Is It True That Only "breaking the Hedge" Exposes the Believer to Successful Satanic Attacks?
Direct Answer
Not exactly. The Bible shows two ways Satan touches a believer: (1) when the believer “breaks the hedge” by sin and unbelief, giving him a place; and (2) when God Himself permits a test. But only the first gives Satan a real advantage. When God allows a trial, it is limited and turns to the believer’s good—not to Satan’s victory.
Scriptural Explanation
- Job did not sin, yet Satan could afflict him only because God allowed it—and with strict limits (Job 1:10–12; 2:6). That was testing, not defeat. Job’s faith stood.
- “Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him” (Ecclesiastes 10:8). That’s the warning: step out of the Word’s protection and you invite the bite.
- “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). Place is given by disobedience—anger, lies, lust, unforgiveness (see Ephesians 4:25–32; 2 Corinthians 2:10–11).
- “Be sober… resist… steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). The hedge is faith and obedience. Submit to God, then resist (James 4:7).
- God’s tests are bounded and faithful: “He will… make a way to escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13). They refine, not ruin (1 Peter 1:6–7). And the sheep cannot be plucked from His hand (John 10:28–29; Romans 8:35–39).
- Dwelling “in the secret place of the most High” is the place of kept protection (Psalm 91).
Simple Clarifying Logic
- If the only way Satan could touch a believer were personal failure, what about Job and Peter? Job was upright, yet tested (Job 1:1; 1:12). Peter was sifted, yet kept by Christ’s intercession (Luke 22:31–32). Those were permissions for proving, not permissions for Satan to conquer.
- When we break the hedge—leave the Word, harbor sin—we open a door. Then the serpent has a bite, and Satan gains an advantage.
- When God permits a trial while we remain under the Blood, Satan is on a leash. He may afflict circumstances, but he cannot overthrow faith. God turns it to our strengthening.
Reinforcing Statement
Stay under the Blood, stay with the Word, and give no place to the devil. If God allows a test, it will purify you. If you break the hedge, repent quickly and close the door.
Final Conclusion
No. Satan can touch a believer either by our breaking the hedge (which gives him an advantage) or by God’s limited permission for testing (which cannot defeat faith). Only breaking the hedge grants Satan a real foothold; God-permitted trials are bounded and work for the believer’s good.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
To take on the whole armor of God
62-0701 §40
Now notice. Satan tried to get in there to spy out, to see what ... how he could get a hold of that human race, and he took one of the most famous tactics that... Well, it showed that he had to be a supernatural power to think of it. And he used this the first time and was successful, and he's done it ever since, and still successful to a certain estate. He used reasoning against faith. Satan come to Eve, and began to reason against the Word of God, the great armour that God had fortified his people with. He began...
Putting on the whole armor of God
62-0607 §33
Now we find that this great enemy of God thought, "Now as long as they will believe that Word I can never get to them. As long as that little family in Eden keeps behind that Word I could never touch them." Neither can he today. Amen. He's still blocked off, right. "But if I can use some real good strategy and just reason out... I'd give some human reasoning, because she's human. And if I can just get human reasoning, then we'll win the battle," Satan and his angels. But ... then Eve gave a way. So therefore we kno...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §25
But God can't give nothing else but his Word, because that's what He chose first, and when God makes a decision, it has to ever remain that way. And Satan took reasoning, and took the reasonings and attacked the Word, and shook Eve off the path. That's right---by reasoning, human reasoning. Now the only way that she could have got to disbelieve God's Word, it had to be appealing. And Satan knows how to make reasonings appealing. It has to appeal to you, and sin is very appealing. And there's only one sin, and that'...
I know
60-0417S §10
And Satan had touched Job for a purpose, to try him, because he and God had had a debate. And God told Satan that "I've got a servant in the earth there is none like him. Whatever I say to him, he will do it. He's a perfect man and a just man." Satan said, "If you'll just let me have him, I'll make him curse you to your face." Job, not knowing all these things going on, it brought the patriarch into a deep distress. Yet, somehow, when all was gone from him, he still maintained his position in Christ. "I know my red...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §22
Now, seeing there was going to be a conflict, and there was going to be a battle, God equipped his children with the right kind of ammunition, the right kind of attack, the right kind of everything that they had need of that would sweep them all the way from Eden to the rapture. What was it? The Word. The Word. That's what defeats Satan is the Word. It'll defeat him anywhere, any place. Now why do we want to substitute something else? when we've already got the best thing that there is---the Word. And we find Jesus...