Why does God allow Job to suffer when he already knows the outcome of the whole situation?

Question

Why does god need to have people suffer in order to teach them something? I thought he was omnipotent. He can use other methods and get the exact same result.

Answer 1

He had to. He made a bet.

Answer 2

Dear Friend,

In the book of Job, Satan the deceiver says to God:Job1:9 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.

Satan implied that Job did not have a real love for God, and that he only worshipped him because of the many blessings the lord had bestowed upon him,

But it was not god who afflicted Job: Job1:12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

So Satan was the one that afflicted Job and not GOD. God allowed this because he knew Job was faithful and he loved him greatly, and in challenging this, Satan was once more testing gods authority.

But after Satan had been proved wrong the lord blessed Job even more than he had previously.

10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver [a] and a gold ring.

12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so he died, old and full of years.

God Bless

Answer 3

The same reason GOD allows us to suffer. So that we can learn things we need to learn. Suffering is prolonged pain. Pain is to alert us that there is a problem that needs to be taken care of. The greatest lessens I have learned in my life were through suffering. I would not wish to revisit them but I wouldn't trade them for anything.
As far as the story of Job. The point is that GOD gives and GOD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.

Shalom.

Answer 4

Just because he KNOWS what Job will choose to do doesn't mean he made the decision for him. God still let Job choose whether or not to do the will of God, but God just happened to already know what he was going to choose.
It's like taking an easy A class in college. You KNOW you're going to breeze through it, but that doesn't mean you just DON'T take the class! Make sense? lol..

Answer 5

i think God ultimatly knew that this "story" would end up in the Bible...and He let it to be used as an example to all of us that even during suffering, God should be praised.

rememinds me of that song:

"Blessed be the Name
on the road marked with suffering,
though there's pain in the the offering,
Blessed be the name!

Every Blessing You pour out
i'll turn back with praise.
when the darkness closes in Lord,
still i will say:

Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be is name
Blessed the name of the Lord
Blessed wonderful name

You give and take away
You give and take away
still my heart will choose to say
blessed be the name..."

Answer 6

God knows the outcome, but people don't. It's a learning process, a test of faith.

May God Bless you.

Answer 7

Great question.
Here's my what if's...
What if God used Job to show others what suffering really is.
What if God used Job to give others strength in times of heartache.
What if Job was rewarded greatly in heaven for all of his suffering and he knew how many people were blessed by his life?
What if?

Answer 8

Parables and metaphors teach use valuable lessons. The main point (to me, you could maybe get something else) is that although we have pain, someone has and will have it worse than you (i.e. Job, etc.). But somehow keep faith.

Answer 9

Being God, he knew the outcome of all situations... it makes you wonder why he dithered about for so many thousands of years before finally sending Jesus down to sort it all out. It would have saved a lot of hassle if Jesus and Adam were the same person.

Answer 10

First, it's a fable, designed to illustrate the stupidity of assuming someone's misfortune is always earned and deserved. The ancient author was obviously dealing with the Babylonian, Chaldean, Akkadian (we're not really sure how old the story is) version of Pharisees by creating a story to illustrate the wrong-headedness of assuming all good or ill fortune flows from righteousness or sin. Job had not sinned, but all his friends of course assumed he had and began telling him how to undo the mess he'd gotten himself in. To this God replys, "Who is this that darkens counsel without wisdom?" And that's the point. Sitting here on earth and presuming to know God's mind is unwise. Looking at someone's situation and presuming to know they deserve their fate is unwise. But people still to this day tend to assume that when bad things happen to good people it's because of a secret sin or because they "lack faith" i.e. their misfortune is the result fo some personal defect so we needn't sympathize with them and worry about the same happening to us beause we are morally superior.

Look at how people are reacting to Anna Nicole Smith's death. It's her fault because she:

1. Used drugs.
2. Was overweight.
3. Drank too much.
4. Lived immorally.
etc.etc.

People try to come up with a reason why it couldn't happen to them, why they won't die young, by blaming the person who did, instead of embracing our humanity and feeling sympathy for her mom, for the little baby girl who's in the middle of the mess.

That's what the author of Job was trying to tell us, i.e. lift people up when they're down instead of kicking them and blaming them and assuming we know what's going on in their lives.

Answer 11

It is merely a teaching story. "Look at faithful Job! No matter how much his life sucked, he didn't curse our God, nor did he go find another that might make his life better!"