Is Satan a Servant of God, or Is
he God’s Arch Enemy?
According to Jewish teachings,
Satan is an agent of God and has no independent agency or autonomy. God created
Satan in His wisdom and for His purpose, to test man’s faith. . . . Jewish and
Christian teachings on the person, nature, and function of Satan are
diametrically different.
In the instances where Satan is discussed
in the Jewish Scriptures, Satan is consistently described as a loyal servant of
God, rather than a disobedient angel. . . . at the beginning of the Book of
Job, Satan is an angelic member of the divine council, the “sons of God” who
are subservient to God. . . . Judaism teaches that Satan is an angel who
faithfully serves God as a prosecuting attorney, one who accuses men of
wickedness and impiety. (Tovia Singer, Let’s Get Biblical: Why Doesn’t
Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah? 2 vols. [Forest Hills, N.Y.: Outreach
Judaism, 2014], 1:348, 349)