The book of Job is analyzed and commented
by most philosophers and theologians for centuries. Job’s story
begins in heaven where Satan
convinces God that Job must be put on trial . Job is a man of high
estate, robust in his prime , respected
and affluent and virtuous God-fearing .
Satan says :
“…sure it is
easy for him to bring his offerings of propitiation.
But strip him off his wealth , destroy
his family and cover him with diseases and you will see that
both his piety and virtue will be gone. He will curse you in your face.”
God is persuaded .God gives permission to
Satan to afflict Job with all evil except
taking Job’s life. Fire , tornado and destruction, loss and death of all
his children follow. Nothing is left. Job sits on ashes and scratches
himself with a piece of shattered bowl.
His wife despairs .She tells him to curse God as useless and worthless.
Three gentlemen, his friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar arrived. Shocked,
weep with him in silence in his tragedy. When his friends regain
their voices , they try to use
reasonableness , logic and prudence . They try to persuade Job that God being good and just would not punish him if he were innocent. God
punishes only sinners. Job bewails and
curses the day he was born. Eliphaz
tries to convince Job that
nobody is pure before God. Job is
not comforted at all. He is furious and defends his innocence. He never committed any
sin against God. Job addressing God says
:
“…Why do You set
your mind on man ?.
What did I do to you a watcher of man.
Soon I shall lie in the
earth and
You will seek me but I shall not
be. ..”
The discussion between his three friends
continues , and becomes very heated . No matter how stubbornly Job reaffirms his
innocence, they maintain that God is
just and
distributes justice to all according to their deserts. Job remains convinced of his innocence and speaks out his
misery and his situation:
“He has put my brethren far from me,
And my acquaintances are wholly estranged
from me.
My kinsfolk and my close
friends have failed me;
The guests in my house
have forgotten me;
My maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become an alien
in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but he gives no answer;
I must beseech him with
my mouth.
I am repulsive to my wife,
Loathsome to the sons of
my own mother.
Even young children despise
me;
When I rise they talk
against me;
All my intimate friends abhor me,
And those whom I loved have turned against me.
My bones cleave to my skin
and to my flesh,
And I have escaped by
the skin of my teeth.
Have pity on me,
have pity on me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has touched
me!
Why do you , like God, pursue
me?
Why are you not
satisfied with my flesh?
Suffering which in some form is part of every human life can be
very useful and enlightening
because it is the time when
the hypocrisy and pretending of
the closest people becomes obvious
and painfully real to the suffering sick
person. One of the most realistic descriptions of the loneliness , misery and confusion of a suffering person is given
in a classic, The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy .
Ivan, the judge , well situated
materially and successful in his
profession tries to correct the position of the window veil and he slips and falls down
from the ladder. This is the beginning of his sickness which finally ends in death . Ivan is gradually eliminated
from life, his family and friends . He is lying alone in
bed . The household is completely neglecting him as a human being .
Everybody looses his/her interest in him .
“… How it happened it is impossible to
say because it came about step by step unnoticed but in the third month of Ivan’s illness
his wife , his daughter, his son, his acquaintances, the doctors, the servants, and above all he himself were aware that the whole interest he
had for other people was
whether he will soon vacate his place, and at last
release the living from the discomfort caused by his presence and be
himself released from his sufferings….”
In the
book of Job , God joins the discussion of the three friends and Job. Surprisingly enough God condemns the arguments of the three friends , God stresses
that none of them properly understood neither
God nor Job himself and then God
praises Job and calls him his
good servant . By doing this God acknowledges
that Job had a true idea of God
and his relationship to man.
