Job 1:6-12

Job 1:6

I. The introduction of Satan into the scene before us illustrates the problem of the book of Job. This wonderful, and perhaps most human of all books, evidently discusses the problem of suffering, of evil in the world, especially in its relation to man; and Satan, as a malignant person, is seen to be the author of the evil which Job suffers. Satan appears here in the character in which he is constantly represented throughout the Bible; he is the accuser of the brethren; he is the adversary among the sons of God: he is among them, but he is among them to criticise and sneer; this is the name by which he is known, and all other names end in this; he is the adversary, Diabolus, "your adversary the devil."

II. The response of the evil one to his almighty Questioner distinctly expresses: (1) Indifference. This is the end, the passionless end, of his character. Indifference, the absence of all reality, contempt for all enthusiasm, contempt for all sentiment, studious repression of all that might be Divine instinct or delight in the works of the great God such is Satan. (2) There is another attribute, although certainly the first is very greatly the result of the second; it is unbelief. He had no God-consciousness. Something, some Being even, of infinitely greater dimensions than himself, he was able to apprehend, but of the blessed and benignant character of this Being he was wholly unaware; for we know all things and all beings in some sense by our participation in their nature. (3) Another characteristic brought out as an attribute of Satan in this singular and ancient scene is cruelty. (4) Another characteristic feature brought out in the text is limitation. While evil and Satan exist, they are conditioned by the sovereignty of God; God rules over evil in all its personalities and forms. The personality of Satan stands over against the personality of God, but limited, only permitted, and doomed by His sovereignty.

E. Paxton Hood, Preacher's Lantern,vol. ii., p. 114.

References: Job 1:8. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xi., No. 623; A. M. Fairbairn, The City of God,p. 143.