1. Of the characters in the poem the most deeply contrasted to Job is Satan, the Accuser, at whose instigation the trial of his integrity is made. In studying this character, we need to dismiss from our minds, for the time being, the Satanic traits that come to light in other parts of Scripture, and confine ourselves to the record before us.
It is to be observed that the Satan is here as a member of the heavenly council. The writer has no knowledge of the later view that the Satan was a fallen, and therefore cast out, angel. He is not even the Accuser in such a pronounced form as in Zechariah's prophecy, nor the Tempter, as in the latest of the Canonical writings, the Books of Chronicles. Here he is an executive angel, who finds out fault, and has the power of inflicting suffering, in its many and varied forms.
2. The Satan, then, is that one of God's ministers whose part it is to oppose men in their pretensions to a right standing before God-that is, who represents God's trying, sifting providence. He is one of God's messengers, and presents himself before God to report, or to receive commissions, parts of God's will which he is to execute. God's providence is over all; He doeth whatsoever is done in heaven or on earth. But He makes use of agents in His operations. Hence the same act, such as instigating David to number the people, may in one place be ascribed to God directly, as in 2Sa_24:1, and in another to Satan, as in 1Ch_21:1.
God's purposes are usually beneficent and gracious, hence the angels are comprehensively designated as “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” But He has also purposes of judgment and chastisement, which are executed by those called the “destroyers.” In all these operations, whether of mercy or of judgment, the angels are simply servants. They do God's behests. Their own moral character does not come into question. They are neither good nor bad angels. The spirit from the Lord that troubled Saul is called “evil,” not in reference to its own character, but to the effect produced on Saul's mind. In like manner the spirit that came forth and undertook to delude Ahab to his destruction, was not a false spirit in himself, he merely became a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets. In all such cases the spirit is characterized according to the influence which he exerts.
3. But although the Satan is not represented here as a fallen or evil spirit, yet undoubtedly a step towards this is taken. He shows an assiduity slightly too keen in the exercise of his somewhat invidious function. He rather usurps the initiative in marking out Job for trial, even though he might feel sheltered under his general commission. The author lets us know that this is his view of him when he puts into God's mouth the words: “Thou movedst me against him.” And in the parallel passage (Zec_3:1-10) his cold-blooded cruelty in the exercise of his office against the miserable, and in a moral sense the somewhat ragged, Church of the Restoration stands rebuked before the spirit of Divine compassion: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” Subsequent revelation made advances on the doctrine of Satan, the discussion of which, however, does not concern us now.
The accuser of Job appears to us identical with the accuser of the godly in all ages, the Spirit of Evil that is in the world, not, like the Persian Ormuzd, co-ordinate with, but one ever subordinate to, God, and thus unable to do anything against God's servants without His permission. Meanwhile
Behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.1 [Note: D. Davies, The Book of Job, i. 70.]
