Does God Cause Suffering? The Problem of Job

Recently there was an issue that was brought up to me in a conversation that I had with a gentleman questioning the justice system of how God operates. The question was, if God is a just God and omniscient, why would he need to prove to Satan that Job would need to overcome obstacles to sustain his faith? And secondly, why would a just God allow Satan to do the things that he allows Satan to do in the book of Job.

For starters, lets answer objection no. 1. Nowhere in the text of the book of Job does it say or even infer that God needs to prove ANYTHING to Satan. Thus, the first question about whether or not God's omniscience is in danger is null and void.

The 2nd question is why would God allow these things to happen to Job? This is an interesting question and requires more detail to answer. More detail is to come, however, I will give a short answer before we jump into details. The next time that I am able to update, this will be addressed more thoroughly, but just for those who need an immediate answer, one will be provided right here. It seems this is how God and Satan used to interract before God banished him from heaven altogether. God can not be approached by sin, he can only be approached when that sin is gotten rid of. And because of this, Satan was able to jump on the opportunity to take advantage of something that is never really mentioned regarding Job's character. What people often overlook is that while Job was a good person, he was also highly overly self righteous and prideful. That is a sin. As a result, Job believing he should make judgments that only God could make about humankind. He often within the book asks why people who are unrighteous not being punished. He fails to realize that people who are not being punished by his standards are being punished by God's standards, and that those people are punishing themselves in the long run (though it appears they are being rewarded, their actions will eventually catch up with them). Because of this sinning attitude that Job has, God allows Job to suffer. Suffering could only be taken in the form of evil, and one type of evil that exists of course is Satanic influence when he is invited in. Essentially when we sin, evil is invited into the scenario in different forms by ourselves. It could be disease or many varieties of things. Eventually, Job learns from his attitude, and becomes a stronger person in dedication to the Lord, and eventually is rewarded twice as much as he was when he displayed a self-righteous attitude. This is a short answer to this question and we will get into more detail in the ensuing weeks, as well as site some specific passages from the Bible to further explain my answer on this issue. However, with the Christian mentality often being one that Job did no wrong, the wrong that Job did is often overlooked. Sin is punished by consequences, and thats the way it has always been since the Garden of Eden.