One question that may occur to some readers is, “What exactly is Satan doing in heaven?” There are several answers to this, but from a purely literary angle, Satan clearly belongs here. If this is another Adam story, if we’re in the garden, or somewhere near the garden (symbolically), and there are lots of animals, a perfect man ruling, of course Satan is going to show up. That’s what happened in Genesis 3. All the same characters are in play. Looking ahead to the end of chapter 2, Job’s wife is also going to show up, encouraging Job to do what the Satan wants, “tempting” her husband with the
...more
