“Why doesn’t everyone want to do right, Grandpa?” asked Alice. “It is better to be good, because good things happen if we are good and bad things happen when we are bad.”

“That is how it ends up,” Grandpa agreed, “but many bad people seem to have a good time, and good people can have a lot of trouble. Let me tell you the story of

Master Job

(From Job)

There once was a servant boy who lived a long time ago in the land of Uz, and I will call his name Isaac. “Master Job is the kindest, richest, most respected man around,” he boasted to his friends. Isaac knew, for he and his sister, Anna, had been beggars on the street before Master Job had offered them a home. “He always prays and does everything right.”

“He’s like that because he doesn’t have trouble,” said the drunkard’s son.

Was it riches that made Master Job good? In one day of terror, Isaac got a chance to find out.

Raiding bands came upon the oxen and camels, all seven thousand sheep were destroyed by fire, and the master’s great wealth was gone. The news was ringing through the house when a breathless messenger came in. “Master Job, your sons and daughters were having a party at the oldest son’s house today when a terrible wind came and knocked down the house and killed them all!”

Isaac held his breath. All Master Job’s children killed? He had planned a special time of sacrifice and prayer for them tomorrow, for he was a devoted father. In grief the older man tore his mantle and shaved his head. But what were the words he said? “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”* ()

After that life changed in Master Job’s house. No longer were there joyful songs or the bustle of activity. The master was ill with a great disease of boils and the mistress had said, “How can you trust God still? Curse him and die.” Anna had heard it with her own ears.

“Did he?” Isaac asked.

“No, he said that she was foolish and that God sends evil as well as good,” Anna said. “Do you think that is true?”

Isaac didn’t know.

“Look at your good master now!” his friend mocked. “Do you want your life to end up on an ash heap?”

Isaac didn’t. He avoided his master, who sat like a beggar in his own yard, scraping oozing sores. Isaac knew that several of the master’s friends had come to sympathize with him, but he didn’t get near enough to listen. All that was good was gone. How could Master Job keep trusting God now? Maybe he and Anna should leave before everything was destroyed.

Grandpa paused and looked at Alice. “Should they?” he asked. She shook her head. “But it seemed like God had forsaken them,” Grandpa said.

“But after that God gave Job lots more sheep and camels, and more children, too,” Alice said. “It was the devil that made all the trouble, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, God allowed the devil to cause all that trouble to prove something. What was it?”

Alice thought for awhile. “I guess it proved that Job was good because he trusted God, not because he was rich and didn’t have trouble.”

“Yes, and that is why God lets trouble come to us when we want to do right,” Grandpa agreed. “God will prove to you whether you really love Him or not. Will you be able to keep trusting Him when everything seems to go wrong?”

“I hope so,” Alice said. “I will try to remember this story to remind me.”