And Jehovah said to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and abstaineth from evil? and still he remaineth firm in his integrity, though thou movedst me against him, to swallow him up without cause.
Between the two waves of Job's suffering, heaven speaks again. God repeats His earlier praise of Job, adds that Job still holds on, and then says something startling: Satan had moved Him to ruin a man for no reason.
God repeats the same four-part description He gave at the start. Where the ESV says "blameless," older translations say "perfect." One writer takes the words apart:
"That man was perfect." This does not mean there was no evil in him. That is not what "perfect" means in Scripture at all. In the Old Testament it is the word for a man who is completely sound — a sound man, not just a moralist, but a man who was right with God. He was also "upright" with people. "Perfect and upright" showed two relations, one to God, and the other to people. Both ought to go together. The great feature of it was, "fearing God." Another great feature matched these other words — refusing or turning away from evil.
Notice who raises Job's name. It is not Satan hunting for a target. It is God pointing to a man He delights in.
"Have you considered my servant Job?" asks the LORD, taking up for Himself the description of Job already given. God delights in His beloved people, and in their righteous ways. If Satan accuses, He will commend. It is always this way. Judgment is His strange work. He would rather be taken up with good, and "if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise," He thinks about that.
The one new clause is that Job still holds his integrity. The first wave of loss has passed, and God's verdict has not changed.
How very surprised Satan must have been when he saw Job! He had lost all his property and his sons. Yet there he was, with his torn robe and shaved head, worshipping before God. Satan had predicted that Job would curse God to His face. Instead, Job stayed subject to God in his troubles, and worshipped Him. What a triumph it was for God, and what a defeat for Satan.
"You incited me against him" points to what Satan had been doing before God. One writer traces that same work of accusation through Scripture:
The last clause of this scripture shows that Satan accuses God's people before God. The Old Testament gives another hint of this work of Satan, which is the opposite of a priest's work. Joshua the high priest once stood before the angel of the LORD, and Satan stood at his right hand to oppose him (Zech. 3:1). Our Lord also tells Peter that Satan wanted to have him and his fellow disciples, so that he might sift them like wheat (Luke 22:31). And the book of Revelation shows that he will carry on his wicked work of accusation until a loud voice in heaven says… "the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God" (Rev. 12:10).
God does not say Satan destroyed Job. He says Satan moved Him to do it. That settles who held the power.
About every outward form of Satan's activity we can use our Lord's words: "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above" (John 19:11). In other words, it was not Satan's lightning that struck Job's property, but God's. It was God's whirlwind, not Satan's, that destroyed his family. Job sees only God's hand in his affliction — "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).
If Job was innocent and Satan was beaten, the story could have closed at this verse. One writer argues that stopping here would have left Job worse off than God intended:
Job was able to hold fast his integrity. Had matters ended here, his patient endurance would only have strengthened the platform of his righteousness and fed his self-satisfaction… God's aim was to show Job the depths of his own heart. He wanted Job to learn to delight in the grace and mercy of God, and not in his own goodness… 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.
So the trial went on, and the danger to Job lay somewhere Satan could not touch:
He knew all along where Job was weak and in danger. Satan attacked, but he could not reach it. The LORD reached it through Job's friends.
- Commended. God repeats His own description of Job: sound with Himself, upright with people, fearing Him, refusing evil. "Perfect" never means a man without sin.
- Accused. "You incited me" points to Satan's steady work as accuser of God's people. He opposed Joshua the high priest, he asked for Peter, and he keeps on until heaven throws him down.
- Answered. When Satan accuses, God commends. God raises Job's name Himself, because He would rather be taken up with good.
- Owned. God does not blame the lightning or the whirlwind on Satan. He takes the act as His own, and Job saw only God's hand in it.
- Unfinished. Satan is beaten, yet the story goes on. Satan could not reach Job's weak point, but God reached it through Job's friends, so that Job would rest in grace and not in his own goodness.
And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life;
Job has already lost his wealth and his children, and he has not turned against God. Satan now stands before God a second time with a sharper charge: a man will give up anything, even his fear of God, to stay alive.
Commentators read the phrase in more than one way.
Satan asks for one more trial: "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life." Many take "skin for skin" to mean like for like. Or he may be reducing all that had happened to a surface trial, one that had only touched the outside of things. But he says: let there be something deeper now, and we shall see.
Another writer presses the trade to its end.
"Skin for skin" — to save part of his skin a man will give up another part; yes, to save his life he will surrender everything he has, including his fear of God.
Satan talks about Job, but he aims the words at God. The first charge was that Job's possessions meant more to him than God. Now the charge is that Job himself does.
