What Kind of God Is This? —Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 20B (Job 1-2)
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Job 1:1; 2:1-10 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
2 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 The Lord said to the accuser, “Where have you come from?” The accuser answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.” 3 The Lord said to the accuser, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” 4 Then the accuser answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that the man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 The Lord said to the accuser, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”
7 So the accuser went out from the presence of the Lord and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself and sat among the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
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There
was a man from Uz named Job who “was blameless and upright.” He feared God and
turned away from evil. In other words, he was a good man. So, you might expect
that things would go well for him in life, but that is not the case.
Interpreting this book is not easy, which makes it a book easily
misinterpreted. Is Job an innocent sufferer who shows us how to be patient in
suffering? After all, in the end, everything is restored. Then there is the
question of whether Job ever denies God, and so God accepts him back even
though he does complain. Then there is the question of theodicy. Why do bad
things happen to good people? In the
book of Job, God doesn’t do anything bad to Job. However, God does permit Satan
to mess with Job. So, perhaps the God revealed in this book isn’t free from
blame. Thus, as Rebecca Abst Wright notes:
The question at the heart of Job is emphatically not “Why do good people suffer?” Everyone who lives in this world knows there is innocent suffering. The question is rather, “Given the world as we know it, in which there is innocent suffering, does God know or care? Is it possible to be faithful in such a world? Should one even attempt to be faithful?” The final chapter will answer all these questions in the affirmative, without attempting an explanation that will answer all human questions. [Connections, p. 354].
In other words, the Book of Job raises more questions than
it answers. It’s one of the reasons why I have questioned whether there are any
good theodicies. Suffering happens. The question is, does God care? I believe
the answer is yes, but how we resolve the rest of the questions remains a
challenge.
We need
to set out some parameters for understanding this intriguing book of the Bible.
While some read this as a historical piece, the clue to its fictional nature
comes right up front with the reference to the Land of Uz. Whether such a place
existed is difficult to prove, though it has been linked to the land of Edom.
Thus, Job is not a Hebrew or an Israelite. The second clue is its location in the third
portion of the Hebrew Bible, the Writings (Ketuvim). Job is mentioned twice in
the Old Testament outside this book—twice in Ezekiel, where the prophet
suggests even Job’s righteousness wouldn’t be sufficient to protect Judah (Ezk14:14, 20). James mentions Job as well, focusing on Job’s famous
patience/endurance (Jms 5:11). Dating the book is impossible as well. Thus, we
can safely call this book a fable or mythical story, but as with many myths and
fables, it can reveal truth. So, perhaps what this book does is offer us an
invitation to ponder the nature of God. Is this the kind of God we find
attractive?
Our
reading, which is the first of four, serves as the prologue to the larger
conversation about the nature of God and God’s relationship with humanity. It
sets the stage for the conversations that take place between Job and his
friends, as well as the conversations with God. Our reading focuses on the
opening verses of chapter 2, though we get the introduction of Job from verse 1
of chapter 1. The rest of chapter 1 of Job, which we skip over, introduces us
to this righteous family man who takes good care of the family. But, then Satan
appears before God, who asks Satan what he thinks of God’s servant Job. Thus
begins a series of unfortunate circumstances that attack Job. Satan suggests
that the reason Job is so righteous is that God takes too good of care of Job.
Nothing bad happens to him, so Job has no reason not to be righteous. So, Satan
asks for permission to attack Job but attacks his property and his children.
Job mourned the loss, but he did not sin “or charge God with wrong-doing” (Job 1:22).
The
Revised Common Lectionary skips over the first round and invites us to consider
round two of this wager between God and Satan. Before we go too far, we need to
get things straight about Satan or ha-satan. In Job, Satan is not the
equivalent of the devil. Satan functions as God’s angelic eyes and ears. Thus,
we should really refer to “the satan,” or better as “the accuser,” which is the
translation given in the NRSVUE. So, the author speaks here of the one who has
the role of accuser or prosecutor. Thus “the satan” is a title, not a name. As
John C. Holbert notes, “The Satan’s role in the court of YHWH is to observe
human behaviors on the earth and come to report those to YHWH; he is not the
demon with horns and tail, urging sinners off to a fiery hell” [“Job,” The Preacher’s Bible Handbook, p. 100]. In other words, “the satan” works for God.
Now
that we understand things, more or less, we can turn to our reading. In Chapter
2, Satan joins the other heavenly beings who appear before God to report on
their findings. When it comes to Satan, God asks him where he’s been, and the
response is as before, Satan has been going to and fro across the earth. Once
again God asks Satan if he had considered Job, because “there is no one like
him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from
evil” (Job 2:3). In fact, Job had kept his integrity even though Satan had
“incited me against him.” You can see a bit of blame-shifting here. God sort of
takes responsibility but puts the onus on Satan. In other words, you made me do
this.
Satan
acknowledges that Job acted with integrity, but he offers a caveat. Satan may
have attacked Job’s property and children, taking away everything he held dear,
but Job kept his health. So, maybe they could push this a bit further. What if
God gave the accuser permission to attack Job directly? So the accuser declared: “Skin for skin! All
that the man has he will give for his life. But stretch
out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to
your face” (Job 2:4-5). If you touch the man’s skin, then he’ll curse you. So,
Yahweh gives the permission. God is proud of Job’s resilience, so surely Job
will come through once again.
The
accuser leaves the heavenly court, and heads off to find Job, whom the accuser
“inflicts loathsome sores … from the sole of his foot to the crown of his
head.” Job is a mess. You have to have some sympathy for him. He took a
potsherd and began to scrape off the sores while sitting in the midst of ashes.
