"Christian readers readily identify the adversary [in the book of Job] as a known character whose profile is provided by the New Testament. But we cannot be so hasty. "Satan" here is a function, not a personal name. This is particularly important here, for this satan is portrayed neither as an independently volitional being or as diabolical. He is among the "sons of God," the members of the heavenly council, and he operates only as a subordinate. By permitting this adversary's course of action, God is allowing Job's case to stand as a test case for his policies. One can hardly label this adversary as an embodiment of evil when he simply expresses doubt concerning God's policies, a doubt that God has prompted through his observations concerning Job.
"The role of the adversary is to provide the most important twist in the challenge against God's policies. Any human can contend that it is not a good policy for God to allow righteous people to suffer. This, of course, is Job's challenge. What is an innovation to this discussion is the contention of the adversary that it is not a good policy to bring prosperity to righteous people. When the adversary asks the rhetorical question of whether Job serves God for nothing, he in effect questions whether there is such a thing as disinterested righteousness. If righteousness is routinely rewarded, will not people behave righteously just to get rewarded? And if that is so, is there really such a thing as true righteousness? Does not the policy of rewarding the righteous actually inhibit true righteousness by turning presumed and even potentially righteous people into ethical mercenaries? One could only answer such questions by taking away the prosperity of some presumed righteous--the more righteous, the surer the test. The challenge then targets a policy (attributed to God) that is formulated as a principle of retribution: the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer. In this way the adversary provides one side to the challenge of God's policy...while Job provides the other side."
J. H. Walton, "Job1: Book of" in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom Poetry & Writings (eds. Trempre Longman III and Peter Enns; Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 336-37
"The role of the adversary is to provide the most important twist in the challenge against God's policies. Any human can contend that it is not a good policy for God to allow righteous people to suffer. This, of course, is Job's challenge. What is an innovation to this discussion is the contention of the adversary that it is not a good policy to bring prosperity to righteous people. When the adversary asks the rhetorical question of whether Job serves God for nothing, he in effect questions whether there is such a thing as disinterested righteousness. If righteousness is routinely rewarded, will not people behave righteously just to get rewarded? And if that is so, is there really such a thing as true righteousness? Does not the policy of rewarding the righteous actually inhibit true righteousness by turning presumed and even potentially righteous people into ethical mercenaries? One could only answer such questions by taking away the prosperity of some presumed righteous--the more righteous, the surer the test. The challenge then targets a policy (attributed to God) that is formulated as a principle of retribution: the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer. In this way the adversary provides one side to the challenge of God's policy...while Job provides the other side."
J. H. Walton, "Job1: Book of" in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom Poetry & Writings (eds. Trempre Longman III and Peter Enns; Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 336-37
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