Job has become a very important book in my life. I've struggled for years to understand it. It does not seem to answer the questions.
Try this passage, it explains the whole of why men suffer, the biggest obstacle to true faith that men put in their own way as stumblingblock in religious teachings of tradition of men :-
Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again:
he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
15 Behold, he
withholdeth the waters, and they dry up:
also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
16 With him is strength and wisdom:
the deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and
maketh the judges fools.
18 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle.
19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
20
He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.
22
He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and
bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
23 He increaseth the nations,
and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and
straiteneth them again.
24
He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
25
They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
This is truly awesome truth of God , and yet men do not hear it, cannot listen because of what it says, God witholds His spirit [water] from men for a while before afterward straightening them by pouring out His spirit on all flesh [Joel 2:28]
Thus men grope in the DARK now because God has not given His truth to all men yet [but only to the few whom He must save first because he needs them to minister and rule in His kingdom come at last, upon the new earth - Jesus said that he will not rule in this earth, but he will rule on earth, thus it is the new earth where God's law of love is as a 'rod of iron' and men live righteously because God has given all men all truth]
The question then is WHY NOT NOW? and this passage answers that too, the "deceiver" , Satan, and those he deceives are His, they too BELONG to God , they are part of God's creation and they are His :-
Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and
create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Ezekiel 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that
thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Most men find this IMPOSSIBLE to accept, and thus seek the soothsayings of sinners in place of God's hard teachings in scripture... the truth is simply unbearable to most men, it offends their egos that Satan has power over them to MAKE men sin by simply deceiving them that sin is fun or pleasant or desirable ...
BUT it is God who GIVES Satan that power over men at THIS time [Rev 13:3-7] , the whole world worshipping together a false god in one finally united world religion inevitably called christianity since it has an image of a Christ as saviour of men in THIS world [yet ironically only the very few saints [144,000 in all time-Rev 7:3-8] who RESIST this tradition of men because God baptises them to ne ABLE not to sin further, will be redeemed in this world]
Why does God give Satan power to delude almost all men and the whole of christianity ? ...except His few [ from Rev 7:3-8 implied only about 2000 saints alive at any one time]
The naswer is simply that God loves His prodigal son too and will thus redeem Him by means of His love and truth ... FIRST then He must humble Satan, BREAK him , and the way to do that is to give him mankind worshipping him and then show him that with all that power he is still not a god, but will die as a mortal :-
Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and
Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Ezekiel 28:9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I
am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
Luke 20:18 Whosoever shall fall upon that stone
shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will
grind him to powder. [Jesus]
But through my recent personal struggles, God has shown me some of the deeper meanings in this book. For instance:
1. The key issue at stake in Job is not suffering or Satan but RIGHTEOUSNESS. How can someone be right before God? This is the ground where the book of Job is based.
Suffering now for sake of the beginning of the redemption of Satan IS righteousness ! God's plan necessitates mankind's suffering as Satan's plan FAILS and he iis thus not believed in by sinners any more ... almost all men remain sinners until DEATH, they do not become saints in THIS life, do noyt stop believing Satan, do not take up the truth given by Jesus [so jesus is not the Lord of sinners, but he did come to save sinners by fisrt saving a royal priesthood to
minister to all men and rule in His kingdom in the new earth]
2. God choses this ground - "Have you considered my servant Job? He is a righteous man"
Blessed is the man whom God will not impute sin ... that will not even seem just to most men until the end... but men fall over themselves trying to prove that they will be FIRST saved , when God has said from the beginning who will be the first few firstfruits of baptism of His spirit
The story of sinners in their way of life is about winners and losers, but God's story is about winners who do not win and losers who do not lose... men adapt even the scripture to support their traditions of winners even to their false religion invented by sinners... God guarantees that MOST men will believe it in this earth! {Rev 13:3-7}
3. We read in the first few chapters how Satan attacks Job, but his attack extends much further - through the attacks of Job's friends. These well-meaning people became the prime instrument through which Job's righteousness was attacked.
In the end of Satn's power, just before Jesus returns, the whole world will be against just two thousand sainst left holding to God's actual truth... the might of the power of world religion against the truth of God ..
4. Job's friends fail because they open their mouths without first asking God to inspire them. This is challenged by the young man who waits for the senior men to speak first. This young man speaks by the spirit of God.
God WILL NOT baptise all men in THIS world, all men are nOT led into all truth before death... we KNOW this, but men do not believe ON this ,because eyes are not open :-
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:
The fact that mOST emn die without knowing alltruth SHOWS that MOST emn are NOT bapotised of the spirit in this world !
5. I notice how God himself keep silent until after everyone else has had their say. It is as if he were there all the time, yet he places himself below them - truly he is gracious.
Is the unmerited forgiveness [grace] to a FEW saints in this life JUST? ... MOST men do not think so, and wil gnash their teeth when Jesus returns to take only the few God ahs given him to be his royal priesthood , men cannot even now accept being SECOND fruits of the spirit, yet MOST men will be saved AFTERWARD -Rev 7:9-10 , men of ALL nations who held all manner of beliefs in this world...!! [as indeedchrsitianity is DIVIDED into tens of thousands of sinner-made belief systems , and we know ther is but ONE truth of God, and that revealed in scripture, not by sinners...]
6. When he speaks, God does not give direct answers, but questions Job's (and our) ability to comprehend. He shows how great God is compared to us. He also indicates that he does fully understand.
God does give some very direct answers in scripture, but almost all men cannot hear Him at this time ... thus much of the teaching is given in parables because God requires that most men cannot understand Him for now , until His kingdom is ready in the new earth for the redemption of the masses of all nations
7. Our part is to trust God. Not a blind, unquestioning trust, but a robust faith. A faith that knows that God is completely trustworthy; all these things that trouble us are safe in his hands.
One can profess faith in love, because one admires love, yet one does in fact not have faith in it until one perfects it [is not any more distracted to sin by temptations] ... thus in fact only the few saints ahve true faith, and that faith is GIVEN, it is NOT a matter of saying one believes in Jesus, but of being ABLE to stop sinning and become perfected in love, without further sin IN THIS LIFE ...
Most men simply cannot do this because God will NOT baptise all men NOW ... thus men have devised religions of his own that allow men to be saved in thsi world whilst still being sinful ... wishful thinking, but inevitable and NECESSARY to God's plan ...
There is a lot in Job that you did not see yet, perhaps that is inevitable too... for myself I do not even understand why God gives sinners any of His truth yet....