Maybe these demons are not really all that much afraid of the other good angels, but they are terrified of God. They know that He has ultimate power. So they are restrained considerably, as we will begin to see.
Let us analyze this a bit. First of all, let us notice how evasive his very first answer to God was. "What have you been doing Satan? Where did you come from?" I think it would be good if we thought of him speaking in a flippant voice—taunting, like, "Why do you want to know," kind of thing, because what he says here suggests a vagabond. "Oh, I've just been going to and fro." It suggests a wondering, restless vagabond without roots who is, everywhere he goes, an outsider. And he is. He was cast down to earth, but obviously he still has access to God, at least in some way because he came before God with the other sons of God.
Yet, what did he feel like while he was there? He really did not feel accepted. He felt like an outsider and indeed he was. Think about this, because it has something to do with the way he projects himself on others. There is a great deal to be learned about humanity here because human nature, carnal nature, comes from this being, primarily. He felt like an outsider, like somebody who (in a sense) wanted to be alone.
The next thing I want you to notice is how cynical his next answer was. "Have you considered My servant Job?" God here was in a sense bragging. "Look at this man, how righteous he is." God undoubtedly had something in mind. He understood Satan's mind and he understood Job as well. He was actually creating a situation that Satan just fell right into, but God was about to give Job the test of his life.
We know what it says in I Corinthians 10:13 that God never gives anybody a greater test than He feels that they can endure. Therefore God had absolute confidence in Job that he could defeat Satan even though Job did not know Satan was the one that was doing this! After the second chapter, Satan is never mentioned. He never comes into the story again, but he is used at the beginning to set the stage.
Notice Satan's attitude is cynical. "Well, does Job fear God for nothing? Hey God, he's only obeying you because of what he can get from you." Cynicism, skepticism, doubt. Satan did not think that there could be anybody who was genuinely good. Satan thinks everybody is like he is—cynical.
Satan believes that everybody is playing the angles in order to take advantage to get the best for oneself. Remember what Paul wrote to Titus, in Titus 1:15? "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure."
Notice what Satan read into this episode with Job: that Job was obedient to God out of selfish motivations. That is what he read into it. Satan plays the angles. He is cunning and deceitful, like no human being we have ever met. He can use flattery like nobody we ever met can use flattery. He can be charming. But he is always using it to see what he can get for himself, because he always reads into the other person that they are just like he is! It is a terrible curse and it destroys relations.
What he is implying here to God is that Job's godliness was artificial. He was implying it had never been tested. He is saying, "God, you've made it too easy for him." He is saying, "God, you bribe him by all of these good things."
The basic questions for the entire book are now set, and that is, is God so good that He can be loved for what He Himself is and not for His gifts and what He can do for us? That is the issue here.
God's faith in Job was justified. Job's loyalty held. He showed that he was not obedient to God just for what God could do for him; he truly loved God for what He is.
Satan may be the chief mischief-maker in the universe, but we have to understand that compared to God he is still very puny. God sets limits and Satan is able to do only what God permits him to do.
We see in verse 12, "He is in your hand, only do … . . .
