And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, and Satan also came among them to present himself before Jehovah.
Heaven's court opens a second time, with the same assembly and the same accuser among them. Job knows nothing of it, which leaves three questions: who are these "sons of God," why does the accuser get in, and why was one round of testing not enough?
The title in this verse belongs to a class of creatures who owe their existence to God.
Taken in the sense of derivation by creation, "son" is elsewhere applied to the angels (Job 2:1; Job 38:7). God made them intelligent beings and "ministering spirits," appointed to serve heaven (Ps. 103:20). Because of that origin, as a class they are called the sons of God, Who "is a Spirit." … The angels are sons because of the standing and work God gave them as created spirits in the plan of creation. As sons to a father, they owe their intelligent existence to God, as creatures to the Creator.
The accuser is not an intruder who slipped past the door. He must appear like the rest, and he still comes today.
From this passage we may gather that at certain times all heaven's inhabitants, good and evil, must assemble before the Lord. … Satan means "adversary." The last book of the Bible shows him in this same character, as the accuser of the brothers. According to Revelation 12 he is still at work as he was in the days of Job. He still has access to the throne of God. That lasts until the hour when his downfall begins and he is thrown out of heaven.
But does that make him one of them?
The sons of God here appear to be unfallen angels, for fallen angels are not sons of God. Satan came among them, though not one of them.
Job never learned what happened in this scene.
Much of the profit this book reveals depends on one fact. Heaven alone knew both God's estimate of Job and Satan's trial of him. The reason for the trial stayed a secret for the present — a secret not there, but here. Neither Job nor his friends knew anything of what God had said about him. Satan knew well, but he could not imagine unselfish suffering integrity.
Both scenes in heaven end the same way — with a boundary.
With Job we see Satan, by God's permission, using various means to afflict him terribly. But even here Satan is strictly limited. He may not touch Job himself (ch. 1:12). Then at the second trial, when allowed to afflict Job's body, he may not touch his life (2:6). It is a mistake, therefore, to credit Satan with absolute power to do as he wants.
Satan lost the first round, and it changed nothing in him.
Again Satan presents himself before God as at the first. Again the Lord asks about Job, still faithful despite the afflictions he had been through. Satan failed to move Job, but he is not put off. He makes fresh demands, along with fresh accusations.
Between the two scenes there was a pause.
Someone has said that if the Lord had eased His hand when the first trial ended, Job would have fallen short of the blessing. There was a respite, and it might have been thought that everything had ended. But God's purpose in grace was not yet reached, and we may be sure that Satan's malice was not yet satisfied. The tireless adversary begins again, the Lord gives him room again, and Job is visited a second time.
God had His own object in allowing the second trial.
God's object was to show Job the depths of his own heart. Then he would learn to delight in the grace and mercy of God, and not in his own goodness. That goodness was like a morning cloud and the early dew that passes away. Job was a true saint of God, and all Satan's accusations were flung back in his face. But all the while Job was unbroken material, and so unprepared for "the end of the Lord."
- Heaven convenes. The "sons of God" are created spirits who come before God. The whole scene of chapter 1 opens again.
- Heaven admits the accuser. Satan comes among them without being one of them, and he keeps his access to God's throne until his downfall.
- Heaven keeps the secret. God's verdict on Job and Satan's challenge were known above; on earth, neither Job nor his friends knew a thing.
- Heaven sets the limit. First his goods but not his body, then his body but not his life. The adversary never moves one step past permission.
- Heaven has an end in view. The pause was not the end. A second visit came, because God's purpose in grace, not Satan's malice, decides where the story stops.
And Jehovah said to Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Heaven's door opens a second time, and God questions the accuser again. Satan must say where he has been — and he answers after Job has already lost his possessions and still held on to God.
One writer points out what is missing from Satan's reply — any admission that his first prediction about Job had failed:
Another day comes. Satan presents himself to God among the sons of God, and his answer to God's first question was the same as in Chapter 1. Then God faces him with the fact that Job had not done what Satan said he would if deprived of his possessions (v.3). Satan should certainly have admitted he was wrong and apologised for his obvious error. But Satan is like too many people. Instead of admitting they were wrong, they prop up their pride. They bring up another possibility, and it is just as faulty as Satan's first claim.
Satan's work has two faces, depending on where he stands:
In the dialogue between the Lord and Satan, we have God's challenge and Satan's accusation. The answer to the first question shows where Satan is carrying on his work. Like the restless raven flying over the flood waters, he prowls around "like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." In heaven he is the accuser. On earth he is the destroyer. Wherever he is, he is always and only Satan — the enemy of God and of good.
God asks him where he has come from, and he must answer. That settles a common confusion about where the devil is now:
He has to give an account to Jehovah. He walked to and fro in the earth and walked up and down in it. He therefore is not in hell. The New Testament tells us that he is "the god of this world" and that his throne is here on earth. He still walks up and down and to and fro.
This scene also shows the place Satan holds in God's government:
He is a mere instrument. He is always ready to accuse the Lord's people, yet he can do nothing except as God allows. So far as Job was concerned, Satan's efforts proved useless. Having done his utmost, he goes away, and we hear nothing more of what he does.
That double truth — genuine danger, and a leash — is meant to produce two responses at once, not one:
Observe, when Satan is described as going "to and fro in the world," "going about seeking whom he may devour" — under such circumstances we have need of great caution. But let the saints of God feel it is a permitted power, restricted, restrained, and subdued at God's will.
The picture of travelling about also corrects an inflated view of the enemy:
This shows that Satan is not omnipresent, as God is. Satan can be only in one place at a time, however quickly he may travel. Yet he has many agents, evil spirits, who carry on his wicked work throughout the world... Some have questioned too whether Satan knows our thoughts. Absolutely not! Only God knows the hearts and the thoughts of mankind.
Job had already passed one test. Behind the second round stands God's own purpose, not just the enemy's persistence:
We may be sure that divine love, as well as divine wisdom, subjected this afflicted child of God to fresh assaults at the hands of Satan. The enemy is to do all, and so prove that his own charge is false... And through the very trials he must pass through, Job will learn the lesson of all lessons, for all eternity: God is all in all. As a step toward that knowledge, he will see that he is nothing.
These words are picked up in the New Testament and applied directly to believers now:
Though the cross has broken the devil's power, he is not yet cast into the lake of fire. As a restless and roaring lion he is still "going to and fro on the earth … walking up and down on it" (Job 1:7; Job 2:2)... Peter can speak from experience, for the time was when Satan desired to have Peter. He was allowed to sift Peter like wheat, but he could not touch Peter's faith. The Lord said, "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." Now Peter can tell others the secret of resisting Satan: stay "firm in your faith."
- Unchanged. He gives the same answer as before and never admits he was wrong. Pride invents a new charge instead of owning an old failure.
- Unconfined. He still reports back from roaming the earth, so he is not in hell. He is loose now, and the earth is where he works.
- Unequal. He walks from place to place, so he is not everywhere at once, and he does not read your thoughts — only God knows hearts.
- Under orders. He is only an instrument in God's government. He can do nothing unless God allows it, and against Job his utmost efforts failed.
- Undone. God allows the second attack in love as well as wisdom. The accuser disproves his own charge, and Job learns that God is all and he is nothing.