Information Related to "What Job Learned by Suffering"
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The name Job means "persecuted" or "object of scorn." Job's story begins with a challenge to Satan's argument that no one will obey God unless his selfish motives are being satisfied. So "the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?'" (Job 1:8).
Job was the ideal person for God to use to disprove Satan's assertion that human beings can be motivated only by satisfying their selfish, greedy desires.
"So Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a [protective] hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!'" (verses 9-11).
Intending among other purposes to disprove that contention, "the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.' So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord" (verse 12).
By permitting Job to suffer unjustly, God was allowing him to learn one of the most important lessons that anyone could ever learn! But we also see that God routinely allows righteous people to be tested.
"The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous" (Psalm 11:4-5). Also, "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings" (Jeremiah 17:10). Job was no exception.
Related Information on UCG Sites:
Sidebar to Suffering: How It Began, How It Will End
Table of Contents that includes "What Job Learned by Suffering"
God's sovereignty: