If while walking around town you help an elderly woman cross the street, well then good for you. You just did a good deed. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Now what do you want? You expect to be bestowed with a million dollars or some grand reward because you did what was ethically expected of you by society? Some people have a ridiculous misconception that whenever they do a good deed they deserve to be rewarded. If modern society’s inner workings were run off of the concept that every time someone does a good deed and/or acts ethically they get a reward, then ethics wouldn’t exist at all. People would do good deeds purely for selfish reasons and therefore, all of the just and righteous people would be, on the inside, self-absorbed self-involved jerks. Or on the flipside people would only act ethically to escape from the possible punishment of acting evil. I would like to believe that people act ethically because they know it for a fact as the right thing to do. That in the environment in which they were raised, in their culture, society, etc. that when they are in that situation when an older woman needs help crossing the street, or they see someone getting mugged in an alley, or even passes by a homeless man that they will help the woman cross the road, call the cops or intervene, and hand the homeless man some of the loose change in their pockets.
I believe humans need to act ethically even if faced with punishment. In a real life assessment of good deed leads to punishment a good example is by taking the time to help that woman cross the street could have you end up late to an appointment, saving a man from a mugging in whatever form could end up with physical harm upon yourself, and if you give your change to the homeless man you might not have enough to feed the parking meter for your car. Even with this possible retribution that can come out of doing a good deed it is still important to carry out good deeds. Should all of humanity live in fear of helping one another? Of course not! Bad things are bound to happen to everyone, good or bad. By doing good deeds people reinforce positive concepts such as karma and kabbalism (the Jewish concept of giving goodness to everyone you meet so in heaven you can all bask in eternal goodness).
In the Book of Job, Satan coerces G-d into punishing Job, a righteous man, to see if Job will commit a sin by cursing G-d for his misfortune. It is crazy that G-d, who is described in the Bible as a merciful and loving G-d would punish a good man purely for the sake of a test of faith. If Job were an evil man and committed sins daily I would find no moral quandary with G-d’s actions. It must be reinforced that G-d is not human and his actions cannot be judged the same way a human can be. I believe that G-d is neither good nor evil. He just is, and his actions are beyond our understanding of the Book of Job. As far as G-d is concerned, there is a higher plan and a greater purpose for everything G-d does. It is impossible to inquire further and further speculation will bring no one closer to the truth.
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