Book of Job, Session Four

Bible Study @ Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

Winter Semester … The Sorrow and Hope of Job

Tuesday Jan 15	Saturday Jan 19	Job 1-7
Jan 22	Jan 26	Job 8-14
Jan 29	Feb 2	Job 15-21
Feb 5	Feb 9	Job 22-28
Feb 12	Feb 16	Job 29-35
Feb 19	Feb 23	Job 36-42

There are some serious textual issues in this section, the third cycle. Though I am cautious about “reconstructing” the text, I think we’re on safe ground with Robert Gordis

, an acclaimed rabbi, who suggests the following reconstruction. Rabbi Gordis is a conservative commentator who doesn’t jump to such conclusions easily:

“Thus, only the opening speeches of Elliphaz (chap. 22) and of Job (chaps. 23-24) are in order. Moreover, the closing section of Job’s reply (chap. 24) raises grave difficulties with regard to its interpretation and relevance.

Fortunately, much of the third cycle can be restored, especially when the stylistic traits of the book are taken into account. Chapter 25 is much too short for Bildad. Most of chapter 26, on the other hand, which is assigned to Job in our received text, is inappropriate to his position but highly congenial to Bildad’s. Similarly, the latter part of chapter 27,which is also attributed to Job, stands in direct antithesis to all he has maintained. It is, however, thoroughly appropriate for Zophar, to whom no speech at all is assigned in our present text.

Chapter 28 is a ‘Hymn to Wisdom,’ differing radically in its lyrical form from the dialogic structure of the debate. It reflects in brief compass the basic outlook of the poet, which is elaborated upon in the God speeches that constitute the climax of the book. Chapter 28 is therefore best regarded as an independent poem by the author of Job or by a member of his school.

By allocating the appropriate portions of chapters 26 and 27 to Bildad and Zophar, respectively, and by recognizing the independent character of the ‘Hymn to Wisdom’ (chap. 28), we gain an additional advantage. We are able to reduce the dimensions of Job’s reply, which is much too long, occupying six chapters in the received text (chaps. 26-31).

While the evidence of injury sustained by the text is clear, all proposed restorations of which there have been many, are necessarily tentative and uncertain. The reconstruction proposed here requires a minimal change of order in the Masoretic

 text.”

The conflict worsens. Eliphaz is all the more convinced that Job is an evildoer, and to make his case, Eliphaz lays out a litany of Job’s misdeeds, and there is no escape from God on any of this. Period!

Up to this point, his friends have conceded to Job’s claim to be a good man. Good, but faulted; good, but sinful. Now, Job is painted as the worst man who ever lived! The rhetoric is amped up to its final level - Job is utterly wicked, totally evil. There is no good in him at all.

⁵      Is not your wickedness great?

      There is no end to your iniquities.

⁶      For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason,

      and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷      You have given no water to the weary to drink,

      and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸      The powerful possess the land,

      and the favored live in it.

⁹      You have sent widows away empty-handed,

      and the arms of the orphans you have crushed. 

¹⁰      Therefore snares are around you,

      and sudden terror overwhelms you,

¹¹      or darkness so that you cannot see;

      a flood of water covers you.

But hope remains for Eliphaz. All Job needs to do is repent sincerely and he will be restored, and more than that, Job will become a source of help and inspiration to others.

The friends have invoked tradition and the widely held consensus that God is great, that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and that He punishes only when He has a reason to punish. [Kushner, The Book of Job (Kindle Edition), p.88]

²¹      “Agree with God, and be at peace;

      in this way good will come to you.

²²      Receive instruction from his mouth,

      and lay up his words in your heart.

²³      If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored,

      if you remove unrighteousness from your tents,

²⁴      if you treat gold like dust,

      and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent-bed,

²⁵      and if the Almighty is your gold

      and your precious silver,

²⁶      then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,

      and lift up your face to God.

²⁷      You will pray to him, and he will hear you,

      and you will pay your vows.

²⁸      You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

      and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹      When others are humiliated, you say it is pride;

      for he saves the humble.

³⁰      He will deliver even those who are guilty;

      they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.” 

