At first sight this may surprise some of our readers, but this is seen in a clear light in the Book of Job. Job was the greatest of the men of the east in his day. He was perfect and upright, feared God, and eschewed evil. When Satan presented himself before the LORD, his attention was drawn to Job, the Lord speaking in praise of his being perfect and upright. Satan sneered that Job did not serve God for naught, that if his circumstances were reversed, Job would curse God to His face.
God then gave Satan power over all that Job possessed.
In one day Job was stripped, as man has never been stripped, one might think, in all the history of the world. The Sabeans took 500 oxen and 500 asses, slaying all the servants in charge of them but one, who escaped to tell the sorrowful tale. Fire came down from heaven, and destroyed 7,000 sheep, and the servants in charge of them, and only one escaped to tell the awful news. Hard on his heels came a servant, who was the only survivor to escape, when the Chaldeans in three bands fell upon 3,000 camels, and took them away. From being the richest man in the East, Job was reduced to poverty in one short day.
But worse, infinitely worse was to come. Job had seven sons and three daughters, and that day they were feasting in their eldest brother's house, when a great wind smote the house, and it fell upon his seven sons and three daughters and destroyed them. Was there ever such a quick succession of devastating blows, the last worse than all the others put together?
What did Job do? He rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down to the ground and worshipped,
One can only marvel at such a man. Was there ever such wonderful conduct in such circumstances?
Again there came a day when Satan presented himself to the LORD. God spoke to Satan of Job retaining his integrity, spite of his awful experiences. Satan sneered that if God would only touch Job's body, there would be a different story to tell.
" Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth Thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face " (Job 2:4,54And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. 5But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. (Job 2:4‑5)).
God gave permission to Satan to deal with Job's body, short of taking his life. At Satan's bidding, boils broke out on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Can you imagine a more terrible plight? Stripped of property and family in one short day, now he is bereft of health. The nature of his bodily ailment meant terrible fever and excruciating pain. Nothing is more wearing than pain. Job sat down among the ashes, and in absolute misery scraped himself with a potsherd. No wonder!
His very wife urged him to curse God and die, such was his misery. But Job sinned not. He took the ground that as he had received good from God, so should he receive evil.
Then three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, came to comfort Job. So struck were they at his deplorable condition and grief, that with Oriental patience they sat silent for seven days and nights. At last they opened their mouths, and with striking beauty of speech they practically told Job, that spite of his reputation for uprightness, there must be some hidden departure from the way of the Lord on his part to account for his misfortunes. Job stoutly defended himself. Backwards and forwards, charge and counter charge were made, till at last Job's vehement self-vindication had silenced his three friends. He ended up with these eloquent words,
" If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended " (Job 31;38-40).
At this point a new voice is heard, that of Elihu, the Buzite, a younger man than Job and his three friends. He vehemently asks Job why does he strive with God? He accuses Job with thinking that his righteousness is more than God's. At the end of a long impassioned speech, the LORD himself speaks out of the whirlwind. He asks Job many questions as to his powers, and shows how weak and foolish he is.
At last Job sees himself in his true light in the presence of God. In a few broken sentences, ending with a complete acknowledgment of what he really was in God's holy sight, he plumbed the depth of repentance. " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes " (Job 42:5,65I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 6Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:5‑6)).
Would Job have ever got to that length had he not gone through the terrible ordeal, we have so faintly described? Satan cruelly battered Job, only to produce in him that which was pleasing to God, even the acknowledgment of what he was in God's holy sight. " Behold we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy " (James 5:1111Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11)).
As far as temporal things were concerned Job in the end acquired, under God's good hand, the double of what he had lost. Seven sons and three daughters came to lighten his home, an implication surely that the ones he had lost did not die like the beast of the field. In the end he had double, ten in Heaven and ten on earth. But spiritually and morally what a triumph for God, and what an untold blessing for Job, a blessing beyond words.
We began our brief history of Job under the caption, God can use Satan for blessing. This may have been startling to some readers. We may strengthen our caption by drawing attention to the case of the incestuous man in the assembly at Corinth, whose sin was of such a nature, that excommunication from the Christian assembly was necessary for the purging out of the evil in their midst. We read: " To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the name of the Lord Jesus " (1 Cor. 5: 5).
One might have imagined that to be delivered unto Satan would mean the ruin, soul and body, of the unfortunate man. But here it is definitely stated, that it was for the object of " the destruction of the flesh," and for his ultimate salvation. Satan may surely overshoot the mark in his hatred against God and His people, and bring about just the opposite of what he desires, and be the instrument in God's hand of great blessing for God's people.
We learn also, God allowing it, Satan can control fire, wind and the, actions of men to carry out his nefarious plans. In the case of Job, fire came down from heaven; a great wind struck the house where Job's sons and daughters were feasting; Job himself was smitten with boils. The Sabeans and Chaldeans were instrumental in the stripping process on that terrible fateful day.
As to bringing diseases upon man, we read in the New Testament that which confirms us that it is possible. "And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day " (Luke 13:1616And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? (Luke 13:16))?