wolfbiblemoon

God is describing monsters, fire breathing(?) monsters. But whatever it was it convinces Job that God is great and then God gives him back twice as much stuff as he had at the beginning.

I'm not sure you require faith in a God that pops by for a chat (not blind faith anyway), in fact Job says that it is the fact that he's seen God that has convinced him to take back any of the mean stuff he said.

And so Job lived to 140 and had a great rest of his life, glad it turned out OK in the end...

Just read an appropriate post at Pharyngula: The idea that the Bible should be interpreted as a metaphor is a good one — because it melts the superstition away.. I guess I need to stop trying to take every word of the bible literally, not that I know how else to take it.

Elihu was showing respect for his elders by just listening while they squabbled, but now they've reached a dead end in their discussion he's decided to let them know he thinks their arguments were flawed. He is very sure that he knows better than them.

My reading plan is splitting up the chapters of Job in a way that makes it harder to follow. But even without that I can never remember if Job or one of his friends is talking due to the sheer length of their complicated speeches.

Job has concluded that wisdom comes from God, or at least it is wise to fear God and reject evil. I feel sorry for anyone who feels they are better off living in fear of a deity.

It's getting a bit repetitive now, hopefully this continuing back and forth between Job and his friends will reach some sort of conclusion soon.

Job's friend tries to convince him not to throw out his previously deep faith, but Job is still trying to use reason to understand what has been done to him.

Job says that God is continually giving with one hand and taking with the other, and God's all powerful nature means that a man has no hope against him.

He calls his friends liars for their apologist position, and says that he himself is not a hypocrite so he is in a better position than his hypocritical friends before God.

Am I getting the idea of Job now?

As an aside, the way God has behaved is very similar to how you play Sims when you want to torture your characters for no reason. Putting them in a room with no doors is quite amusing (12:14 he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening) & you can quite easily drive them into deep depression if you're having a sadistic moment. But these are computer generated characters not sentient beings. (It was my brother who made this comparison when I was telling him about what God does to Job)

Job is now a very broken man, despite his friends continuing to praise God in his presence.

Job says that no man shall come up from his grave once buried there, which to me means that there is no afterlife.