We can only be touched by Satan at the hand of God

I have heard quite a few people say things lately about God that has given me pause. You know, those statements you hear some times that you think to yourself “I am sure that is not right, but I cannot think of a clear Biblical response, using Scripture why”. So, I have been looking into a lot of these things. Not to “...quarrel about words...” as 2 Timothy 2:14-16 says. It also says “...to present yourself (myself) to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble...” That is my intent.

Here we go. The first question; does God give Satan permission to do harm to us? The second is does God himself ever harm us? I have found the answers to be yes to both of these questions based on Scriptures from God's word. Here they are:

Does God give Satan permission to do harm to us?
First let’s look at who has all power.

Psalm 62:11
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

Revelation 19:1b
...“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

Power belongs to God. Not anyone else. It is God's. So, in order for someone or something to have power besides God, it must have been given to them by God.

Romans 13:1b
...For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Jesus tells Pilate that only God can give power.

John 19:10-11a
10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above...

When on earth, even Jesus had to be given His power/authority.

John 17:1-2
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

So, obviously we can see from this that only God can give power or authority to do something.

You may be thinking, then what of verses like these:

Hebrews 2:14
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

or

1 John 3:8
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

The answer really is quite simple. God gave Satan the power over death. He has allowed Satan to do everything he has done. There by giving him permission to do it. Now throughout scripture we can see that God's plan is to take that power back from Satan bit by bit to Glorify Himself. But that takes us a little off topic so I won’t totally get into that at this time.

You may think "well, just because God gives someone power it does not mean he is giving them permission to do bad things with it". I think that would be a valid argument if God was not omniscient (1 Samuel 2:3, Hebrews 4:13). If I was to give power to someone and they misused it, it would not be the same as giving permission because I do not see the future. I do not know their heart. I would have no way of knowing for sure what they were going to do with it. God does. Also, I could not have complete oversight to stop them if I saw them about to do something bad. God does.

Omniscient: having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.

Permission: the act of permitting.

Now, let’s look at a clear examples from scripture of God giving over power and thereby giving permission to Satan to do things to man.

God gave permission to Satan to torment Job twice.

Job 1:6-12
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:3-6
3 And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” 4 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

Job knows it is God's doing.

Job 19:21
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

In Job's case we can see that his hardships ordained by God were not a response to sin in his life. So, it was not God disciplining him. But, it seems it was to grow Job in his faith and in his relationship with his Creator. Pretty much it was to teach Job something.

On a side note, this was really helpfully for me to finally understand because, for a long time, I did not understand how God could do what he did to Job. But now it is comforting to me to know that God would do anything to show us a little more of who He is and to draw us closer to Him.

Lets look at some Scripture about people being handed over to Satan to torment their bodies in response to the sin in their life. Discipline from God through the use of Satan.

1 Corinthians 5:4-5
4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

1 Timothy 1:18-20
18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Psalm 119:67
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

From all of these Scriptures I would have to say the answer to the first question is yes. God does give Satan permission to do harm to us at times.


Does God Himself ever harm us?

Well, let’s just look at what the Word says.

God is the one that smote Jesus.

Isaiah 53:4
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

He wounds our body to discipline us and then heals us to grow us.

Job 5:17-18
17 “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. 18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.

Isaiah 30:26b
...in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Deuteronomy 32:39
“‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Revelation 3:19
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Proverbs 3:11-12
11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Deuteronomy 8:5
Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.

God promises to punish with a plague.

Revelation 22:18
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,

Nothing can happen without God allowing it.

Romans 11:36
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Jude 1:25
to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Something to consider: Who is it that cursed this earth? Man, Satan, or God?

Genesis 3:16-17
16 To the woman he said (“He” here is talking about God), “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

God is the one cursing everything here. Yes, it is in response to their actions but it is God who is doing the cursing. Also, it is God who gave them the ability to eat from the tree in the first please and He who put the tree in the garden. It was and is all part of God's big plan.

So based on the word of God, the answer to both questions is YES!

God does give Satan permission to do harm to us at times and He also harms us Himself at times. The only way Satan can do any harm at all is through God allowing/giving permission to him. If you think about it, to say that Satan is doing harm to us all on his own would be to say, at best, that he has power in and of himself (another deity). At worst it's to say that he is somehow more powerful then God to be able to be sabotaging God's will for our lives (another deity that is greater then God). Of course both of these are preposterous. All power and ability is given and allowed by God. No man or being can do any act of good or harm without God allowing it.

I know some people maybe are thinking at this point "what about Christians" or “but God is loving, how can He harm us or be allowing harm to us”. The answers to these are easier then you may think.

A few scriptures that we have already seen allowed to the disciplines of Christians but I am going to come back to this in a minuet and first look at an analogy.

I am a mother. I have a handsome little boy. I love my son more than my life. I want the absolute best for him. But my son is not perfect at all. He is a little sinner just like the rest of us. He wants his own way and will disobey, hit, scream and even throw himself on the ground and kick his legs sometimes (I know, so cliché of him lol). This does not ever make me love him less. But I know that this bad behavior of his is not best for him. I know that if he grows up without this behavior being corrected he will not be able to have a very full productive life. No one would want to hire him. Mostly, no one would want to date or marry him. He will not have the self-discipline to tell himself “No” to some things in order to make better plans for the future. Also, to just let him have everything he wants could prevent him from even growing up. He could die of obesity from too many cookies or from running into the street because he would not come when I called him.

