Job 1:12

This should lead us to walk humbly and watchfully through a scene where Satan rules. He has no power at all over a soul who stays in the place of dependence and obedience. And, blessed be God, he cannot in any case go a hair's breadth beyond the limit set by God's command.

Notice carefully that the spring and source of all these dealings is not Satan's accusations, but God Himself. God knew what His servant Job needed. He Himself brings forward his case and sets everything in motion. If He asks Satan whether he had considered His servant Job, it is because He Himself had. Satan is only an instrument, and an ignorant though subtle instrument, to bring about God's purposes of grace. His accusations result in nothing against Job. What God allows him to do only disproves that they are true. But for Job's good, God leaves him to his own will up to a certain point. The purpose is to bring Job to know his own heart, and so to reach deeper ground in his practical relationship with God.

What a comfort that even the enemy's hand is under God's hand! Everything on the side of evil has a limit; on the side of good there is no limit. We ought to know this well, for all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

We can apply our Lord's words to every outward form of satanic activity: "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 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 sees only God's hand in his affliction — "the LORD has taken away." And God Himself says to Satan, "you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."

The accuser now acts the roaring lion, and his work against Job begins. But we need caution here, so that we do not credit Satan with powers he does not really have. Satan is only a creature and does not share the attributes of God. He is not all-powerful; he is not all-knowing; he is not everywhere present. If he displays power, it is only with God's permission. If God had not said, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand," he would have had no power.

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 works to his worldly advantage. The Lord allows this horrible lie of the devil to be thoroughly exposed. God allows Satan to strip Job of all that he has, and the result exposes Satan as a liar. Instead of cursing God, Job fell down before the LORD and worshipped.