Why the Book of Job?
Whenever the topic of Theodicy comes up, I have
always been directed to go to the Book of Job.
It is sort of the “go-to” book for this type of stuff. But when I read it, I find myself greatly
disturbed. Why? Everything is not how it should be in this
book: The good guy is an innocent
victim, his righteousness is what makes him a target of a cosmic bet
(?!?). Good solid theology (provided by
Job’s friends) is proven inadequate and wrong.
People die for apparently no reason.
But the worst part; the worst part is how God is portrayed. This was a bad public relations move for
God. God is almost out of character,
almost human in this story. And though
it all ends well for Job (barring the loss of his first children; does one ever
get over the loss of a child?); my ideas of right and wrong, of justice, and of
God’s character are smashed along with the bones of Job’s children. Let us look at the Book, and see what
questions arise…
The Scandalous Bet
Many of us know how Job begins. The hosts of heaven and God are meeting and
God brags about his servant Job and how loyal and righteous he is. Then an accuser says that Job is only loyal
and righteous because God protects and blesses him so well. Then comes the wager: the accuser bets if Job
loses all his fortune that Job will curse God to his face. God takes the bait, and places the
bet!?! God allows the accuser to destroy
all Job owns, and those who he loves.
Was this necessary? Does not God
know the hearts of all men and women?
The accuser leaves and does indeed destroy all
Job holds dear, barring his wife. All
his livestock is taken or killed, all his servants are killed (but two), and
all his children are killed. What were
these persons in God’s schemes? Are they
treated like imago dei or pawns? But in all this, righteous Job only blesses
God.
The accuser presents himself before the Lord
again. God brags about Job’s loyalty and
righteousness even though violence was incited against him “for no reason(?!).”[1] The accuser than says the
infamous line “skin for skin,” take away Job’s health and he will curse you.
God takes the bait again?!? God lets the
accuser have his way with Job and gives him sores and blisters on his body.
The Friends of Proper Creed
So Job suffers greatly as the result of a bet in
the heavens. And so his friends come to
“comfort” him. Again, if anyone is
familiar with the book they will know that Job’s friends present the most orthodox
theology: “You suffer because of your
sins.” When Job maintains his innocence,
his friends respond that Job must be a liar because God is just, God
is good to those who are righteous, but God punishes the inequity of
those who are evil. Job is accused
by his friends of thievery, mistreating his servants, being too proud. His friends in order to make sense of
everything that has happened to Job must
(for his sake or theirs?) come up with a solution, a fix for Job’s
suffering. They tell him over and over
again that if he just admits his guilt, if he just confesses his sins, God is
gracious and will forgive. Job
refuses. Through the whole ordeal Job
maintains his innocence and integrity.
His friends eventually turn quiet.
And in the end, they have to make amends to Job to be forgiven by
God. What frustrates me is that these
men are giving formulas of theology that are saturated in the Hebrew
Bible. Yet, they are wrong here.
In the midst of great suffering, The Book of Job
is both cruel and honest: in our hour of greatest need and desperation
it takes away our certainty. It
strips us of our formulas and teaches us that our intentions to “fix” somebody
are ultimately warped. But what of
Job? What happens to him?
The Anguish of Job
Here is where the Scriptures do more justice
than any writing. After Job has lost his
family, his health, and the respect of his friends, he experiences something
worse…silence. Silence from the One who
he was always faithful to:
7 “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
he uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me;
he counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance in force;
they build a siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
though I call for help, there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
he uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me;
he counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance in force;
they build a siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 “He has alienated my family from me;
my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away;
my closest friends have forgotten me.
15 My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
they look on me as on a stranger.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
though I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even the little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they ridicule me.
19 All my intimate friends detest me;
those I love have turned against me.
20 I am nothing but skin and bones;
I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away;
my closest friends have forgotten me.
15 My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
they look on me as on a stranger.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
though I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even the little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they ridicule me.
19 All my intimate friends detest me;
those I love have turned against me.
20 I am nothing but skin and bones;
I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
25 I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:7-22; 25-27 NIV)
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:7-22; 25-27 NIV)
Even after all this Job is faithful. Job also wants answers. Why?! But not just “why?” to his own
suffering; Job’s experience with suffering and injustice makes him more aware
of injustice done to others. He changes
the questions regarding his own suffering, and universalizes them. And so he asks the questions we still ask
today:
Why does the Almighty not set times for
judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
2 There are those who move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen.
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey
and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
4 They thrust the needy from the path
and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
the wasteland provides food for their children.
6 They gather fodder in the fields
and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
7 Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
8 They are drenched by mountain rains
and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11 They crush olives among the terraces;
they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.
But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
2 There are those who move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen.
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey
and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
4 They thrust the needy from the path
and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
the wasteland provides food for their children.
6 They gather fodder in the fields
and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
7 Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
8 They are drenched by mountain rains
and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11 They crush olives among the terraces;
they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.
