[Here we continue a reprint of a small portion of Joseph Caryl’s study in Job.  Mr. Caryl wrote twelve volumes on the book of Job.  His study is a great example of how deep one can dig into the truths of the Bible.]   A Study by Joseph Caryl (1644) Job 1:11-12 (part 3) - God’s Grant to Satan’s Request   11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. 12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. (KJV)   We are next to consider the Lord’s grant of Satan’s motion:  “And the Lord said unto Satan, behold all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord” (vs. 12).  We have in this verse:  First, God’s commission or his permission to Satan, “Behold all that he hath is in thine hand…” And secondly, his limitation of the commission, “Only upon himself put not forth thine hand.” Thirdly, Satan’s speedy execution of his commission, “So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.”  The Lord said unto Satan, all that he hath is in thy hand, in thy power, so we translate it:  the word in the original is, all is in thy hand. Satan moved that God would put forth his hand against Job; and God puts Job into Satan’s hand. Lest Satan should cavil that God had touched him but lightly, he puts him into Satan’s power and lets him do it himself, who would do it thouroughly. The hand (as we before noted) is put for power or disposition or another, as in Exod. 4:21:  “Thou shalt do all the wonders before Pharaoh which I have put into thy hand.” And in John 3:35:  “The Father loves the Son and hath given all things into his hand.” This phrase of giving or putting into the hand, is taken either for good or for evil. Sometimes, the putting of a thing into one’s hands is only for the managing and disposing of it for good, as in Gen. 39:7-8, when Joseph said that his master had committed all that he hand into his hand, that is, to take care of it, and to order it for his master’s benefit, profit, and honor. But often, to put or to give into the hand is for evil, to do what you will with persons or things, to punish or to afflict them, as in Judg. 6:1, when God delivered the Israelites into the hand of Midian, that is, he left them to the power of the Midianites to tyrannize over and vex them. And in Judg. 6:7, God delivered Midian into the hand of Israel, that is, he gave Israel power over them to destroy or afflict them.  So here, he gave all into the hand of Satan, that is, he gave Satan leave to dispose of Job’s estate as he pleased.  It is as if God had said to Satan, “Thou hast leave to do what thou wilt with Job’s outward estate:  spoil it, plunder it, destroy it, consume it, set it to fire; thou hast free leave, all that he hath is in thy hand.” We shall note a point or two from that. You see, as soon as ever Satan had made his motion, God presently answered, all that he hath is in thy hand. It is not always an argument of God’s good will and love to have our motions granted.  Many are heard and answered out of anger, not out of love.  The children of Israel required meat for their lusts, and God gave it them; he did not withhold from them their desire; they were not shortened of their lusts; they had it presently.  Many times his own servants call and call again, move and move again, and obtain no grant.  “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice,” said Paul (see II Cor. 12:8), yet Paul could not have what he sought. Satan did but move once, and presently all that Job had was in his hand. But further, that which is chiefly here to be observed is, that until God gives commission, Satan hath no power over the estates or persons of God’s people, or over anything that belongs unto them.  Neither our persons, nor our estates are subject to the will either of men or devils.  Christ must say, All that he hath is in thy hand, before Satan can touch a shoe-latchet.  As Christ replied in John 19:11 to Pilate, when Pilate spoke so stoutly, “Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and power to release thee?”  Pilate thought that he had all power in this hand, but Christ tells him, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me unless it were given thee from above.”  If the devils could not go into the swine, much less can they meddle with a man, made after God’s image, until God gives them leave.  Every soul that has interest in Christ may suck comfort and consolation in the saddest, in the most sorrowful day, from the breast of this truth.  If Satan and wicked men cannot move until Christ says go, nor wound until Christ says strike, nor spoil, nor kill, until Christ says their estates, their lives are in your power, surely Christ will not speak a word to their hurt, whom he loves, nor will he ever suffer his enemies to do real damage to his friends.  Besides, it may fill the soul with unspeakable joy to remember, that while a man is suffering, the will of Christ is at work. Thirdly, Satan does very wickedly (according to his nature), in moving that Job may be afflicted.  He moves in malice and in spite.  God knew what his heart and intent was, and yet grants it.  We may note from hence: That which Satan and evil men define sinfully, the Lord grants holily. The will of God and the will of Satan joined both in the same thing, yet they were as different as light and darkness; their ends were as different as their natures.  Though it were the same thing they both willed, yet there was an infinite distance between them in willing it. The will of Satan was sinful, but the power given Satan was just. Why? Because his will was from himself, but his power was from the will of God. Satan had no power to do mischief but what God gave him, but his will to do mischief was from himself. Therefore we find that the same spirit is said to be an evil spirit and to be a spirit from the Lord, and yet the Lord does not partake at all in the evil of the spirit, as in I Sam. 16:14:  “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.”  An evil spirit from the Lord; how was it an evil spirit if it were from the Lord? Can the Lord send forth any evil from himself who is only good? In that he was evil, that was from his own will; but that he had power to trouble Saul, that was from the Lord.  So here, Satan’s will and intent were most wicked; these were from himself.  