The man lay in his hospital bed, suffering terribly. A preacher visited. “Why is this happening to me?” the man asked. The doctor had told the man that he would have died had the severe staph infection remained untreated. This was serious! Yet the preacher couldn’t answer.
The patient believed the lie that anyone who suffers is guilty of a terrible sin. The man was forced to rethink his false belief! Satan, not God, wants to confuse us. Who hates you?
Someone once said, “Anyone who is sick is being punished by God; he or she was not really saved.” This is foolish talk, and it isn’t true according to the Bible! Satan hates the faithful!
The Bible character, Job, suffered terribly. In the Bible’s historical narrative, God declared Job a “blameless and upright” man ( Job 1). Satan was allowed to attack him. Satan wanted to show God that Job would yield to every attack.
Job lost all his wealth and his children, and suffered a terrible skin disease. His wife told him, “Curse God and die!” ( Job 2:9). But Job remained faithful. Job’s friends told him that he needed to repent of his sin, but Job wasn’t guilty. Satan hates God’s faithful!
God sent Babylon to take Israel into slavery. They had been unfaithful. Though it was the leaders and adults who turned from God, the innocent suffered with the guilty.
In the Bible book, Daniel, three of Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were thrown into a blazing furnace by the wicked King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3). They had demonstrated their commitment of honoring God, even if it meant death. It did! But God rescued these men from death. Satan hates God’s faithful!
Daniel was led off to die a horrible death. He was committed to honoring God, which broke the Babylonian law. When Daniel was thrown into a den of lions as punishment, he was also rescued by God (Daniel 6). Satan hates God’s faithful!
John the baptizer came preaching truth, but some people in high places hated him for it. Ultimately, he was killed (Matthew 14). Satan hates God’s faithful!
The apostle Paul was imprisoned, beaten mercilessly, and stoned to death (Acts 14:19-20) – all this for preaching about Jesus! Paul continued preaching, knowing that it is Satan who hates God’s faithful.
When Jesus suffered under false accusations, harsh treatment, and a horrible scourging ending in crucifixion, was He not being faithful to God? Satan wanted Jesus dead, attempting to ruin God’s plan to save us. Satan failed!
The one who hates you is Satan, but God loves you! He wants to forgive you of the sins that separate you from Him (Isaiah 59:1-2). Don’t let Satan deceive you into believing a false teaching. Truth is found in God. Only God’s Word, the Bible, has those truths which can comfort and save you!