Job Series

Job

Job was faithful to God, even when he lost absolutely everything that had been important to him.

This legend concerns Job, a prosperous man of outstanding piety. Satan acts as an agent provocateur to test whether or not Job's piety is rooted merely in his prosperity. However, Job still refuses to curse God when faced with the appalling loss of his possessions, children, and health.

Why is the story of Job important, and why did God put it in the Bible in the first place? I think there are three answers to these questions.

There is an important reason that the Book of Job is in the Bible:

1. because the virtual community of faith, in this case, the Hebrew community of faith, acknowledges that innocent suffering exists. Job represents innocent suffering.

2. This legend concerns the man called Job, a prosperous man of outstanding piety. However, Job still refuses to curse God when faced with the appalling loss of his possessions, children, and health. Satan acts as an agent provocateur1to test whether or not Job's piety is rooted merely in his prosperity.

3. It is vital to Jews that they make good choices in their lives and try to relieve suffering. Jews may turn to the Book of Job in times of suffering, where God allows Satan to test Job. Satan suggests that Job would not worship God if God did not protect him.

4. Many of us think that the Book of Job is meant to teach us patience. However, if we read the Book of Job, we do not read much about patience. The Book of Job is forty-two chapters long, with a small introductory section of two chapters and an even smaller conclusion that is only one chapter. The vast bulk of the book, thirty-nine chapters, is poetic, and I consider that poem the actual Book of Job. It is a long poem, in verse, with striking and overwhelming images. And all of those images, all those lines, are about lament and Even if we have not read the Book of Job, we know that name. Job: the very name evokes suffering in us. The mere name seems to mean innocent and undeserved suffering.

5. Moreover, there is no example of patience. In Job 3:3, Job says, "Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man-child is conceived.'" And then, at Job 6:11, Job asks, "What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?" At Job 10:1, Job cries out, "I loathe my life," and therefore, "I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul."

1. His three friends, trying to offer advice and justification, end up making things much worse. They try to justify God, and they fail. Job knows that they fail, too. No words, no justification, no answer serves to satisfy Job, or the reader, for that matter.

2. Job, understandably, becomes quite impatient. He demands an audience with God: "Oh, that I knew where to find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments" (Job 23:3-4). In chapter 31, Job makes his case, listing all the sins he might have done to merit such suffering, but he is innocent of them.

3. The Book of Job is not much about patience at all. It is about endurance. In the New Testament, when the Book of James talks about suffering, James 5:11 cites the "endurance" of Job – not his patience.

4. There is no way I can adequately describe Job's pain and suffering, just as there is probably no way for us to describe innocent suffering, whether that suffering is being experienced by our friends or by us. Words rarely explain suffering. Just ask Job's friends.

5. Job suffers. Can there be anything worse than pouring out our pain to God and getting no answer? Can there be anything worse than lamenting to God and hearing nothing in reply?

6. Yes, there is something worse! Job suffers. Job does pour out his lamentation to God, and—here is the worse thing—God does reply, but he replies in sarcasm and almost anger!

7. What? Yes, Job suffers, and then God, God himself, as if to add to Job's suffering, rails back at Job. Here is Job 38:

8. Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,

I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth?

Tell me if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!