AMERICA COMPARED TO JOB

When the events beginning on Sept. 11 began to happen, the Lord began showing me that
the experiences of the Old Testament patriarch Job are prophetic of what has been
happening to our nation. Consider the following:
I. America, God’s servant. When Satan approached God in Job 1:8, God asked
if he had considered his servant, Job. Although many have emphasized the
evil in America’s Christians, the truth is that America is God’s servant. In
spite of our shortcomings, there is plenty of evidence of this. Examples are
missionary work, rebuilding war ravished countries, fighting oppression and
disease, and the list goes on and on.
II. America’s greatness : Job was the greatest man in the east. (Job 1:3). America
is the greatest nation on earth.
III. America’s protection. Satan’s complaint to God concerning Job, was that God
had put a hedge around him and all that he had, and he had prospered for this
reason. Actually the reason why Job had prospered was because he had feared
and served God. America also has been protected by God. Except for the
attack on Pearl Harbor, we have not had an attack from a foreign nation on our
soil in over 180 years.
IV. God’s removal of the protection: Take note of the dialogue in Job 1:6-11.
God: “From where do you come?”
Satan: “From wandering to and fro on the earth.”
God: “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a
blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil.”
Satan: “Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and all that he has. But put forth your
hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to his face.”
God: “Behold all that he as is in your power only do not put forth your hand upon him. “
We are told in Revelation 12 that Satan is ”. .the accuser of the brethren, who accuses
them before our God night and day.” Satan continues to have these conversations with
God trying to get permission to attack us in any way that he can. And it is clear that God
on occasion chooses to take down part the hedge around us according to His plan for His
glory in the advancement of His kingdom.
So in September, this year, the conversation between God and Satan went something
like this.
God: “Where have you been?”
Satan: “Checking on things on the earth.”
God: “Have you considered my servant, America? How that there is no nation like it
on the earth, blameless and upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”
Satan. “That’s a laugh. The Christians are immoral, and their divorce rate in almost
as high as the Non-Christians , approaching 50%. The Christian men are addicted to
pornography, and the number of abortions is sky high. The Christians are mainly
focused on themselves, and their tight knit churches. And what is really unbelievable
is that in spite of all of this evil, You have such a tight hedge around America that no
foreign nation has been able to attack the mainland since the war of 1812.
The Christians in China on the other hand, love You with all of their hearts and
are willing to lay down their lives for You, and yet You let me pretty much do with
 them what I please. I don’t get it! If You take down the hedge and let me attack
America, they will curse You to Your face. “
God: “What do you have in mind?”
Satan: “Let me take the World Trade towers to the ground during business hours, and
destroy the Pentagon, the US Capital Building and the White House.”
God. “OK ,You can take out the towers and part of the Pentagon, and you can try to
take out the capital building and the White House.”
V. Satan’s first attack: In the case of Job, on the birthday on one of his sons or
daughters, they were all together in the eldest brother’s house when a “great
wind came from the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and
fell on the young people and they died.”( Job1:19) On September 11, 2001,
two jet liners hit the world trade towers, and the heat from the burning jet fuel
caused them to collapse, and another jet hit a wing of the Pentagon; resulting
in more than 5000 people dead in these attacks.
VI. The other events that happened to Job concerned terrorists (the Sabeans and
Chaldeans) who attacked the servants that were tending the oxen, donkeys and
camels, killed the servants, and took the flocks. Also the fire of God came
down on the flock of sheep and the servants and destroyed them. In our case
concerning the White House and the Capital, certain heroic men on the other
hijacked plane laid down their lives to stop the attack, and the rest of the
people on the plane lost their lives. Also, the bombings have had a disastrous
effect on our economy.
VII. Job’s response: “Then Job arose, and tore his robe and shaved his head, and
he fell down to ground and worshipped, and he said ‘Naked I came from my
mothers womb, and naked I shall return, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken
away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.’” And our response to the attacks:
There has been almost no cursing God to his face. Instead, national mourning,
repentance, and a tremendous outpouring of love demonstrated by giving.
