Job 2:4: So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.

“Skin for skin” is a proverb of the east that has been variously interpreted. Most likely it means that Job has only been tested at only the superficial level and, therefore, has a superficial, response. His philosophy was (and is) that men are basically self-centered creatures. When you attack them directly, they will give way, and they will give up their faith, their religion, anything, to save their own possessions. Now that argument has been fully answered. God has allowed Satan to test Job, and, though he lost his family and all his wealth, Job remained steadfast in his integrity, refusing to charge God with wrong. It is really a very sobering thing to realize that the tests that come into our life are aimed at getting us to curse God to his face, to tell him that he is wrong, that he does not keep his promises, that he is not the kind of a God that we have been told he is. If you take note of your own life you will recognize that, when under pressure, the thing you want more than anything else is to cry out in protest to God that he is not keeping his promises. That is where Satan always aims. He has the same philosophy and the same objective today: he wants us to curse God, as he wanted Job to curse God. The book of Job shows us that there are reasons and purposes in these trials and sufferings that we do not see. Job could not see what was going on behind the scenes, and neither can we. And yet God knows, and God is working out an object. He has a purpose for it, and it is a proper and right purpose that will end up manifesting more fully the love and compassion of his heart. The test of every trial is always to this end. But Satan asks for a change in the rules because, in effect, he says to God, “You didn’t go far enough. You put a boundary about Job and said I couldn’t touch his body. That’s the problem. It’s true that a man may give up his possessions, but one thing he will never give up is his health. You let me get at him, let me destroy his health, and he will give up his integrity and his faith.”

Self centeredness dominates all of Satans thinking. He cannot believe that the loss of possessions and family really matters if the person himself is untouched. Therefore, he uses self-centeredness, the only motive he knows, as an excuse for his failure and as a way to advance his next challenge to God.

• Scarlett Johansson
• Marisa Tomei