I have been reading the Book of Job for a few weeks, trying to wrap my head around a few things. I asked christian friends, christian strangers, even a church leader, and always receive the same, uninspired answers.
The most obvious question is... why does God allow Satan to do these things? I mean, it opens with God bragging to Satan about Job, Satan makes a bet, and God bites.
Why? It feels like Job (and thus, humanity in general?) is just a toy. Two spiritual entities gambling with his life to prove the other wrong... it seems cruel.
Everyone keeps saying the story of Job is essentially to teach you to praise God even when nothing is going for you... but in Job's case, everything fell apart because God allowed it!
But, to me, beyond all that... the thing that gets me most is his children being massacred by a twister knocking their home on them.
Why does nobody mention the children?
Why did their lives not matter in this cruel game?
All God really had to say about it is "I made everything, so you can't question what I do"
The more I read the Bible, the more confused I get.
I have gotten fed up with uninspired answers as well.
This book used to throw me everywhere. It seemed to be such a contradiction to the character of God.
However, I will go down your message and give you answers.
1. God did boast about Job, HOWEVER, He did not bring him up to set him up for testing as many people think.
It says in Job 1:8 "And Jehovah saith unto the Adversary, `Hast thou set thy heart against My servant Job because there is none like him in the land, a man perfect and upright, fearing God, and turning aside from evil?'" - Ylt
Most people read the other versions that read: "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
When you read this, as an English speaker we tend to think "Oh! God was mentioning Job to Satan for a 'purpose'" or something weird like that.
But looking at a literal translation, we see God was just simply pointing out that Satan had his heart against Job. AND looking at the verse from this perspective, do you see how the non-literal translation could be read both ways? (Nothing wrong with non literal translation)
Satan never in the end "makes a bet" with God, he just states that Job is only in the relationship for what he can get out of it. Then satan goes on to say that if God just destroys what Job has, Job will curse Him.
Now, when God says “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
people think that this means that this is where God "allowed" satan to attack Job.
However, this is not true in the sense that it is interpreted. (I'll explain below)
Before we move on there are a few things to consider while reading this book:
1. Job was "bragged" about by God, but so were many other people like David for example.
Just because God "bragged" on them doesn't mean they were sinless. Remember that.
2. There was no covenant between God and Job as Job was before the Old Covenant and there was nothing covenant wise to empower Job to come against the enemy or "protect" him from the attacks of the enemy.
3. 2 Corinthians 4:4 - "Satan,
who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. ..." I bet you might have never seen this verse. But we find out that Satan actually is the "god" (Small g) of this world. (Quick note: This happened when Adam and Eve fell. They gave their God given authority to the enemy)
Satan is also referred to as the "Prince and power of the air" in Ephesians 2:2.
Keep those in mind.
Back on track:
When God said "...Behold, all that he has is in your power,..." The meaning of this statement can be understood by the verses made in point 3. And just for note: The word "Behold" means simply: Look.
This may sound like "Look Satan, what he has is in your power" in our modern day language.
Next point: "Protection from attacks" is not necessarily something we new testament believers have either. But we do have the power and authority of Jesus to come against the enemy and "destroy" the works of the evil one. (There are many references on this but one good one, just to keep things short, is Mark 16).
So in a sense we do have protection? I don't know how to word this, but anyways, there was nothing to stop satan from attacking, but there was that part where God said "...only do not lay a hand on his person." This is the interesting part.
Some other translations say something like: "but don't hurt Job", "don't lay a hand on him" etc.
(Look up Biblehub for this verse "Job 1-12", and you can see many translations back to back.)
The funny thing is.... Satan strikes Job with Boils in Job 2:7, right after satan appeared before God for a second time and had a very similar conversation.
In other words... Satan was told to not strike job in chapter 1, but in chapter 2, he strikes Job. The perfect example of someone being disobedient to God.
Now why didn't satan kill Job? Remember the whole point satan was trying to prove... He was trying to prove that if Job lost everything, he would curse God. Satan didn't have any interest in killing him.
Now I'm also not trying to say that God didn't have anything to do with protecting Job at all or something, but this is something to consider. (I'm still learning too)
Closing remarks:
God is good, Satan is not.
Some awesome verses to help you with general things (Please read until end too. There are more answers to some questions not addressed in your post):
2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord does not delay the promise, as some esteem slowness, but is patient toward you,
not willing for any to perish, but all to come to repentance."
-God doesn't want people to go to hell. (The doctrine that he just randomly picks who He wants or something like that is not even backed by scripture)
And just in-case someone mentions Romans 8:29:
The verse says: "
For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;" NASB
Let me explain what this means:
God knows EVERYTHING, and He knew who would receive the Gospel and become His children/followers. And
God predestined His followers to
become like Jesus.
The predestination mentioned is His people conforming to the image of His Son.
This verse is highly misunderstood. And people make weird doctrine out of it.
I like another translation of this verse as well: "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters" NLT
Now what about Romans? Doesn't God say all things happen because they are for our good?
No. That is not what it says.
Lets look at Romans 8:26-28 to understand what is being said:
"In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
The key to understand Romans 8:28 is the preceding verses. It's talking about prayer.
Since my response is very long I'll keep it short:
When we pray, God intercedes our prayers through His Spirit and makes whatever event that is happening, or the effects of what has happened (bad or really bad) start to change course and turn around to become something good.
Note: This does not mean He WANTED it to happen.
Also:
This promise is only for believers.
As it says in the verse: "for good
to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Not everybody loves God.
And just look at non-believers who get killed for drinking and driving, etc. They ended up in hell. It did not work together for their good. (This is just an example).
As we can tell from the verse previously mentioned, 2 Peter 3:9,
His will for people does not always happen.
There are more verses that prove God is not "In control" of everything that happens.
Some of them are:
Acts: 10:38 says "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."
John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
My point is... If God "ordained" these people to be inflicted by satan, then why is Jesus going around freeing people from him?
Jesus said in Mark 3:25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand."
So... If God was doing/allowing the bad things, then Jesus would be going against the Father, and that would be a divided house. (Granted the verse was Jesus' response to the pharisee's accusing Him of casting out demons with demons. But that doesn't change the applicability of the statement)
And why did Jesus say satan comes to do all these bad things? Why didn't He say it was God who does them/allows them?
The answer is because Jesus is the exact image of God, and God's will for humanity is what we see in Jesus... He has love towards humanity. Thats why it says He so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life in John 3:16.
I hope you the best.
Don't ever be discouraged.
My rule is: What did Jesus say/do?
Jesus is the perfect example...
If there is something old testament/new testament that is troubling us, does our "theological view" match that of Jesus?
If not.... Throw it away!