Because Job was stripped of all his material possessions, he was unable to
pursue has attackers as Abraham did in to rescue Lot, in Gen 14.. In our case
we went beyond Job’s response. Our president’s described it this way, “First
we experienced shock, then sorrow, then anger, and out of our anger we
resolved to do something about it, to bring those who attacked us to justice.”
God has given us success to the point that the Taliban are running for their
lives.
VIII. Why? At this point is good to ask the question “why?”both in the case of Job
and in what happened to us. In spite of the fact that God’s description of Job
was good, there was at least one issue in Job’s life that God wanted to deal
with. In Job. 1:5, we are told that Job’s prayer life was focused continually on
his children. Then in Job 42:10 after he met God face to face he prayed for
his friends. It is the clear that God wanted to deal with Job’s limited focus. He
had come to point in his life, that it was going to take something drastic to
move him on.
This is the same issue that prompted God to lower the hedge and allow Satan to attack
us. For the majority of America’s Christians or focus is inward toward our families and
our church families and this is only wrong when it stops there. Among many of us Jesus’
description of the church of Laodicea (Rev.3:17)fits, “. .you say, ‘I am rich and have
become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” Jesus told them that He is outside,
knocking. Jesus is fed up with our lukewarmness, and He loves us enough to do
something about it. There are thousands of people around going to hell and we are so
focused on ourselves that we do not reach out to them.
. A similar situation happened in Jerusalem in Acts 7 and 8. Jesus had told his followers
“ You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be
witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea , Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
They followed through on Jerusalem but were ignoring the rest of the world. So God,
who had protected them up to this point, stood by and allowed Stephen to be martyred,
ushering in a persecution which forced the believers to scatter, and they went everywhere
“preaching the word.” And the gospel went to Judea and Samaria, and later to the whole
known earth.
It is obvious that the attacks on September 11 have caused to get our eyes off ourselves
and our circles of friends and onto the Lord and the spiritual and physical needs of
others.
IX. Satan’s second encounter with God. Job 2:1 “Again there was a day when the sons
of God came to present themselves before God, and Satan also came among them,” Let’s
consider this dialogue:
God: “Where have you come from?”
Satan: “From roaming on the earth and walking around on it.”
God: “Have you considered my servant Job? And he still holds fast to his integrity,
although you incited me against him without a cause.”
Satan: “ Skin for skin, all that a man has he will give for his life. However put forth now
your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.“
God: “Behold he is in your power, only spare his life.”
In our case Satan’s encounter with God went something like this.
God. “From where do you come?”
Satan. “From Ground Zero and the Pentagon.”
God. “What do you think about America’s Christians now?”
Satan. “Ok, so hundreds of police and fire fighters gave their lives to save those in the
towers, and the people are giving millions of dollars to help the victims and congress is a
100 % behind the president in the war effort against the terrorists. I have to admit I am
surprised. But if you reach out and afflict them with disease, and they will turn on each
other and curse you to your face.”
God. “What do you have in mind?”
Satan. “I will send anthrax spores through the mail.”
God. “If you got the resources, I won’t stop you from trying.”
IX. Satan’s second attack. “So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and
smote Job with sore boils from soles of his feet to the crown of his head.“ (Job
2:7) Job was in this condition until he had his face to face encounter with God,
and repented.”.
In our case, anthrax spores were put in the mail, and we know what happened.
But through this, many people who had given hardly any thought to their spiritual
condition were faced with the reality that they could contract a fatal disease, and they
knew that they were not prepared to die. There have been a great number of people who
have come into the kingdom of God because of both kinds of attacks and there will many
more in the days to come..
X. Job’s friends. Job went out the garbage dump and massaged his aching sores
with a broken piece of pottery. Then his friends came out came out
supposedly to comfort him, but their message was that Job must have sinned
to bring on these disasters and that he needed to repent.