All that is to say, what would be the loving thing to do? It would be to discipline him. Sadness over not getting or doing what he wants now is not going to hurt as much as the sadness of the life to come if I do not discipline him.

Hebrews 12:11
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

OK, now let’s focus on Christians. Notice, these next verses are clearly talking about Christians being discipline and not the unsaved.

1 Corinthians 11:32
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Hebrews 12:5-11
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Part of the problem I have seen people have with understanding all of this is that they see discipline as a bad thing. Parents will think of it has being a bad thing they have to do so their children will be good (so, people do not understand how a good God could do something bad). The thing is that discipline is not a bad thing at all. Just because it may hurt does not make it a bad thing. Working out may hurt at times but it’s not a bad thing. Eating your vegetables may not always be pleasant but they are not a bad. Discipline is a good thing that a parent can do to help their child. God is doing good as He disciplines.

On a side note: There are times parents think they are disciplining and they really are not. They are being abusive. They are acting out in anger and violence because they are frustrated or they are trying to get back at their child for acting out and embarrassing them or something. That is not discipline and is a bad thing and will just make your child angry.

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Discipline is always for the good and love of the child.

Proverbs 13:24
Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

If you do not discipline your child, then you are really hating them.

God is our Father and Creator (See Ps. 139:13). He loves us more then we could possibly fully know. He wants the absolute best for us.

But here is the thing, God knows the past, present, and future of his creation. He can see our every thought. He knows what needs to happen to us in order for us to have the best.

Notest, from Hebrews 12 upbove, if he is not ever disciplining you then you are not really a christain. "...then you are illegitimate children and not sons."

Here is the other thing. The best for us is to have a relationship with Him. The best for us is to be doing what he means for us to do and that is to bring Him Glory (See Isaiah 43:7). But he is Holy and the only way to have a relationship with him is to also be Holy. Our sin keeps us from being Holy and so from having a relationship with God (See Isaiah 59:2). That is why Jesus came and died to pay for our sins. When God looks at those that understand that they deserve Hell, repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Jesus alone, their relationship with God on His end can now be restored. (Here are some Scriptures on salvation and restoring our relationship with God. See Ephesians 2:8-9 ; Romans 6:23a ; John 3:16, 36 ; Luke 13:3 ; Romans 10:9-13).

But even though this would completely restore God's relationship with us it does not mean His work is us is finished. When God looks at us, he sees Jesus’ Holiness. But even though our sin is forgiven (past, present and future) by God it does not mean that we can't allow our sin to hurt our relationship with Him. Now don't misunderstand me. Once the relationship of God with us through Jesus is made it can never be broken (See John 10:27-30). It was not earned by good works and can not be lost by bad or lack of good works. (Ephesians 2:8-9). But it can be damaged (See 1 Peter 3:7). God knows it is best for Christians if He is working on us to make us more and more holy until one day when we are with him we will never sin again. He knows that the more we learn now the better relationship we will have here on earth with Him. He knows that some Christians will struggle more than others and may never have the best relationship with Him here but, it does not stop Him from disciplining them and guiding them to give them the option. He knows how a Christian behaves can bring Glory to His name or not. He knows when it does it can also be used to bring more people to Jesus’ saving grace (See Matthew 5:16).

I am writing a lot on this point and I do not want any one to think this is just my opinion but rather what the word of God teaches. So, I am just going to give Scripture that explans that even though we are saved God wants to still do a work in us.

2 Peter 1:1-9
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: (Note, these people are Christians) 2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Another side note: Rom. 8:28 does not mean that all things work together for good for everyone. Only for those who love God and are called according to his purpose: Christians!

I am so thankful that God is in control and is going to do whatever it takes to make my relationship with Him closer and closer. I am so thankful that Satan has no power to do anything to me that God will not let him do. I am thankful that when He does allow Satan to do something to me to discipline me or to merely teach me something it is for my good, to draw me closer to Him. I am so thankful that God has promised to see me through it all. He will never forsake me! See Hebrews 13:5b, Josh 1:5 and...

2 Corinthians 4:7-18
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

I could not say it better if I tried. :)

To sum it up, God does give Satan permission to do harm to us some times. This can be discipline or just Him teaching us something. All power belongs to God. Not anyone else. It is God's alone. Any power that a man or spirit being has is from God. Nothing can happen without God allowing it. God does harm our bodies at times. Again, to either teach us something about himself or to discipline us for sin, in order to draw us closer to himself. The Bible is clear that Christians receive discipline and if they never are then they may not really be Christian. Discipline is always for our good and to show His love of us. If God never disciplines you then He does not love you. But just as an FYI, He loves all so all are disciplined by Him. It is all for his glory which is what is best for us.


Something I have been thinking about through this study. When I receive reproof, how do I respond? What does my response say about me?

Proverbs 9:8
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Proverbs 1:29-30
29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, 30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof,

I am writing this for my benefit. I am posting it to be helpful to anyone that has wondered about this topic and wants to study it for themselves. Sooooo, if you disagree you can post a comment but I may not get back to you. This is not something that is my opinion that I found Scripture to back up. It is what Scripture says and my thoughts on it after the Word of God has already stated it.