Job's question

  The Old Testament comes close to an answer for the problem of evil in the book of Job. Here was a wealthy man who was good, and Satan asked God to tempt him. Satan sometimes is the cause of many of the ills of good people. God said: You may touch his flesh, but you may not touch his soul. And poor Job lost all of his flock and all of his children. The only thing that God left him was Mrs. Job, and she said, 'Curse God and die.' The consolers came, or rather the counselors, three of them. They gave every explanation possible to Job. Job was not satisfied with them; he asked questions: Why was I born? Why was I ever nestled at my mother's breast? Why did I ever see the light of day? Then God appears. Now if God were a Broadway dramatist, he would have answered all the questions of Job and made the answers click. But what does God do? God asks Job questions. 'Where were you when I laid the foundations of earth? Upon what are its bases grounded? Who laid the cornerstone? Where is the hiding place of darkness? Out of whose womb came the ice?    The frost from heaven, have you engendered it? Can you make the evening star to rise upon the children of men? Can you send forth your voice, and will thunders and lightnings go forth and come back to you and say to you, here we are?' When God finished asking Job questions, Job understood that the questions of God were more satisfying than the answers of men. As a mouse eating piano keys could not understand why anyone should sit at a stool and play Tchaikovsky, so the human mind cannot comprehend God's ways. God did say to Job about the counselors-and let that always be a lesson to them-offer some sacrifices to make up for their stupid answers.