earth, they become resentful of Job's wealth. They know who he is. They see how far his land extends. Job is not one of the Israelites. I'm going to try and show that tomorrow. He's not one of the wandering tribe. He is a fixture in the land of Uz. He belongs there. That's his homeland. So they, the three men, accuse Job in their hearts while appearing before the Lord. Where do they appear in the presence of the Lord?

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    If my timing is right, we're talking about the tabernacle. At the time that they go to the tabernacle in the wilderness to present their sacrifice and sing their praises and whatever, they have that in their hearts. They're still irked and ticked by what they've seen. This rich man, who's not one of them, no child of Abraham, he, and yet he has a homeland. Do we have a homeland?

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    We're the children of God and we're tramping around in the desert. We don't have a homeland. He does. Look at his flocks and herds. Conniving, his faith hinges on his wealth. That's what they impute to Job. The opposition of their thoughts and God's is presented as a conversation. So I'm taking a metaphorical take to the conversation between God and Satan. In other words, God looks down and sees them and says, oh, I see. I see what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking.

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    You can barely concentrate on that hymn you're singing, can you? You're just all filled with bitterness about this rich man who's no part of your community that's really annoyed you. I see what you're doing. You think, you think that man follows me just because of his wealth, don't you? I see that. I see that thought. You think that if I took his wealth away, he'd curse me to my face. Okay, I'm going to act on your embittered jealousy. I'm going to empower it. I'm going to give it the authority to do what it desires. Let's make that happen and we'll see whether or not you're right. So God empowers their jealousy and acts on it. We know it is God who acts to cause the afflictions to Job. So the three friends start to comfort Job. I'm sure they're genuinely horrified when they first see, crash, Job's lost everything. Whoa, we know this guy. We better go around to his house and see if he's still alive. I've heard the whole family have been wiped out. Let's see who's left. But as time passes, truth comes out. Their underlying feelings all emerge in the end and all three make false and very embittered accusations against the character of Job. And then God rebukes Satan, the three friends.

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    Righteous Job intercedes with them as a priest and righteous Job is blessed. So that is how that story recapitulates with the understanding we have so far. We have, oh, we have some time remaining. That's great because what I want to do now is spend some time. I've made that presentation to you and I realize that these things require some digestion time, whether you end up accepting them or rejecting them. Either way, some digestion time is good and I don't want to sort of rush through all this.

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    But let's see if we can't, in all honesty and without wishing to defend any one point or another, kind of analyze the potential weaknesses of this theory as long as, as well as the potential strengths of this theory and be honest and try and consider anything. And if I miss something that you think is principle, please come and tell me about it. I've always gained greatly from the feedback that I get of helping re-guide and re-tune my thoughts whilst I'm at Bible school. Let's look at the weaknesses first. What are the weaknesses of this interpretation, the idea that Satan is the heart of man, perhaps most commonly shown through these three friends at the moment? Well, first of all, there seems to be a contradiction, doesn't there? If the three friends really wanted Job to fail, was there consolation? Was the fact that they went round and sat with him seven days on the ground, what was that? Some sort of fake? Some sort of sham? No, I don't think it is a fake and I don't think it is a sham and it is a natural contradiction to what we've proposed. But are humans rational creatures? Are we not entirely self-contradictory? I don't have any problem at all believing that their sympathy for Job was absolutely genuine and that they couldn't see that their own embittered hatred of him, which had probably gone away briefly, was what had really, that got enacted on it. Not that they ever could have seen that. But it's only through time as they began to reason with Job, well, Job, you know, I'm really sorry for you and everything, but you know why you lost your stuff, don't you? You really are an evil

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    man. You should recognize this, maybe God will give it back. So I think it's natural to have contradictions. We are not logical or rational creatures. If you imagine that we are, I can show you some road signs, it would absolutely blow your mind. But that is a natural contradiction to the theory we have.

42. 32:51

    Additionally, it requires the meetings between God and Satan, which are often referred to in the literature as heaven's council meetings. The heaven's council meetings and Satan's empowerment become interpretive statements. But I don't have a problem with that particularly, oops, pressed the wrong button. Because the interchanges are not in heaven. To call these heaven's council meetings, as they so frequently are, is very bad nomenclature. They don't take place in heaven. They take place in the presence of the Lord. I understand why someone says, well, that's heaven. No, it's not. Look at the Bible. The presence of the Lord is where humans assemble to come with God-focused thoughts before him. And that includes this room, because that's why you're here. You're here because you have a God-focused life, and you're here to praise his name and to spend your time and energies upon thinking about his word and his will. This is the presence of the Lord. This is one of those areas, one of many around the world, where that takes place. And that's where these conversations take place. We know truly that no Satan can stand before God anyway. A truly wicked thing cannot come into the presence of God.

