2006-08-01 21:00:55 · 15 answers · asked by Godb4me 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Wannabe here:
To show Satan how faithful that his servants are and that no matter what he(Satan) does to them he won't be able to lead them from God.
Yeah just ignore my answer. It's more than likely wrong anyway.
2006-08-01 21:03:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not a scholar!!
God blessed Job, the devil attacked Job, and after Job prayed for his friends, God blessed Job with TWICE as much as he had before.
What we need to understand is Job lived in a time before they were a Bible or the New Covenant we have today. Nor is there any mediator between us. Job 9:33 tells us this.
Job also said, Thank God I know my redeemer lives... Job 19:25
Hob has intergrity, steadfastness. and patience but we are living in a totally different time period. and a better covenant that Job. See Heb. 8:6
Maybe, this will help you a little better.
2006-08-02 04:19:26 · answer #2 · answered by jesusloveu 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
disclaimer: i am neither a bible scholar nor a wanna be so don't chastise me if any of this information is incorrect.
i read god had a bet with the devil who claimed that job was faithful only because his life was darned near perfect. god's response was that job would love him even if everything went to pot. satan apparently took the bet, and commenced to throw every rotten thing he could conceive. job's livestock croaked. his kids died. he developed boils and sores. even his wife told him to curse god and die. which he didn't as his trust in god held fast. so in the end god wins his bet and reestablishes job's health, wealth, and children sevenfold (or some such). i think it's a faith lesson. other than that, i'm not really sure what to think of it. the connotations are pretty endless on so many levels.
2006-08-02 04:11:11 · answer #3 · answered by pyg 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Satan wanted to test Job to try to show God that he could get Job to give up his faith.
God allowed it because He believed that Job would stand the test and
so that it would be a written account as an example to all the people after him....
There may be many more reasons, I have discovered that when God works, it touches many lives...not just one...and has many purposes.
2006-08-02 04:05:32 · answer #4 · answered by gracefully_saved 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Job demonstrated the power of the mind over the flesh.
If Job truly believed that God was good, then no matter what kind of pain he was experiencing, he had to believe that this was not a permanent state, and if you know that something will come to an end then you need not be dominated by the present impact of the thing.
The point is this. Only in a make believe world is there no such thing as alternatives and dualities. That is, only good without evil. Only pleasure without pain. To fully appreciate the good the consciousness must gain awareness of the evil as well.
Who enjoys a good meal the best. A decadent American who has never been hungry in his life, or an Ethiopian who suffered from famine and starvation from his youth.
The decadent American only has one side of the issue in his awareness and therefore his enjoyment of even his understanding of his blessings is severely compromised.
God creates realities, not fairy tale worlds, and it is impossible to achieve the highest state of knowledge and consciousness without experiencing pain.
The most perfect manifestation of the patience of Job was of course Christ's death. There is a verse in the Psalms that says, "you will not allow your holy one to see corruption." That is to die.
Christ saw corruption so how is this true. Christ believed so richly in the goodness of God that even when he was dead his faith was still that he would not die, so God gave him victory over death.
God is not just some good white bearded guy in the sky, but a manifestation in conscious being of the ultimate good, and death is the ultimate evil.
Death is nothing more than the cessation of the vitality through which we experience physical surroundings, family, friends, human interaction of any kind, emotional impact, etc. etc. etc.
Life is the overflowing of these things.
The unbelieving man accepts a diminished manifestation of consciousness. That is, when it comes down to it, he gives in and believes in the rule of evil rather than committing to the hope of life. The righteous man believes in life and the absolutist manifestation of life to the end.
Its as if I say to you, I am good, and then I do something to make you think that I am evil. If the thought and force of life are in you, then you will be able to rise up in the understanding of your mind and conceive of a conclusion to the matter that still involves ultimate good, even though the immediate circumstance suggests evil.
Job by persisting in his faith demonstrated that the hope of life in him was stronger than the power of death.
He demonstrated life by not conceding defeat.
His victory was with God, so he stayed with the victor, even when demons would have slayed him on every side.
The way one manages his doubts, his fears, his willingness to give in to the apparition of death in the moment of trial tells us two things. How great that persons conceptuality of God is, and how much of that spirit of God is in them.
2006-08-02 04:16:36 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God wants to show satan how faithful Job was. That faithfulness has a lot of rewards. And that God is the source of all good things, it's not your ability and talents and in fact those also came from Him. He wants us to know that you can't no anything without Him and He's in control.
2006-08-02 04:11:01 · answer #6 · answered by Kath 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fantastic question.
The Problem of Evil in one of its many forms.
If God allowed Job to suffer to prove to the angels and Satan how much Job loved him, would that not make Job into a means for God's ends? Just a pawn to prove God's point...a socialistic character.
Does it not say though in Psalms, that God knows the number of hairs on our heads, and that we were lovingly knit together in our mothers' wombs? These ideas are contradictory - how could God put so much care into his creation to then allow it to be toyed with it to make his point? This argument doesn't make sense.
Another argument is that of free will, and that it was Satan's choice to scourge Job and that it wasn't God's responsibility/fault at all. But, there are instances where Christians/Catholics etc will claim God's intervention, "miracles". Why then, would God choose to intervene in some scenarios, and not in others? Was He incapable of stopping Satan? Certainly not, in His omnipotence. He actively allowed Job to lose his family and health when he could have stepped in.
We cannot presume to opine into the nature of God, why or how He does what he does. This problem has kept me up at night, and has frustrated the hell out of me. I've totally had my mental/spiritual/intellectual wrestling matches with the Creator. In our finite humanity though, how can we expect to comprehend the infinite metaphysicality of the nature of our Creator? We can apprehend certain truths, or pieces of truths, sure. But we cannot expect, or have the pride to assume that we could begin to fully wrap our minds around His purposes.
The story of Job bothers me, as does the fact that 25 million people have died of AIDS in the last 25 years, many of them innocent children. As does the fact that there are murderers and child mollesters roaming free. As does bla bla bla, bla bla bla. The list goes on. This one straightup has no resolution, outside of "well we have to take it on faith" etc. For the intellectual/scholastic Christian/Catholic, this is a difficult task.
2006-08-02 04:17:02 · answer #7 · answered by annetacular 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is a fictional character from a primitive myth. The fact is, if such a supernatural being existed, the real question would be why does he/she/it let all beings suffer? A reasonable person could only conclude that, if god exists, then god is a sadist who delights in seeing his/her/its creation suffer.
2006-08-02 04:09:55 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Job is probably the most ancient old testament antetype of Jesus (a Christ-like figure).
God allows Satan to do his worst to him. (Ditto for Jesus)
Job suffers gracefully, even when taunted by people he loves. (Jesus suffered gracefully)
No matter what happens to Job, he remains God's true friend and servant. (Ditto for Jesus)
His friends dessert him. (The apostles desserted Jesus)
His family is killed. (John the baptist was Jesus' cousin. John was beheaded. All but one of the apostles were martyred)
He suffered all manner of painful physical torture (Jesus did, too)
He endured till the end and never quit. (Ditto for Jesus)
All was restored to him, plus a bonus.
(Jesus got his life and his body back via the resurrection. As a bonus, all power in heaven and earth was given to Jesus, as well)
There's lots more, but this is a good start.
2006-08-02 05:02:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
To win a bet with Satan...nice huh? Yeah that's what I want a God who gambles on my faith.
Another example of the mass retardation called religion.
2006-08-02 04:07:33 · answer #10 · answered by Perry L 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