Sounds good … but Job will have none of it. Job is not going to deny his own conscience in order to gain what Eliphaz promises - peace and healing with God. A bad deal is no deal at all. Sort of a like a forced police confession!

So Job ignores the specific charges leveled against him by Eliphaz and reiterates his claim - that if he could have a hearing with God, God would recognize the legitimacy of Job’s complaints.

Let me suggest that at the core of Jewish God-talk is the unshakable conviction that God’s most dominant attribute is His commitment to justice rather than power.

Other nations worshipped a powerful god, the most powerful they could find. Israel served a God who was both powerful and just, and they would spend the next 2,500 years trying to reconcile those two attributes with each other and with the collective suffering of the Jewish people and the anguish of so many individual Jews.

[the above two quotes are from Harold Kushner, The Book of Job, Kindle edition, pp. 82-83]

By the way, Job’s style reveals an excellent insight into how to deal with unjust accusations hurled at us … Job is not sidetracked by them, but remains focused on his own position, restating it consistently. In other words, don’t bother trying to answer the accuser - no answer will satisfy anyway. Just stick with your story and restate it. 

Job introduces a new element: The Absent God. Job has looked for God, but hasn’t been able to find God.

  “If I go forward, he is not there;

      or backward, I cannot perceive him;

⁹      on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;

      I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.

¹⁰      But he knows the way that I take;

      when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.

¹¹      My foot has held fast to his steps;

      I have kept his way and have not turned aside.

¹²      I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

      I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth.

¹³      But he stands alone and who can dissuade him?

      What he desires, that he does.

¹⁴      For he will complete what he appoints for me;

      and many such things are in his mind.

¹⁵      Therefore I am terrified at his presence;

      when I consider, I am in dread of him.

¹⁶      God has made my heart faint;

      the Almighty has terrified me;

¹⁷      If only I could vanish in darkness,

      and thick darkness would cover my face! 

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Throughout the history of faith, “the absent god” has been the subject of much writing, such as St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) and his “Dark Night of the Soul,” written for young monks who enter the monastery with much joy and spiritual conviction, often relating profound experiences of the divine.

But in time, many of these young monks found their joy dissipating and their sense of the divine decreasing, creating a crisis for many, wondering if they’ve done something wrong and thus destroyed their spiritual life, and rightly calling it, “a dark night.”

John writes to them words of encouragement.

God is “absent” only because their initial spiritual experience was immature, and like a child suckling on its mother’s breast, was very much a matter of need, and God was kind enough to meet that need.

But now it’s time for something else; it’s time to grow up.

In God’s “absence,” some of God’s best work is being done. But like a sculptor who veils her work from the public eye, God must veil God’s work from our prying eyes, lest we rush in and muck it all up with our suggestions. 

Only when the work is done will the veil be removed, and will we be able to see the new work God has wrought in our life, without our help. Though, at the time, it seemed as if God were absent, God was doing some of God’s most important work.

------------------------------

Job experiences the absence of God!

Chapter 24

And now, in Chapter 24, Job goes into a full-bodied description of how sinners get away with it, time and again.

Job clearly wonders if there is any justice whatsoever in the world.

As I read through Chapter 24, it became an ever-more painful portrait of injustice … again and again, Job reiterates what is found throughout the Prophets - the powerful get away with horrendous crimes against the poor; the powerful enjoy their privilege while the poor struggle to make ends meet, often driven to the very brink of death by starvation and disease. 

As for the prophets, this is no accident, but the result of an unjust social system wherein, by the luck of the draw, if you will, certain people rise to the top of the food chain, and unless they’re profoundly conscious of just how lucky they are, they continue to feed off the poor, as Jesus notes, “devouring the houses of widows.”

Who are the poor here in Job?

Migrant farmers … perhaps they once were tenant farmers, or even owned their own land, but in the course of time, they’re now reduced to migrancy.

 ⁵      Like wild asses in the desert

      they go out to their toil,

      scavenging in the wasteland

      food for their young.

⁶      They reap in a field not their own

      and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷      They lie all night naked, without clothing,

      and have no covering in the cold.

