The devil isn’t independent. God sustains him, and, in spite of himself, he advances God’s purposes.
Twice we read “there was a day” (Job 1:6, 13). The first describes a debate in heaven and the other a debacle on earth. We soon discover that the one is directly related to the other. We read, “the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them” (v 6). What do we make of this? First, there are more interactions between the spiritual forces of good and evil than we might assume. We catch only glimpses of the other world, but, when we do, we observe this ongoing battle royal. Daniel gives us a window into it. The answer to his prayer was delayed, and he was given this angelic explanation: “from the first day that you set your heart to understand…your words were heard…But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me” (Dan 10:12-13). These “chief princes” are obviously some of those “principalities,…powers,…rulers of the darkness of this age,…spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” against which we struggle (Eph 6:12). We get another peek at this warfare when we hear, “Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’” (Jude 1:9; see also Zech 3:1-2). But secondly, we see the vast superiority of good over evil. Recall the Lord’s insight to Peter: “Satan has asked for you…But I have prayed for you…and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:31-32). Satan asks, but God decrees. So it is in Job 1:6-12. Thus we embrace the comforting words, “You…have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4). Amen to that!