His power to afflict Job was from God, and that was good. Satan wills Job should be afflicted for his destruction; God wills it only for his trial and probation. Satan desires that God may be blasphemed; but God wills that he himself may be glorified.  Satan wills it so that others in his example might be scandalized and disheartened from entering into the service of God; but God wills it that others might be strengthened and encouraged to enter into his service, beholding a man under such heavy pressures, and yet not speaking ill of God or of his ways.  Satan wills it, hoping thereby Job would discover his hypocrisy, but God wills it, knowing that he would therein discover his integrity.  So then, though the same thing was willed, yet there was a vast disproportion in their ends and intentions; and though the power by which Satan did afflict Job was from God, yet the evil intent with which he afflicted him was from himself.  Thus we see how God without any stain or touch of evil grants this, which Satan did most wickedly desire. It follows: “Only upon himself thou shalt not put forth thy hand.” God gives a commission, but it is with a limitation; there is a restriction in it:  Only upon himself thou shalt not…, that is, not upon his person; not his body – thou shalt not afflict him with diseases; not his soul – thou shalt not afflict him with temptations. Hence note:  That God himself sets bounds to the afflictions of his people.  He limits out how far every affliction shall go, and how far every instrument shall prevail, as he does with the sea:  “Hither to” (said he) “thou shalt come and no further, here thou shalt stop thy proud waves” (Job 38:11). So he says to all the afflictions of single persons, or whole nations:  hither you shall come and no further, only upon himself thou shalt not put forth thine hand. This limitation respects:  First, the degree or measure; thus far you shall afflict, that is, in such a degree, to such a height, and no higher. Secondly, it respects the time; thus far, that is, thus long, so many years, or so many days you shall have power and no longer. God leaves not either the measure or the time, the degree or the continuance of any affliction in the hand of Satan or his adherents.  We read that “the souls under the altar cry, ‘How long Lord, how long?’” (Rev. 6:10).  They cry to God, how long?  They knew that he only had the time in his hand; he only could tell how long, and it should be as long as he pleased.  How long Lord? They cried not to cruel tyrants, how long will you persecute?—but Lord, how long will it be before you come to revenge?  And so David: “My time it is in thy hand” (Ps. 31:15), speaking of his afflictions.  There is no affliction but it is in the hand of God, for the continuance of it as well as for the manner of it; and as no enemy, man or devil, can make your cross greater or longer, or heavier, so no friend, man or angel, can make your cross lighter or lesser or shorter than God himself has appointed.  Only upon himself shalt thou not put forth thine hand; thou shalt not move an inch further, not a hair’s breadth further.  Our afflictions, for the matter of them, are by the will of God, as the Apostle tells us, “While you suffer” (said Peter) “according to the will of God.”  Those words—“according to the will of God”—note not only the righteousness of suffering (that it must be in a good cause), but also the spring from whence those sufferings come (they are within the will of God, and flowing from his dispensation of things in the matter of them).  God himself gives your cross length, and breadth, and thickness; he fills your cup of sorrow; he directs how many drops, to a drop, shall be put into it; you shall not have a drop more than God prescribes, and (which is more comfortable) knows will be for your good. Secondly, observe that Satan is boundless in his malice toward the people of God.  If God did not set him bounds, Satan would set himself no bounds.  Therefore God said to him, Only upon himself, etc. He had a mind to have gone further, he would have been upon Job himself, as well as upon his estate, if God had not stopped and curbed him.  Therefore, the Apostle gives that assurance for the comfort of the people of God:  “God is faithful” (said he) “who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able” (I Cor. 10:13).  It’s as if he had said, Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to bear; Satan would break your backs if he were let alone, but God will not suffer it.  Some observe this from his name Leviathan: “In that day the Lord with his great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent” (Isa. 27:1).  Leviathan is put there for Satan and for all the instruments of Satan. Now, Leviathan signifies in the Hebrew an augmentation, an addition, or an increase, and Satan is so-called, because (say they) he ever desires to lay more burdens upon, to increase the afflictions, troubles and temptations of God’s people; he never thinks he has done enough against them.  His thirst to work mischief is never quenched, but still he desires to do more.  He would with pleasure have his commission enlarged to do more mischief in the world.  Therefore God is said not to strike after their stroke:  “Hath he smitten him as he smit those that smote him?” (Isa. 27:7).  In the Hebrew, it is, He hath not smitten him according to the stroke of those that smote him, according to their stroke, noting that the stroke of Leviathan and the stroke of his instruments is an unmeasurable stroke, a boundless stroke; they would never give over striking. They think the wound is never deep enough, nor blood shed enough; but the Prophet said, in verse 8, “God doth it in measure,” so that he opposes their striking to God’s afflicting by the measure of it; God keeps his afflictions in such a bound and compass; he afflicts in measure, but Satan’s stroke and the strokes of wicked men are without all measure, that is, without all moderation.  Unless God stops them, they would never make an end. Lastly, observe how Satan is by this proved a deceiver.  He intended more than he spoke of; you may see it plainly in this, because God put a restraint on him.  