In our case, our so called “friends” are marching to try to stop the war, to protest the
military tribunals our president in proposing for the war criminals, and to stop the wire
surveillance by the government of suspected terrorist sympathizers.
They are saying that attacks are our fault because some small pox contaminated blankets
were sent to Indians in the early 1700’s. They are also saying that we deserved this
because of the crusades against the Moslems and the Jews a thousand years ago, and
because of slave trading in the 1700’s and 1800’s. Concerning these issues, there is no
question that there was wrong doing on the part of our ancestors. And there is no
question that the blood of these victims was still crying to God from the ground, as did
the blood of Abel in Gen 4:10. But the truth of the matter is that that “Jesus died for our
sins and not for sins only but also for the whole world.“(I John 2:3). And Christians have
not denied these issues, but have publicly gathered in order to repented of these sins, as
Daniel did concerning Israel’s sins in the past. (Dan. 9)
X. As a result of the disasters that came on Job and the accusations of his friends, Job
desperately wanted to meet God face to face to present his case, that he was a righteous
man and therefore he didn’t deserve this. God appeared to Him as recorded in Job 38-40
in Job 38-40. in which He essentially asked Job, ”Who are you to question me?” Job
responded, I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee,
Therefore, I repent, in dust and ashes.” Then God turned to Job’s friends and said, “ My
wrath is kindle against you because you have not spoken of me what is right as my
servant Job has.”
What I see is a continuation of the national revival that began before the attacks,
where people both Christian and unbelievers come to repentance in a mighty wave of
God‘s conviction power. And those who criticize what God is doing here will either be
brought to repentance or it will be visibly evident that God’s wrath will be upon them.
V. 10 “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends.” And I
believe that the crown act of our repentance will be when we pray for those who oppose
what God is doing.
Job 40:11, “Then all his brothers and his sisters and all who had known him before
came to him and ate bread with him in his house and comforted him for all the evil that
the Lord had brought upon him. And each one brought a piece of money and gold ring.”
And in our case, as a result of the attacks and through the president’s efforts, nations that
have been hostile with us are in the process of becoming our friends. And not only that
but God is also reconciling people, ethnic groups, and churches, who have been at odds
with each other.
Job 40:10,“And the Lord increased all that Job had two fold.” And the details are
given in 40:12: double the amount of the animals that he had before. If we could have
asked Job after it all happened, “Was it worth it?”, he would have said “Yes. The
experience was horrible and it tore my heart to lose my children and have my wife and
siblings turn against me, but I knew God’s presence was with me through it all. I
wouldn’t trade my suffering for anything in the world.”
Our economy has been dealt a serve blow, people afraid to buy, businesses are
suffering, and we have high unemployment. But, remember, God is good! What he did
for Job in response to his repentance He will do for us. In spite of what we have been told
by some people, we are not Sodom. Sodom was full of horrendous sins, and the only
family that knew God was not living for God, so God was forced to judge Sodom and
destroy it. America has millions of christain who are taking a stand for God. God loves us
and we are now going though a period of discipline and He fully intends to bless us as he
blessed Job. Discipline is something that our Father does to His children because He
loves us. Because of our repentance, we will have twice as much as we had before.
Job fathered of another seven sons and three daughters, which is the same number as
what he lost. I see the ultimate backfire to Satan’s plots, America’s Christians doubling in
number.
There is a phrase in v. 11 that we should examine: “ the evil that the Lord brought on
him.” The responsibility for what happened to Job and also to us, can be laid at the feet
of none other than the Lord. Because, if God hadn’t removed part of the hedge, Satan
couldn’t have done it. God knew that this would result in His glory and so he allowed it
to happen. Just as farmer has to break up the fallow ground in order for it to receive the
seed so he can harvest a crop; God knows what it takes to open our heart to repentance
and the gospel and He does it
Let’s get with God’s current program, found in II Chronicles 7:14, “And if My people
who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn
from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal
their land.” And lets heed Hosea’s invitation, in Hosea6:1-3,“Come, let us return to the
Lord, for He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us but He will bandage
us. . . He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.”
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