Job 1-4

[wolfpurplemoon]

God gives Satan permission to test the faith of Job. Job continues to praise God rather than blaming him all through many terrible ordeals where he loses everything (even though Satan did it all cos God told him to).

Job does however wish he was never born.

Comments

[jaronsjournal.livejournal.com]

God permitted Satan to afflict Job, he didn't tell him to. Should Job be any more happy with Satan for suggesting the tests to God, than he is with God for allowing them?

I think the book teaches us that we should not simply serve God only when things are going well, but we should be willing to serve him and trust him even when it seems we are going through bad times. We should be humble enough to know that we don't live our lives for ourselves, but ultimately for God's righteous purposes.

Sometimes trials have a way of refining a person for the better. A person becomes more humble, treats others who are going through trials better, etc.

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Hi! Mind if I pop in?

Job is one of my very favorite books of the Bible. I've read it, taught a class on it, preached on it, even posted a little midrash on it in my Livejournal last February. I was baptized Roman Catholic, converted to Anglicanism as a young adult, and have considered myself an atheist for the past three years.

The first four chapters of Job cover a lot of ground, so let's quickly start with what the book is about. It's an ancient story that asks the question people still ask: Why do bad things happen to good people? The unknown author begins with a brief prose introduction, then spins out his allegory in poetic form. Alas, most of the poetry gets lost in translation, but you still get some beautiful descriptive passages and the repetitive phrase "and I alone escaped to tell thee" from each new person reporting fresh calamities.

Job is your basic mensch, wealthy but pious, powerful yet humble before his God. God's buddy Satan (don't tack on two thousand years of Christian interpretation here - this Satan is best seen as God's Prosecuting Attorney) says, "Yeah, sure he's pious - he can afford to be. If you took away his wealth he'd spit in your eye." God says, "It's a bet. Strip him of everything."

This would be immoral behavior for anyone, of course, but it's only a story intended to teach a lesson, so don't start taking it literally. Terrible things happen, "I alone escaped to tell thee," and Job is left with nothing but a nagging wife. He stays pious. Another nice bit of poetry in some English translations, "Naked came I into the world and naked shall I return ere I defy my Maker."

Then the friends show up. Among them is the shortest man in all of Scripture, Bildad the Shuhite. (Sorry, Bible Study humor...) This, the end of the second chapter, is the most significant lesson in the whole story to me. His three friends, seeing his bereavement, don't say a bloody word. They just sit down and share his grief with him. I believe this is where the custom of sitting shiva comes from.

How often do you encounter a bereaved person and say something stupid, just because you feel you've got to say something. "Well, he's in a better place." "At least he's not suffering." "God must have called him home." The Book of Job shows another way - just sit down, shut up, and share the grief.

Unfortunately, they can only keep it up for a week, then Job makes his first speech. As you put it, he wishes he was never born.

Eliphaz answers that it can't be God's fault, because God, as everyone knows, is really big, really powerful, and really, really just.

... to be continued in chapter 5.

[jaronsjournal.livejournal.com]

Interesting take on it. :-)