Touch all that he hath, said Satan; that referred to his possessions and outward estate, as if that had been the mind of Satan in the motion; do but afflict him in his outward estate, I desire no more to make this trial.  Now when the Lord said, All that he hath is in thy hand, there he grants him the motion in the letter of it, but the Lord God saw that Satan had a further reach, when he said, Touch all that he hath, which words seem to extend no further than his estate.  But had not God limited and restrained him, he by an indefinite grant to his motion had likewise fallen upon his person; that was the great morsel he gaped after, all this while; he would have been meddling with Job himself, else there was no need of this limitation, Only upon himself put not forth thy hand.  Satan fingers itch to be meddling with Job, though his words called for what he had, not for himself. “And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” – As soon as he had leave and his commission, he is gone presently, “He went out from the presence of the Lord.”  The word is, he went out from the face of the Lord.  Now, the face of the Lord in Scripture is taken sometimes for the essential glory of God, that inaccessible majesty of God, as in Exod. 33:  “Thou canst not behold my face.”  Sometimes the face of God is put for the favor and love of God:  “Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate, and cause thy face to shine upon thy servant” (Dan. 9:17).  So in many other places, the face of God is put for the favor of God, because as the favor and love of man is seen and discovered in his face, so there is somewhat in those dealings of God, which discover God.  He is said to make his face to shine upon his people when he discovers, by any act of his, that he loves and favors them; that is the shining of his face upon them.  The face interprets the heart and shows the meaning of the spirit. So, in those things which interpret somewhat of the love of God to us, God is said to make his face shine upon us.  On the other side, the face of God is put sometimes for the anger and wrath of God, because anger is seen in the face too. So, in those things by which God discovers his anger, he is said to set his face against men.  There is an express place for it in this sense:  “The anger of the Lord” (the Hebrew is, the face of the Lord) “hath divided them” (Lam. 4:16); that is, the Lord has done such things as have the character of anger upon them, that represents and holds forth nothing but the anger of the Lord unto a people.  Thirdly, by the face of the Lord in Scripture, we may understand the ordinances and the worship of God, because in them and by them God is revealed, manifested and known to his people, as a man is known by his face. So in the Old Testament, coming to God in those institutions was called appearing before God, because in them, God had promised to manifest himself unto his people. Lastly, the face of God is put for the common and general presence of God in the world, by which he fills Heaven and Earth:  “Whether shall I go from thy presence?” (Ps. 139:7). Now when it is said that Satan went forth from the face of God, or from the presence of God, it cannot be understood in the first or in the second sense, for he cannot so come into the presence of God or before the face of God:  before his face of glory, or before his face of favor, Satan never came nor ever shall.  And as the presence of God is taken for his worship, so Satan cares not to come into his presence. Lastly, as the face of God signifies his common and general presence in the world, so Satan cannot possibly go out from his face, Whither shall I go from thy presence? nor men, nor devils are able to go out of the presence of the Lord in that sense, for he fills Heaven and Earth. Then these words, He went out from the presence of the Lord, are spoken after the manner of men. When a servant comes to his master to receive commission to do some business and has his errand given him, then he goes out from the presence of his master and about his business. So Satan comes here upon a business to God, he makes a motion, and desires to have such power put into his hand, to do such-and-such things.  The Lord grants it, and so soon as ever he had his dispatch, Satan goes out of the presence of the Lord. So that the meaning is only this, that Satan left off speaking with God, left off moving God any further at that time, and went out to execute that which he got commission to do, as servants go out from the presence of their masters when they have received warrant or direction what to do. A servant is in expectation of his message or errand, so long as his eyes are upon his master:  “Our eyes wait upon thee O God, as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters” (Ps. 123:3).  The eyes of servants wait upon the face of the master till they have received their message, and then they go out from their presence. It notes the speed that Satan makes when he receives power from God to afflict or to chasten and try any of his children.  He makes no stay; presently, he goes out from the presence of the Lord. Satan is speedy and active in executing any power that is committed to him against the people of God, against any particular member, or against the Church in general.  As soon as ever, he has got his commission to afflict, he is gone to carry it out instantly.  It is just as the good angels in Heaven are described to have wings, because as soon as ever they have received a command from God, they are upon the wing.  They fly, as it were, to fulfill the will of God, and in that sense, go out of his presence.  So, Satan and wicked angels are upon the wing too, in that sense.  As soon as ever they have received power, they presently put it in execution. And we may, in this, make Satan himself our pattern.  As we pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven, in heaven by the good angels, so in this sense (I say) we may desire that we may do the will of God with as much speed as the evil angels.  It is not unwarrantable to learn from Satan speedily to be doing about the will of God.  —— This article is taken from:  Caryl, Joseph.  An Exposition with Practical Observations upon the Book of Job. London: G. Miller, 1644.  A PDF file of this book can be downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com