Job 1:9

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.