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.
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.