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Why Did God Allow Satan to Afflict Job, Since Job Was “Blameless”?

Some argue that it was wrong for God to allow Satan to afflict Job, since Job was “blameless.” However, there is a very simple answer to this alleged problem in the Bible.

Scriptures – Why Did God Allow Satan to Afflict Job, Since Job Was “Blameless”?

Job Was Blameless – Job 1:1

was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 1:1

God Allowed Satan to Afflict Job – Job 1:12

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Job 1:12

The Answer – Why Did God Allow Satan to Afflict Job, Since Job Was “Blameless”?

God Has the Right to Afflict Anyone

That Job was “blameless” before God has nothing to do with whether God had the right to afflict him. The message of the book of Job is that because God is God, he can perform actions that we do not fully understand.

In the book of Job, God was not punishing—or, allowing Satan to punish—Job because of sin, but rather because of his own inscrutable purposes. In Job 40:6-9ff, God essentially tells Job that Job simply has no right to question God’s purposes for having Job suffer because Job is not God. God has the right to do whatever he, in his infinite wisdom, decides to do, and it is never wrong for God to do what he has decided to do.

6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 7 “Dress for action[a] like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? 9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
Job 40:6-9