43. 33:58

    So clearly it's some interpretive level that's needed. So those are the weaknesses. I don't see any others particularly. Now let's look at the strengths. The strengths of this suggestion that Satan is the heart of man and the three friends. First of all, it's consistent with the rest of Scripture. This, the human heart, is the opponent of God. True on the most global scale of looking at Scripture, that is God's one and only opponent. It's his only Satan. The stuff that's in here and in there. That's what opposes God.

44. 34:32

    Let's look at some Scriptures. They're very well known. They're very obvious. The first book of the Bible tells us this. The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. And within the constraints of the English language, it is not possible to maintain a proper English sentence and put any more superlatives in it.

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    It is as heavily loaded as it can be. Every inclination. Only evil all the time. Okay? And we can go into the prophets. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Or in some translations, desperately sick. Who can know it? Who can understand it? And even into the New Testament. What comes out of a man's heart is what makes him unclean. That's what Jesus said when the Pharisees mistakenly supposed that some other failure to perform rituals made a man unclean. For from within men's hearts come all these desperately evil things. They all come from inside. They make a man unclean.

46. 35:39

    Or in opposition to God. Okay? So that's our first point. It's consistent with the rest of Scripture. Secondly, this is the point that I enjoy the most. Just get to know Satan. Have a look at him in the book of Job. And you'll recognize him, unfortunately. You'll recognize him all too well. I do. Look at his characteristics. Number one, he's jealous. Right? He's jealous of Job's material wealth. That's what drives all this. Do we really suppose that it was an angel getting all irate and ticked off about the fact that Job had a huge number of camels? Right? It's not very likely. Angels don't care how many camels you have. Humans do. Right? For camel these days, read Ferrari or whatever. But it's the same thing.

47. 36:29

    Right? Look at that. Oh, there he is driving that car again. Yeah, he thinks he's real business, doesn't he, in that little vehicle. That's a nice little number. That looks real flash. Does he really deserve that? I wonder. Well, in those days it was camel, but the same thing. Maybe Job has stripes on his camel too. I don't know. Okay. And it could have been anything. Number two, here's a second characteristic of Satan. He's stupid. Right? He tells God that he's wrong. Is there really a species so stupid on earth? Do we think that could have been an angel? God says, look at this guy. He's great. And there is someone so stupid to say, well, God, you know, you're a pretty bright lad and all, and nice job you've done on this universe you've made, and B plus, you know, whatever. And yeah, you see a little something about Job, don't you? But you see, God, you're missing something. I see a little bit more than you do. You see the outward appearance, don't you, of Job's righteousness.

48. 37:29

    But I, I see it all. Not only do I see Job's outward righteousness, but I know why. I know what drives it. You're a bit dumb, God. Sorry, you've missed the bigger picture. Let me help you out. Right? I don't think, I cannot conceive of a divine angel of God taking that attitude.

49. 37:49

    Can I conceive of a human being that stupid? I've met one. Right? You may have done too, and not just me, by the way. Right? That's one of the characteristics of Satan. He's not the smartest. This is a lovely one. When he's shown to be wrong, instead of saying, okay, you win, he just shifts the goalposts. I mean, didn't Satan say, take away his toys and he'll curse you? And God says, okay, fine. There go the toys. Look, he still blesses me. Oh yeah, well, yeah, maybe. But, but, now I've got a better one. Now I'm not wrong yet. No, actually, it's because you didn't, ah, I just thought of something. You should have actually struck his flesh too. Then I'll be right.

50. 38:31

    You see? Who is it that moves the goalposts when they've been shown to be wrong? Angels? Do we know that from scripture? Is that something we've come to learn about angels? Is that something that Brother Barry will be teaching us about angels? That whenever they're shown to be wrong, they move the goalposts? No, we've met those people. They are here among us and alas, they are here in this room and even on this platform. We shift the goalposts when we're known to be wrong because we don't want to look to be wrong. And when something doesn't work out the way we predicted that it would, we find some reason to justify that and say, oh, there was a missing element that I didn't tell you about before, but if you did that, then I'd be right.

51. 39:08

    That's us. And finally, Satan's delight is the downfall of a righteous man. I find it impossible to conceive that an angel of the divine host takes any delight whatsoever in the downfall of a righteous man. That's us, isn't it? Don't we all celebrate, particularly even, and here's a challenging thing. Even when we're looking outside of our community, let's say, and we're looking at a television evangelist and suddenly he's exposed, having committed some terrible sin. And don't we rejoice? Ha ha, I thought so. That's us, isn't it? I don't think we should be doing that.

52. 39:51

    Not every failure is a hypocrite. Very difficult to tell the difference between a failure and a hypocrite because the external behavior of the two is exactly the same. Unless we can see the heart, we can never tell the one from the other. We should impute the best motives that we're looking at failures and not hypocrites, except in the case of the one human heart that we really do know about.

