W7 D3- Who Or What Is...( 2)

A fellow was tirelessly pursued by a blackshape; much to his chagrin it also did exactly as he did. Fearing for his soul he went into a hilly region and the black shape was right behind him. “ Either I shall shake him off or I will be Satan’s prey!” he thought and turned around and shouted,” Satan get off from my back!” His shout was answered in thousand tongues. Wonder-struck he stood still. In the high noon he saw the blackshape had crawled under his feet totally in defeat.
“Hey Satan you are my shadow!” Never again it troubled him.
We make too much of Satan. Why is it? We have always something to talk about? Something to put blame on for all our failings?
Or is it some kind of a diversionary tactic?
Satan is for many as necessary as going to the pub or hanging out with the boys. Satan is an attitude that perhaps helps us to avoid facing up to God and His commandments?
Let us now look at Job’s case.
Poor Job suffered unjustly and to heap hot coals on his misery Mrs. Job had a practical solution. Just blame God and be done with it, she said (Job 2:9). His friends, all of them well meaning of course, were no better. In their eyes Job deserved what he got. More so, in the way he occupied the position of the victim. He could see nothing blameworthy in his past actions or thoughts. Yet why he had to suffer? He was right in a sense. He dealt within his time and place. He erred in excluding his connection with others. Had he seen Truth (as God who later in the book revealed himself out of a whirlwind) he would have revised his stand.
Coming back to my quote: for those who think they must be rewarded for their perceived ‘goodness’ like a handyman on completing of day’s work must be paid, such reversals as Job suffered would indeed seem unjust. Think of Satan not as a being but as a perverse attitude that makes you forget outside your own self and expectations. ‘There is a lot more going on, sir, outside your fence’.

In conclusion let me correct a popular misconception: Nowhere in the Book you find God as the cause for all the evil that visited Job. It was the bad attitude ( Satan I meant, to give it an anthropomorphic form), that stuck its poison into him. What would be that? Collateral damage of living among so many whose viewpoints are so different and often contrary must make the best laid plans of man and mice go awry.
benny