The Book of Job (Introduction)
The book of Job can be a difficult read. For one thing, it isn’t just poetry, it is Hebrew poetry. And, like any unfamiliar genre or older style of writing, it can be hard to digest. We don’t tend to like to work in our reading.
But it is also about a difficult subject: “Why do bad things happen to (mostly) good people?” That is an age-old conundrum that isn’t just unpleasant to think about—there aren’t any pleasing, simple answers.
And, finally, the book doesn’t just take forever in coming to an answer, it can be argued that a majority of the book’s content is a collection of wrong answers! Who wants to study that much erroneous stuff to get to the truth? Not to mention, it hinders that oh-so-popular practice of quoting a verse or two. What if you are quoting one of the wrong answer parts?
The basic plot of the book is as follows. Job is a man who fears and worships God. He is so reverent that God points him out to Satan, who claims that Job only serves God because he is so blessed. God agrees to let Satan harm Job to prove that his reverence is not self-serving. Job’s possessions are all taken away, his children are all killed(!) and Jobs health is even taken away. But Job refuses to sin or curse God. Three friends of Job show up to comfort him in his grief.
After a while, however, they cannot simply accompany him and hear him grieve over his situation. They feel the need to explain his predicament, to figure out why the bad has happened. They all in turn accuse him of some sin or slight against God, that would cause him to deserve his fate. Job protests his innocence and demands to know why God would allow the bad to happen.
After a lot of back and forth, a new character, Elihu speaks up. He is a young man who has maintained his silence out of respect. But now that the older men have exhausted their words, he will speak out. On the one hand, his words can be read as a continuation of the friends’ accusations against Job. But his arguments also allow for the fact that Job may not merely be facing punishment. God never acts unjustly, but the suffering could be used by God to speak to Job. As Elihu speaks, a mighty storm builds up around the men.
God is in the storm and he speaks to Job. Who is he to question God’s ways? Can a man hope to understand what God’s plans are? Job realizes the arrogance of his position and submits to God’s action. God restores Job and condemns the friends for being arrogant and wrong in their words.
The above plot is not simple and straight forward. The story of Job is like a heist move, where the audience/reader is given insight behind the scenes. We think we know more than the characters because we have caught a glimpse into the heavens. We think we know why Job is suffering. It is all a result of some bets between God and Satan. But, like all of those heist stories, we realize that we have been tricked. We thought we knew everything that was going on, but we were missing information. It turns out, that God’s reasons and plans are beyond our comprehension. We need to face suffering and hard times with faith and humility, not knowledge and complete understanding. We readers were little better than the friends who had the wrong theories all along!
Like much of the other wisdom literature in the Bible, we are given the real source of wisdom in this book. In 28:28, Job says, “Behold, the fear of YHWH, that is wisdom.” How can we know what is going on? We can’t. Only God is capable of understanding His ways and plans. Our job is not to understand what is going on, but rather to understand that we can’t understand. Ours is to trust God in humility. As Eliot wrote in his masterful “East Coker”:
IT WAS NOT (TO START AGAIN) WHAT ONE HAD EXPECTED. WHAT WAS TO BE THE VALUE OF THE LONG LOOKED FORWARD TO, LONG HOPED FOR CALM, THE AUTUMNAL SERENITY AND THE WISDOM OF AGE? HAD THEY DECEIVED US, OR DECEIVED THEMSELVES, THE QUIET-VOICED ELDERS, BEQUEATHING US MERELY A RECEIPT FOR DECEIT? THE SERENITY ONLY A DELIBERATE HEBETUDE, THE WISDOM ONLY THE KNOWLEDGE OF DEAD SECRETS USELESS IN THE DARKNESS INTO WHICH THEY PEERED OR FROM WHICH THEY TURNED THEIR EYES. THERE IS, IT SEEMS TO US, AT BEST ONLY A LIMITED VALUE IN THE KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE. THE KNOWLEDGE IMPOSES A PATTERN, AND FALSIFIES, FOR THE PATTERN IS NEW IN EVERY MOMENT AND EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW AND SHOCKING VALUATION OF ALL WE HAVE BEEN. WE ARE ONLY UNDECEIVED OF THAT WHICH, DECEIVING, COULD NO LONGER HARM. IN THE MIDDLE, NOT ONLY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAY BUT ALL THE WAY, IN A DARK WOOD, IN A BRAMBLE, ON THE EDGE OF A GRIMPEN, WHERE IS NO SECURE FOOTHOLD, AND MENACED BY MONSTERS, FANCY LIGHTS, RISKING ENCHANTMENT. DO NOT LET ME HEAR OF THE WISDOM OF OLD MEN, BUT RATHER OF THEIR FOLLY, OF BELONGING TO ANOTHER, OR TO OTHERS, OR TO GOD. THE ONLY WISDOM WE CAN HOPE TO ACQUIRE IS THE WISDOM OF HUMILITY: HUMILITY IS ENDLESS.
