[zeek]

Originally Posted by Igzy

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a load of silliness.

God neither becomes a demon nor masquerades as one.

What Job is about is God stripping Job of everything but God himself. No matter what happens, God remains good, and if you cling to God you will eventually experience ultimate, infinite, eternal good. But if you fall for the line of the short-sighted unbelievers who blanche at the stripping process, you will be deceived and miss out.

Under no circumstances are we to view God as a demon. Jesus didn't, and he suffered more than anyone.

We are allowed to ask "why" though. As in "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

God knows better than us. The sooner we figure that out the sooner we'll drop these man-centered interpretations of Job.

Don't get me wrong. If what happened to Job happened to me I'd be screaming about it, too. But eventually the correct response is "Holy is the Lord, Amen!" That's just the way it is.

Here's what the book says:

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. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

Satan says to God "stretch out your hand... and he will curse your face. The Lord answers, " Very well... he is in your hands."

How can we explain this close association between the Lord and Satan? Satan says if you stretch out your hand, and God answers "very well" as if agreeing to strike Job, but then says "he is in your hands". It's as if God's hands are synonymous with Satan's.

As awareness has pointed out, how could the omnisicent Lord not already know what was in Job's heart? At the very least, we must admit that God allows evil. But if we are not to lapse into Gnostic dualism, how can we not but admit that God, the ultimate source of everything must also be the ultimate source of evil?