Job 1

Why do bad things happen to good people?

I saved the book of Job to read it among the philosophical writings, even though it breaks up the chronological reading. It is commonly accepted as being one of the oldest books of the Bible, perhaps even written before Genesis was written.

Who was Job? A incredibly wealthy man. He had thousands of animals - camels, sheep, and donkeys. I think this would make him wealthy by even our modern standards. That said, the wealth Is not diversified or insured. Rather, his wealth is focused in animals which can die.

Job is undoubtedly righteous, even God says he is blameless. He has 10 children, 7 sons and 3 daughters. By contemporary and modern standards, I think he has a life that many would envy.

Job 1 describes something very unusual and I think don't see again until Revelations - a heavenly court. God is surrounded by heavenly beings. We can probably assume Christ is there, although it is not specified. It also mentions Satan, who is not specified by name again until the New Testament.

Satan comes before God in the heavenly court. God brags to Satan about Job's righteousness. Here again, this is something we should want - how great it is for Job that God does this.

Satan uses the occasion to accuse God (it is your protection that made him rich) and to accuse Job (if he lost his wealth, he would curse you). God knows what Satan has in mind and then agrees that Satan can test Job, but he cannot hurt him physically.

Back on earth, 4 separate disasters come and destroy Job's life as he knows it. Raiders come and take away his animals, fire falls from the sky and kills more animals, and a tornado kills his children. Two disasters are human driven and two disasters are natural evil.

Job is a good person. So, why did bad things happen to him? The answer - God allowed Satan to do four different bad things which employed both human and natural instruments of destruction. But God set limits which Satan had go follow as Job himself was not physically hurt.

Job laments his life, but does not blame God.