53. 40:14

    Then we can judge. Satan's delight is the downfall of a righteous man. Considering then all of Satan's many characteristics, one, two, three, four of them here, I think we have very little doubt in identifying him as a human. It's also consistent with what is known between angels and men. What does that mean? No idea what that means. I'll rewrite that. Oh, right. Okay. We looked at that passage earlier. Divine angels do not commit slander. Angels, although they are stronger and more powerful than men, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. It means that the origin of Satan going to and fro in the earth has a very natural interpretation. We learn from the book of James. That's where temptation comes from. The more you see in front of your eyes, that's what drives your temptations. It's what you see. So you go to and fro in the earth and you see more and more. That's humans that do that. That's us that does that.

54. 41:13

    And finally, Satan is actually to blame. Right? That's something that the book of Job makes clear. Satan is to blame for this mess. Was a divine angel to blame? No. No. It is the human heart that is to blame for the manifold evils and disasters and associated pain that we see in this otherwise wonderful world around us. Here's an interesting concept that I find very difficult to articulate, so work with me here because I'm probably going to make a mess of explaining this. But what I want to try and point out is that only with this interpretation of Satan being human, and specifically the three friends, does the apparent barter between God and Satan make any sense. Because without it, the barter in the early chapters of Job becomes like Greek myth. What I mean by that is, if you know much Greek mythology, the gods, the Greek gods, these characters that are invented in stories, are heartless.

55. 42:14

    Right? You know, two Greek gods will sit around and say, hmm, I bet if you smack him in the head, he'll fall over. And he says, okay, I'll bet you. All right, fine. Watch this. K-ding. Oh, you were right. All right, I'll pay you that. Well, I bet you if you break his back, his wife will curse you. All right, watch. K- Oh, she didn't. Oh, you win that one too. This is how the Greek stories look at them.

56. 42:32

    The gods toy with men. They treat them just like playthings for their amusement. And they torture them and reward them and lift them up and throw them down just for fun. Is that Israel's God? Is that your God? Is that mine? Because that is who our God is, if Satan is anything other than this.

57. 42:53

    Why would God enter the barter? Hey, why don't you mess around with him and see what happens? Why would God do that? God is not capricious. The Greek gods certainly are those stories. But our God, the true God, the one God, is not capricious. And not only is he not capricious, it is not his desire that any should perish. And so only then can we see that the barter is actually key to God convicting Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and through their conviction, saving them. Right? God enters the barter with Satan in order to save him. It's an act of salvation. And by being an act of salvation, you'd understand why our God would get involved. Without it being an act of salvation, without this being Satan who's saved, why would God mess around in any of this way? This is a capricious act, otherwise. Unless Satan is saved by the barter, it serves no purpose of salvation. Job was already righteous. That's not to say Job isn't changed by the experience, because he is. And God would not have had any part of it, I suggest to you. I don't do a good job of, I know it's hard to articulate that thought, but I think it very clearly and speak it very unclearly. So hopefully you can kind of untangle the mess of the words. And so this is our last slide for today. What are the implications, if we find that theory acceptable, what are the implications of Satan being the heart of man for our ongoing studies in Job? I find three. First of all, Satan does not disappear from the text.

58. 44:25

    That's just a point of interest more than anything else. It means he's there all the way through. The whole book has a righteous man in it, and it's got Satan in it. It's that conflict. It becomes a very different book now. If Satan just shows up in chapter two and then goes off for a cup of tea and never comes back, why on earth do we have 20 chapters of Job bickering with three other guys? What's the point? It means the core of the book, that's the point I just said actually, Job versus his three friends or amidst his three friends becomes highly relevant to our study of the book of Job, and most importantly of all, the core of the book, it disappears off the bottom, I'm sorry, the core of the book is now highly relevant to my life. Why? Because Job's experience as recorded in the book of Job is now the same as mine. No, I haven't lost all my children. No, I haven't been afflicted in the way Job was, but I do spend every single day wrestling with Satan, this Satan. It's the same Satan that Job wrestles with. I can get up at six o'clock in the morning, and by 06-01 at the latest, the battle is once again enjoined. And he's up, and he's awake, and he's suggesting all sorts of very desirable things to me, none of which are in accord with my father's will. Satan enters, and he is a very permanent presence in my life, and I suggest to you he is a very permanent presence in the book of Job, and that's what makes this a wonderful and beautiful book. And tomorrow we're going to explore

59. 46:01

    the timing of the book of Job and see if we can identify that's not only spiritually but also naturally. This is very much the wilderness journey that these Israelites are undertaking when they encounter this remarkable Gentile.