And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
God has just praised Job, and Satan cannot deny a word of it. So he attacks the reason behind Job's goodness — a charge that lands on God as much as on Job, since it says this fear of God has been bought.
God had described Job's life. Satan says nothing against that description; he goes underneath it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but attacks his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven only by that. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay? He is prosperous, blessed in every way, and God lets nothing come near him to hurt him.
Where does such a reading of another man come from? One writer answers that Satan judged Job by himself, and draws a warning from it.
"Then Satan answered the LORD and said, 'Does Job fear God for no reason?'" It is nothing but selfishness; it is only for his own ends. How did he judge that? From himself. It is a dangerous thing to judge anything from ourselves. It is a blessed thing to judge from God's word.
The words about the hedge are not simply an observation about Job's comfortable life. They are a challenge to the fairness of God's own assessment.
God has pronounced. Is that not enough? Sadly, sin has brought in distrust of God Himself. He too is on trial, and Satan's reasoning in Job's case almost openly takes that ground. God pronounces about Job, and Satan takes exception to it. "Have You not made a hedge about him, and about his house?" he says. He means: "This sentence is not given upon proper trial." Man, to his own ruin, has accepted Satan's malice as truth. Yet God, in His very mercy to man, does not retreat behind His privilege. He is, and must be, sovereign in what He does, so that "none can stay His hand, or say to Him, What are You doing?" Even so, He will allow the question, and let everything come into the fullest light.
The accusation contains an unintended confession. In naming the protection, the adversary admits it had held.
Satan, the adversary, had watched Job for a long time, and Job's God-fearing, upright life clearly annoyed him. If he could have destroyed him he would have done it. But he had to admit that God had put a hedge around him, and he could not break it down or climb over it.
Even when God opens the hedge, He sets how wide the opening is.
The thought of this is very solemn. It should lead us to walk humbly and watchfully through a scene where Satan rules. Satan has no power at all over a soul who stays in the place of dependence and obedience. And, blessed be God, he can never go one hair's breadth beyond the limit God sets.
The question is not only about Job. It is a charge against anyone who claims to fear God.
Satan's vile suggestion is that no such thing as godliness exists. If a man claims to be godly, it is not that he fears God, or cares for God. It is simply that he knows it pays and is to his worldly advantage. Satan says to God, "Stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face." The Lord allows this horrible lie of the devil to be fully exposed. He lets Satan strip Job of all that he has, and the outcome proves Satan a liar. Instead of cursing God, Job fell down before the LORD and worshipped, saying, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
The charge was a lie about Job. Yet one writer warns that it can be partly true of us.
The gifts become a snare to us, and Satan's charge against us is often true in a measure. Our ground for rest and quietness of spirit before God is His kindness and mercies to us, and not simply the knowledge of His love. You can see this in the violent grief and despair many of His people fall into when God takes away any particular mercy. They had rested in the gift more than in God. The gift was to them the evidence of His love; the love itself was not the rest of the heart.
- Charge. Satan cannot deny that Job is upright, so he attacks Job's motive — a motive he reads out of himself.
- Hedge. The words that accuse Job also admit that God's hedge had held. Satan could not break it down or climb over it.
- Limit. When God opens the hedge, He sets the width. Satan cannot go one hair's breadth beyond what God commands.
- Trial. God does not hide His verdict behind His power. He allows the question and brings everything into full light.
- Answer. Job lost everything and worshipped. The man who blessed the God who took away exposed the lie that godliness is only a paying arrangement.
Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is spread abroad in the land.
Satan cannot fault Job's life. So he attacks what no one else can see: why Job serves God at all. He points to the fence of protection around Job, and to Job's wealth, and calls that the reason. Does anyone love God for who He is? And will God let that question be settled in the open?
Satan does not deny that Job is upright. He attacks the reason behind it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but questions his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven by that alone. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay? He is prosperous, blessed in every way, and God allows nothing to come near him to hurt him. Is this accusation true? Can good exist only where life is pleasant? Is God afraid to let His children face hard times?
The accusation does not stop at Job. If Job's devotion is bought, then God is the buyer.
It was a two-handed attack. It was a blow aimed at God. It meant, "You have created man for your pleasure and you can only gain his service by paying him well." It was also a blow aimed at Job, for as "the accuser of our brothers," Satan moved God against him. But was the accusation false or true? That had to be proved for the sakes of all concerned and for ours also. The question was, should God or Satan triumph in the experience of Job.
God has already given His verdict on Job. Satan points at the hedge to say the test was too easy.
God gives His verdict about Job, and Satan takes exception to it. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his house?" he says. He means, "This verdict comes without a proper trial." Man has accepted Satan's malice as truth, to his own ruin. Yet God, in His very mercy to man, does not retreat behind His privilege… God takes away Job's hedge and gives Satan wide limits within which to deal with him. The end, of course, is blessing for the sufferer and full vindication of God's perfect ways.
Satan's complaint is accurate. The fence is real, and Job is not the only one who has one.
As with Job, God has His hedge about every one of His saints. The "hedge" speaks of guard and possession. Until God removes the hedge, the devil cannot touch him. With Job, God permitted Satan to get in to try him, but not to injure him.
Satan reads Job's wealth as the payment that produces the piety. Job's own history says otherwise.
