Although I concluded my last post about Satan with something along the lines of “I’m moving on” from this subject, here is something that caught my attention whilst looking up the various mentions of Satan in the Old Testament (whose name = “the accuser” or “the adversary,”) which seemed worth mentioning. I’ll be brief.
In the Old Testament there are 15 verses referencing Satan, and outside the Book of Job, Satan is mentioned directly in only two other Old Testament passages, which are these: First Chronicles 21:1, where Satan incites King David to take a census of Israel, which results in Divine judgment, “and Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” The other place is Zechariah 3:1-2, where in a prophetic vision, Satan stands accusing Joshua the high priest before the Angel of the Lord, “and he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.”
All the other references to Satan are found in the book of Job, quite easily actually, as all of them are found in the first two chapters of that book. Job 1:6-12, where Satan presents himself before the LORD and challenges Job’s motives. Job 2:1-7, where Satan again appears and afflicts Job with painful sores. Just mentioning this in passing to say that without a doubt Job contains the clearest and most sustained narrative involving Satan in the Old Testament, where he appears not as an independent force or autonomous agent but as one functioning solely within the framework of Divine sovereignty.
In the narrative of Job Satan is expressly authorized and empowered by GOD to afflict Job. What I find most noteworthy about all this is the fact Job never once blames Satan for his afflictions. Instead, he consistently acknowledges that his suffering came from the hand of the LORD alone, as purified by the operation of grace, and sanctified unto a greater glory than his own, for he worshiped a living REDEEMER, and the Lord God Almighty was his name, (“for thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called,” Isaiah 54:5,) and that this same GOD and not another, (“I and my Father are ONE,” John 10:30,) would so “stand at the latter day upon the earth,” Job 19:25, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.” Daniel 9:24.
After losing his children and his possessions, he declares, “the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21. Job doesn’t attribute the loss to Satan, but directly to the LORD. When his wife urges him to curse God and die, he tells her, “shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job 2:10. Again, Job attributes his suffering to God’s hand, not to any malevolent being. After Job’s restoration when came unto “him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house, and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.” Job 42:11. Scripture confirms that it was the LORD who brought these trials upon Job, and that Satan was merely a means to an end and that end being nothing less than the glory of God in Christ Jesus. “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:11. In the theology of Job, Satan is no autonomous actor, but one utterly subject to the decree of GOD. MPJ