[HarleyD]

Three things, I think, are important. 1) God concedes that Satan was able to provoke Him.

The Hebrew word is "cuwth" for the part that states "provoke". It means "you moved me". It does not mean that Satan irritated God or that God was pushed around by Satan. It means that God moved against Job.

2) God goes against his first prohibition and allows Satan the power to touch Job's person.

God doesn't go against anything. Everything He does is perfect and complete. There is a progression. In the first instance God tells Satan that he can't touch Job but everything else was OK. In the second instance God tells Satan that he can't take Job's life but he could touch him physically.

3) And, God asks Satan to spare Jobs life.

God has appointed a time for everyone to be born and to die. God does not ask any of His creatures what to do. God is, after all, God.

If this were not true, what would be the lesson or merit of the story?

The merit of the story is that God is sovereign and in full control of our lives. We don't understand why God allows trials or tempations in our lives (why God allowed the things to happen to Job is never explained). We only know that all things happens for our good. Regardless of whether good or evil takes place, we are to bless the name of the Lord.

[spatso]

"We only know that all things happens for our good. Regardless of whether good or evil takes place, we are to bless the name of the Lord."

I would have thought the meaning had more to do with Job teaching us how we can speak to God in the face of human suffering. Job's responds to his trials by invoking a broad range of rhetorical styles. He invokes popular faith, silence, doubt, theological notions as well as prayer including prophetic, charismatic and, even, mystical speech. In the end, God only rejects the interventions of his two friends but accepts each and every one of Jobs interventions, "for not speaking truthfully as my servant Job has done." (42:7) God rejects the language of the scholarly interventions but, accepts Job's honest language of the heart.
I think on the question of the meaning of Job's suffering God remains incredibly silent. One can only conclude that suffering is a part of life.