Homilist Job 2:6-10 And the LORD said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; but save his life.… I. Satan's low ESTIMATE of human nature. His language here clearly implies that even a good man's love of goodness is not supreme and invincible. He states — 1. That goodness is not so dear to him as life. "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." Self-preservation is a strong instinct in human nature, and therefore a Divine principle; but it is not true that it is ever the strongest feeling in the human heart. A man who has come under the dominion of love for the true, the beautiful, and the good, holds his life as subordinate to the high principles of genuine religion and godly morality. This is a fact which the history of martyrdom places beyond debate. Thousands of men in Christendom today can say with Paul, "I count not my life dear unto me," etc. He states — 2. That great personal suffering will turn even a good man against God. Such is the connection of the body with the soul that great bodily suffering has undoubtedly a tendency to generate a faithless, murmuring, and rebellious spirit. II. SATAN'S GREAT POWER OVER HUMAN NATURE. We infer — 1. That his great power moves within fixed limits. 2. That his great power is used to torture the body and corrupt the soul. The ancients ascribed many physical diseases direct to the devil. Physical evils do spring from moral, and the devil is the instigator of the morally bad. See how he corrupts Job's wife. "Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God and die." If you substitute the word "bless" for "curse," you still have the impious spirit of the wife: then in heartless irony she counsels her husband to blaspheme his God. Perhaps she meant, "Thou hast been blessing God under thine affliction thus far, go on with thy cant, and die, for death would be desirable both to thyself and me." Satan acted thus not only on Job's body, but on the soul of Job's wife, and both in order to tempt the patriarch to sin against his Maker. III. Satan's GRAND PURPOSE with human nature. What was his master purpose? To turn Job against God. And is not this his grand purpose with all men? There is one thought about his purpose, however, suggested by the text, encouraging to us, it is frustratable. Up to the present point he failed with Job. Three things are worthy of attention here concerning Job in frustrating the purpose of Satan. 1. He reproves his wife. "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh." 2. He vindicates God. "What? shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil?" 3. He is commended by inspiration. Here is the Divine testimony to Job's state of mind amid the torturing of the devil. "In all this did not Job sin with his lips." (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.WEB: Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life." |
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