Job 2:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The same literary device is used as before (see Job 1:7), and the angels and among them Satan are represented as having an audience with God. Satan has launched his first attack on Job and it has failed. He had predicted what it would take to make Job curse God, and within the limits he specified, he was given a free hand to do what he wanted. But he tried and failed, and Job held on his faith in God, nevertheless Satan does not give up. His prediction of Job’s behaviour being based not on knowledge, but on prejudice, he is not to be convinced otherwise by any amount of facts. God knows exactly where Satan has been and what has been occupying his mind, but he asks this question to engage him. Satan gives a bland answer, but the truth is that he has been continuing to look for ways in which he can damage God’s cause, thwart his purposes, and harm his servants, and his attention has been particularly focused on Job. He is conscious of his utter failure but he is not for a moment going to admit it. He hates Job, and above all he hates Job’s integrity which is an inditement against him. Job has not cursed God to his face. Satan was not just a little bit wrong, he was utterly wrong about the nature of Job’s religion, but he does not accept defeat and he probably never will till he is finally crushed by God. He will never admit that God has succeeded in creating in the hearts of sinful men such a thing as enduring faith, sincere love, and willing obedience that is not motivated by self-interest. If he cannot possess these things himself, he will not admit that others can have them, and especially in such a puny creature as man. He despises such virtues, nevertheless it galls him that they can exist in anyone else and so he is out to prove they are phoney. Satan still knows the difference between good and evil, but he is committed to evil, and no half measures will do.