Job 2:2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

My dad and I used to watch “Mutual of Omaha’s ‘Wild Kingdom’”. Each week Marlin Perkins would travel to some remote part of the world with a film crew and show the secret lives of animals. I was fascinated! Whenever they were on the African plains I was always amazed at the huge herds of antelope. But even more amazed at the lion. The lion would pretty casually walk around the edge of the herd. The antelope just had to live with the reality that the lion was never far away. They had to keep an eye out for him.

In the book of Job we are privileged to some behind the scenes action. Most of the book deals with Job and his friends. They spend a great deal of time wondering how Job got into the mess he’s in, but we are told how in the first couple of chapters.

When God asked satan what he’d been doing, satan gave his answer. And it was the same answer that could have been given any day it was asked. For that’s what satan does. He wonders around looking. Peter would later write,

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

We like the image of God looking for us. Seeking us out where we are and coming to us. But He’s not the only one. The enemy is always looking for an easy mark. Watch Wild Kingdom long enough and you’ll learn that the lion is eyeing that herd looking for an antelope that is wounded, or otherwise weakened. If he can separate that one from the herd he becomes an easy mark. Our ‘herd’ is the body of believers. We need to stay in fellowship with the church. If we get separated from our ‘herd’, we will become an easy mark for the evil one.

Blessings,