But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
13 There are those who rebel
against the light,
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths.
14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
kills the poor and needy,
and in the night steals forth like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he keeps his face concealed.
16 In the dark, thieves break into houses,
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light.
17 For all of them, midnight is their morning;
they make friends with the terrors of darkness. (Job 24:1-17 NIV)
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths.
14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
kills the poor and needy,
and in the night steals forth like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he keeps his face concealed.
16 In the dark, thieves break into houses,
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light.
17 For all of them, midnight is their morning;
they make friends with the terrors of darkness. (Job 24:1-17 NIV)
And so Job’s protest becomes ours. He becomes the spokesperson for
humanity. Our questions and our protests
are echoed in this Book. Perhaps that is
why I am always told to read it. Where
is God in the midst of the suffering of others?
The destitute crushed; the poor abused: Are we all abandoned? Or is it just
the innocent that are abandoned? Why do
the greedy and evil get ahead, while the righteous suffer? Were the babies who were snatched to pay a debt
(24:9) also a part of a divine bet? Or…or what!? What answer could possibly justify God? From Job, the man with a shaved head, torn
clothes, immersed in ashes, covered in sores comes the gut-wrenching cry of the
tormented soul: “OH GOD WHY? WHERE ARE YOU?”
In so many of our own stories this cry is met
with soul-crushing silence. In this
particular story however, God does show up.
But if we are looking for a merciful clean answer, another beautiful
salvific formula we will be disappointed.
God’s Answer to Job’s Suffering
God finally shows up to address his victim, and
begins his response in this way:
“Who is this that darkens my counsel with
words without knowledge? Brace yourself
like a man; I will question you, and you answer me.” Job 38:2-3
God is then to go on for quite a bit asking questions
such as:
“Where were you when I laid the
earth’s foundation? (38:4)
“From whose womb comes the
ice? Who gives birth to the frost from
the heavens? (38:29)
“Can you pull in the leviathan
with the fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? (41:1)
What is interesting is
what God does not address; God gives
no reasoning for what has happened to Job. God has given an answer, but he has
not answered the question. Our hero Job
buckles, tired and frightened Job answers: “My ears have heard of you but now
my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.
(Job 42:5-6)”
What are we to make of
God’s response? What are we to make of
God? Carl Jung comments bitterly:
“It
is Yahweh himself who darkens his own counsel…He turns the tables on Job and
blames him for what he himself does: man
is not permitted to have an opinion about him…For seventy-one verses he
proclaims his world-creating power to his miserable victim, who sits in ashes
and scratches his sores with potsherds, and who by now has had enough of
superhuman violence.”[2]
I think Jung is onto
something here. The behavior of God is
awful and THAT is perplexing to us, and not in the way it is usually
perplexing. We are usually in awe of
God’s wonder, God’s grace, God’ mercy, God’s love, but what is this? God almost acts as a shameful parent. Where is the mercy? Why doesn’t God apologize, or at least show
some compassion? I would never recommend
this Book of the Bible to someone who has been raped or abused; what could they
derive from it?
Holding Onto Job As We Move On
I don’t want to say
“Parting Thoughts” here, because this Book will pop up in future blogs. But I do want to talk about what I find
relevant in the Book of Job. This book
makes me angry. And we have learned that
many times anger towards one you love is a derivative of being hurt. This Book hurts me, it hurts us. We learn in this Book the creeds, the
paradigms, the boxes we put God in, do not fit.
Even when I make a beautiful box of love, grace, mercy and compassion
for God to fit into; God does not fit.
And if I were to make a box of God being just, rational, methodical;
even here God would not fit. God behaves
here in a way that is so unlike God as we typically see in Scripture.
And what of our
suffering? That too cannot fit in a box
it seems. If we are honest, and we must
be honest if we are to be responsible; we see that our suffering does not fit
neatly in an ordered universe. It often
will not make sense…and this can hurt even more.
Next, I will explore some
passages in our Scriptures that echo this desperation, this loss, this
anger. Our question will shift from
“Why” to “Where.” Where is God in
suffering?
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ReplyDeleteI definitely like that this points out the good that can come from our own suffering...we can become more tenderhearted, less focused on our own pain, and aware of others suffering and be empowered to change injustices ourselves (Matt, check out the Bio on Irish Human Rights Activist Christina Nobel - there is also a movie about her life on Amazon Prime). Also, God may come across as unloving in his comments to Job, but if he really were, he would not have even answered Job. I think He was reminding Job, there is a bigger picture we cannot see and it's not about one person, but all of us. Sometimes it is good to step out or even be forced outside of the box. The story of Job is obviously the worst case scenario, but when things don't work out the way we want and it is out of our control, the best quote I have heard we can say is "I'll walk Lord, You lead". Thanks for sharing Matt and looking forward to more.
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