That is what the great adversary said to God. He repeated his accusation against Job and threw his taunt at God: "You have made this man. Though You are more to him than his possessions, You are not more to him than himself; he loves himself better than he loves You."
Scripture records these words, but the speaker is Satan. People often quote a verse as if every line in the Bible carried God's approval.
How often do we hear people say that the Bible says, "Stolen waters are sweet," when in fact Scripture says that a wicked woman said it! Mr. Jay preached from Job 2:4, "All that a man has he will give for his life." … It was the devil who was speaking. This was one of those half-truths which are worse than whole lies. Millions of men have refused to give up their principles to save their lives. Job himself proved how false that cynical statement is.
One writer tells how a lawyer made that mistake in court.
This remark of the devil was once quoted in court by a barrister who wanted to strengthen his case. He introduced it by saying, "As a great authority has said …" He felt quite safe in his authority, since he was quoting from the Bible! But the judge knew his Bible better than the lawyer did. He quietly said, "I am interested to observe whom the learned counsel quotes as 'a great authority'!"
The saying is not a flat lie. It describes one kind of person exactly, and misses another.
Satan's words, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life," are sadly true of an unbeliever. But faith is something that Satan does not understand. He confidently claimed that if God struck Job's body, Job would curse God to His face.
God hands Job over to Satan, but draws a line at his life. He does not draw that line to soften the ordeal.
The LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare [literally, abstain from] his life." Sparing his life was not meant to lessen the trial. It was so that God might triumph for the good of the afflicted — the moral of the book.
Satan's saying treats life as the one thing nobody gives up. Christ gave His.
The fullest possible proof of love is to lay down one's life. No sacrifice can go beyond this. "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life" (Job 2:4). But Christ laid down His life, as He said, "I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:15). Among men, though, we can hardly imagine anyone making such an extreme sacrifice for someone who is not a friend or benefactor. Yet "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
- Skin. The phrase may mean "like for like," or it may be Satan calling round one only skin-deep and demanding a deeper cut.
- Slander. The charge lands on God as much as on Job: You outrank Job's property, but not Job himself.
- Speaker. It is the accuser talking, and it is a half-truth — worse than a whole lie — which Job's endurance refutes.
- Scope. It fits the man without faith. It misses the man of faith, because Satan cannot understand faith.
- Surrender. God spared Job's life to win a victory, not to lighten the test. And Christ broke the saying: He gave His life for people who were not His friends.
but put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, [and see] if he will not curse thee to thy face!
Satan's first attack has failed. Job has lost everything and still holds on to God. So the accuser asks for Job's body itself, sure that every man has a price.
Satan answers with a proverb. One writer reads it as a trade: a man gives up one part to save another.
Unabashed by his failure to move Job, Satan makes fresh demands, coupled with fresh accusations. "Skin for skin" — to save part of his skin a man will give up another part. Yes, to save his life he will surrender everything he has, including his fear of God. Until now God had not let anyone touch Job's body. Let God lay His hand on that, and how quickly Job's boasted piety will disappear.
Notice who Satan asks to strike. His real target stands higher than Job.
So said the great adversary to God, repeating his accusation against Job and casting his taunt at God. "You have made this man. You are more to him than his possessions. But You are not more to him than he is to himself; he loves himself better than he loves You."
Satan's proverb is not nonsense. It fits man without God. But it leaves out one thing.
Satan's words, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life" are sadly true of an unbeliever, but faith is something that Satan does not understand. He was sure that if God struck Job's body, Job would curse God to His face.
Where did Satan get this rule? From watching people since the fall.
Satan understood well the character of the fall. He knew that men were utterly selfish; that they would sacrifice everything, even their God, to save themselves.
The whole verse is a request. Satan must ask, and God sets the limits of what he gets.
In Job's case we see Satan, by God's permission, using different means to bring extraordinary affliction on Job. But even here Satan is under strict limits. He may not touch Job himself (ch. 1:12). Then at the second trial, when God allows him to afflict Job's body, he may not touch his life (2:6). It is therefore a mistake to attribute to Satan absolute power to do as he will.
God says yes to Satan, but He sets a limit. One writer finds love in that limit.
We may be sure of this: divine love, as well as divine wisdom, gave this afflicted child of God over to fresh attacks from Satan. We see the tenderness in the words, "Save his life." The enemy may do everything, and so prove his own charge false. Every prop must go, every earthly joy must be taken away, and still Job will cling to the God he has trusted, even though dimly.
Satan wanted a collapse. God wanted something else: a work inside Job's own heart.
