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Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Job 2:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Introduction

Last week we saw how God, after hedging Satan out of Job’s life for years, one day decided to send Satan to take everything Job owned away from Him, including his ten children, all in one day. Here is how that all happened:

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 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.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Notice how similar verses 6-12 of chapter one are to the first six verses of this chapter two. They are identical except that in chapter one God sends Satan to destroy all Job’s possessions, and in chapter two God sends Satan to afflict Job with boils all over his body. But it is God who is working all things after the counsel of His own will. He speaks to us in a way that keeps the masses from understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but for those whom He has chosen, He opens their eyes and ears to see and hear the spiritual meaning of those mysteries by teaching us to “compare spiritual things with spiritual”.

1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It is only by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” that we are granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. This gift simply is not given to the masses who claim to know and follow Christ. Those are His own words:

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

God has created for Himself an adversary, to withstand Him and to tempt His elect. This adversary was made by God and for God Himself:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

God has created the smith that blows the coals in the fire and brings forth an instrument for his work, but God is Himself a smith who uses His own fiery word to bring forth His instruments for His work. “His work” in this case is to use Satan to be His adversary and to try Job to reveal to Job that Job’s righteousness is nothing less than filthy rags to God. God acknowledges that Job is righteous, but this whole book reveals that Job’s righteousness and our own righteousnesses, are our greatest liability when we fail to acknowledge that we “can do nothing of ourselves”. And “nothing” means just that. We can do neither good nor evil, but what has already been written in His book for us to accomplish.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Satan is a liar, but even a liar is capable of speaking the truth from time to time. The prophet Balaam, who taught the Midianites to seduce Israel, is a demonstration of that fact, as is the high priest who had Christ crucified, and yet prophesied that it was necessary that one man die for the people. When Satan himself said Adam and Eve would be like God to know good and evil, God actually agreed with Satan.

Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

So here too, in our story of Job, Satan is simply acknowledging the fact that God had indeed hedged him out of Job’s life, and had blessed all that Job did for this period of Job’s life. God could just as easily have maintained that hedge. Instead, because Job, as the symbol and type of God’s elect, has to have his faith tried, and has to have “the seven vials of the seven angels fulfilled”, God took down His hedge and called Satan over to take his orders for each day.

Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 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.
Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Job 2:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

“No man” ever has or ever will “enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled”. That is the message of this book. ‘Seven’ is the spiritual symbol for the completed trial of the fury of God’s wrath to be “poured out upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men”.

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

This judgment “begins at the house of God”, but it will be fulfilled in all men of all time.

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

These “fiery trials” are all “proceeding out of the mouth of God”, right here in this book of Job.

“Now there was a day” in chapters one and two, is just God’s way of telling us how every day is conducted in the realm of the spirit. It is here, in the realm of the spirit, that all things are both bound and loosed, and what is decided in the realm of the spirit is reflected in the natural realm. It is never the other way around.

Mat 18:18 Verily, I am saying to you, Whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth shall be those loose in heaven. (CLV)

So this is all a work of God. He is in complete and total charge at all times. We are not told that Satan came begging God to take down the hedge He had around Job. What we are told is that God brought Satan’s attention upon Job. Then we are told that God told Satan exactly how far he could go, and He told Satan that he could go no further. Satan is obviously nothing more or less than an extension of the Lord’s hand. So we are told:

Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

This is all a work of God. God is setting the agenda. God introduces Job’s righteousness to Satan’s attention. God has Satan to suggest that God remove the hedge God has had around Job. God tells Satan exactly how far he can go in trying Job, and God tells Satan exactly where to stop: “Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.”
Job is a type of each of God’s elect. But at this point he is a type of us while we are striving for success in this world. Job sees himself as a very righteous man, just as we all do during this season when Satan is ‘hedged’ out of our lives. We are very righteous while paying our tithes and submitting to the bondage of the Babylonian church system. All men strive to be successful in this world, and when we pay our taxes and our tithes, and live good moral lives the world loves it own and smiles upon us. This too, is the work of God when He hedges Satan out of our lives, only to later admonish us for our self- righteousness.

Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

It is God who works our self- righteousness and us. He created a tempter to tempt us, and He brings us together with that tempter for the purpose of “bring[ ing] forth an instrument for His work” (Isa 54:16).
We are about to see this all repeated here in this second chapter of Job.

Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Job 2:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Again, these two verses are identical to verses 6-7 of Job one.

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 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.

But there is something very revealing added in the next verse of Job two:

Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

“You moved Me against him, to destroy him without cause.” There it is. While no one wants to acknowledge it, God Himself proclaims that it was He Himself who destroyed Job. God brought Satan into this situation with Job; He sent Satan to destroy everything Job owned, but prohibited Satan from touching Job himself, and now He is speaking to Satan as if this was all Satan’s idea. Nevertheless, God is clearly acknowledging that when Satan destroyed everything Job had, it was, in reality God Himself who “destroyed him without cause”.
This is not the only place in scripture where God reveals that He is sovereign over all evil. Neither is Satan the only person to whom God speaks in a tone which suggests that what God Himself had done was the work of the person through whom He is doing His work. In reality this method of operation, is used by God and is revealed throughout scripture for those with eyes that can see and with ears that can hear.
For example, it was Christ who ‘brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand’.