⁸      They are wet with the rain of the mountains,

      and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

The crimes against the poor intensify in this chapter … it would seem that the author wants the reader to be painfully clear that the world is ruled by injustice, that the powerful get away with crimes, and there is no one to bring them to trial. 

Psalm 37

²¹      The wicked borrow, and do not pay back,

      but the righteous are generous and keep giving;

⁹      “There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast,

      and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.

¹⁰      They go about naked, without clothing;

      though hungry, they carry the sheaves;

¹¹      between their terraces they press out oil;

      they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.

¹²      From the city the dying groan,

      and the throat of the wounded cries for help;

      yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

In vs. 12, blunt and without any hint of compromise, it is said, God pays no attention! The author pulls no punches here in trying to capture how it must feel and how the world must look to the poor and the oppressed who have so little to show for a day’s labor and years of hard work.

Monday morning, I read a piece by Frederick Buechner, one of my all-time favorite writers and Presbyterian minister, who recounted his student years under some very famous theologians, one of whom was James Muilenburg, an Old Testament scholar at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. 

Buechner recounts what Muilenburg said about faith and confession:

“Every morning when you wake up, before you reaffirm your faith in the majesty of a loving God, before you say I believe for another day, read the Daily News with its record of the latest crimes and tragedies of mankind and then see if you can honestly say it again.” 

Buechner than adds:

“He … didn’t or couldn’t or wouldn’t resolve, intellectualize, evade, the tensions of his faith but lived those tensions out, torn almost in two by them at times. His faith was not a seamless garment but a ragged garment with the seams showing, the tears showing, a garment that he clutched about him like a man in a storm.” [from Listening to Your Life, February 4 reading].

If nothing else, we might be very careful in how we look at the poor. In our time, we heard a lot of talk about “takers and makers” - where the powerful condemn the poor for being poor, “takers,” and congratulate themselves for being so resourceful, being “makers.”

Job was one of those “makers,” and now he’s lost it all. Was Job ever proud and arrogant about his place in life? We don’t know that. Job himself make it clear that he wasn’t; that he was a kindly and generous man. 

At this point in chapter 24, we encounter a textual issue; it is suggested that vss. 18-24 are not Job’s words, but Job’s quotation of what his friends have said to him. 

In fact, Job contends that the wicked, the powerful (here and elsewhere in the Bible, the wicked are most of the powerful) are rewarded in this life, without any punishment coming to them for their crimes against the poor.

Hence, vss. 18-24: Job repeats what his friends suggest: the powerful/wicked will always pay a great price for their crimes against humanity. That’s what the friends contend; Job, on the other hand, says No!

Vs. 25, then, belongs to Job: he challenges his friends - Prove me wrong!”

Chapter 25 & 26.5-14 - Bildad

Bildad refuses to deal directly with Job’s challenge on injustice in the universe and rather exults the glory and power of God, and, once again makes clear, in his own mind at least, that no one can stand before God and claim innocence. Nothing and no one can stand against God. 

If Job has challenged his friends to refute his contentions about injustice, Bildad ends with a challenge to Job (vs.14): Who can understand God’s power?

Chapter 26.1-4 & 27.1-12 - Job

Job replies with biting sarcasm - Oh my, how you have helped!

Job is clear: he can expect no help from his friends. Therefore he stands alone, and stand he does. He will never concede to their claims that he’s in the wrong, that he’s guilty before God.

Job reiterates his faith in God’s justice and begs his friends to lay off.

Chapter 27.13-23 - Zophar

My trusted commentator attributes Chapter 27.13-23 to Zophar, who is not mentioned in the text; it would seem that the text is rather tangled at this point, having experienced some loss in the transmission.

I’m content with this “reconstruction” of the text, in spite of the fact that portions are simply missing and not likely to be recovered. Other commentators offer alternatives; Gordis’ is rather simple and gives clarity to what otherwise seems confused.

Zophar’s speech, then, adds nothing new here; he reiterates the conventional ideas of the day - the wicked who gather wealth will ultimately lose it and will be swept away.

