Are Satan and God on speaking terms?
The Lord speaks; Satan speaks. They talk about Job as if they are negotiating over the evil initiatives that Satan proposes and the constraints that God imposes. Do cosmic conversations like this really happen?
The Bible often pictures a divine council discussing human events— how lives will unfold, how events will transpire. Using analogies to human experience, Bible authors describe these episodes to explain how a good all-powerful God, tolerates and then redeems evil in the world. These are not newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts of divine summits; they are the best way to understand a vast spiritual warfare being conducted behind and through the events of world history and our personal histories. This warfare is between God, whose victory is certain, and Satan, who futilely yet persistently seeks to subvert God's plan.
God and Satan, pictured in discussion here, are not equals in a contest over the universe. Satan is as much a creature as we are, yet without hope and sadly underequipped for the task to which he aspires. He can run but cannot hide. He rejects God's authority but cannot escape God's sovereignty. Here Satan needs permission to proceed. Once he wrecks Job's life, Satan disappears from the drama.
The Lord speaks; Satan speaks. They talk about Job as if they are negotiating over the evil initiatives that Satan proposes and the constraints that God imposes. Do cosmic conversations like this really happen?
The Bible often pictures a divine council discussing human events— how lives will unfold, how events will transpire. Using analogies to human experience, Bible authors describe these episodes to explain how a good all-powerful God, tolerates and then redeems evil in the world. These are not newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts of divine summits; they are the best way to understand a vast spiritual warfare being conducted behind and through the events of world history and our personal histories. This warfare is between God, whose victory is certain, and Satan, who futilely yet persistently seeks to subvert God's plan.
God and Satan, pictured in discussion here, are not equals in a contest over the universe. Satan is as much a creature as we are, yet without hope and sadly underequipped for the task to which he aspires. He can run but cannot hide. He rejects God's authority but cannot escape God's sovereignty. Here Satan needs permission to proceed. Once he wrecks Job's life, Satan disappears from the drama.
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