Exo 13:9 And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD’S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.
Exo 18:1 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;
Num 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Moses certainly could not by himself have destroyed Egypt and killed all the firstborn of Egypt. That was all the work of God Himself who “hath as it were the strength of an unicorn”. Moses was nothing more than “an instrument for His work” (Isa 54:16). Bringing Israel out of Egypt was all a work of God, and He makes that perfectly clear:

Exo 6:6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:

Nevertheless, God reveals to us how he addresses us when the day of our visitation comes and His appointed time arrives for His chosen people to be tried and tested. Just look at how He now speaks to Moses:

Exo 32:7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egyp t, have corrupted themselves:

The Lord used Satan to tempt David to number the people of Israel and of Judah, and then he destroyed thousands of His own people for that sin which He caused David to commit.

2Sa 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

How did “He move David against them”?

1Ch 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

It was the same with King Ahab when God decided to destroy him.

1Ki 22:19 And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
1Ki 22:20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
1Ki 22:21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he [ the Lord] said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

So when the Lord says to Satan ‘… you have provoked me to destroy him without a cause’ He is once again revealing to us that He is using Satan as “an instrument for His Work” and that it is never, ever under any circumstance the other way around. God causes Satan to do all Satan does, and Satan, in reality, never causes God to do anything. It was God who sent Satan to destroy all Job owned, and we will see that He will be the one to send Satan to afflict Job himself.
But there is a method which the Lord always follows, and here in this book of Job we are privileged to know what that method is if we are given eyes that see and ears that hear.

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Just like in the first chapter, where God sends Satan to destroy everything Job owned, including his ten children, God uses Satan to reveal to us that Satan himself is “Thy hand”, God’s own hand via ‘the waster who He created to do His destroying’. But the “waster” can destroy only as much as the Lord permits him to destroy. He goes that far and not one bit further: “Behold, he [ Job himself, not just his possessions] is in thine hand; but save his life“.

Once again we are shown that Satan is nothing more or anything less than “an instrument for His work”.

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

God cannot make it any clearer that He is the cause of all things that all men ever do, even all the deeds of all of the pagans who do not even call upon His name. Let’s let Him show us in His Word.

Act 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Act 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Act 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
Act 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Can we see what is right before our eyes? Paul is speaking to Pagan Athenians who worship “the unknown God” and he tells us that it is in that ‘unknown God’ that they live and move and have their debauched, miserable, naked and sinful Adamic being, and that even in that state they are all “His offspring”.
For anyone who yet doubts that God, through the realm of the spirit and by the agency of evil spirits, makes men to “err from His ways”, even to the extent that He sends evil spirits to make men kill His own elect, including His own Son, let’s let Him speak for Himself:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15 And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

What was this evil spirit sent to do through King Saul who is the Old Testament type of God own rejected anointed? Here is the answer to that question:

1Sa 18:10 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand.
1Sa 18:11 And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

It was through “the evil spirit from God” that King Saul, God’s rejected anointed, while “prophesying in the midst of the house”, attempted to destroy David, who is the Old Testament symbol and type of God’s accepted anointed. So it is to this very day.

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

David’s throne came ‘through the unbelief’ of God’s rejected anointed. So too, has salvation come to us, through the unbelief of God’s rejected anointed.
Who was it then who was really responsible for the death of our Savior? Was it the Romans? Was it the Jews? Was it Satan who had our Lord slain? Who must take responsibility for all that is done under the Sun? Men can read these words and see them, but they cannot perceive what these words mean. Nevertheless these words have been with us for thousands of years:

Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Can God make it any clearer how He causes us to err? Here is who was really responsible for the death of our Savior. Here we are shown that all men are all nothing more, and nothing less, than “instruments for His Work”:

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

Why did the kings of the earth and the rulers gather together against our Lord and against His Christ? Men always want to blame other men. Men always want someone else to experience God’s wrath upon that other person’s hardened heart. But who do the scriptures tell us was the cause of our Savior’s death?

Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Job knew that it was God who was working all of his trials. We too, as God’s elect, know that God is sovereign. Nevertheless, we all reason as men, and we all ask the same self- righteous, accusatory, condemning question of our Creator:

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Paul has just explained to us what Job knew all along. No one and nothing can resist the will of God.

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

Job knew that God was sovereign, and still he, and we in our own latent self- righteousness, question why God operates in His creation as he does. We, His very elect, are convinced that we could do things in a more humane and in a more loving way. What is God’s answer to such a presumptuous spirit? God will not tolerate the sin of presumptuousness. Here is how He dealt with Job:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Job 40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

In the New Testament, His answer is equally terse:

Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

God has a reason for doing things His way, and when it is all said and done, then we will know just how perfect are His ways and just how foolish are our own ways. As it turns out, our afflictions and even our death, are the only way for us to come to know life as His elect.

Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

So it is revealed to those who are granted eyes that see the things of the spirit, that we are all the first Job, first “children of wrath, even as others”, before we are all granted to become the new Job who repented of his own self- righteousness, and of thinking that he was somehow worthy of avoiding God’s wrath altogether as we do simply because we, as His elect, “are not as other men”.

Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

It is true, God’s elect are not appointed to death, but to life. They are not appointed to spiritual blindness, to being spiritually sick and lame, to being spiritually lost or to being spiritually appointed to His wrath. But to come out of any of those spiritual conditions, we must first acknowledge that we were all, “by nature” spiritually dead, spiritually born blind from our mother’s womb, spiritual sick and lame, spiritually lost and spiritually abiding in unbelief and spiritually “by nature children of wrath, even as others”. That is the lesson of this book of Job, and of all of God’s Word:

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We all by nature first unbelievers with the ‘wrath of God abiding on us’.

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Next week we will see through Job as us, that the sin of self righteousness causes the wrath of God to abide on us all when “we were in time past… by nature children of wrath even as others”.

Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
Job 2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.