Why Did God Allow Satan to Do All What He Did to Job?
1) Direct answer
God allowed Satan to touch Job in order to vindicate His own testimony of a righteous man, to prove the liar wrong, to refine Job like gold, and to bring him into a deeper revelation of the Redeemer. Satan was on a leash the whole time, and God turned the trial to Job’s blessing and to His glory.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says God Himself testified of Job: “a perfect and an upright man” (Job 1:8). Satan accused: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9–11). So God permitted a test, but set boundaries: “only upon himself put not forth thine hand” (Job 1:12), and later, “but save his life” (Job 2:6). You see, Satan could not move one inch beyond God’s limit.
- Job understood the purpose: “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
- In the midst of loss, Job’s faith reached higher: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth… yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25–27).
- At the end, God corrected Job’s reasonings, revealed Himself, and Job said, “now mine eye sees Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5–6). Then the Lord “turned the captivity of Job… also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10,12).
- The New Testament seals it: “You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11). Trials prove faith “much more precious than of gold… tried with fire” (1 Peter 1:6–7). And “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Satan said Job served God only because of blessings. God allowed the hedge to open so the truth could be proved. The test didn’t create Job’s faith; it revealed it. That’s the mystery—trials don’t make a believer; they manifest one.
- If God meant evil, He would have left Job to destruction. Instead, He set strict limits, spoke from the whirlwind, lifted Job higher, used him to pray for his friends, and restored him double. The outcome shows the purpose: not to destroy, but to perfect and vindicate.
- God doesn’t tempt with evil (James 1:13). He permits testing under His sovereignty to display faith, deepen revelation, and bring a greater end than the beginning.
4) Reinforcing statement
Now notice, Satan’s hand was never greater than God’s purpose. Job came out with a clearer vision of God and a stronger testimony: the Redeemer lives, and the righteous shall see Him.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Angel of the Covenant
54-0301 §20
When Job, old... And God had prospered him and the devil said what he was going to do to him. And he did. Took all of his riches. Made him a pauper, killed his children, burnt up his cattle. Broke him out in boils from his head to his feet. And he sat out, couldn't even stay in the house, perhaps the odor was so bad from his boils. And he scraped himself with a piece of crock, as he sat on the ash heap. And there, sitting there, and his members of his brotherhood of church came to him and turned their backs on him...
As I thought on my ways
59-0610 §27
And Job come by the way of the blood, the shedding of blood. That's the only grounds that God ever fellowshipped with man, is on the basis of the shed blood. There's no other way that God will fellowship with people, only through the shed blood. In the Old Testament, Israel had to come to one place of worship. That was under the shed blood. And then when trouble struck Job, he could scream out, "I know my Redeemer liveth, and at the last days He will stand on the earth. Though after the skin-worms has destroyed thi...
Show us the Father and it will suffice us
50-0819 §24
Everybody wanted to find God down through the age. Job of old, he said, "Oh, if I only knew where He was." In his trouble setting there on the ash heap scraping his boils... God dealing with a saint in this case... There he was setting there scraping his boils. Some of his church friends come to him, set with their backs turned to him, not much consolation. But Job wanted to know, "Oh, if I only knew where His house was. (In other words.) If I'd go knock on His door, He'd come out and talk to me." That's what he wa...
Show us the Father
61-0521 §22
Jesus said, the Scripture says, "Every son that cometh to God must be tried." Tested, child-trained, and then they're proven to be right children of God. And now in Job's case when all his riches was taken from him, and all of his children was taken, all of his friends turned their back upon him... Sat seven days accusing him of being a secret sinner, yet Job knew he was not a sinner, because he stood firm on what God had promised. God required the burnt offering, and Job had offered it for he and his children; and...
Be certain of God
59-0125 §32
This poor, little woman, she knew that He was God. As that barrel went down, down, down, down, circumstances got worse and worse all the time. But God was letting it get that way. He just loves to do that. He loves to put your faith to a test to see how you act on it, let you be anointed and prayed for, then make you worse. Said, "Come on, Satan, put him to the test; I know he believes Me." Bless God forever! Oh, my! "Put him to a test now; I know he took My Word for it." Could He say that about you? He said that a...