God's object was to show Job the depths of his own heart. Then he would delight in the grace and mercy of God, and not in his own goodness... 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. So he was not ready for "the end of the Lord" — that blessed end for every contrite heart. God, blessed and praised be His name, will not allow Satan to accuse us. But He will expose us to ourselves, so that we may judge ourselves.
God grants the demand. After that, Satan never appears again in the book.
From here on the enemy disappears. His fresh attack had failed just as completely as before. What a comfort to learn this in a scene where, then as now, he seems to win! But so it always is, whatever it looks like: God has His way, as the end proves beyond answer.
- Accusation — Satan puts a price on Job's faith: a man will give up anything, even his fear of God, to save his own skin.
- Aim — the taunt lands on God as much as on Job: You are not more to him than he is to himself.
- Ask — Satan must ask for the blow. He may strike the body, but he may not touch the life.
- Aftermath — God aims deeper than the accuser: not to break Job, but to show Job his own heart and lead him to grace.
- Absence — Satan gets what he asks for, fails, and disappears from the book. God has His way, whatever it looks like at the time.
And Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; only spare his life.
Job has already lost his wealth, his servants and his children — and he still worshipped. Now Satan comes back and asks for Job's body. God's answer gives him permission and a limit in the same breath.
Satan does not act on his own here. He has to ask. What he gets is permission with a fixed limit at each stage.
In Job's case we see Satan using many means to bring extraordinary affliction on Job, and always under God's permission. Even here Satan is strictly limited. In the first trial he may not touch Job himself (ch. 1:12). At the second trial he may afflict Job's body, but he may not touch his life (2:6). So it is a mistake to credit Satan with absolute power to do as he likes.
Before any of this, Satan had complained that God kept Job fenced in. The hedge did not come down; God opened a gap in it.
He had long wanted to crush Job, but he had to admit that God had "put a hedge around him … on every side." He could not reach him until God made a gap in the hedge and let him go so far. He went as far as God allowed, and brought almost unspeakable suffering on Job. But his power had a limit.
God keeps one thing back: Job's life. The reason may not be the one we expect.
And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare [literally, abstain from] his life." God held Job's life back from Satan, but not to lessen the trial. He did it so that He might triumph for the good of the afflicted man — and that is the moral of the book.
Commentators differ here. Others read the same words as tenderness, and see what the trial would teach Job.
We may be sure that divine love, as well as divine wisdom, brought this afflicted child of God under fresh attacks from Satan. We see the tenderness in the words, "spare his life." The enemy is to do everything he can, and so prove his own charge false. On the other hand, through the very trials he must face, Job will learn the lesson of all lessons, for all eternity: that God is all in all. As a step to that knowledge, he will see that he is nothing.
God grants what Satan asks. To us that can sound cruel.
God gave Satan permission to do as he pleased with Job's body, while sparing his life (v. 6). It may seem heartless of God to give such permission. But God's pure love was in it, in a way that unbelief cannot understand, and in the end it worked for greater blessing. Satan, though, did show himself heartless, for all he wanted was Job's downfall.
There is comfort in what this verse shows about Satan's reach.
And God tells Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand." What proof that Satan can do nothing against the saints of God without His permission! What a comfort this is! Satan is under God's complete control. And if God permits him to do his evil work, God has His own wise design in it. God's own love and power are on the side of His afflicted people. His own gracious faithfulness will show itself in the trial. But there is a gracious restriction. The Lord said, "Only spare his life." Satan might sift Job, but he could not touch his life, for the lives of God's people are in the hand of the Lord.
One writer sets Job beside the believers at Smyrna, a church facing death for their faith.
Satan might test Job, but God set a limit: "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life." (Job 2:6.) Here there is no such limit. They were to be "faithful unto death." God promises them no rescue on this side of the grave. And why? Because a believer now knows Christ not only as able to save from death, but as having triumphed over death. … The death of the body is only a door leading into Christ's presence.
Satan asked for this second round to prove that Job's faith was a pretence. He got everything he asked for and lost anyway.
So I get this fact: everything Satan did against Job failed. The one thing it did was clear Job of Satan's accusation and the charge of hypocrisy. Satan did all he could do, but he could do no more than God allowed.
- Permitted — Satan reaches Job only because God allows it. He never breaks through the hedge; God opens it.
- Limited — the permission stops at Job's life. Satan can do his worst and still no more.
- Purposeful — sparing Job's life keeps him in the trial, so that God may triumph for the sufferer's good.
- Loving — what looks heartless is God's love working toward greater blessing. Satan wants only Job's ruin.
- Defeated — every blow Satan struck failed. It only cleared Job of the charge that his devotion was a pretence.