Chapter 28

Again, let me quote from my trusted commentator:

“While the beautiful ‘Hymn to Wisdom’ is not an integral part of the book of Job, it is a highly welcome product of the poet’s pen. In view of the vast dislocations sustained in the third cycle of the dialogue, it is easy to understand how this poem found its way into the text here. In its present position after the conclusion of the third cycle, the ‘Hymn to Wisdom’ is a well described as a ‘musical interlude’ between the debate and Job’s final soliloquy.” [Gordis, p.278]

In the finest of the Wisdom tradition, chapter 28 reminds the reader that wisdom is not to be found in this world, but only in God. Though humankind may know a great deal about life and even have religion and morality, knowing something about good and evil, the final abode of wisdom is in the heart of God.

Though final wisdom is not to be ours, the author reminds us that we know enough to be in awe of God - that’s wisdom (see Proverbs 1.7) and to avoid evil - that’s understanding (Proverbs 1.10).

And, as is found in the Book of Proverbs, wisdom is cast as a female.

Once again, we have covered a lot of material, but Job and his friends have not found a way through their arguments. Job’s friends remain adamant about his sinfulness, even as Job remains firm about his integrity and faithfulness to God.

Chapter 28 is almost a preview of what is to come.

But for that, we’ll have to wait.

As always, to be continued!

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From Wikipedia ...

The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah. The MT is also widely used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles, and in recent years (since 1943) also for some Catholic Bibles, although the Eastern Orthodox continue to use the Septuagint, as they hold it to be divinely inspired.[1] In modern times the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown the MT to be nearly identical to some texts of the Tanakh dating from 200 BCE but different from others.

The MT was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries CE. Though the consonants differ little from the text generally accepted in the early 2nd century (and also differ little from some Qumran texts that are even older), it has numerous differences of both greater and lesser significance when compared to (extant 4th century) manuscripts of the Septuagint, a Greek translation (made in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE) of the Hebrew Scriptures that was in popular use in Egypt and Israel (and that is often quoted in theNew Testament, especially by the Apostle Paul).[2]

The Hebrew word mesorah (מסורה, alt. מסורת) refers to the transmission of a tradition. In a very broad sense it can refer to the entire chain of Jewish tradition (see Oral law), but in reference to the Masoretic Text the word mesorah has a very specific meaning: the diacritic markings of the text of the Hebrew Bible and concise marginal notes in manuscripts (and later printings) of the Hebrew Bible which note textual details, usually about the precise spelling of words.

The oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century CE,[3] and the Aleppo Codex (once the oldest complete copy of the Masoretic Text, but now missing its Torah section) dates from the 10th century.

Book of Job, Session Three

Bible Study @ Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

Winter Semester … The Sorrow and Hope of Job

Tuesday Jan 15	Saturday Jan 19	Job 1-7
Jan 22	Jan 26	Job 8-14
Jan 29	Feb 2	Job 15-21
Feb 5	Feb 9	Job 22-28
Feb 12	Feb 16	Job 29-35
Feb 19	Feb 23	Job 36-42

Job is a study in suffering, and how the sufferer responds - no punches are pulled in the description of Job’s losses and ailments. It’s a terrible thing that has happened to him, and Job descends into the pit of despair and anger. He comes to the end of his rope. There is nothing more to lose for Job, and his bitterness grows.

Job is a study in relationships - Job’s friends come to comfort him, and do so with considerable respect, waiting just the right time, seven days, in complete silence, offering Job their presence and not burdening him with words, at least, not yet.

We learn a lot about human nature, not only from the portrait painted of Job, but that of his comfortable friends, comfortable in their material status and spiritual understanding. Ultimately, they believe comfort will come to Job if Job accepts their world-view of divine reward and punishment, a world of retribution, a world of easy answers.

Job’s discomfort becomes their discomfort, and the friends are determined, so we learn, to lay it all out for Job, to explain to Job why he’s suffering, and, in a nutshell, he’s suffering because he’s a sinner - evidently he or his children, or both, have failed God and so must suffer the consequences.

Job stands firm on his righteousness … he’s been a good man, and he’s been faithful to God. He’s been an outstanding member of the community, he’s helped friend and neighbor. He’s done well materially and didn’t forget God.

