Job

The Book of Job

By Maharishi Gator

One of the great enigmas of the Bible is the book of Job. According to the Bible, Job was a prosperous landholder who lived-in the land of Uz. He was one of the richest and wealthiest people in the East. Job was a man of virtue, blessed by Jehovah with wisdom and financial security. The book of Job is a discussion of whether the blessings of God were the reasons Job worships him, or whether Job worshipped God because he provided him with a prosperous life.

The story opens when the court of God is gathered to present a report about creation. The spirits who rejoiced about creation were arriving in God’s spiritual court, giving updates about creation’s progress.

Satan enters the Court of Jehovah after returning from a stroll through the Earth. He begins to criticize humankind and began prying into God's affairs. Satan challenges God. Satan claims Job is serving God only because of his financial and social prosperity. Jehovah goes on the defensive. God tells Satan that Job worships him because of goodness and not because he made him prosperous. In fact, God will prove it by allowing Satan tempt Job, to see if he will curse God. Job was not to be killed or hurt, otherwise Satan could do anything he wanted to him.

Let’s look at this tale using logical analysis. First, in what way does Jehovah hold court? Are we talking about the most powerful spiritual entity in the entire universe or King Arthur? Where is this "court?" Why were spirits delivering a report to God about creation? A "court" suggests God might live in a palace. It also infers that God is not all knowing and must be given reports from spirits and angels. Why would an all-powerful, all knowing deity need advisers?

The antagonist is Satan. According to the book of Job, Satan could wander anywhere, do anything, and had access to the Heavenly Court. Satan was serving like an advocate of a rival political party, making accusations that could embarrass and ridicule Jehovah God.

Let’s examine Satan even further. If God does have a Holy Palace, why didn't he post guards and keep Satan from entering it? If Satan was a threat, why didn't Jehovah just kick his ass into oblivion? What gave Satan the right to question God? Why would Jehovah feel obligated to accept Satan's challenge?

Jehovah valued the life of his servant Job. He refused to allow Satan to harm him during his first assault on his goodness. However, it’s apparent that Jehovah did not have love for the wife and children of Job. He allowed Satan to have Job's wife and children murdered! Perhaps Job's wife and kids did not worship as strongly as Job did. Whatever the reason, they were murdered and Jehovah did nothing to stop it.

Job remained faithful even though he lost the family farm, his wife and kids. He was poverty-stricken but he still proclaimed his goodness toward God. It was as if Job was playing a role in a reality survival television program, entertaining God and all the Angels in Heaven.

As miserable as Job was, Jehovah decided to allow Satan to make him even more miserable. Jehovah approved Satan to give Job a serious physical illness. Some experts say Job was covered with boils, yet others say that Job was suffering from elephantiasis. Whatever the reason, Job was financially destitute and grief-stricken about the deaths of his wife and children. Job one of the most miserable people living on planet Earth.

Job had three friends who came to sit with him. They sat in silence for seven days, then they began a conversation. Doesn’t this seem strange? Discussions began about goodness and God's blessings. The conversations continue for sometime before Job dismisses his friends. (Now consider that these friends were not aware of what was going on in Heaven, but came over because they considered Job a friend. On the other hand, the writer of the book of Job suggests these friends were tools of Satan. How could they be tools when they were unaware of what was occurring in God’s Heavenly Court?)

The story plays out when Job gives tells his friends to leave his home. Satan concedes that Jehovah is the winner of the goodness contest and leaves the Court of Jehovah to wander somewhere else. The challenge is over.

Jehovah again blesses Job. He is given bigger land holdings, gets a new wife and fathers some new children. Once more, Job is rich and happy. He and his family live happily ever after. (Sounds like a fairy tale, so I thought it should end it like one.)

Who was the winner in this story? It was not Job, although he was rewarded for being faithful. He watched his first wife and children die. The horrible disease he suffered sure wasn’t worth the financial gain he was rewarded with for his faithfulness.

Was the winner Satan? Of course not. Satan lost the betting contest and just went on his way.

Could the winners be the original wife and children of Job? Don't be ridiculous. God did not care about them. God sanctioned their being murdered. Remember that Job's long discussions with his three friends did not include his grieving the deaths of his family members.

We must assume the winner was Jehovah God; after all, he was correct in his confidence that Job would not turn from him. How could Jehovah be the winner when he allowed Job to suffer? It was a matter of principle, not one of caring who was hurt when trying to prove a principle. How could God be the winner if people had to die to prove Job's faithfulness? Perhaps these are questions we are not expected to ask.

My conclusion to this story is this: Job was a fictitious character. The book of Job is nothing but a fable, perhaps used to describe to correlate financial success to faithful goodness. If one accepts the Book of Job as a biography of a man named Job, then we have some major questions for Jehovah God to answer. After all, Jehovah did bless Job with financial success because of his goodness.

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“Judy” sent the comments below in April 2001 about the book of Job.

     In either case, I would say that this book of the Bible is one that deals with the greatest themes of the world and contains some of the most vivid poetry ever written. The question of how a good man will act when tested is such an intriguing one. For Job, testing creates a resolve to deceive himself and to tell God what he thinks of him. To me, this is a challenge to have courage as much as it is an admonition that all good people need to be intellectually prepared to question even God himself.

     It is ironic and interesting to me that Job is both blessed and allowed to be cursed by God. He is both humiliated and exalted for faithfulness. Finally, the caveat to it all is that although "good" triumphs over "evil" in the account, this triumph comes at the cost of great human suffering and loss of life. Good wins, but evil is allowed to slip out the back door to fight another day.

     If memory serves, (and mine is rather poor these days) then some critics compare Job to the Greek Prometheus myth and to some epic Babylonian poem that had the same motif.

     I don't know...I always loved the Book for Job for its "attitude." I never thought of Job as particularly patient, however, so have no idea why people think this because it never seemed to me that Job just took all this suffering without a bit of railing against it.

     Overall, whether Job is a real person or a mythical character, there is still a lot of inspiring stuff in the book that bears his name. From a purely human standpoint, it's neat to see good triumph over evil and to believe that there is some kind of purpose and justice to the universe. Fairy tales aside, the issues in the book seem human and quite real.
   **** Judy****