Jobs Suffering Critique - Coursework Example

Topic: Job’s suffering The Book of Job The Book of Job in The Bible is a story of suffering of a righteous and God fearing king of Uz who was also known for his kindness and consideration for the poor. Chapter 1, verse 5: “So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did regularly.” (Job 1:5). Job’s righteousness was not to be taken by Satan, who was always on the job of vindicating Job and God. The Book of Job tells the story of Job’s struggle with the numerous sufferings that Satan is allowed to bring upon him to see if his righteous character would vanish with his prosperity and health. The first few chapters describe how Satan directly tries to fool Job to make him believe that God has been unkind and unjustified to him. When these attempts of Satan fail to move Job, to break his faith in God’s justice, Satan strikes down Job’s family, cattle, wealth, and also brings down illnesses of all kinds upon him. All this in an attempt to convince Job that God has brought curse upon him because of his sin. As Satan begins to suffer Job, The Book of Job now reveals the discussions between Job and his three friends: Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar, who too are kings of their times. As his friends too try to make him believe the false theology of Satan that is based on the rubric of retribution/recompense, chapters 3 onwards refer to these three friends of Job while Satan is now stops from directly accusing and suffering Job. As Job too begins to lament his condition and question God’s justice towards him, in the later chapters, Elihu tries to make Job see sense in accepting the fact that God’s grace is supreme and omnipotent. After the discussions with Elihu, God himself speaks to Job to clear his doubts, but when standing before God, Job realizes that he cannot muster enough courage to speak before God in the foolish manner that he had before. When Job readily accepts God’s supremacy and grace being present irrespective of his righteousness or not, God restores his prosperous life and proves to Satan that Job is indeed a righteous man. About Job and his sufferings Job was a wealthy and kind Egyptian king whom Satan threatens to destroy with Gods permission as Satan argues with God that Job was righteous and feared God for his selfish motives. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1). As God had given him all the riches in life, Satan argued before God’s throne that Job’s righteous life was because of his greed and prosperity. Satan’s accusation of Job’s righteousness being a farce was challenged by God, and Satan asked God to permit him to test Job. While the initial two chapters talk about how Satan directly attempts to fool Job by disguising himself as a beggar, one selling bread, etc. and successfully deceives his maid and wife, but in all this Job sees through Satan’s tricks and avoids falling into the traps laid by Satan. Job also warns Satan to face him directly to argue, but Satan with its deceiving nature does not yield and continues its deception in another form through influencing Job’s three friends: Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar to propagate Satan’s false theology of retribution/ recompense against Job. Job’s friends’ false theology of retribution/ recompense Job’s three friends also attempt to perpetuate Satan’s false doctrine that a righteous man does not suffer and that Job’s suffering was due to his sins, and that he would be redeemed of his sins and the consequent suffering if he pleaded guilty before God. While the three friends had come to sympathize with and comfort Job, they nevertheless tried to influence him to accept the false doctrine of retribution/ recompense, so he could be freed from the suffering. In chapters 4, 5, 15 and 22, Eliphaz tried to convict Job of foolishness in cursing God in his misery that fell him, and all three friends offered to help Job and his wife, Sitidos. Sitidos seeks their help in searching for her children’s corpses so they can be buried, but Job replies to them that they are in heaven, to which Sitidos looks up to the East and sees the truth that her children are indeed crowned by the heavenly one, and she returns to the city and she too accepts her memorial with the Lord. While Job’s three friends continue to attack his righteousness, integrity and faith in God’s justice, they accused Job of wickedness, sin, pride, oppression of the poor, and tried hard to lead Job to repent for his sins. All through, though Job listened to his friends’ laments, he was sure that he did not deserve the suffering and even was irritated at his friends continued efforts to lead him to repent. His argument against Satan’s false doctrine that his three friends were now perpetuating, is given in “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). However, under pressure of his friends’ accusations and the pressure of his suffering, Job starts accusing God of being unfair and unjust towards him. Job 19: 9-10: “He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope He has uprooted like a tree”. And Job realized that he had spoken against God and realizing the brevity of his life, he asked God to allow him to plead his case before God. As Job lamented his birth and his impending death, God sent Elihu to reason with him, and enable him to see that God would not have a relationship with Job unless he restores his faith in God and does not think that God owes him anything based on his understanding of justice, righteousness or loyalty. Interventions of Elihu and God’s speech to Job Elihu expresses anger at Job and his three friends for misinterpreting God’s justice and interference in Job’s life, and explains to them God’s wisdom in Job’s suffering. Elihu argued that God was not silent in Job’s suffering, and that God had allowed Satan to suffer Job so he could see God’s perspective of suffering that it is not sin alone, as in the case of Job, that a man suffers, but also for the righteous to continue to keep away from the premise of accepting sin as the sole cause of suffering. Elihu further observes that God rewards the righteous based on His Love and grace and not based on human perception of what is right or wrong. Finally, God speaks to Job through a windstorm and affirms His justice to Job and his three friends, although God does not defend or explain against Job’s and his friends’ accusations or confusion. Through His speeches to Job, God affirmed that the universe does not operate according to human rational thinking but solely as per God’s Grace. Job also was made to realize that God has indeed given freedom to Satan as to humans to choose their thoughts and acts as He Himself has His freedom. In doing so, God has established justice to all. Conclusion The Book of Job talks of the suffering of a righteous man who was once the king of Uz, and was God fearing and who avoided sin. He was kind towards the poor and was quite prosperous. Satan was jealous of Job’s prosperity and popularity and wanted to ensure that god was no more proud of Job. Satan’s attempts to vindicate God’s justice and Job’s righteousness fail before God’s Love and grace towards Job, and God restores Job’s prosperity after Job realizes his mistake of misunderstanding God’s perspective of justice and fairness. References- 1. Waters, J. L. Reflections on suffering from The Book of Job. Bibliotheca Sacra: 154. 1997. Read More