Job readily admits that he’s not perfect, but contends that his punishment is over the top, way beyond whatever sins he may have committed. In other words, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, and that’s the issue for Job.

Job questions the character of God - Job understands that God is powerful; no doubt about that. But what Job DOES question is God’s decency, God’s justice, kindness and love. 

At this point in the Book of Job, it’s a wrestling match … Job’s three friends laying out their case and pressing Job to admit his error.

And Job, even in his despair and sorrow, remaining steadfast in his contention that something is wrong with God. The God of power, if that’s what it is, has laid waste to Job’s life for no reason whatsoever. And if Job can find the God of righteousness, Job will be vindicated.

Job’s friends, and Job himself, become increasingly irritated with one another. The relationship, if you will, goes nowhere fast.

In chapter 15, Eliphaz weighs in again and goes after Job with a vengeance - his patience with Job is wearing thin in the face of Job’s determined self-defense. As far as Eliphaz is concerned, Job’s refusal to learn from others who are older and wiser is absolute folly. 

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²      “Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,     

      and fill themselves with the east wind?

³      Should they argue in unprofitable talk,

      or in words with which they can do no good?

⁴      But you are doing away with the fear of God,

      and hindering meditation before God.

⁵      For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

      and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

Having dismissed Job’s contentions as nothing more than hot air, Eliphaz continues with the attack:

 ¹⁷      “I will show you; listen to me;

      what I have seen I will declare—

¹⁸      what sages have told,

      and their ancestors have not hidden,

¹⁹      to whom alone the land was given,

      and no stranger passed among them.

²⁰      The wicked writhe in pain all their days,

      through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

The author lays out for us one of the great challenges of religion - going with an idea and using that idea against another person when that person, for whatever reason, can’t abide by the answer. 

The author wants the reader to understand that the 3 friends who come to "comfort" Job in his distress have a theological agenda to lay out for Job, and as the story unfolds, their determination to impose on Job their theological take grows increasingly bitter, as Job, on the other hand, refuses their simple answers and conventional wisdom.

Simple answers have done great damage, and all the religions of the world are tempted by the simple answer. Christianity, as well, has been crippled by the desire for simple answers, which provide the "comfortable" with an artificial sense of security. But such answers always fail huge numbers of people, and when people refuse the answer, those with the answers grow increasingly agitated and aggressive. Their comfort zone is threatened by those who refuse the simple answer they offer.

Fundamentalist/Evangelical religion is rife with this: “Believe as we tell you, and you will be saved. Raise a question about it, and you’ll end up in hell. Pure, plain and simple.” Remember what was offered last week: There is cruelty in simple answers. There is humility in complexity. In humility, there is compassion.

The wicked suffer, so if Job is suffering, he must be wicked … such is the logic of the three friends. As logic goes, it fails; A never implies B. Job is suffering (A), sinners suffer (the idea), so Job must be a sinner (B).

Job replies (16-17) … 

He, too, could offer this kind of empty advice:

¹      Then Job answered:

²      “I have heard many such things;

      miserable comforters are you all.

³      Have windy words no limit?

      Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?

⁴      I also could talk as you do,

      if you were in my place;

      I could join words together against you,

      and shake my head at you.

⁵      I could encourage you with my mouth,

      and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

Vs. 5 is dripping with sarcasm: I could encourage you just like you’re encouraging me, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain just like your words are easing mine - NOT!

They each call one another windbags - going on and on, without saying anything of value, as far as the other is concerned. In Job’s eyes, his friends are cruel; in their eyes, Job is stubborn and vain.

Job goes on: God has utterly laid waste to his life … God, in some act of wanton cruelty, has stripped away everything and left Job suffering in body and soul. 

Job has lost everything:

⁷      Surely now God has worn me out;

      he has made desolate all my company.

⁸      And he has shriveled me up,

      which is a witness against me;

      my leanness has risen up against me,

      and it testifies to my face.

⁹      He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me;

      he has gnashed his teeth at me;

      my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰      They have gaped at me with their mouths;

      they have struck me insolently on the cheek;

      they mass themselves together against me.

