Doesn’t Yahweh Almighty God know everything, even before things happen? If so, why hasn’t he stopped Satan from causing trouble in the world?
Yahweh God knows everything; You can easily see the future and know all the possibilities. So he could have seen the problems that Satan would cause everyone. So why didn’t God stop Satan from doing harm? Well, before answering this question, I want to emphasize this point:
Yahweh tells us what we need to know. The Bible is oriented to needs, not wants. We do not need to know absolutely everything even if we want to know everything. The first sin committed by Adam and Eve was caused in part by our curious natures: they wanted to know things and be like God. But knowing everything would make us God, therefore, we would not depend on Him. Yahweh wants to be our loving Father to guide us in every step we take. Knowing each “why” would allow us to live independently of Him.
Okay, let’s move on to my answer. I think the reason Yahweh hasn’t stopped Satan from causing trouble is because of the gift called free will.
God gives every spiritual being and human being free will, the power to make our own moral decisions, to decide whether to obey or disobey God. He allows everyone to exercise this free will. Likewise, He allows Satan to exercise this free will, but only under His permissive will. God allows the devil to exercise free will with only limited power, under His watch. Otherwise, Satan could cause much more drastic trouble and trouble. For example, Satan could harm Job only after God allowed it and only after God specified to what extent (Job 1-2). Satan cannot do anything without God’s permission.
While allowing Satan to exercise his free will, God also allows us to exercise our own free will. The problem is us: we have abused this gift of free will; Instead of using it for good, we have used it for bad. We are the ones who have chosen to live apart from God. We are the ones who brought trouble on our own heads. We have done many things that God forbids us to do, such as lying, having premarital sex, shoplifting, and cheating on our spouses. God doesn’t like this one bit, but he’s allowing it for the moment, because he gave us free will. He keeps his word. Taking away Satan’s freedom, and taking ours away, would actually make His gift of free will meaningless, null and void.
Yahweh has a purpose and a reason behind everything he does, even as he allows Satan to cause limited problems. Even if we don’t understand His ways, we can be sure that He has the ultimate control over everything. God says that his thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55: 8-9). Who can possibly fully understand it? We can’t even fully understand ourselves, much less our Life Giver!
Someday, perhaps, Yahweh will share with us some things that we have always been curious about. Right now, our responsibility is to live by the standards that God has set for us. It is completely up to us if we follow His commandments. He gave us free will; we have the options, we have the power to choose. We have the power to choose between good and evil, to choose God or Satan, but we have chosen evil and Satan over good and God most of the time. It is not necessary that we know or understand everything in order to obey Yahweh. Everything we need to know, God has already told us in His Word, the Bible. What He has been waiting for is that we use our free will wisely. When will we start doing it?