The book of Job testifies to a God who is sovereign over all creation. The God of the friends seems to be a hollow and shrunken version of the one who appears and speaks in Job 38-41. No human teaching, even that God must act with justice, can bind or restrict God. While God is undoubtedly just, his ordering of the world is broader than a narrow human concept of retributive justice in which he can do no more than reward righteousness and punish wickedness.  The picture that emerges in Job 38-41 is one of God having been involved in his creation from its very beginning.  God is also sovereign ruler over the creation, so that the Satan must ask permission before afflicting Job (1:6-12; 2:1-6). God is also free to restore Job once the test is over.