¹¹      God gives me up to the ungodly,

      and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²      I was at ease, and he broke me in two;

      he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

      he set me up as his target;

But in spite of his agony, Job reaffirms his righteousness, and contends that there must yet be justice in the world. There is, there must be, a God of righteousness, as strong as the God of might, and while the God of might has proved his mightiness against Job, Job will as of yet be proved right, if only he can gain a hearing from the God of righteousness.

¹⁶      My face is red with weeping,

      and deep darkness is on my eyelids,

¹⁷      though there is no violence in my hands,

      and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸      “O earth, do not cover my blood;

      let my outcry find no resting place.

¹⁹      Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven,

      and he that vouches for me is on high.

²⁰      My friends scorn me;

      my eye pours out tears to God,

²¹      that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God,

      as one does for a neighbor.

²²      For when a few years have come,

      I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

Chapter 17 …

Job is broken, and has no regard for his friends whom he calls “mockers,” and warms them - their betrayal of Job will leave a terrible legacy for their children. Their hardness of heart, harshness of spirit - they denounce for reward - could that reward be some anticipated “moral victory” - not financial gain, but the pleasure of trouncing someone, proving them wrong, embarrassing and discrediting them?

The friends have, indeed, declared war against Job. But Job fights back, declaring that God must have closed their minds to understanding, so God will not let them triumph.

 ¹      My spirit is broken, my days are extinct,

      the grave is ready for me.

²      Surely there are mockers around me,

      and my eye dwells on their provocation.

³      “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;

      who is there that will give surety for me?

⁴      Since you have closed their minds to understanding,

      therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵      Those who denounce friends for reward—

      the eyes of their children will fail.

It’s all done for Job - he’s more than eager to die:

¹¹      My days are past, my plans are broken off,

      the desires of my heart.

¹²      They make night into day;

      ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ 

¹³      If I look for Sheol as my house,

      if I spread my couch in darkness,

¹⁴      if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’

      and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵      where then is my hope?

      Who will see my hope?

¹⁶      Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?

      Shall we descend together into the dust?”

Chapter 18, Bildad, round two.

Bildad keenly feels that he and his friends have been insulted by Job. In an effort to demolish Job’s argument, Bildad describes most eloquently the fate of the sinner - everything they cherish will be destroyed. For Bildad and the friends, there’s no listening to Job’s sorrow and agony. They have a point to make, and by God, they’re going to do it, no matter what.

Chapter 19, Job’s response.

Bitterly, Job expresses his contempt for the friends who have scorned him and ignore his misery.

If Job has sinned, yes, it’s his sin, but it would seem that God is the one who has brought all of this calamity upon Job:

¹      Then Job answered:

²      “How long will you torment me,

      and break me in pieces with words?

³      These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;

      are you not ashamed to wrong me?

⁴      And even if it is true that I have erred,

      my error remains with me.

⁵      If indeed you magnify yourselves against me,

      and make my humiliation an argument against me,

⁶      know then that God has put me in the wrong,

      and closed his net around me.

Yet Job stands firm and wants his words inscribed in stone:

²³      “O that my words were written down!

      O that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴      O that with an iron pen and with lead

      they were engraved on a rock forever!

But is there still some shred of hope in Job?

 ²⁵      For I know that my Redeemer lives,

      and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; 

²⁶      and after my skin has been thus destroyed,

      then in my flesh I shall see God,

²⁷      whom I shall see on my side, 

      and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

With a reminder to his friends: be very careful in the ease with which you condemn me.

      My heart faints within me!

²⁸      If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’

      and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’;

²⁹      be afraid of the sword,

      for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

      so that you may know there is a judgment.”

Chapter 20 - Zophar.

A few more hammer-blows against Job.

All of the friends are now fully incensed: Job is not only wrong, but he ignores the wise counsel of his friends. Zophar describes the short-lived prosperity of the wicked.

