Essay

This is an essay that I got heaps out of writing. I hope you guys get stuff out of reading it.

What does the book of Job teach about God, suffering, and wisdom?




The book of Job is an extraordinary book. Quite often it is seen as merely a book on the problem of pain, but its real meaning is quite complex - it goes far beyond just explaining a common fact of human existence. Its real depth lies beyond the problem that suffering brings, as it teaches the reader some incredible realities of God and His nature, as well as an example of a righteous response in the middle of this calamity. It also gives some very interesting insights into the real essence of Wisdom, which is another key theme in the book.


God:

Throughout history, humankind has always had an inclination to compartmentalise God. The tendency to put God ‘in a box’ has been present throughout the history of God’s people, and has always led people away from true faith in the limitless God to dependence on religion.
This is reflected in the book of Job through Job’s friends and later when Elihu came on to the scene: they each claimed they knew how God works, that they understood His ways, and that they could therefore deduce the reason for Job’s suffering. They each seemed to rely on the teachings of tradition, and then used these ideas to analyse the very ways of God down to a tee. Their reasoning was quite reasonable - they believed that God is Just and all powerful, so they therefore concluded that any suffering experienced by an individual is the righteous judgement of God and it is therefore deserved.
Job found that the trouble with this theology was that it didn’t match up to what he was experiencing. Job was a righteous man and he knew that he himself had not done anything to deserve the dreadful suffering that was inflicted upon him, and he also held fast to his belief that God is Just. Job was then left with an incredible tension between God’s Righteousness and his own innocence.
Job’s friends were worshipping an all too pleasant and predictable god - they built their gods from their own reason. As for Job, all his preconceptions of God had been shattered, and he was confronted with the terrible truth that God is wild. Job learns that God is not tied down by humankind’s thoughts or reasoning, nor is He limited to religion - either religion that He establishes Himself, or that which is inflicted upon Him. The reality of this is seen in Job’s response to his encounter with the very real and living God:

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (42:2).

“Job shatters idols in people’s minds and leaves a realistic picture of God.”[1]

We cannot completely understand God. We can begin to understand His ways, but we cannot predict His movements. God is far beyond us - we cannot comprehend Him - He is bigger than our words and theories. Rob Bell puts it like this:

“The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody we made up. And if we made him up, then we are in control.”[2]


Suffering:

Job’s paradoxical theology that he chose to struggle with was probably the hardest part of his suffering that he had to endure. Through Job’s noble integrity, he did not give up his belief in his own innocence, and he did not give up the fact that God exists and that He is just. Job’s biggest sorrow was the apparent meaninglessness of his innocent suffering (from his own limited point of view). Out of his anguished frustration, he attempted to call God into account:

“If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who watch over us all? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?” (7:20)

Job’s response to his undeserved suffering is what pleased God. It seems that God was wanting Job to maintain his righteousness, but also (more importantly) to maintain and grow his faith in Him.
A key point that W. McDermet makes in his article “Suffering and the Righteousness of God” is that suffering can be the catalyst for real religious experience.[3] It seems that in Job’s situation, he had not known God beyond the knowledge of second-hand encounters, but in the deep, dark pit of suffering he meets God first hand:

“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (42:5)

The result is that Job sees his own suffering as insignificant in the light of God’s power and glory.
The writer does not attempt to explain the meaning of suffering; in fact the only theories found in the book (which also reflect modern conventional religious thinking) are those constructed by Job’s friends and Elihu, who are in the end condemned by God because they are wrong (42:7). Instead, the writer focuses on different responses to this suffering. Several responses are put forward in the story, (to turn away from God [2:9], to ‘explain away’ the problem in hollow ‘pious’ philosophies [as can be seen in the comments of Job’s friends], or to forsake integrity by Job lying to himself that he actually did deserve the punishment that was being inflicted upon him) but Job’s response is the only correct one in God’s eyes. Job holds on to his trust in God, even though by all accounts from his limited perspective God has abused that trust and defeated him to absolute misery.
From the book of Job, we learn that suffering is an inevitable part of human life and we are not given any substantial insight into the reason for this. However, we do learn that the appropriate response to this suffering is Faith - a deep faith in God, trusting Him that He is good and that He is just: that He is working everything to His perfect will.


