JOB Why Do the Good Suffer?

Answer the Questions Why do good people suffer? Why do wicked people prosper? Why does a mother of three young children die? Is this situation considered to be unfair? If so, why? Why do people starve while others have so much food they don’t know what to do with it?

The book of Job The power of the book lies in the directness with which it addresses a basic human problem: – the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper. The dilemma of why the good suffer and the wicked prosper in this life is known as the problem of evil.

The author The author struggled with that dilemma of the problem of evil and wrote a poetic story The author is NOT Job

The prologue sets the stage by telling how Job lost everything in a single day because of an arrangement between God and Satan.

A virtuous and prosperous man named Job loses everything – Wealth, family, and health He bears his suffering patiently, trusting in, not questioning God. He is a model of patience and resignation. He is not Israelite

Job did not believe in an afterlife where good could be rewarded and evil punished. He thought that rewards and punishments had to be given out in this life, or never at all.

The figure of Satan in the story is not meant to be the devil but a heavenly prosecutor whose job is to test the genuineness of human virtue. The author used this angel merely as a device to get the story moving – Not to imply that God ever initiates human suffering.

In his suffering Job finally calls out, “Why?” and curses the day he was born. His friends insist that Job’s sin must be the reason for his misfortune, that if he prays to God and repents, all will be well again. But Job disagrees, arguing with them in a series of disputes.

At the end of the story, Job and God talk about Job’s situation and God’s involvement God gives a new family to Job for his faithfulness to God

The book of Job wk