Job 2:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 2:4

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Satan answers with a proverbial expression. He is not going to admit defeat, and so now claims that the reason he failed was because of the restriction that God placed on him. The Lord had said: ‘Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand’ (Job 1:12). It was that restriction that stopped Satan proving that Job’s faith was not real. If Satan had been allowed to threaten Job’s life the outcome would have been different. This is the meaning of the proverbial saying: skin for skin. You did not let me threaten his skin, his life. One of these skins is Job’s. The other, metaphorically speaking, is the Lord’s. This is Satan’s way of saying that to save his life, Job will renounce his faith, and curse God. He will be willing to exchange God, his allegiance to God and his reverence for God – God’s skin, as Satan puts it – for his own skin, that is, his own life. He will let go of his commitment to the goodness and faithfulness of God in his effort to preserve his own life. It is as if the believer is protecting the integrity of the Lord by his faith, and when he abandons faith he allows the reputation of the Lord to be destroyed. It is in that sense that it is one skin that is given for another. He then goes further, and says that to save his life a man will not only abandon his faith, but give all that he has. Man is ultimately self-serving in Satan’s estimation, and his life is worth more than anything to him. ‘But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.’ This is a very bold prediction to try to force the Lord to let Satan go a step further in his attack. He evidently believes what he has said is true, and so it is clear that he does not know the heart of Job or of any of God’s people. He does not understand conversion, but writes it off as a matter of self-interest.

Application

If Satan makes these charges against God’s people, is it any wonder that the world is also cynical about faith? Many different suggestions are made about why people turn to God which all miss the mark, and are intended to explain away the reality of conversion. The world is obliged to do this, for if once it admits the reality of conversion, it has to admit the reality of unbelief and rebellion against God, and the outcome of its unbelief in eternal judgment.

Underlying this conversation is a long-standing and irreconcilable enmity between Satan and God, and particularly over the matter of the integrity of God’s people. The battle between God and Satan is focused on man. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and never stops trying to prove that they are hypocrites. He cannot bear that any should have an integrity that he knows he does not possess. God uses the weakness of man to make his strength perfect (2 Corinthians 12:9). Through such a weak being as a man, he proves Satan wrong, and eventually he will crush Satan under our feet. As we endure trials and temptations we fight for the honour of God, because he has linked his honour to our persistence in trusting him.

How many martyrs down the course of history have proved Satan wrong. ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death’ (Revelation 12:11). This is something he does not understand and which condemns him in his cynicism.

God allows two distinct stages in Satan’s attack on Job. Having failed in his first attempt, the devil does not give up, but attempts to explain why he has failed, and comes at Job again. We have an intractable enemy who never gives up, and we cannot afford to lower our guard for a moment. He continues the fight until we are removed from the battleground at the end of life. When we have resisted him once, we may have to resist him again soon afterwards.

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Job 2:4 Commentary and Bible Study