Why did Job suffer ?

[Lou Newton]

The Book of Job

I have heard so many teachers and preachers claim that Job was being punished by God and he did something to deserve that punishment.

They will also claim that it is a mystery what Job did to have the things that took place happen to him.

The problem with that teaching is that is disagrees with the very words of God.

But men will tend to agree with their traditions and doctrines rather than agree with what God says.

Job 1
Job 1 New International Version (NIV)Prologue

1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
⁴ His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
⁶ One day the angels^[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan^[b] also came with them. ⁷ The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
⁸ Then the Lord said to Satan, “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.”
⁹ “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. ¹⁰ “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ¹¹ But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
¹² The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
¹³ One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴ a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, ¹⁵ and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
¹⁷ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
¹⁸ While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.^[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”

²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Notice that the Holy Scriptures state that Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil

There is only one way for any man to be blameless, and that is for them to trust God to save them.

Job 2 New International Version (NIV)2 On another day the angels^[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. ² And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
³Then the Lord said to Satan, “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. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
⁴ “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. ⁵ But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
⁶ The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
⁷ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. ⁸ Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
⁹ His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”
¹⁰ He replied, “You are talking like a foolish^[b] woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
¹¹ When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. ¹² When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. ¹³ Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

NOTICE that God says Satan incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

Job did NOTHING to cause this to take place. IT WAS ALL THE SOVEREIGN WILL OF GOD.

Job trusted God so much that he said: Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

SO WHY DID ALL THIS HAPPEN TO JOB ?

THE ANSWER IS IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK:

Job 42 New International Version (NIV)Job

42 Then

Job replied to the Lord:
² “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
⁵My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes

Job had heard of God, but wanted God to reveal Himself to him.

So now Job had seen God with his eyes and God revealed Himself to Job.

Job now was a lot closer to God than he was before this all took place.

We have to trust that everything God does is for our good IF we are trying to fit into His plans.

Lou Newton

[Lou Newton]

Why did Satan accuse Job ?

We can ask - Why did Satan hate Job and pick on him. Any smart general does not shoot dead soldiers. They are already dead, why waste bullets on them.

No, any smart General attacks the strong soldiers. Defeat them and the war is over.

Satan hated Job because Job trusted in God to save him.

But Satan accused Job because Job was alive and not dead.

Satan is not stupid. He does not shoot those who are already dead.

He accuses those who are alive and a danger to his kingdom.

Job was alive and a danger to Satan's kingdom.

All men are born of the flesh. But we must all be born again of the spirit.

The Holy Spirit of The Lord Jesus must come into our spirit to dwell with us.

Then we are born again and we have eternal life in Jesus.

So Satan attacked Job because he was alive in the spirit, or he had real life.

Satan is not concerned with the walking dead that do not have the Holy Spirit.

Are not those without the Holy Spirit, dead. Why would Satan attack the dead.

Satan attacks the ones who are alive.

Much of the church also attacks those who are being attacked by Satan. Just as they attack Job and say he did something wrong to be attacked like that. But they are agreeing with Job's friends, who God scolded for doing so.

Look what God told these "friends" of Job:

Job 42
Epilogue

⁷ After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.⁸ So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

Job spoke the truth about God. God said he will accept Job's prayer for them, but not from them.

That is because they are the walking dead. But Job has the Holy Spirit and is alive.

¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. ¹¹ All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver^[a] and a gold ring.
¹² The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
¹⁶ After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷ And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

Romans 11
³²For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.Doxology

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and^[i] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”^[j]
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”^[k]
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Lou Newton

[Blane]

SO WHY DID ALL THIS HAPPEN TO JOB ?

THE ANSWER IS IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK:

Job had heard of God, but wanted God to reveal Himself to him.

So now Job had seen God with his eyes and God revealed Himself to Job.

Job now was a lot closer to God than he was before this all took place.

We have to trust that everything God does is for our good IF we are trying to fit into His plans.

Lou Newton

Awesome Lou. Just awesome. This explanation is consistent with the character and goodness of God. So many theologians and teachers have botched the meaning of this book. Thank you for starting this thread.

Blane

[Baruch]

That was a superb walk-through. Thank you, Lou.

[Lou Newton]

That was a superb walk-through. Thank you, Lou.

Thanks for the replies Blane and Barry.

We all sell God short. We make Him out to be some ogre who is always looking to punish us for stepping on a crack in the sidewalk.

That is why some many teach that God the Father and Jesus are two different persons. For the idol they have built in their own minds does not match the person that Jesus revealed.

We can learn who God is and how He treats people by reading about how Jesus treated people. He shed His blood for us while we were still using His name for a swear word. While many were mocking His Name, He went to the cross for them.

God The Creator of everything that exists and God the Father came down from heaven and was born of a woman to shed His blood for us on that shameful cross.

God proved that He wants to save us by becoming a Man and shedding His blood for us.

Jesus then proved that he was God Almighty and was able to save us by raising Himself from the dead.

These truths are preached against because they reveal the mercy, grace and power of God.

If someone believes the Son of God died for them, then Satan will do anything to keep them from knowing that Jesus is also God Almighty, or The Everlasting Father.

Isaiah 9 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)

9 1 The vocation of the Gentiles. 6 A prophecy of Christ. 14 The destruction of the ten tribes for their pride and contempt of God.
¹ Yet ^[a]the darkness shall not be according to the affliction, ^[b]that it had when at the first he touched lightly the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, nor afterward when he was more grievous by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of ^[c]the Gentiles.
² The people that ^[d]walked in darkness, have seen a great ^[e]light: they that dwelled in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the ^[f]light shined.
³ Thou hast ^[g]multiplied the nation, and not increased their joy: they have rejoiced before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide a spoil.
⁴ For the ^[h]yoke of their burden, and the staff of their shoulder, and the rod of their oppressor hast thou broken, as in the day of Midian.
⁵ Surely every battle of the warrior is with noise, and with tumbling of garments in blood: but this shall be ^[i]with burning, and devouring of fire.
⁶ For unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given: and the government is upon his shoulder, and he shall call his name, Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The prince of peace.
⁷ The increase of his government and peace shall have none end: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to stablish it with judgment, and with justice, from henceforth, even forever: ^[k]the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

The Lord Jesus is the one and only Everlasting Father.

Here O Israel, The Lord your God is One.

There is The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit, but He is One not three.

Even the creed written by Athanasius says the above words numerous times. But that did not fit the Pope's purposes, who wanted to replace the family of Roman gods with a family of Christian gods.

Athanasius states numerous times in the original Greek, that there is the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit, but He is NOT three, but ONE.

This error is engrained so deeply in many people, just as the Pharisees had engrained in them that God was a stiff ogre that never left heaven, so they could not accept that Jesus was God even when he raised the dead right in front of their eyes.

Satan does not want us to know that God is so full of mercy and grace. If someone decides they will fear God, then Satan will work to turn that fear into being afraid of God.

EDIT: IT IS THESE ERRORS THAT KEEP PREACHERS FROM SEEING THE TRUTH AND TEACHING MORE ERROR INSTEAD

My computer crashed and has been giving me more and more problems. I bought one that was a display model because it was the only one I could afford. (two years ago) It has given me problems from the very first day.

So I am at the Lieberry, (some pronounce that Library ) using their computer.

I took a little money I had saved for tires, that some generous brother sent me, and plan on looking for a new computer today.

Hopefully Blane can moderate my articles till I can get set up again.

Grace to you

Lou Newton