In the previous chapters we saw that God desires that His Son gain a kingdom on earth. The reason God desires that His Son gain a kingdom is that God may exercise His authority and express His glory. However, what Satan does in the universe is to frustrate this matter. Satan’s activity on earth is to insult God and damage God’s work; hence, God needs to deal with Satan. However, if God were to deal with Satan directly, it would not be a shame to Satan, nor would it be a glory to God. Satan might say to God, “There is no creature who would submit to Your authority.” Thus, God keeps a principle of not dealing with Satan directly. God is the Creator; He will not deal with His creatures in His status of Creator. Therefore, He created another creature—man. His desire is that man would stand in the position of a creature to deal with Satan, another creature. God’s intention is to show Satan that there is a creature who is subject to God’s authority and who chooses to stand on God’s side. Although Satan as a creature rebels against God, there is another creature who submits to God’s authority.
God desires not only to deal with Satan but also to shame him and shut his mouth in His dealing with him. God wants to prevent Satan from being able to say, “God, because You are the Creator, You force man to submit to Your authority. I am not willing to submit to Your authority, and other creatures also are not willing to submit to Your authority.” If God were to allow Satan to have this kind of mentality, this would be an insult to Him. How do we know that Satan has this kind of mentality? We can see this from the book of Job. One day Satan came before God, and God gave him a specific chance to speak. He asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered, “From roving the earth and going about in it.” Then God asked him, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (1:7-8). This means that there was no one who submitted to God’s authority like Job. To fear God is to submit to God’s authority. God showed Satan that there was at least one person on earth who was ruled by God, who feared God, and who was subject to God’s authority; this person was Job.
God asked Satan if he had observed Job. Satan immediately answered, “Does Job fear God without cause? Have You not set a hedge around him and his household and all that he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his possessions are spread throughout the land” (vv. 9-10). This word was a great insult to God. What Satan’s word meant was that God had bribed Job with blessings so that he would fear God. Satan meant that since God treated Job well and bestowed on him much blessing, Job could not but fear God. Satan implied that if God had not blessed Job, Job would not have feared God. This was Satan’s thought and his insult toward God. God answered, “All right. I will remove the hedge around him and will not protect him. I allow you to ill-treat him. I intend to prove to you that this creature on earth fears Me.”
Satan received God’s word and came out to stir up trouble for Job; he sent the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, the fire, and the wind to destroy Job’s possessions and kill his sons and daughters. We should all be familiar with this story. Eventually, there was plundering, there was burning by fire, there was the blowing of a great wind, and there was crushing to death by falling houses (vv. 13-19). At that time Job was in exceeding pain. He saw that all his blessings were gone, all his protection vanished, and he was completely in a situation of suffering. But what did Job say? Job still feared God and did not say anything against God; he still submitted to God’s authority. Moreover, he submitted to God’s authority to the extent that he said, “Jehovah gives and Jehovah takes away; / Blessed be the name of Jehovah” (v. 21b). This shows that Job praised God not only when God gave him blessings; he still praised God even when God took away his blessings. Because He was the Lord, Job was subject to His authority. Job was not rebellious before God; he had nothing to say.
Then some time later Satan came before God again (2:1). We may think that since Satan is so evil, God should simply move His finger so that Satan will be terminated and will be in the lake of fire. However, our God still preserves Satan. He not only preserves Satan, but He also allows him to go to the habitation of God in heaven and to express his opinion in God’s habitation in heaven. Our God is truly great. Although Satan rebels against God and opposes Him, God is so great that He still allows Satan to come before Him. He asked Satan again, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered, “From roving the earth and going about in it.” God asked him again, “Have you considered My servant Job?” (vv. 2-3a). God was asking Satan to consider how Job reacted after Satan had asked God to remove the hedge around Job and God had permitted Satan to ill-treat Job. Although he passed through much suffering, Job not only kept his integrity, but this servant of God still submitted to God’s authority and did not rebel against Him (v. 3b).
Satan is truly evil. He knows that the most difficult thing for man to take is the suffering in his own skin and flesh. The pain of losing his possessions outside of him is only temporary; a man’s possessions do not mean as much to him as his own body. Thus, Satan answered God immediately, “Skin for skin! Indeed all that a man has he will give for the sake of his life. But stretch forth Your hand, and touch his bone and his flesh; and he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then God said to Satan, “Here he is, in your hand; only spare his life” (vv. 4-6). Then Satan went forth from Jehovah’s presence and struck Job.
We know what happened to Job after Satan struck him. He had severe boils all over his body, which is an unbearable suffering for man (v. 7). Nevertheless, Job did not offend God but still submitted to God’s authority and ruling and confessed that God is Lord. From this point on in the book of Job, we no longer see Satan coming out to say something. He had nothing to say because his mouth was shut by Job. On that day, when Job had severe boils and was in terrible pain, if Job had murmured, saying, “O God, how can You treat me like this? I will not submit to Your authority, nor will I fear You anymore,” Satan would have applauded and shouted for joy. He would have immediately come before God and said, “You see, it is not only I who rebel against You and dislike You; Job also rebels against You and dislikes You. It is not only I who dislike You; man also dislikes You and rebels against You. You, Lord, are not lovable or worthy to be feared by man.” Satan’s mouth would not have been shut. However, no matter how much Job suffered or how much he was troubled and afflicted, he still knew that God was his Lord, his King. He submitted to God’s authority and ruling without any resistance, rebellion, or murmuring. He was entirely subject to God’s authority, thus shutting Satan’s mouth and silencing him.