Job 1:1-12
God Allows the evil one to Enter Job's Life
1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
4 His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
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 now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
John 9:1-3
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Job 42:1-7
Job Comments to God
1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.
God allows pain, suffering, disasters, and death to happen on earth...If you believe that God is in control, and that God is All Knowing, then all the negative things we see happen on earth are known by God and that He allows them...
He allowed the evil one to enter into Job's life, and when He allowed this Job suffered...He allowed the blind man to be blind from the day of his birth...So the man did not see the Light of Day until he met Jesus...And these things are very hard for us to understand...Why does an All Knowing, All LOVING God, who has Complete Understanding allow these things to happen?...
But negative things do happen on earth and we are hurt, we suffer, we grieve, and we have pain over them...We might add, if God is LOVE, then just by allowing these negative things to happen, doesn't mean He isn't in control or that He doesn't LOVE us...If God Completely Understands why Job suffered, and why the blind boy, and now blind man would go without sight all his life - then God has a reason for these things...Jesus tells us that "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."...
As we look at these things we do not understand them, but God does understand them...And part, if not most of the answer to the pain, the suffering, the grief, the disasters, and to death is that God does allow them - because we distinctly see it in the Book of Job...One of the lessons we learn early on in Job, is that God is going to allow pain and suffering in Job's life...So, one of the many lessons in Job is that God allows pain, suffering, grief, disasters, and death to happen to us throughout our lives...We may not like it, and I am sure Job did not like it, but God allowed pain and suffering and grief to happen to the blameless and upright and good man Job...
And Job kept the faith, he clung to his faith as best he could with all that had and was happening to him...We might not understand the pain and sufferings of Job, but God allowed it...And I might add, I believe one day we will understand as Job understood in the end...