He’s miserable. He’s grieving his situation. But will he curse God?
Job’s
wife doesn’t fare well in this story. She’s not at all sympathetic. When she
sees what had happened to Job she goes out and tells him to curse God and get
it over with. Then he can die and his suffering can end. As for Job, he’ll have
none of it. He’s not happy, but he won’t curse God. Instead, he rebukes his
wife, telling her: “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we
receive good from God and not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). We should note here
that Job won’t curse God, and therefore, sin. However, he does place the blame,
not on the accuser, but on God. Though he doesn’t directly blame God. He just
suggests that God is responsible for both good and evil. In other words, God is
in control. If good things happen, well that’s God’s will. If bad things
happen, that’s God’s will. So, what does that say about the way God is
portrayed here? Could God be so shallow that God might be manipulated by the
accuser? That’s what it looks like!
The
description of the heavenly court reminds us that Judaism hasn’t always been
purely monotheistic. That God needs an entity to check on God’s people reveals
that this God is not omniscient or omnipresent. In this portrayal of God, we
don’t get a picture of a God who is purely good or loving. Perhaps that’s not
surprising. Many portrayals of divine beings in the ancient world offered
beings who could be capricious, arrogant, and self-absorbed. That’s not the
picture contemporary Jews or Christians wish to embrace, which makes reading
Job all the more difficult.
At
least to this point in the story, which is the point at which the damage is
done to Job and his family, Job remains faithful. He maintains his integrity.
He seems a lot more moral than the God he serves. It does appear, however, that
God is correct in God’s estimation of Job. So far, he’s a good and righteous
man. As for the accuser, well, he was wrong about Job. He doesn’t curse God (at
least not yet). However, Job’s description of God as one who is responsible for
good and evil remains problematic. It doesn’t fit with my theology. It does,
however, raise questions about the existence of evil. Who is responsible? Even
if God is not responsible, which is my view, what is God up to? Why doesn’t God
intervene? We might offer answers such as free will. Or maybe God lacks the
power to respond. That perspective is gaining adherents, which is why Process
Theology has caught the imagination of many. As for Job, at least to this
point, he accepts this as reality. So, he’ll scrape off his sores but not curse
God. Thus, to this point, he remains without sin.
The
next act in this story involves three friends who come and sit with Job, trying
to comfort him. However, they get frustrated when he starts complaining and
defending himself. They want him to admit his guilt, but he’s not willing to do
that. So, they try to convince him that the reason why he is suffering is that he
is a sinner and that if he repents things will go better for him. We don’t hear
this piece, but it is an important part of the story. The good news in this act
in the story is that the three friends may end up challenging Job, at first,
they do the right thing. They sit quietly and let Job talk. As for the idea
that suffering results from sin has been commonplace, even within Christian
circles. That is true even to this day. It appears that even Job may believe
this version of the story, a version embraced by his friends. But, what had he
done that he might repent? That is the question Job presents and is presented
with.
We
will have three more encounters with Job, each of which will invite us to
expand the conversation. Here at the beginning, we are presented with a story
that is rather troubling in the way it portrays God. It does seem to offer a
response to the picture given elsewhere in Wisdom literature that suggests
blessings are a sign of righteousness and suffering that of unrighteousness. The
questions raised by the Book of Job are important ones. In some ways, the Book
challenges another strain of Wisdom Literature that presumes that blessing is a
sign of righteousness and suffering is a sign of unrighteousness. It also
invites us to consider the way we view the divine-human relationship. Marvin
Sweeney, a Jewish scholar of the Hebrew Bible, offers these words of insight
when it comes to these questions:
The book of Job deliberately presents the model of a righteous man who suffers with no apparent moral justification in an effort to force critical reflection on the issue. The arguments posed by Job’s friends concerning the meaning of human suffering and their assertions of divine righteousness even in the face of evil and Job’s responses to each of them are in fact the key issues of the book. The book of Job is intended to question the standard theological premises of the Torah and the Prophets, viz., is it really the case that observance of the divine will leads to success and peace in life? Is it really the case that the wicked suffer— and not the righteous? Is it really the case that G-d is just? Indeed, the final episode in which G-d affirms Job’s demands for an explanation for his suffering— even though G-d never provides such an explanation— indicates that such a critical agenda is in fact the purpose of the book. In the end, the book of Job affirms divine presence and it appears to affirm divine righteousness, but the book also affirms the right and obligation of human beings to ask such questions of G-d. In this respect, Job points to and affirms a model of a human being in critical dialog with G-d. [Sweeney, Marvin A. Tanak: A Theological and Critical Introduction to The Jewish Bible (Kindle Locations 11439-11447). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.]
Here we have a story that asks us to ponder difficult
questions about the nature of God and the divine-human relationship.
Let’s not be too hard on Job’s
wife. She’s just trying to get him to face the facts. If God is responsible,
then perhaps we need to talk back to God. Eventually, Job will do just that.
It’s just too bad that in the end, God bullies Job into submission. As Rebecca
Abt Wright suggests, when it comes to Job’s wife, “She does not throw the accusations
the friends will hurl at him; she is not under the thrall of the assumption
that Job has brought all this calamity upon himself (and his children,
servants, flocks, and herds). She is the only person who offers Job grace” [Connections,
354].
At this point, let us ponder the question
without fully answering it: how should we understand God’s nature in light of
what we’ve seen so far from our reading of Job 1-2? In other words, what should
we make of this portrayal of God?
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