The story of Job?

Job had a character flaw that required fixing. The devil is the unwitting pawn to accomplish God's will.

It's not true that God destroyed Job's life over a bet with the devil or to test Job's faith.

The Story of Job happened about 400 years before God's Law or Moses Law was given to the Jews in 1400BC, eg EXODUS.20:5 = the father's sin/evil-deed and its consequences would befall on the sons down to the 4th generation. So, Job was unaware that his sons' sins/evil-deeds would not have caused him to lose all his hard-earned prosperity(which he feared most - JOB.3:25) that had been earned by being "a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil."(JOB.1:8) His ignorance caused him to sin against God by making a vile offering to God(JOB.1:5) that served to "insure" his prosperity against the future likely sins/evil-deeds of his spoiled sons. That was why God permitted Satan to afflict Job and his family with death and suffering.

....... His wife reacted by losing faith in God.(JOB.2:9) Job did not = he kept the faith = was eventually delivered and saved from hell.

Later, Job demanded God to give him an answer as to why he was being made to suffer. God castigated Job and he repented of another ignorant sin. For not losing faith, God eventually rewarded Job with double of what he had lost.

Sometimes, we may not know why we are being afflicted with suffering. It is usually self-inflicted by our own ignorance, foolishness and sins/evil-deeds/law-breaking. We should never blame God/Jesus and lose faith in Him.

....... Eg it is a sin for Christians to buy optional life insurance. They should be like Job, ie trust/believe in God and His Word = "a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil" = blessed by God with a good and long life on earth.(DEUT.28, ROMANS.2:5-11) So, it's no wonder that some Christians who have bought life insurance got terminal cancer and suffered. Trusting in God/Jesus precludes trusting in life insurance or other non-mandatory insurance or trusting even in the buying of lotteries.

Imagine a Christian being able to buy insurance for eternal life/heaven from God or a false prophet/pastor or maybe even from the devil. What happens to salvation unto eternal life through faith or trust in Jesus Christ/God-in-the-flesh.?

.

Relax. It hasn't happened since then.

Job was a very early, biblical "type" of Christ. God permitted Satan to wear himself out, attempting to totally destroy Job, but Job never lost the faith and ultimately prevailed, with God finally restoring all things to Job, and Satan skulking away, in frustration and failure. Satan should have learned from this, and he might have avoided an even bigger defeat, at the hands of Jesus Christ. But Satan's inordinate pride prevented him from seeing clearly, so he eventually lost everything and is now merely a relatively powerless vagabond, wandering about the earth, seeking the ruin of souls.

Is that all you took from that story?

What exactly was the bet? Was their some sort of wager?

It appears to me that God tricked Satan into helping him make a critical point that people even today still struggle with: bad things happen to good people.

The story of Job nukes the prevalent teaching (especially by prosperity gospel preachers) that if you are a good person, expect good things to always come your way, and if something bad happens to you, you must have done something bad to deserve it.

Without that story, the rich would think that since God has blessed them financially, they must be in good graces with God. And the innocent, but destitute would be hopelessly despondent erroneously wondering what they must have done to deserve their horrific situation. People ignore the story at their peril. It appears the rich man in Lk 16:19-31 did just that. And Lazarus it appears was sort of like a Job.

You have no fear of God, and therefore unfortunately lack the wisdom (Pr 9:10) to truly understand the story of Job.

Job was God on earth as God has been many times (not only as Jesus) the devil wanted to ruin Job to see if He would stay as Faithful to His Father above without anything. That is why God above said do not kill Him. God above had Faith in Job His Son on earth

I think God is in a strait so far as the devil is concerned. If by rout the devil has somehow arrived at Heaven's door then that is quite a loss in elevation. He does employ Job badly because it is under duress. It cannot be Heaven with the devil present. I think what God really needed was a few faithful dragons. Did you know that dragons can be very faithful? Oh yes.

I dunnno, was out of workforce for a while

It's actually an important story about the ancient Jewish people's struggle with the questions of divine justice, arbitrary suffering, and whether the universe is governed under a moral order.

It shares strong themes in common with several stories that were somewhat common in the ancient world, and is likely a Hebrew reinterpretation of one or more of these stories.

Jewish scholarship generally considers it an allegorical tale, not a factual, historical account. It's filled with idiosyncratic literary patterns common in ancient wisdom literature.