Question 77: Did YHVH give Job into the hands of Satan to be tempted?

Answer:

"Tempted" is scarcely the word to use in that case. Job was tried or tested. The question was what his motive was in serving YHVH. Satan with his natural doubt about anyone having pure motives, asserted that Job served YHVH only for what he gained by it and that if his property was taken away from him, he would curse YHVH. So, Job was put to the proof, to see what he would do under trial and whether he was really as disinterested as YHVH believed him to be. The object of the author appears to have been to correct, a false view of adversity, which view was prevalent in his time. People had the idea that severe calamities were punishments dealt out by YHVH because of sin. When a man of good moral character therefore, was in trouble, people suspected that he had sinned secretly and that YHVH was punishing him for it. It was often a cruel and unjust suspicion. In writing this description, the author evidently was trying to eradicate it. After reading such a book, a man who saw another in trouble, instead of despising him as a sinner might say, "Perhaps he is being tried as Job was," and so might sympathize instead of blaming him