Job

Can mortal man be righteous before God?
Job 4:17

The Book of Job is the greatest monument of wisdom literature in the Bible. Luther called it “magnificent and sublime as no other book of scripture.”  Tennyson called it “the greatest poem of ancient and modern times.”  In our day the anonymous writer has been acclaimed “the Shakespeare of the Old Testament.” 

It is generally agreed that the author of the poetic sections did not compose the story that appears in the prologue and epilogue, which is what people of thinking of when they refer to the “proverbial patience of Job.”  The Job of the poetic chapters is anything but patient: in chapter 3 he curses the day of his birth.  The book was judged by some to be too blasphemous to be included in sacred scripture. 

Addressing himself to the deepest problem of every human being, the poet bases his meditation on the experience of a man whose legendary righteousness was well known in antiquity.  Many readers assume that the purpose of the book is to discuss the problem of suffering, or to raise the philosophical question of  how absolute goodness and absolute power are reconciled in God. 

But no answer to this question is given in the book, and it is doubtful that the author had any intention of providing one.  Rather, Job’s suffering provides the occasion for the much deeper question of the nature of our relationship with God.  Is it “for better or for worse,” or is God served in order to obtain the blessings of health, reputation, family, and long life? 

Job’s death wish springs from his sense of the emptiness of life when he is estranged from a meaningful relation to God, whom he has always considered to be his friend.  He laments that God’s sovereignty, which he fully accepts, has made life meaningless for him.  He wishes he had never been born. 

Eliphaz is the first of Job’s friends to try to comfort him.  He suggests that the flaw lies in Job himself.  At first he is courteous in offering his advice: everyone has sinned, and therefore Job should humbly confess his sin, rather than hurl his protest at God. 

But as Job stubbornly insists on his innocence, the friends become vehement in their accusation.  Of particular interest in Eliphaz’s speech is the place of the dream:

Amid the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
Job 4:13.15

The Book of Job is unique in the Bible, for in it the author champions the creative power of heresy, convinced, as he is, that faith is most vigorous when it dares to break with theological dogmas. 

The orthodox view that all good comes from God and all evil comes from man simply does not square with human experience.  The great mystic Teresa of Avila is on Job’s side when she declares, “O God, if this is how you treat your friends, it is no wonder you have so few of them!”

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October 11, 2009