Wisdom:

Although Job’s friends initially meant well in their ‘comforting’ of Job, they soon resorted to explaining the reason for Job’s suffering through their own, human knowledge. Their ‘wisdom’ had been rooted in tradition and impersonal, black-and-white philosophies and so was very limited. Job saw right through their deficient proverbial wisdom because they were inaccurate observations of the very real life that was tormenting him.
In Job’s desire for Wisdom he looked not to his friends, but to God Himself - the source of all true wisdom (28:23-27). Job understood that Human wisdom was limited, and could not answer his deepest questions. Job thus repeatedly cried out to God for a reason for his suffering (Job 31), but received no answer, even when God came in the storm and challenged him.
True wisdom is from God, and cannot be divorced from God. Wisdom without God is only Human intelligence, and is therefore foolishness in comparison. Job’s friends were right theoretically, but only in a very vague way practically. There is so much more we cannot know, so we need to put our trust in God, who sees all and knows all.

“We strongly link ‘wisdom’ with ‘reason’ and man’s analytical faculties. Biblical wisdom, however, is not captured by man’s analytical powers… but comes from the commitment of a man’s heart to his Maker.”[4]

In this case, Job did not have the bigger picture - God had made a ‘wager’ with Satan to show that humanity could still love Him apart from His blessings. So Job was on trial - was his faith genuine, or did he only love God for what He blessed him with? However, Job could not see this, so he sought God’s wisdom for the reason of his suffering.
As we learn from Job’s poem on wisdom:

"The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding." (28:28)

This fear was not present in the people described in the book of Job. Job’s friends confined God to their theories, and Job developed a type of arrogance that led him to demand an audience with the Creator. However, God successfully instilled this fear in His faithful servant Job and his friends by the demonstration of His wild and terrible nature, and so led them to depend on Him and not in their own inferior wisdom.



Like Job’s friends, I believe a lot of the modern day church has confined our God to neat, clean theology. I believe that we need to learn from the book of Job the mystery of God. We need to steer away from our overwhelming dependence on the fixed rationalism of our culture, and embrace the paradoxes of reality.
As a result of the church ‘figuring out’ God, we now take God’s Grace and Forgiveness for granted - we all-too-often seem to depend on the religious rituals for our righteousness (eg. Communion, Prayer, etc), thinking that God is required to ‘uphold His end of the bargain’. This is a dangerous way to live - God is not a tame God, and cannot be obligated to any such ‘bargain’, except by His own choosing, by His Grace. We cannot depend on these constricting theories of who God is or the rituals - it is dependant on God’s Mercy.
Without our heart religion is meaningless, and that is what we need to keep in mind.

When encountered with the problem of pain, either in theory or in direct experience, we should not try to explain it away or attempt to ‘defend God’. Instead, we should do our best to allow these experiences to increase our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father.
It is a complex problem with no simple answer to it (and probably no answer at all this side of eternity), and it is something that all people everywhere have to deal with. It seems that this would be the reason why McDermet says that the book of Job “is the one which in every age is felt to be modern”[5].

Last of all, and I believe most importantly, we need the Fear of God. We too often preach a God who is too soft - all ‘nice’. This is not the God of the Bible - God is Love, but He is also Holy, which makes us enemies of God without our redemption through Jesus Christ. In acknowledging the great mercy of God, we should do whatever we can to allow The Holy Spirit to purge us of sin so that we can be unhindered vessels for God to use unlimitedly.
In this healthy fear of God, we will gain true wisdom, which requires that we depend on our eternal and limitless Creator.






Bibliography


Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005

Drane, John. Introducing The Old Testament. 2nd ed.
Oxford: Lion, 2000

LaSor, William S., David A. Hubbard, and Frederic W. Bush,
Old Testament Survey 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1996.

McDermet, William W.. “Suffering and the Righteousness of God,”
Encounter 40 (Aut. 79): 421-29

Henderson, Steuart, “Wisdom at the Dunghill,”
Newsletter - Foundation for Christian Studies No.5 (Mar 1976), 1-4

Yancey, Philip. The Bible Jesus Read.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1999


[1] William S. LaSor, David A. Hubbard and Frederic W. Bush, Old Testament Survey, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1996), 495
[2] Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 25
[3] W. McDermet, “Suffering and the Righteousness of God,” Encounter 40 (Aut. 79): 423
[4] Steuart Henderson, “Wisdom at the Dunghill,” Newsletter - Foundation for Christian Studies No.5 (Mar 1976): 3
[5] W. McDermet, “Suffering and the Righteousness of God,” Encounter 40 (Aut. 79): 422