The Devil's Wandering and Job's Faith

Why be agitated? God commanded the worm in the morning. If the discourse is shaped in this way, such that God spoke to the devil, do not bring forth this worthless one from a position of equality, as if he had a purpose before the Lord. The appointed order; yet the devil came and stood in the midst of the angels, so that you might learn that while he took an angelic nature, he demonstrated a treacherous purpose.

For devil, brothers, is not a name of nature, but of choice. Why devil? For he did not become a devil from the beginning, but an angel was created; but he was named devil as one who slanders God toward men and man toward God, and as one who sets up the Lord against the servant and the servant against the Lord. For when the devil brings accusations against us, saying, 'How many evils are in the world? Where is God? Why does he not protect?' he slanders the Creator toward us; for this has been the work of the devil from the beginning.

He slanders God toward Adam, saying, 'God said that on whatever day you eat from the tree, you will be like gods.' He says that God hindered you from eating. There he slanders God toward Adam; here he slanders Job toward God: 'Does Job serve God for nothing?' That is, he is a hireling, not virtuous; he performs a wage for his prosperity; take away the money, and his purpose is stripped bare. Since God saw the righteous being insulted by that suspicion, he removes the possessions so that he might remove the suspicion and show piety naked.

And see the purpose of the evil demon. The Lord said to the devil, 'Whence have you come?' Then the proud and arrogant one, knowing neither his own rank nor the value of the one asking, says, 'Having gone around the earth and walked under the heaven, I am here.' He cries out once, desiring to show that he holds what is under heaven, that all the earth has been handed to him, and that he has all men under his feet. 'Having gone around the earth and walked under the heaven, I am here,' he said. The arrogance of the devil is cut away. For since he thought he held the image of God, he is cast out from the earth so as to no longer walk, and the Lord of all banishes him. For he is the one who promised, 'I will dwell in them, and walk...'

I will be their God. The devil wandered about. When idolatry was poured out, when impiety prevailed, and when all the things of evil reached their peak, the devil wandered about; but when holiness, righteousness, and truth are among those guarding the truth, God dwells and wanders about.

Pay attention, therefore, to your mind, he says, concerning my servant Job, whether there is no one on the earth, like him, who is blameless, righteous, true, and holding himself back from every evil? Since he said that they have gone all around under heaven, and he was boasting as if ruling all things, the word of truth parries his arrogance by saying to him: 'Did you see the man under you who has not wandered, since you rule all things, as you said? Did you see the one who has overcome all your evil? Did you see the one who struck you, the one who strikes all? Did you see the one who released your tyranny, and released injustice by righteousness, and impiety by piety?'

But he resists God and says: 'He serves you not for nothing.' Possessions were added so that he might insult his manner, so that he might insult his character, and so that he might show the illegitimacy of virtue through suspicions. You have given him, he says, abundance; take away the abundance, and the hypocrisy is stripped bare. God says to him: 'Touch all that he has.' For God knows that he has an insatiable intention toward greed; and he says: 'Behold, I give you authority over all things, but of him only do not touch.'

He limits the evil of the devil with boundaries. See then how he aims a bow against the righteous, and how he sends arrows. He went out, and first the worker of evils himself is shaped, presenting himself as an angel of evils; he himself struck the livestock, and he himself announces the plague. For the devil said to Job, he says: 'The pairs of your oxen were stolen, and the females were eaten by donkeys, and the captors came, and they slaughtered your children, and I was left alone, and I came to announce it to you.'

This is the first trial of the devil, the first arrow against the brave combatant. But Job resisted with the door of faith, which is able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one. The pairs of oxen were lost, and the soul was not divided. The donkeys were lost, and the noble colt the bridle of piety did not...