Job 1:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Now there was a day— It came to pass on the day when, &c. Heath. Thus denoting some determinate time, when the sons of God, i.e. the angels, (called the sons of God, because they were like unto God, in being immortal, see Luke 20:36.) came to present themselves. The verb להתיצב lehithiatseb, rendered present themselves, expresses the attendance and assiduity of ministers appearing before their king to receive his commands. This account of the angels and Satan's appearing before God, must be understood as a prophetical representation, similar to that in 1 Kings 22:19. The scripture speaks of God after the manner of men; for there is a necessity of condescending to our capacities, and of suiting the revelation to our apprehensions. As kings, therefore, transact their most important affairs in a solemn council or assembly, so God is pleased to represent himself as having his council likewise, and as passing the decrees of his providence in an assembly of his holy angels. We have here, in the case of Job, the same grand assembly held, as was before in that of Ahab, 1 Kings 22 the same host of heaven, called here the sons of God, presenting themselves before Jehovah; as in the vision of Micaiah, they are said to stand on his right hand, and on his left. A wicked spirit appeared among them, here called שׂטן Satan, or the adversary, and there a lying spirit; bent on mischief both, and ready to do all the hurt that they were able, or as far as God would give them leave; but, nevertheless, both under the control of his power, and suffered to go thus far and no farther, as might best serve the wise ends of his justice and his providence. The imagery, in short, is just the same; similis διατυπωσις, as Grotius observes: and the only difference is in the manner of the relation. Micaiah, as a prophet, and in the actual exercise of his prophetic office, delivers it as he received it, that is, as in vision. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, &c. The other, as an historian, interweaves it with the history, and tells us, in the same plain narrative stile, There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, as he does, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. The things delivered to us by these two sacred writers are in substance the same, equally high, and above the reach of mere human sight and knowledge: but the manner of delivering them is different; by each as suited best their several purposes, and both, no doubt, by inspiration and direction of Almighty God. This, then, is the prophetical way of representing things, as to the manner of doing them; which, whether done exactly in the same manner or not, concerns not us to know, but which are really done; and God would have them described as done in this manner, to make the more lively and more lasting impression on us. At the same time it must not be forgotten, that representations of this kind are founded in a well-known and established truth, I mean the doctrine of angels good and bad: a point revealed, no doubt, from the beginning; and without a previous knowledge whereof, the visions of the prophets could scarcely be intelligible: see Genesis 28. We would just observe, that from the prophetical stile being used by the writer of this book, we have reason to conclude, that he must have been a prophet, i.e. an inspired person; for, otherwise, a man of that sense and piety which the book shews him to be, would never presume to counterfeit the prophetic stile, or usurp a privilege or character which did not belong to him. See Peters, p. 121 who, in his 89th and following pages, has largely endeavoured to disprove what Bishop Warburton observes respecting the word Satan. See 1 Kings 22:21 and the note on the next chapter of this book, Job 1:7.