Essay/Term paper: Bible - book of job

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Religion

One area in the bible which I have a problem understanding is the story in
the beginning of Job. In this book, God talks to Satan and brags about His
servant Job. He then goes on to bet with Satan, that whatever Job does, he
will not renounce his faith in God. There are a couple of reasons this
strikes me as odd. First of all, why would God, who is all knowing want to
have anything to do with making deals with Satan? Secondly, why would Satan
be interested in making deals with God, if he knows God already has the
future planned out? Lastly, why would God put unnecessary affliction on His
best man if it were only to prove a point to Satan?
Maybe one of the reasons God would take a bet on by Satan in the book of
Job is to teach a lesson to, not only Job and Satan, but the reader of the
story. I think an important point of the story is the underlying theme; bad
things don't just happen to bad people. There is no other apparent
justification for what God put on Job. Maybe something has to happen to one
person, to be able to save a thousand.
The other side of the story is seen on the part of the Satan, who unwisely,
decided to challenge God to a contest, which you think he would know he was
unable to win. So why would Satan waste his time making a bet that he knew
he would lose? The only reason I can see is that he truly thought Job would
fall under the circumstances. This exchange between Satan and God seems
like a no win situation. God, on one hand would never have made a bet,
which would result in Him, appearing weaker or him losing. But, Satan was
stupid enough to make a bet with God, which he surely knew wasn't going to
result in a victory.
The last question I presented was, why God would put unnecessary affliction
on his most honorable and blameless man? This part of the story is what I
think of as the most important. Job, just because he was righteous, thought
that he didn't deserve to have anything bad happen to him. God made a point
in the story when he chose Job as the object of His bet. Not only did God
prove something to Satan, but to Job as well. I think Job put it best when
he said "With nothing from the ground I came, and with nothing I shall
return."
In conclusion, I think it important to acknowledge how strong Job was
during his time of trial. If we can all learn something from this story,
it's that we have to have faith, in ourselves, in each other and in God.
Without faith one is sure to crumble. If Job were any less of a man, he
surely would not have delt with the scrutiny place on him. Maybe the real
reason God displayed his power over Job is because He knew he could take it.