Don’t think you will someday “arrive” at knowing all there is to know. And don’t place your trust in others, in some collective understanding, or even in what you experience. Ultimately, we need to always yield to God—and understand that He will never let us see everything. We can’t handle everything.
But the good news in all of this is that there is a God who does know everything, who has everything in His hands and under His control, and He is a loving Father to His creation. We are in capable, good, loving hands.
The circumstances that God puts us through are never unexpected for Him. He is never caught off guard. And, while He will allow bad things to come into our lives, He will use them for His glory and our ultimate good. They might be circumstances of our own making. In that case, sometimes bad things can feel like a punishment, but our Father uses all things in our lives to shape us. They can be to correct us, but they can also be to show us mercy and to help us grow into the people He wants us to become.
In all of this, it is helpful to keep in mind:
1. When we suffer, we probably won’t understand why, but we can learn and grow in our suffering. And we are never alone. We need to turn to God and trust in Him to see us through.
2. When we are going through bad times, our focus can help if placed on the right things. God is in control, and He is not surprised by anything we face. Every single circumstance that comes into our lives has passed before the throne of God and has been allowed in by Him. His will is always accomplished, and His work in us accounts for the bad as well as the good. It all fits in His plan.
In the case of the current Pandemic and the “Shelter in Place” we are forced to follow:
a. Take advantage of the time!
b. Don’t punish yourself for not taking advantage as much as others!
c. Take care of yourself! We will do no one any good if we need a vacation after all this!
3. Don’t approach others who are facing suffering or bad circumstances as a “false friend”! Don’t pretend to know God’s plan for their lives or come across as someone with all the answers. No one going through a tough time wants that! Instead, be present in their grief. Be the hands, feet, and ears of God as you serve them in love. Help them hear and learn from God about what His plans might be for them as they face things. Remind them of the truth of the Gospel, and that it applies to everything we can face in life.
But it is also about a difficult subject: “Why do bad things happen to (mostly) good people?” That is an age-old conundrum that isn’t just unpleasant to think about—there aren’t any pleasing, simple answers.
And, finally, the book doesn’t just take forever in coming to an answer, it can be argued that a majority of the book’s content is a collection of wrong answers! Who wants to study that much erroneous stuff to get to the truth? Not to mention, it hinders that oh-so-popular practice of quoting a verse or two. What if you are quoting one of the wrong answer parts?
The basic plot of the book is as follows. Job is a man who fears and worships God. He is so reverent that God points him out to Satan, who claims that Job only serves God because he is so blessed. God agrees to let Satan harm Job to prove that his reverence is not self-serving. Job’s possessions are all taken away, his children are all killed(!) and Jobs health is even taken away. But Job refuses to sin or curse God. Three friends of Job show up to comfort him in his grief.
After a while, however, they cannot simply accompany him and hear him grieve over his situation. They feel the need to explain his predicament, to figure out why the bad has happened. They all in turn accuse him of some sin or slight against God, that would cause him to deserve his fate. Job protests his innocence and demands to know why God would allow the bad to happen.
After a lot of back and forth, a new character, Elihu speaks up. He is a young man who has maintained his silence out of respect. But now that the older men have exhausted their words, he will speak out. On the one hand, his words can be read as a continuation of the friends’ accusations against Job. But his arguments also allow for the fact that Job may not merely be facing punishment. God never acts unjustly, but the suffering could be used by God to speak to Job. As Elihu speaks, a mighty storm builds up around the men.
God is in the storm and he speaks to Job. Who is he to question God’s ways? Can a man hope to understand what God’s plans are? Job realizes the arrogance of his position and submits to God’s action. God restores Job and condemns the friends for being arrogant and wrong in their words.
The above plot is not simple and straight forward. The story of Job is like a heist move, where the audience/reader is given insight behind the scenes. We think we know more than the characters because we have caught a glimpse into the heavens. We think we know why Job is suffering. It is all a result of some bets between God and Satan. But, like all of those heist stories, we realize that we have been tricked. We thought we knew everything that was going on, but we were missing information. It turns out, that God’s reasons and plans are beyond our comprehension. We need to face suffering and hard times with faith and humility, not knowledge and complete understanding. We readers were little better than the friends who had the wrong theories all along!
