"Satan" is the Greek and English transliteration for the Hebrew root stn, meaning, "to be an adversary, to resist." In the books of Job and Zechariah, the adversary is addressed with the definite article, hasatan. He is THE adversary. And he is THE adversary throughout the Scriptures, standing in oppossition to God's people, whether that be the nation of Israel (1Ch.21:1), their priestly representatives (e.g., Zech.3:1-2), or the single, righteous man within Israel (e.g., Job 1-2).
In the New Testament, he is the enemy of the church, attacking God's people (e.g., 1 Pe.5:8; Jas.4:7) and opposing the redemptive work of God in and through them (e.g., Mt.13:19, 39). In his adversarial role, however, Satan seems to have a frightening power and some sort of authority over men (e.g., Lk.10:19; cf. Eph.6:12; He.2:14). What is that power, and what is the nature of this authority? In what sense, for example, did he hold the power of death? And did he really possess all the nations, such that he could deliver them over to Jesus, if the Christ would only bow down worship him? Or was he simply speaking in his native tongue when he offered this?
Before we answer these questions, consider again the first two chapters of Job. There he seems to have a place at the 'round table', so to speak, of "the Sons of God" (1:6; 2:1). Is this a legitimate seat in the heavenly council? Or is this calling toether of the "powerful ones" merely an accounting, in which God is asking the angelic powers to give answer for themselves? Either way, hasatan answers by making accusations (true to form), and thereby impugning God's glory and wisdom in creation. Namely, to paraphrase his answer, "I've been all around this world of yours. Yep, around and around." What's he getting at? "There ain't nothing there. No one noteworthy, no one righteous, no one upright or remarkable. It is a spiritual wasteland, a graveyard in the dark." To which God gives this (ominious) answer: "What about my servant, Job?" And, well, you know the rest of the story.
What's going on here? Is this official business of the 'celestial courts', or a bizarre wager in heaven's backroom? Is Satan's role as "the Accuser" to be understood as official prosecutor or plaintiff against mankind? Or his role more unofficial - subversive or 'illegal'? In a word, what is the nature of his authority in accusation and denouncement?
Two things can be stated with absolute certainty from the Job account. One, Satan answers when called by the Almighty. But then, who doesn't? Two, Satan is entirely limited in his powers against the human race by the explicit will of God. Like all power, Satan's is delimited by divine sovereignty.
There is a third element which emerges fairly quickly in this account. It is apparent that Satan's motives are malicious, while God's, though mystifying to us, are ultimately beneficent toward Job. To borrow from Genesis 50:20, what Satan intended for evil, God intended for good. If, in this process of Job's refinement, so to speak, Satan is a key player, he is so unwittingly and unwillingly. His purpose is destruction. And yet, it is precisely in his willingness to destroy Job (and so remove God's 'boast') that he fulfills God's good purposes in Job's misery and final vindication. Of course, this is the mystery and irony of all evil: ultimately, it is worked out, together with all things, for the good of God's people (Rom.8:28). Nowhere is this more pointedly and dramatically seen than at the cross of Christ. Satan's greatest triumph at Golgotha turns out to be the greatest source of good for mankind, and the beginning of his own undoing. This doesn't mean that evil isn't real, or really bad. It is; and God will justly and decisively deal with it, once and for all. What it does mean is that even the greatest rebel plays entirely into God's hands. Resistence to omnipotence is, by definition, futile.
But we still haven't answered the question as to the nature or official/unofficial capacity of Satan's role. He seems to be given entrance into the heavenly courts, and speaks as a member of the council (e.g., 1Ki.22:20-23?). Is he the enemy of God's purposes and people, or his employee? The answer seems to be both.
But he isn't like some double agent from hell, flying under the divine radar. Obviously, God is aware of Satan's schemes. And no doubt, Satan is aware that God is aware of his schemes. So what's the deal? What's he trying to accomplish?
I would suggest that he is seeking to finish what he - by all appearances, triumphantly - started in Eden (where again he was given entrance onto holy ground): bringing God's image-bearers under God's judgment by breaking God's commandments. He is both the tempter, and the accuser. He's like a mean cousin, egging you on to bad behavior, and then tattletaling. So far in the storyline of the Old Testament Satan seems to be quite successful in his plot. All men and women, originally blessed in Genesis 1, have been placed beneath the malediction of Genesis 3, cursed by God, together with the whole of terrestrial creation (cf. Ge.3:16-19; Ro.8:19-23). Now doomed to die under guilt and the righteous, inexorable condemnation of God's law, humanity appears eternally lost. What keeps them alive, keeps them going from generation to generation? God's strange patience and common grace. For there is hope in the midst of judgment in chapter 3 - the promise of a son, who will crush the serpent's head, even while he strikes man's heel. Satan's doom is announced from the onset. So God upholds a dying world, graciously, faithfully, patiently - until the Son of Man comes.
But however long the world continues to turn on the rusting pivot of divine mercy, the devil, like Stephen King's "walking dude," roams the face of it - around and around, searching (Job 1:7; 2:2). Until the work is done. Until every last one of them is gone.
Why? We have to speculate here. Satan no doubt despises God's image-bearers because he despises their glory. Almost certainly he resents the majesty and authority with which mankind was crowned (Ge.1:26-28; Ps.8:3-8), while he himself is humbled in the dust - the bruised pride of a fallen king (cf. Ez.28:13-19; Isa.14:21-14). But this is somewhat speculative. Finally, I think, evil is not to be rationalized. It is, by definition, irrational and absurd. A kind of insanity. Satan is perhaps the first and greatest psychopath.
However, God had promised to bless Abraham, and through him, all the nations of the earth. Through Abraham's seed, God would restore man's fallen crown, and renew his ruined empire. Through Israel. Through David. Through the Christ. Through Eve's promised Son. Satan fought this tooth and nail. He still fights it, after his decisive defeat at Calvary. And all the more viciously and vigorously; for, as John put it in his Apocalypse, "he knows his time is short." Satan knows he's lost. But he will take every last one he can down with him. Or at least, this seems to be his tactic.
So we know Satan's murderous intent and scheme. But he can accomplish this only by working for God, that is, as an agent of God's condmenation, cooperating (perversely, to be sure) with God's law to bring sinners under judgment. The sting of death, we are told, is sin. That is, sin is the instrumentation of death. And the power of sin is the law (1Cor.15:56)! It is God's law, in otherwords, which makes sin deadly. "The wages of sin is death." And Satan uses this divine principle of justice against us, enticing us into sin (and, willingly, we follow), and then once ensnared, seals us under guilt for the day of judgment. In this sense, and in this sense only, does Satan hold the power of death.
However, that power has been broken by the death and resurrection of Christ (He.2:14; 1Cor.15:51-57). Satan's accusations against us, as those made against Joshua (Zech.3:1-2), are roundly rebuked on account of our cleansing in Christ through grace. His indictments are nullified. His power, which lay in the Law of God as it stood against us, has been removed, once and for all (Col.2:14-15). In so far as he acted as the accuser of God's people, he has been fired - kicked out of the heavenly courts (Rev.12:19; Luke 10:18). "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And, to quote from Romans again,
"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ...I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
In part III, we'll consider how Satan tempts and entices us to sin using our flesh and fear.
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