>"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil"
- Job 1:1
>"The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”"
- Job 1:8
>"So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”"
- Job 1:9-11
>And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
- Job 1:12
[job then gets tortured by satan, but]
>"In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."
- Job 1:22
[and after the ordeal, ]
>"Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys."
- Job 42:12
tl;dr: god tests us.
"satan" as a word means "accuser", he is an angel of god who's purpose is to test us. power has been given to him by god to carry out his task. but the bible tells us what the solution to the test is !
it's to trust in god, and resist temptation, and we will be rewarded for it greatly.
and yes, this ultimately arises because we have free will. this means the free will to choose to be with god (all that is good) or to be without god (a place where only evil exists- hell). god does not force us to be with him (to have it good), but he is the sovereign of creation and sets the laws, so he decrees what is a path to success and what a path to failure.
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