But how does God really answer
Job?, or does He really answer at
all? God
asks Job where was Job when he was creating the universe. When he created
the enormous amount of living
forms of life and
the sky and the whole structure of the universe. He points to the
greatness of his creation and the limitations
of Job and his inability to understand. Job
repents and says:
“…Behold I
am of small account what can I answer you , I know that you can
do all things therefore I spoke what I did not understand , things too
wonderful for me which I did not know. I had heard of You
by hearing of my ear but now my
eyes see You therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. …”
The main problem of Job’s tragedy is in the fact that God
accepts him and praises him in
spite of the fact that Job really remains in confusion . Job vehemently defends throughout the whole
time his innocence and goodness of his behavior and life . His
conscience is clear and therefore the tragedy that falls suddenly on
him seems to be completely unjustified. His
friends are convinced that
Job must have sinned
and he is punished for his sinful actions,
but that is precisely what Job
denies and never admits
any guilt committed consciously against God or his fellow men. Is
therefore God a just God ? or is this a God
who does not care about man’s virtue or evil perversion ?.
It is
seemingly very clear and obvious that in this life the wicked prosper. People who do not care
about any moral values or God and His will are quite often very successful
and prosperous in their plans and goals. Those who follow the dictates of morality, conscience and worship God
very often find themselves in hardships, poverty , rejection
and have to face unexpected
tragedies and suffering
beyond any endurance. They are not in any way exempt from the usual
course of destructive events . Why do
the wicked prosper? Why do the
“good” suffer very often far more than any others ?.
“…Man born of a woman is of few
days,
And full of trouble.
He comes forth like a flower,
and withers;
He flees like a shadow, and continues
not…”
Job
in spite of his confusion and
suffering nevertheless opens his eyes and realizes the
transcendence of God’s wisdom and power
compared with which human
calculations are simply very often
nothing but empty only useless talk. This
is why God praises him for his integrity
and his acquired
vision of his limitations. In
sufferings Job rises to a higher level
of closeness to God and is accepted
and praised by God himself. Heroic faith is required no matter what happens
and what unexpected evil may
suddenly develop . Only such unconditional faith in God and his transcendent wisdom and
love will do in
various phases of human life. Any other form of faith is usually
too weak and easily rejected when things do not go the human way and desires according to human standards.
The necessary conditions
for such a faith to develop in human life are :
(1)
a
deep acknowledgement of one’s creature-liness
,
(2)
acceptance
of one’s mortality and
(3)
the
absolute transcendence of God’s
power and wisdom over human
situations and understanding.
There is no solid suggestion in the book of Job of eternal
life with God or the assurance of
resurrection after the death of
physical body. This is why a far deeper
light is present in Christianity .
Christ himself is the assurance
of final victory over death, a
victory accomplished in and through suffering. Christ’s suffering was
redemptive for all man because
it was accepted freely and in loving obedience to the will of the Father.
Every Christian knows very well that life on earth here is not easy or necessarily
pleasant St. Paul stressed
quite often that if our hope in Christ is for this life only , we are the most
miserable of all people.
Christianity is a religion
of victory over anything
whether pleasant or not in this
life ending in eternal life. The true relationship to God that is true
faith consists in the fact in any
situation or sudden tragedy .
However many so called “religious”
people take the business like attitude to God and call it
religion. Pharisee in the parable and
the tax collector (LK.18:9-14)
pray to God that he is not born as
a woman, he gives 10 % of his income to
the temple and he is not like the other people fornicators adulterers
as even this tax collector . The tax collector did not even enter beyond the gate of the temple but stood outside and prayed to God :
“Have mercy on me oh Lord I am a sinner
.”
Christ
said that not the Pharisee but the tax collector was justified in the eyes of God. The fact is
that one cannot buy heaven. Some people go to church
light up some candle or they go
to the priests and offer money to buy God’s favor.
It is like saying: I give you this or do this for you but you make my life
easier perhaps I could win a
lottery ticket…
This is not true religion because
it is manipulating God for human purposes which usually have nothing to
do with salvation. The final answer to
the question of suffering is given by Christ who freely accepted God’s will
and in suffering, conquered the evil of the world. Christ’s words remain true
today as ever :
“ Who ever wants to be my disciple let him take his cross and follow me…”
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