Was G-d so confident with Job when he let Satan test him so harshly? I also wonder personally, am I living through now the same experience that Job had? Why?
Thank you for your very interesting question. The Torah works on many levels. On one level, we are promised that doing good will be rewarded, and only those who do bad will suffer. On that level of understanding, Job’s claims are unanswerable. G-d tells his friends that he is right, and they had no business criticizing him.
There is a deeper level to the Torah, and to our service to G-d. On that level, G-d can test someone to see if he is ready and willing to serve G-d out of love, beyond any reward. This is the level that our father Abraham achieved. And the truth is that there is a greater, an infinitely greater, reward for a person willing to live on that level. Such a person forms a relationship with G-d based on mutual love and closeness.
Our Sages teach that Job was one of the greatest servants of G-d who ever lived – on the first level, the level of reward and punishment. They call this serving G-d out of fear, meaning based on consequences. Because of his success, Job was given a tremendous opportunity: to rise to the next level. This is the part of the story about the Satan, who is after all a servant of G-d. If Job had succeeded, he would have become like one of our Forefathers.
However, we see that Job did not succeed on that level. His whole posture of complaint shows that he really didn’t understand any level but the one he was on. And at the end, after G-d speaks to him directly, he expresses regret for his harsh words.
On the personal level: It’s always very hard to know exactly why particular things happen to us. Although sometimes we can perceive a connection to events, even with all the places that our Sages said, “If one does such-and-so, this-and-that will be the result”, usually (almost always) the precise causes and effects are a mystery to us.
But Jews are children of our Forefather Abraham, and on our level we can appreciate our relationship to G-d as one of love. If we try to feel that love, and strengthen it, we can know that what G-d sends us is certainly going to be the very best thing for us, even when we don’t know all the details. As a child can trust his wiser parents, we can grow in trust and love of G-d. Times of suffering can actually be the times when we come more into contact with our usually buried love. “Mighty waters can never extinguish our love…” (Song of Songs Ch. 8 )
Best wishes for true success,
Michoel Reach