What is definite and sure from this passage is that (a) there is a limit fixed by our God on what Satan can do (see also 1 Corinthians 10.13), and (b) Satan labours under the inflexible delusion (generated and sealed from his evil, hate-filled heart) that all believers are really hypocrites who serve God only to gain his blessing. Even to this day Satan probably cannot believe that there is such a person as a sincere believer.
If we could only see more clearly the devilish, cynical objective of Satan in trying to prove to the world that we are not genuine, and so discredit God and the faith, we would be much more fearful of defeat and zealous to defend ourselves. Satan’s principal objectives are:
(1) To get Job to sin and to doubt God’s abiding presence, care, love, power and fairness.
(2) To get other men sealed in their delusion that they have no need for an evangelical experience of religion.
(3) To discredit the faith altogether, if possible.
Is Job 1.6-12 a historical occurrence or an allegory? The hosts of angels or ministering spirits assemble to give account to Almighty God and to execute his commands. The presence of Satan may be intended to convey no more than the truth that Satan, though an evil rebel, is still subject to the divine purposes and power. Rather than teaching that Satan can actually mix with angels and address God, it may only indicate that he is limited by and subjected to the restraining power and authority of God. This is the view taken by many worthies. Joseph Caryl, for example, held that this passage was an anthropopathy – that is, God explaining spiritual and incomprehensible activities in human terms. ‘So God here presents himself sitting upon his throne, having his servants attending him…giving instructions and commissions to them. We are not to conceive that God makes certain days of consultation with his creatures, on which he calls the good and bad angels together about the affairs of the world. For he needs no information from them, neither doth he give them or Satan any formal commission; neither is Satan admitted into the presence of God, to come so near to God at any time; neither is God moved at all by the slander of Satan or by his accusation to surrender his children into his hands for a moment.’ Yet the passage definitely speaks of a confrontation between God and Satan, and so the allegory solution has not removed the problem for everyone. The reality expressed by the allegory still demands an active exchange between God and Satan, and as Caryl admits, it is impossible for Satan with all his evil foulness to enter into the presence of God.
Another old solution is to view this exchange as being part of the fall of Satan. The phrase, ‘there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves…and Satan came also among them,’ is understood to imply that Satan was at that time among the angelic host, and just about to fall. ‘And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.’ It is possible that this is a way of describing the covetous desire for independence and power that was in the heart of Satan prior to his fall. Clearly the world would not yet have been formed, but as one who was privileged to see the plans and the purposes of God for a peopled world, he began to lust after power and control. So perhaps this confrontation was part and parcel of that great rebellion against God by Satan and his host when God judged them and cast them out of his presence. If so, then as part of this grotesque rebellion came the scathing charge from Satan that future mankind would only respect God for gain. Thus Almighty God, in his permissive will, determined that Satan would be able to press his people just so far, in order that the falsehood of his arrogant charges would be exposed and also so that God’s people would taste their adversary’s evil character, and be grateful to God for salvation. Here in the Book of Job it is all discussed in the particular, as though Job was the only person in the world, but perhaps we should see it in the context of the fall of Satan, when the accuser’s evil opinions and charges applied to all God’s future children. By this view the Book of Job does not necessarily imply that there has been any subsequent intercourse between God and Satan over the ‘case notes’ of individual believers. But of course, no one can be sure which is the correct explanation.