How easily the friends indulge in descriptions of human suffering … 

I am reminded of an incident that occurred in my first or second year of seminary - I was assigned to teach a Bible Class on Wednesday evenings. At one point, I raised doubts about hell - at least about hell being co-eternal with heaven. I think we were studying the Gospel of Mark. A gentleman stood up and began to expostulate on the gory details of hell and the suffering of the wicked therein. The man turned red and grew increasingly vehement as he described the fire and pain, in lurid detail, of hell. 

I’ve never forgotten that moment. To this day, I believe the man loved hell more than he did heaven, convinced that others would be there, of course, and he would escape because he believed in Jesus, or something like that.

Job’s friends loved Job’s suffering, for it proved to them what they believed, and their beliefs were of greater importance than Job’s suffering.

Which reminds me of another incident related to me, with tears, by a widow. Her husband was stricken cancer at a time when they were members of a very conservative church and prayer group, with Pentecostal leanings. They prayed for his healing, and “claimed” the healing, “in Jesus’ name.” The man died suddenly one night, and an autopsy indicated a hemorrhage.

A friend called to offer consolation, and when told that it was a hemorrhage that ended his life, the friend exclaimed, “O good, he was healed of the cancer. The cancer didn’t take him.”

The woman left the church and the prayer group and for years remained away from the church. The cruelty of simple answers was more than she could handle.

For her friends in the prayer group, their beliefs about healing were more important than offering consolation to a grieving widow. It was more important that their “powerful prayers” indeed had led to the man’s healing from the cancer (which wasn’t the case) and that his death was caused by another matter.

Chapter 21 - The wicked often go unpunished.

Job lays into his friends and demolishes their arguments. There is not an even sense of justice in this world. Plenty of evildoers get away with it, and live happy lives, going to their grave quite content, and given a funeral full of pomp and praise.

²⁸      For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

      Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

²⁹      Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

      and do you not accept their testimony,

³⁰      that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity,

      and are rescued in the day of wrath?

³¹      Who declares their way to their face,

      and who repays them for what they have done?

³²      When they are carried to the grave,

      a watch is kept over their tomb.

³³      The clods of the valley are sweet to them;

      everyone will follow after,

      and those who went before are innumerable.

³⁴      How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

      There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

So where are we?

Pretty much a draw so far.

The battle goes on, between Job and his friends.

The friends contend that Job deserves his suffering; the punishment fits the crime. If only Job would admit the crime, God would relieve his suffering.

Job defends his integrity. Sure, who isn’t a sinner, but this punishment doesn’t fit the crime at all. If I’ve done something to deserve THIS, please, someone, anyone, God, tell me what it is.

How will this be resolved?

To be continued ...

Book of Job, Session 1

Bible Study @ Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

Winter Semester … The Sorrow and Hope of Job - Session 1

Tuesday Jan 15	Saturday Jan 19	Job 1-7
Jan 22	Jan 26	Job 8-14
Jan 29	Feb 2	Job 15-21
Feb 5	Feb 9	Job 22-28
Feb 12	Feb 16	Job 29-35
Feb 19	Feb 23	Job 36-42

The Book of Job consists of two elements that can stand by themselves. 

The Fable of Job, a very patient man (1, 2 and 42).

James 5.7-11

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

The Fable presents a very simple scenario - Good man, bad things, faithfulness and patience, good things and then some.

The Poem of Job (everything in between 1, 2 and 42; likely written at a later date (after the Exile) when the Jews were wrestling with some very large questions. Though Job is no Jew, and his friends aren’t either. This is Everyone’s story! Universal in scope - questions everyone has asked.

In the Fable, it’s all rather simple; in the Poem, nothing is simple.

At some point in time, the ancient Fable, a rather simple story, becomes the framework of a struggle between 1) conventional thinking, represented by Job’s friends - do good, you get good; do bad, you get bad. 2) Job’s dogged defense of his life - yes, he’s not perfect, but he’s a man of integrity. Whatever he’s done wrong, or good he’s failed to do, doesn’t deserve this kind of loss and suffering. Something is wrong in the universe, and if there is a God of compassion, Job needs that God to come to his defense against the God of Reward and Punishment. 3) God’s speech, which doesn’t touch upon the question of suffering, but brings to Job a larger picture of creation (see Psalm 8). While God doesn’t address Job’s suffering, God does show up to address Job - Job is that important to God. 

