God, Satan, & Job

                    Today in class, we read Part 1 of the book of Job. The book of Job is a story about a man who had everything. He had a wife, seven sons and three daughters. "He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses and many servants," all of which God blessed him with. Because of these blessings given to him by God, Job "was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil," which God clearly must have known since He is all-knowing. However, in the story, God and Satan made a bet on the man's faith, therefore they decided to torture the living hell out of the man for no reason. The whole story behind the bet was that Satan told God that once God took away everything from Job, Job would curse his name. Little by little, God began to take away Job's possessions. After this, Satan afflicted Job with sores from head to toe. He lived with the pain for seven nights and seven days until he finally cursed the day of his birth. The story of Job relates, but also differs from the other stories from the Bible that we have read. This story relates to the story of Abraham in the sense that both men were obedient and feared God, as they should. In both stories, both men suffered because God was testing their faith and loyalty to Him. However, in the story of Abraham, Abraham is relieved from his suffering, whereas in the story of Job, God continued to inflict suffering upon Job. This idea of faith being tested is also present in the story of Adam and Eve. In the Old Testament, God is always testing the faith of His people. Whether it's because He's insecure or because He wants to reassure us that He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, God will continue to test our faith to Him.