Satan’s accusation against Job is also an accusation against all God’s servants. Satan implies that not even the greatest saint serves God for nothing (Job 1:9). Moreover, his accusation is an accusation against God himself. There are three underlying questions that will be answered as Satan puts Job to the test:

1. Is God good?

Satan’s words in Job 1:9 imply that people like Job do not serve God out of love for God himself, but rather for the sake of God’s blessings. Is God so good that people will continue holding on to him even when everything else is taken away from them?

2. Does God create true faith and love in people’s hearts?

All people are fallen sinners, and Satan knows that. The question is whether God can change the hearts of sinners, giving them true faith and love toward himself. By questioning this, Satan questions the work of the Spirit in the hearts of all believers.

3. Do upright people truly exist?

God’s own testimony about Job is that there is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil (Job 1:8). Satan denies this. If Satan is right, if not even Job is truly upright, it means that there is certainly no hope for anyone else! If Job fails, who will succeed? Then there can be no upright people on earth.

Job’s suffering, therefore, will be a suffering for the sake of righteousness. Even though Job does not know it, his suffering will be all about the glory of God. He will suffer as the blind man in Jesus’ time would suffer, so that the work of God might be displayed in his life (John 9:3). Here, at the beginning of the book of Job, we learn that God has his hidden reasons for allowing suffering. Let us bear our burdens with patience.