The Fable

A man of great prosperity and piety in the Land of Uz - likely Edom, since most of the names in the story are drawn from Esau’s geneology (Genesis 36); Esau’s first son is Eliphaz, the first of Job’s friends to speak.

Satan, who seems to be a spy of sorts for the LORD (Yahweh), joins a  meeting of the heavenly council. The conversation turns to Job, a very good man. Then comes the question: Who wouldn’t be good and faithful since you have blessed everything he’s put his hand to. Turn against him, and we’ll see what kind of man he truly is.

Angry at God, folks will tell me, “I don’t go to church anymore, because what good did it do me anyway. I’ve been …, I’ve served …, I gave …, and now look at me. What a mess I’m in. I have no further interest in God.”

The central accusation: Human beings are faithful to God when life is good for them, but seriously disrupt that life, and they’ll quickly turn away, cursing God to God’s face.

What are the conditions of our relationship with God? Do we “love” the LORD our God for God’s sake, or our own, or a combination of the two? Have we ever “cursed” God, and wondered why God was “doing harm to us, and for what purpose? Do we deserve this, or is God going after us senselessly, for the heck of it (like the other gods who trouble humanity - many cultures of the past saw the gods as troublers, teasers, tormentors, of humanity for their own entertainment)? Or is God against us from sins, known or unknown? 

Have I wasted my time in worship and service? Is this what I get for all my effort?

How could God answer the question?

So begins the experiment - what is the character, the true character, of a human being - this strange creature possessed of divine qualities embodied in the dust of the earth. In other words, can there be genuine devotion, worship and praise? Or is it all tainted by self-interest.

Does Satan see something God doesn’t see, or refuses to see?

Satan takes everything away from Job, but Job remains steadfast. Satan and the heavenly council gather again, and once again, Job comes up for discussion. Satan suggests that Job’s faithfulness will collapses if his health is taken. 

So, let’s see how far this can go to uncover Job’s “true” character.

Three friends come by to comfort Job, and they’re silent for seven days and seven nights; they give Job the gift of presence. They didn’t come to argue with him, though it comes to that. They came to offer him comfort, and counsel. They await his words.

Job curses the day of his birth (see Jeremiah 20.14); he doesn’t curse God. Though, as we will see, Job believes something to be wrong.

The easy manner in which the comfortable dispense counsel to the suffering.

Chapter 4: Eliphaz enters the discussion and begins in a kindly way, to say what Job himself has likely said to others in the day of their distress. Ultimately, says Eliphaz, Job has, indeed, sinned, as everyone does, thus bringing calamity upon himself. Job may be a good man, and he is, but no one’s perfect, not even angels. We all make mistakes and we have to pay for them.

But commit your way to the LORD (5.8); the LORD wounds and heals (5.18) … this has been well-studied by us; pay attention to it and know it for yourself (.5.27). “What we say to you Job is tried and true; you’ve likely said it yourself.” It’ll all work out, just you wait!

Chapter 6 - Job replies and stands by his claims, and challenges God to come to his aid. “Tell me what I’ve done to deserve this?” His pain and sorrow are unrelenting. And Eliphaz’s words are tasteless to him (6.6-7). Job says, “My friends have betrayed me.”

6.24 - give me more than cheap advice and counsel. Teach me. Show me where I have gone wrong.

Chapter 7, further reflection by Job on life’s hardships: life is short, and ends in death … and, 7.11, Job says, “I’ll not shut up. I’ve a complaint, a just complaint, and I’ll make noise until I get some satisfaction.” 7.17, an ironic play on Psalm 8, which asks the question: Why is God concerned about humankind, as small as we are? Job turns it a bit, wondering why such a “big god” would bother with creatures so tiny? “Why don’t you let me alone? What am I to you?”

Summary: it’s all about big questions.

Satan: What is the character of humankind? Are they capable of loving God, or are they driven by self-interest?

Job: Why is this happening to me?

Eliphaz: What did you do wrong to deserve this? 

Job’s question: Why does God even bother with me?