Job Accuser

Human Suffering
In the story of Job, the author illustrates human suffering throughout Job’s life. Job is the perfect example of how a Christian should be; his trust and faith in God is immeasurable to any other man. The Accuser is confident that he is able to break Job down so that Job will turn his back against Yahweh. This leads the Accuser to confront God and ask for his permission to test Job. Yahweh grants the Accuser the opportunity to tempt Job’s allegiance to God: “Yahweh said to the Accuser, “Everything he has is in your power, but do not harm his person” (67). The Accuser rids Job of all of his worldly possessions and even goes as far as affecting his health to tempt Job’s faithfulness to Yahweh.
The Accuser indirectly causes
Job to lose everything he has. Job was blessed with numerous amounts of animals, servants, and children. The Accuser caused events to take all of this away all in attempt to make Job curse God. One of these events harmed his children: “Your sons and daughters…and a great wind came from across the desert and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they died…” (67). Even with the tragedy of Job losing his children, he still showed his faithfulness to God. Job’s loyalty and commitment to God in this situation illustrates the type of man he was. Job knows that God has a plan for him and even if it means that he will lose everything that he has, he stands fast in his faith. Job remains faithful, because he knows that God’s Will shall be done.
Even through losing his animals, servants, and children, he did not turn his back on God.
Now, the Accuser realizes the measure of faith this man has in God and decides to ask Yahweh for another attempt to persuade Job to betray God. The Accuser inflicts upon Job a gruesome skin disease affecting his entire body. At this time, Job’s wife is questioning why he continues to remain devout to God. Job’s wife, as many people today would, is advising Job to curse God. She does not understand why God would allow such things as these to happen to someone who is so God-fearing. While at the same time, Job understands this is all a part of God’s Will; he is willing to sacrifice whatever it may be to fulfill His plan.
Furthermore, Job’s friends, hearing of his troubles, come to his aid, but after seeing Job from afar, they assume that he must have done something to make God punish him. His friends are saying that Job has sinned against God and that this is his punishment. In relations to today’s time, Christians often wonder why bad things are happening to them. They are unaware of His plan and believe that God is punishing them for their sins. When in reality, it is not of God’s hand that is causing the suffering; He allows the suffering to take place, because He knows the individual is strong enough to handle
it.
Human suffering is not caused by the hand of God; the story of Job teaches that suffering can be caused by many things. In times of suffering, it is important to remember that God is not allowing the suffering as a form of punishment. God does not permit hardships to incur out of anger, rather out of trust in the strength of Christians and their faith to Him. This story shows that suffering is inflicted by the hand of Satan. Christians should stand fast in their faith to God and trust that His Will shall be done. Also, they should thank God for allowing this suffering to take place in knowing that if God led them to it, He will lead them through it. In the beginning, Job lost everything he had, but he still remained faithful to God, and in doing so, God restored his fortunes to him: “Yahweh made Job more prosperous in the latter part of his life than in the former” (92).