Why do the right thing if you only are punished for doing so?
The idea that good deeds never go unrewarded and evil doings will always end in punishment is an idea that has repeated throughout history for as long as we can remember. This is an idea that our society has tried to uphold with things like judicial systems and laws to life an equal living space. Nature however does not follow fairness. There is much unfairness to nature, being born lower on the food chain, a natural disaster coming your way, or even a larger predator stealing your prey with no power over the situation. So why is fairness important in human society?
I think that this system is important because it provides for a better flow of interaction within the community. Arguments and anger at unfair scenarios between individuals can usually lead to deadly or harmful consequences for them and the people around them. With rightful punishment to who was in the wrong can settle many quarrels and prevent them from getting out of control. Fairness gives peace of mind to the people in a community.
Good deeds in a society should be rewarded for it encourages more of that good deed to be repeated. If you want an animal to do a trick whenever you say a certain phrase, you will reward them little by little every time they follow the preferred action. This repeated process would ingrain a reward system in their mind so they would repeat that action more often. Good actions being rewarded would encourage people to providing more for a society. Rewarding good behavior would keep the majority to follow the rules and would allow for a more peaceful nation.
However, there are some cases where good deeds go punished while the bad ones have no consequences. This is just how some scenarios may play out. So, if this is a possibility, then why should humans bother in the first place?
Even though good deeds may not always be rewarded, and bad deed may not always be punished, they should still be followed a majority of the time. This is because having the majority of people upholding these values provides for a more calm and peaceful society that is beneficial to those who participate and disadvantageous to those who do not. Having a moral compass is beneficial a majority of the time and is what separates us as humans from a savage animalistic society.
Perhaps God allowed Job’s punishment to convey the idea that the world is not going to always be fair to those who follow it. Providing this point shows his people the reality that even if they follow a good moral compass, they will not 100% be safe from bad events happening to them. It goes to show that God wanted to demonstrate the idea of nature’s unfairness is always in place, yet man can still persevere through it.