He attributed to Job the same self-centred motives that drive Satan. He said that God had so greatly blessed Job that it was this profitable existence that caused Job to fear God. He forgot that Job's wealth had built up slowly, as we are sure it did. Job's increase came from his faithfulness to God — not the other way around.
Job faced his testing with a hedge around him. One writer sets this beside the temptation of the Lord Jesus, who had no such shelter.
There was no Garden of Eden for Him, there was no hedge about Him, as with Job. He met the full blast of Satan's attack with no shelter and nothing to soften it.
The hedge came down, the wealth went, and the devotion stayed. That result exposed the limit of Satan's understanding.
It is beautiful to see how God has completely cleared Job of Satan's accusation. Job was no hypocrite. He had lost everything to which Satan traced his piety, and it shone out brighter than ever. Satan can trace the motives that work in the flesh, the evil in man's heart which he stirs up. But grace in God, His uncaused love, and grace in man that trusts in it and leans on it — these he cannot measure, and he does not know their power.
- The hedge is real. God guards His people on every side, and the enemy cannot reach past that fence until God removes it.
- Satan questions the hedge. He turns Job's protection into his argument: God never put that verdict to a real test.
- God opens the hedge. He does not shelter behind His right to be believed. He allows the trial, so everyone can see the answer to the charge.
- The hedge is not the reason. Job's wealth followed his faithfulness. It never produced it. Satan turned the order around.
- Grace outlasts the hedge. Job lost everything Satan had credited for his piety, and he still held on. Grace is the one thing the accuser could never measure.
But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath, [and see] if he will not curse thee to thy face!
Behind Job's losses stands a conversation Job never heard. In heaven the accuser answers God's praise of Job with a dare: take away all that Job owns, and Job will curse Him outright. Two questions follow. Can anyone love God for Himself, and not for what He pays? And whose hand does the striking?
Satan does not dispute God's verdict on Job's character. He attacks something harder to defend — the reason behind it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but attacks his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven by that alone. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay? He is prosperous, blessed in every way, and nothing is allowed to come near him to injure him. Let God only remove that safeguard, and let Job be stripped of all his wealth, "and he will curse You to Your face."
The same suggestion outlives Job. It shows up wherever people treat faith as a business arrangement.
The underlying motive with such people is earthly gain; so they hold that "gain" is the goal of piety. In other words, they teach that Christianity is only a way to improve our condition and add to our worldly advantage. This we know, from the history of Job, is really a suggestion of the devil... Satan's vile suggestion is that no such thing as godliness exists. If a man claims to be godly, it is not that he fears God, or cares for God. He simply knows it pays.
Satan says these words about Job, but he says them to God's face.
It was a two-handed attack. It was a blow aimed at God, for it meant, "You have created man for Your pleasure, and You can only gain his service by paying him well." It was also a blow aimed at Job, for as "the accuser of our brothers," Satan moved God against him. But was the accusation false or true? That had to be proved for the sakes of all concerned and for ours also. The question was, should God or Satan triumph in the experience of Job?
Satan does not claim the power himself. He asks God to stretch out His hand.
It was not Satan's lightning, but God's, that struck Job's property. It was God's whirlwind, not Satan's, that destroyed his family. Satan had demanded this — "Stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has" (Job 1:11). Job sees only God's hand in his suffering — "The Lord has taken away" (v. 21). And God Himself says to Satan, "You incited Me against him to destroy him without reason" (Job 2:3).
Satan asks God to "touch" all that Job has. That word has a history in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament the touch expresses God giving His power to people, as with Isaiah (Isa. 6:7), Jeremiah (Jer. 1:9) and Daniel (Dan. 10:10, 16, 18). In Job's case it refers instead to the sending of personal trial (Job 1:11; Job 2:5).
God grants the request — but draws a line Satan cannot cross.
What a perfect rebuke to man's dream of a God who is indifferent to everything! What a rebuke to the mere theory of an earth moving forward under natural laws! It was Jehovah who raised the question here. Satan could only use Job's prosperity to hint at self-interest... Jehovah gives the adversary permission to stretch out his hand, but not against Job's person. What a comfort that even the enemy's hand is under God's hand! Everything on the side of evil has its measure; on the side of good it is infinite.
Answering Satan was not the only reason for the test.
But God did give Satan permission to do as he pleased with Job's possessions, though not to touch his person. Did God allow this only to prove that Satan was speaking falsely? No, for God had work to do with Job himself, to bring him greater blessing than he could have imagined was possible. God would use the enmity of Satan to this end.
The fire had something to find in Job himself.
He would put the precious ore into the crucible. He knew how much unsuspected evil lay hidden beneath all that outward excellence, mixed even with the inner piety of this good man. He would show that even piety cannot feed on itself, nor righteousness lean on its own arm.
- Charge. Satan cannot deny Job's righteousness, so he attacks his motive. Strip him, says the accuser, and the goodness will go with the goods.
- Target. The accusation strikes at God as much as at Job — it says God can only buy service by paying well.
- Hand. Satan asks God to stretch out His hand, and Job later names that hand as the Lord's, not the enemy's.
- Limit. God gives permission, but draws a line around Job's own body. The enemy's hand stays under God's hand.
- Purpose. God allowed the test to expose the lie. He also used it to work in Job and bring him greater blessing than he could have imagined.