God and the Devil

Christianity normally depicts Satan as a fallen angel, the fount of all evil, ruler of Hell and arch-enemy of God. Yet we are also told that he has absolutely no true power at all, except being extremely adept at lying and deceiving. This seems rather peculiar from a logical sense, for surely if God wanted to he could squash Satan like a man crushes a cockroach (in fact even more easily, cockroaches are surprisingly resilient). Surely then there is no war between Heaven and Hell, for how can a cockroach wage war on a man?

Let us recall the Book of Job. Job (no relation to Steve Jobs) was a righteous fellow who respected God greatly, whom the Almighty mentioned as a shining example of moral perfection to Satan when the later came visiting in Heaven. Satan countered by saying that Job was only so pious due to the fact that God have given him a pretty cushy life and if he faced some tribulations this piety might melt away quickly. Upon God's permission Satan handed out some tough times to Job, such as his children dying, his property being annihilated and himself contracting horrible illnesses. Job was still pious at the start but in the end his resolve cracked and he began to curse God, whereupon God talked to him and he realized that he should still have trusted in God, after which God gave him back a nice life.

Long version is here: http://ebible.org/kjv/Job.htm

Now let us examine the text. At the beginning:

1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. 

So basically Satan, along with the other angels, went to say hi to God. God asked Satan where he had been, and whether he had seen Mr. Job, who was an exemplary man. Satan said yea sure but you have been protecting him all this time, if you let me do stuff to him I bet he will think differently, so God said ok you can do evil things to his property but not his person.

We can see that (a) Satan seems to have decent relations with God, and (b) he can't do anything to Job's person or property without God's permission. Does this seem the behavior of two adversaries? Of course not. It seems more as if Satan is working for God.

And in truth, in the Jewish tradition, Ha-satan, or "accuser" is not the devil, but instead the prosecuting lawyer of God. He is charged by God to tempt humans and to report back to God all who go against His decrees. Later in Abrahamic religions he was changed to be Satan, the prince of darkness. Having said that, how can there be a prince of evil who is essentially powerless, as the Bible admits?

So I think the Jewish explanation makes more sense to me.