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| A student entitled a paper on the book of Job "Good Grief."
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| That certainly captures the essence of the book!
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| God Himself is the answer to innocent suffering (Job). God accepts responsibility for Job's suffering. Seeing God face-to-face is what satisfies Job. There is no propositional answer to his question. The answer is given in Person by the Creator.
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| Job's claim that it is all God's fault is not contradicted by saying, "God has a reason for everything He does." That concedes the point--but without addressing the scandal that a perfectly good God allows perfectly good people to suffer grievous evil. Yes, God always has good reasons for allowing innocent people to suffer--but He allows ''innocent'' people to suffer!
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| Saying carelessly, "Oh, I'm sure God has His reasons" indicates that the person has stopped seeking the face of God, has stopped believing that God can make His reasons know, or does not want to know what God is doing in and through innocent suffering. People who take this view are turning away from any further thinking on the subject. They are closing the blinds and draping the windows to keep the light out. They are done pondering. They have their answer--but they do not have Job's enlightenment. They want the problem to go away.
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| == Misreadings of Job ==
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| * "God won't let bad things happen to good people."
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| * "We're supposed to have 'the patience of Job.'"
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| * "Don't question God. Just shut up and suffer. If you ask God questions, He will get angry."
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| == Plot Summary ==
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| {|{{Prettytable}}
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| |align="right"|Chapters 1-3
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| !Background Information
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/1 1:1-6]
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| |Job lived in Uz. It's not clear whether he was an Israeli. There is no mention in the book of any specifically Israelite/Jewish customs (e.g., worship in the Temple, Israelite feasts, covenant theology). The Divine Name is used in the book.
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| Job was rich and good. He let his kids have parties--the seven boys would even let the three girls come to the parties. Next morning, Job would get up early and bribe God with holocausts (whole burnt offerings) for his seven sons, just in case they might have offended God as they emptied the kegs of beer Job had provided for them.
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| |align="right"|
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| !The First Bet
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/1:6 1:6-12]
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| |The Sons of God were meeting with God in His courtroom, and the District Attorney (the DA) was there with them. "Hasatan" is a job description, not a name and most certainly not what the later tradition came to call "the Devil." God asked the DA where he has been. "I've been roaming and patrolling the earth, of course." God noted what a splendid person Job is. The DA disagreed: "The only reason Job loves you is that you have purchased his affection. Five bucks says that if you strip him of all his wealth, he'll curse you to your face." God took the bet--"But don't hurt him personally. That would spoil the experiment. If you hurt him, we won't know whether it was losing his wealth or the pain that made him curse me."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/1:13 1:13-22]
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| |So the DA stripped Job of all his wealth: all his oxen and asses were stolen, the herdsmen were murdered; lightning killed all his sheep and their shepherds; all his camels were stolen and the camel drivers were all murdered; the house where his ten children were having another one of Dad's Famous Keggers collapsed on them, killing them all.
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| Job said, "I was born naked and I'm going to die naked. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed the name of the Lord." In all this Job didn't sin nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.
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| |align="right"|
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| !The Second Bet
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/2 2:1-6]
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| |The Sons of God gathered again in God's courtroom, and the DA was there with them. God said, "Isn't Job a great man? Look at all the evil you incited me to do to him without cause--and he still is as pure as the driven snow. What a man!" But the DA had a new theory of the case. That's how lawyers are, you know. He said, "Double or nothing! Ten bucks says that if you strip him of his health, he'll curse you to your face." God replied, "OK, you're on. But don't kill him. That would ruin the experiment. If the lab rat dies, we won't know how the experiment turns out."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/2:7 2:7-10]
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| |So the DA covered Job's body with boils--huge, pus-filled pimples that covered Job's skin from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, and all over his front, back and sides. Job took a piece of broken pottery and went out to the garbage pile to pop the boils and let the stinking pus come out of them. His wife suggested that he ought to stop thinking that he was a good man, then curse God, and die. Job replied: "We accept good things from God; should we not accept evil?" Through all this, Job said nothing sinful.
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/2:11 2:11-13]
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| |Three friends of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, come to comfort him. They are so overcome by his suffering that they can't speak for a full week.
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| |align="right"|
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| !Job Wishes He Were Dead
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/3 3:1-26]
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| |Job curses his birthday. He suggests that it was such a bad day that no more children should be born on it. Perhaps it should be removed from the calendar; better yet, get rid of the whole month when he was born. He runs out of curses and asks for help from the sailors. They really know how to cuss. Job wishes that he had never come out of his mother's womb or that he had had the good sense not to nurse at his mother's breasts. If only he had died as a baby, he would have been so happy! "It's all God's fault. He's the one who keeps people alive who would be better off dead."
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| ::: '''Note well:''' Suicide is not an option for Job, for Jews, or for Christians. Suicide is "a permanent solution to temporary problems." It is understandable, but evil. Don't hurt yourself, and don't let your friends hurt themselves (if at all possible). Life is hard, but "life is worth living" (Ven. Fulton J. Sheen). If, God forbid, a friend or family member has committed suicide, let us pray for the repose of their souls with compassion, by all means, but let us steadfastly resist the temptation to think that they have acted wisely or well.
