I havent read anywhere in scripture but why does satan obey God as in Job when God says to satan that he can do whatever he likes to Job but he mustnt kill him. Why does satan obey God?
God is. The list of options is pretty short, you will do what God says unless you have free will. Sometimes even with free will you will do what God says. But that gets into the next question
If God created satan then He did so for a purpose, Is satan not just doing a job, doing as he is told?
Satan was one of an order of angels given free will at one time. In the time before humankind, God gave the angels one choice. Satan made his choice that got him cast out of heaven and he led many angels with him who became known as demons . .. none of that changes the essence of what they are demons = fallen angels = angels in much the same way that a person can become a fireman and then retire . . . they were a person before the job, they were a person while they held the job & they are still a person after they retire. They had their one choice and they are forever stuck with it. Satan is not an equal power to God, at the end of the day, he is still just an angel, maybe a high order angel but no where remotely close to the power of God. The power differntial is something on the scale of the power of me Vs. a bacteria, it goes where I carry it and has no choice, I can kill it at will or tolerate it (say a healthy intestinal bacteria), trillions and unthinkable numbers of their species can be born, live and die within a small portion of my lifespan. Outside the host, a bacteria has a VERY short lifespan. . . . anyway it is an analogy. Satan can make life miserable for a time, but his time is limited, just like a bacteria. It isn't so much that he has a job, he "got fired" when he was kicked out of heaven . . . he is still a fallen angel for a little while.
If satan obeys God and we find it difficult then who is the better of the two. Why do we fail. satan is afraid of God.
We also strive to be like God and so did satan.
Back to that free will thing. Satan had one choice once. The beauty of human kind is that we have dynamic freewill. In every moment we have the choice to sin or not & even when we sin we have the ability to repent. This is why scripture says that Man is created a little higher than the angels 1 Cor 6:3, Hebrews 1:4-14. This of course was an inherited dignity through Christ, prior we were lower per Psalm 8:4-5 (because we had free will, a sin nature and short of Christ no hope for repentance & thus no hope for redemption . . just like fallen angels)
When humankind tries to be like God (living a Godly life) it is of the nature of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" . . we are painfully aware of how much less than God we are, or we are insane . .. clinically. When Satan chose (notice the past tense, it was one choice at one time, with eternal consequences) to declare himself like God it was that ultimate arrogance. Yes, Satan has power. . . He is one of the most powerful angels God ever created, his mistake was in believing that a little like a god was = to being God.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky8xXkcnyhc
I have always thought this to be a great song on topic.