Like much of the other wisdom literature in the Bible, we are given the real source of wisdom in this book. In 28:28, Job says, “Behold, the fear of YHWH, that is wisdom.” How can we know what is going on? We can’t. Only God is capable of understanding His ways and plans. Our job is not to understand what is going on, but rather to understand that we can’t understand. Ours is to trust God in humility. As Eliot wrote in his masterful “East Coker”:
IT WAS NOT (TO START AGAIN) WHAT ONE HAD EXPECTED. WHAT WAS TO BE THE VALUE OF THE LONG LOOKED FORWARD TO, LONG HOPED FOR CALM, THE AUTUMNAL SERENITY AND THE WISDOM OF AGE? HAD THEY DECEIVED US, OR DECEIVED THEMSELVES, THE QUIET-VOICED ELDERS, BEQUEATHING US MERELY A RECEIPT FOR DECEIT? THE SERENITY ONLY A DELIBERATE HEBETUDE, THE WISDOM ONLY THE KNOWLEDGE OF DEAD SECRETS USELESS IN THE DARKNESS INTO WHICH THEY PEERED OR FROM WHICH THEY TURNED THEIR EYES. THERE IS, IT SEEMS TO US, AT BEST ONLY A LIMITED VALUE IN THE KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE. THE KNOWLEDGE IMPOSES A PATTERN, AND FALSIFIES, FOR THE PATTERN IS NEW IN EVERY MOMENT AND EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW AND SHOCKING VALUATION OF ALL WE HAVE BEEN. WE ARE ONLY UNDECEIVED OF THAT WHICH, DECEIVING, COULD NO LONGER HARM. IN THE MIDDLE, NOT ONLY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAY BUT ALL THE WAY, IN A DARK WOOD, IN A BRAMBLE, ON THE EDGE OF A GRIMPEN, WHERE IS NO SECURE FOOTHOLD, AND MENACED BY MONSTERS, FANCY LIGHTS, RISKING ENCHANTMENT. DO NOT LET ME HEAR OF THE WISDOM OF OLD MEN, BUT RATHER OF THEIR FOLLY, OF BELONGING TO ANOTHER, OR TO OTHERS, OR TO GOD. THE ONLY WISDOM WE CAN HOPE TO ACQUIRE IS THE WISDOM OF HUMILITY: HUMILITY IS ENDLESS.
Don’t think you will someday “arrive” at knowing all there is to know. And don’t place your trust in others, in some collective understanding, or even in what you experience. Ultimately, we need to always yield to God—and understand that He will never let us see everything. We can’t handle everything.
But the good news in all of this is that there is a God who does know everything, who has everything in His hands and under His control, and He is a loving Father to His creation. We are in capable, good, loving hands.
The circumstances that God puts us through are never unexpected for Him. He is never caught off guard. And, while He will allow bad things to come into our lives, He will use them for His glory and our ultimate good. They might be circumstances of our own making. In that case, sometimes bad things can feel like a punishment, but our Father uses all things in our lives to shape us. They can be to correct us, but they can also be to show us mercy and to help us grow into the people He wants us to become.
In all of this, it is helpful to keep in mind:
1. When we suffer, we probably won’t understand why, but we can learn and grow in our suffering. And we are never alone. We need to turn to God and trust in Him to see us through.
2. When we are going through bad times, our focus can help if placed on the right things. God is in control, and He is not surprised by anything we face. Every single circumstance that comes into our lives has passed before the throne of God and has been allowed in by Him. His will is always accomplished, and His work in us accounts for the bad as well as the good. It all fits in His plan.
In the case of the current Pandemic and the “Shelter in Place” we are forced to follow:
a. Take advantage of the time!
b. Don’t punish yourself for not taking advantage as much as others!
c. Take care of yourself! We will do no one any good if we need a vacation after all this!
3. Don’t approach others who are facing suffering or bad circumstances as a “false friend”! Don’t pretend to know God’s plan for their lives or come across as someone with all the answers. No one going through a tough time wants that! Instead, be present in their grief. Be the hands, feet, and ears of God as you serve them in love. Help them hear and learn from God about what His plans might be for them as they face things. Remind them of the truth of the Gospel, and that it applies to everything we can face in life.
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