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to test David to help him learn a vital lesson. God tests believers to help them make the
right choices and not depend upon their own human strength.
In the Book of Job, the word
-
always has the definite article preceding it (Job
1:6-12; 2:1-7), so the term emphasizes Satan’s role as “the adversary.” God permitted
Satan to test Job’s faith, and the adversary inflicted the patriarch with many evils and
sorrows. Satan was not all-powerful because he indicated that he could not get beyond
God’s protection of Job (Job 1:10). He penetrated the “hedge” only with God’s
permission and only for specific instances that would demonstrate God’s righteousness.
Job became the battleground between the forces of darkness and light. He learned that
Satan could be defeated by making the right choices and that God can be glorified in
every circumstance. Zechariah recorded a vision of “… Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him” (literally,
“be his adversary”; Zech. 3:1). The Lord rebuked “the adversary” (Zech. 3:2). Satan was
once again in conflict with God’s purposes and the angels of God, but “the adversary”
was not all-powerful and was subject to rebuke by God Himself A general usage of
(“adversary”) appears in 1 Kings 5:4: “But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on
every side, so that there is neither adversary or evil occurrent.” In another instance, David
went over to the side of the Philistines; in attempting to fight with them against Israel,
some of the Philistine leaders doubted David’s sincerity and felt that he would be “an
adversary” in any battle between the two armies (1 Sam. 29:4).
In the Septuagint, the word is
!
TO BE SATISFIED
(
*
, 7646), “to be satisfied, sated, surfeited.” This word is found in
Akkadian and Ugaritic, as well as in all periods of Hebrew. It occurs some 96 times in the
Hebrew Old Testament. In its first occurrence in the Old Testament text,
expresses
the idea of “being filled, sated”: “… When the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to
eat, and in the morning bread to the full …” (Exod. 16:8). As here, the word is frequently
used in parallelism with “to eat,” or “to graze” when used with cattle or sheep (Jer.
50:19). The earth too “can be sated, have its fill,” of rain (Job 38:27).
In a notoriously difficult verse (Hab. 2:5), wine seems to be referred to as never
“being satisfied, never having enough.” Instead of “wine,” the Habakkuk Dead Sea Scroll
reads “wealth,” which seems more appropriate in the context which points to Assyria as
the concern of Habakkuk’s complaint.
-
sometimes expresses “being surfeited with,” as in Prov. 25:16: “Hast thou
found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and
vomit it.” God too can “become surfeited,” especially when men offer sacrifices with the
wrong motives: “… I am full of the burnt offerings of rams …” (Isa. 1:11). The wise man
noted that the lazy man “that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough [be
surfeited with poverty]” (Prov. 28:19; to translate “will have plenty of poverty,” as does
the
RSV
, is not quite strong enough).
-
often expresses God’s “satisfying, supplying,” man with his material needs:
“… Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the
eagle’s” (Ps. 103:5). But even when God “fed them to the full,” Israel was not satisfied