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| |align="right"|Chapters 4-31
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| ! Three cycles of speeches
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| These 28 chapters are structured very carefully. They consist of three cycles of speeches. Each cycle has the same form:
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| # Eliphaz speaks;
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| # Job replies;
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| # Bildad speaks;
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| # Job replies;
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| # Zophar speaks;
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| # Job replies.
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| The three friends make three speeches each, for a total of nine attacks on Job; Job makes a total of nine rebuttals. Beautiful and difficult poetry is found in all eighteen speeches. Despite the complexity of the three cycles of speeches, we can reduce the entire dialogue to two sentences:
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| :: Friends: "Your suffering is all your fault; God is innocent and you are guilty."
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| :: Job: "My suffering is all God's fault; I am innocent and God is guilty."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/4:8 4:8-9]
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| |Eliphaz: "Evildoers suffer evil." karma (justice)
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/4:17 4:17]
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| | "God is righteous; humans are not."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/6:4 6:4]
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| |Job: "God shoots at me with poisoned arrows."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/6:10 6:10]
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| | "I'm innocent."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/6:28 6:28-30]
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| | "I'm not lying."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/8:3 8:3]
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| |Bildad: "God is not a pervert."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/8:20 8:20]
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| | "Good people get good things; bad things happen to bad people." karma
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/9:21 9:21-24]
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| |Job: "I can't prove I'm innocent. It doesn't matter. God kills both the innocent and the guilty. When the scourge slays suddenly, God laughs at the despair of the innocent. He has given the earth into the hands of the wicked. If not God, then who?"
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/9:34 9:34-10:2]
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| | "I'm afraid. I loathe my life. I say to God: 'Don't treat me like an evildoer! Tell me why I'm suffering!'"
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/11:4 11:4-6]
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| |Zophar: "It's all your fault, Job. Evil people suffer." karma
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/121 12:2]
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| |Job: "You guys are so smart, when you die, the world will be stupid." sarcasm
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/16:2 16:2-3]
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| | "Have you got diarrhea of the mouth? I'm not getting much comfort from you 'comforters.'" Hence the expression, "Job's comforters."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/16:13 16:13-17]
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| | "God is using me for target practice. He's run a sword through my stomach and all of my digestive juices are pouring out through the wounds. My face is all red and puffy from crying and I've got dark circles under my eyes. Why is this happening to me? I haven't done anything wrong!"
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/23 23:2-7]
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| | "I feel bitter. I wish I could take God to court. I'd tell him how I felt. I'm ready to argue with him. I would listen to what He says in reply. I wouldn't care if He got angry. I've got to stand up for myself. What's happening to me is not fair."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/31:35 31:35-37]
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| | "I wish I could get someone to hear my case! I wish God Himself would tell my why he hates me so. I'd pin the list of reasons to my shoulder or wear them like a crown on my head. For my part, I'd stand up to God like a man, like an innocent man who has been wronged. OK, I'm done. I've had my say. The ball is in God's court now."
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| |align="right"|Chapters 32-37
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| !Elihu's interruption
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| These six chapters, although part of the canonical book, are negligible. A new person, Elihu, speaks up to condemn both Job and the three friends. Elihu is nowhere in chapters 1-31 or in 38-42. If these speeches had been written by the original author, there would undoubtedly be a rebuttal from Job, as in the three cycles of speeches with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and Elihu would also be included in the denouement (final resolution) of the story (42). The absence of Elihu from the rest of the book suggests that these speeches were a later addition to the story.
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| Elihu is angry that Job thought that he was right and God was wrong, and Elihu also angry with the three friends for failing to prove that Job's sins deserve punishment (32:1-4). If we take a mental razor blade and cut these chapters out of the book, nothing is lost; we would never know that the chapters had ever existed. With the Elihu chapters cut out, Job stops speaking (31:37), then God starts speaking (38:1).
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| Elihu's interruption does summarize chapters 4-32 exactly as I have: the contest is between God and Job. One or the other is in the wrong.
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| |align="right"|Chapters 38-42
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| !Job's Case is Tried in God's Court
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/38:1 38:1-40:2]
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| |God: "I'm the God of the Heavens and the land and the seas and all that fills them."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/40:3 40:3-5]
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| |Job: "ACK! I wish I hadn't said anything. I'm gonna hush my mouth!"
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/40:6 40:6-41:26]
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| |God: "Don't I do nice work? Look at the hippopotamus and the crocodile!"
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/42 42:1-6]
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| |Job: "You know, God, I'd heard about you. Now I've seen you. I withdraw my case."
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| |align="right"|[http://usccb.org/bible/job/42:7 42:7-8]
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| |God: "I'm angry at you three guys. Job was right. You were wrong. If Job doesn't pray for you, I'm going to show you, up close and in person, how evil comes to evildoers."
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| |}
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| == References ==
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| <references />
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| == Links ==
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| [[Category:Discernment of Spirits]]
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