In a stealth mission, it’s imperative not arouse the enemy’s suspicions. Once aroused he may tighten up his defenses and block the coming attack. The devil and his hosts of wickedness who attack the believer seem to ignore this.
My sister-in-law recently came down with an illness bad enough to produce a fever. So far, so good. Then her air conditioner went on the blink. Hmm. Then the DVD player stopped working, the garbage disposal failed, and the light in her stove went out. A wave of unrelated problems to test her patience! Why such a wave of unrelated trials and annoyances?
A few years ago I experienced the same sort of thing. The motherboard on my computer failed. (motherboard failure out of the clear blue is pretty rare.) Then the power supply failed. Hmm. When the replacement gear arrived I needed to find some tech support, but my internet connection dropped, and when I went to call my
internet provider, my landline phone service stopped, and my cellphone died. Folks, these are unrelated systems. This is beyond coincidence. The common factor was the annoyance, frustration, and anger of yours truly. A test! So I repeat my adage: “The devil always overplays his hand.”For many years I had attributed these waves of problems to the devil and his henchmen, but then it finally dawned on me that that we see his same modus operandi in opening scenes of the book of Job. Sabean marauders seize Job’s oxen and donkeys and kill all but one servant. Lightning strikes his sheep and shepherds and destroyed them all but one. Three parties of Chaldean raiders struck down all but one of his remaining servants. The house in which his children are having a party collapses in a great storm and kills them all. All this happened on a single day! (Job 1:13-19) “The devil always overplays his hand.”
Now our point here is not that these problems seem to come in non-coincidental waves. It’s the importance of an early warning system. The sooner we recognize an attack and respond in prayer, the better things will go. Job is unaware that he is under the devil’s attack, and so he handles things badly for most of the book. In fact, the third wave of attack on Job seems to come from his wife and friends who set him up for blaming God.
There’s a great lesson in this. The waves of attack (or even single ones) should set off alarms in our hearts and remind us not to blame God, but to seek Him immediately for protection, and for comfort, and for deliverance:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:8–10)