Job

I have to tell you, I have a problem with this book. It appears to me that God (who we all know is just and loving) seems to have allowed a good and decent man to suffer horribly simply to win a bet with Satan. Does this seem to you to be out of character for God? When God heard the accusation from Satan, why didn’t God simply tell Satan to take a walk? He didn’t give Job an answer as to why he suffered, why would he have to answer Satan’s challenge?

Here is the charge that Satan made concerning Job.

Job 1:9 Satan says to God, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” 

Satan accuses Job of only worshipping God because God has blessed him. There are many who follow the “prosperity preachers” in the hope that if they “pray and pay” they too will become wealthy. I imagine that in time many will leave these groups disappointed and disillusioned and never attend Christian activities again. I wonder what the turnover rate is among these groups. My guess is that it is higher than other churches and the leaders must have to constantly recruit new members.

Job 1:12 Satan says, “But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

This is where I would have hoped that God would tell Satan to take a walk.

Job 2:7-9 Satan afflicted Job with painful sores . . . His wife said to him, “. . . curse God and die.”

Thanks a lot. Why not just kick him when he is down. Do you think the marriage survived?

Job 2:13 Have you ever looked forward to someone visiting you and once they arrived were disappointed? Well, Job’s friends came to visit him and for seven days they just sat there, saying nothing. Today, Jews who visit those who are grieving, sit silently. They do not speak unless the grieved initiate a conversation.  This is called sitting shiva (seven, because it lasts seven days). Here is what the Jewish Virtual Library says about this period.

Shiva is observed by parents, children, spouses and siblings of the deceased, preferably all together in the deceased's home. Shiva begins on the day of burial and continues until the morning of the seventh day after burial. Mourners sit on low stools or the floor instead of chairs, do not wear leather shoes, do not shave or cut their hair, do not wear cosmetics, do not work, and do not do things for comfort or pleasure, such as bathe, have sex, put on fresh clothing, or study Torah (except Torah related to mourning and grief). Mourners wear the clothes that they tore at the time of learning of the death or at the funeral. Mirrors in the house are covered. Prayer services are held where the shiva is held, with friends, neighbors and relatives making up the minyan (10 people required for certain prayers).

So sitting Shiva comes from Job’s friends. The problem with Job’s friends is that they should have remained silent. The friends told Job that he MUST have done something terribly wrong in order to have deserved these terrible tragedies. They believed in what is known as the Just World theory. This theory says that the world is just and fair and if you had bad things happen to you, you must have done something wrong.

The theory popularly appears in the English language in various figures of speech that imply guaranteed negative reprisal, such as: "You got what was coming to you", "What goes around comes around", "chickens come home to roost", and "You reap what you sow". 

Bad things do happen to good people. The world, if you hadn’t noticed by now, is not JUST. Life is not always FAIR. I suggest that you go to the Question and Answer section and read the article: Why do bad things happen to us?

Even the disciples of Jesus believed in this theory. In John 9:1-3 Jesus healed a blind man and the disciples asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” Jesus said, “Neither.”

Job 3:11 Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?

Scripture who was so frustrated, angry and scared that he wished he was dead. Moses and Elijah were also in such an emotional state. 

Job demands two things in Job 13:21-22. He says, “Withdraw your hand from me,” (stop beating up on me); and “Let me speak and you reply.” Job wanted relief from his suffering and an audience with God to discuss this situation.

Job 19:25 “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.”

Job is certain that death is not the end for us.

In chapter 29 Job defends his life, telling how he has always done good, caring for the blind, the hungry, and the fatherless.

Job 36:26 “How great is God-beyond our understanding.”

This sounds as if Job is withdrawing his question. This idea is repeated in 42:3 where he says, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

Job 38 finds God stepping into the conversation. He asks, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation” (v 4). 

He goes on to mention many natural occurrences which man cannot understand. The point being made is just as the natural world is not understandable by man, neither is God.

Job 40:2, 8 The Lord said to Job: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

God is challenging Job. “Who are you, to question me?”

In the end Job did receive double of what he lost. I find it offensive when people try to defend God by citing Job 42:12 “The Lord blessed the latter part of job’s life more than the first.” Job was given more than he lost, double the animals and double the children. But you can’t replace one child with another. Imagine if someone murdered one of your children and then said, “Here, I brought you these two homeless children to replace the one I murdered. Is that OK? Are we even now?” Job never got an answer to his question. Rather than a theological explanation he got a spiritual experience.  Don’t we all have unanswered questions? Is it all right if God knows something that you don't?