«　WEEK 2　DAY 2　»

　　Job 2:4-7 Then Satan…said,…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. And Jehovah said to Satan, Here he is, in your hand; only spare his life. And Satan went forth from Jehovah’s presence and struck Job with severe boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

　　In Isaiah 14:15 and Ezekiel 28:16-17 Satan was condemned by God and even sentenced by God. Yet in His wisdom and sovereignty God did not execute His judgment over Satan. He still has given Satan a certain limited time so that he can do something to meet some negative need in the fulfillment of God’s economy….Without Satan, there would have been no one to do the ugly work of damaging Job in order to strip him of everything that he might be full of God. (Life-study of Job, p. 11)

　　There was the need for someone to damage Job, not to judge him but to strip him of everything. Job had been laboring under God’s blessing for many years and he had accumulated many things. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a great many servants. He had a dear wife and seven sons and three daughters. Moreover, Job was very successful in being perfect and upright and in holding to his integrity. His possessions, success, and attainment made him a contented and satisfied person. Although Job was full of possessions and full of his attainment, he did not have God within him. As God looked upon Job, He might have said, “Job, what shall I do with you? You are full of your possessions and your attainment, but you are not full of Me. You have Me in name, but you do not have Me within you.” Thus, for God’s dealing with Job, Satan was needed. Satan was the unique one in the universe who could and who would fulfill God’s intention of stripping Job of his possessions and his ethical attainment.

　　“Jehovah said to Satan, 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” (Job 1:8). Here God was boasting to Satan regarding Job. If we read this carefully, we will see that God’s boasting here was with the intention that Satan would do something for Him.

　　Satan answered Jehovah, asking Him, “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). God had set a hedge around Job, and He had blessed the work of his hands. In verse 11 Satan went on to say, “But stretch forth Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

　　“Jehovah said to Satan, Here is all that he has, in your hand; only do not stretch forth your hand against him” (v. 12a). We should not think that God was caught by Satan, for Satan was caught by God to do something for Him—to strip Job for God. Satan, an evil angel, was willing to do what none of the good angels was willing to do, and he immediately accepted God’s commission.

　　Satan’s evil concept concerning God’s dealing with His seeking people is based on his commercial principle of gain or loss. Satan is a businessman, a merchant, and his thought is according to his commercial principle. He does not know that God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him, even in the way of loss, is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, more than the loss of all that they have other than Him, that He might be expressed through them for the fulfillment of the purpose in His creation of man (Gen. 1:26). (Life-study of Job, pp. 11-13)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 2-3; CWWL, 1950-1951, vol. 2, “Redemption in God’s Plan,” ch. 3; CWWN, vol. 44, ch. 90; CWWN, vol. 50, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (3),” ch. 50