I am so glad to be finished with Job. I always feel like I'm slogging through this book, even though it's shorter than a lot of the books in the Bible.
As I think about why it's not a favorite, I'm a little stumped.
First, I thought it was because there's not much narrative, as there is in, say, the Gospels or Judges. But that's not quite true. There's a definite story in Job: He's a great guy; Satan persuades God to test his mettle by afflicting him hideously; a bunch of his friends show up to comfort him and nearly talk his ear off; in the end, God restores everything Job has lost. That's a narrative.
Then, I thought it was because there's not much dialogue. Well, there's not much back-and-forth repartee. Most of the book is supposed to be speeches of those three friends. Plus, there is some definite interchange between Job and his wife; between Satan and God; between Job and the friends; and ultimately between Job and God.
Maybe it's the message of Job that bothers me. As I see it, the book deals with the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" And I think it's a two-part answer: 1) You, Man, are not going to get an answer; and 2) God has your situation and everything else in creation under His control. I don't think anyone really likes that answer. Yet, it is the very nugget of faith; something that has sustained people who believe in God through the millennia. It certainly is the bedrock of my own faith.
The long passages attributed to Job and his friends just work through all the possibilities of why bad things happen to good people. It occurred to me this time as I read Job that this sort of mirrors what most of us do when we're troubled. We, too, try to figure out if it's because we sinned, or because we're too proud, or because God is capricious, or whatever. Anyone who's spent a sleepless night wrestling with a problem can relate to the endlessness of the internal turmoil.
The friends raise an interesting point. Their thesis seems to be that the only reason Job would be suffering so much is that he must have sinned. They are working from the assumption that if you actually are sinless, you will be blessed, and vice versa--if you sin, you will suffer the consequences. This logic would seem to imply that one could be sinless. Anyone who takes the notion of sin seriously, however, knows firsthand that it's probably impossible to be sinless. That's why we praise God for offering us salvation from sin through faith in Christ.
I noted that chapter 31, Job's final lament, includes a listing of human sins that he has not committed. We never do find out what Job's sins are; probably the same quiet, inner sins that we all commit. But that final list paints a picture of the inverse of godly living.
I think Job is a tour de force of Hebrew poetry. It has stanza after stanza of parallel thoughts, and it's packed with imagery and metaphors. It struck me for the first time that the behemoth and leviathan that are discussed in God's speech in chapters 40-41 could also be metaphors for human troubles or for Evil. I especially like the passages that describe God's grandeur in nature. The next time I read Job, I'm going to take a little more time as I read the poetry and savor the language more thoroughly.
I also like Job's declarations of his faith. "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Or, as we know it from the King James Version, "The LORD giveth and the LORD taketh away: Blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)
Or: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." (Job 13:15) "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon ghe earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." (Job 19:25-26).
And, Job 28:28: "The fear of the LORD--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding."
One last thought. The voices of Job's friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu, are aggravating. They come to comfort Job (which is admirable), but they keep yammering about how he really must have done something awful to deserve this suffering. They just remind me of short-sighted "religious" people. They aren't exactly wrong in what they say, but they are misguided and unhelpful. Worst of all, they come across as so self-righteous. Ugh. (Note to friends: Please let me know if I ever do this.)
No comments:
Post a Comment