Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased 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?
The charge against Job's motives
Satan does not deny that Job is upright. He attacks the reason behind it.
Samuel RidoutTrue 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 blow aimed at God
The accusation does not stop at Job. If Job's devotion is bought, then God is the buyer.
J T MawsonIt 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.
A demand for a proper test
God has already given His verdict on Job. Satan points at the hedge to say the test was too easy.
F. W. GrantGod 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.
The hedge itself
Satan's complaint is accurate. The fence is real, and Job is not the only one who has one.
The Bible TreasuryAs 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.
Cause and effect reversed
Satan reads Job's wealth as the payment that produces the piety. Job's own history says otherwise.
Leslie M. GrantHe 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.
One tested without a hedge
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.
A J PollockThere 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.
What Satan could not calculate
The hedge came down, the wealth went, and the devotion stayed. That result exposed the limit of Satan's understanding.
J. N. DarbyIt 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.
Summary
- 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.