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| Leviathan & Job | | Date Created: Aug 12, 2005, 08:36 AM |
 Yahweh's two speeches at the end of the book of Job (38-41) should bring some closure to the book. The prologue has the whole cosmic order arrayed against the blameless and upright Job, "a man who feared God and shunned evil" (1:1, 8; 2:3). Yahweh's capstone speeches affirm God's absolute control over the entire cosmic order, including Satan. The story begins when Satan, the voraciously malevolent "son of God" is commissioned by Yahweh to prove Job's integrity. Satan flies out of God's presence and, in effect, brings the whole world of men and cosmic forces to bear against Job, sparing only his life. Sabeans plunder his property (1:15). Fire falls from heaven and consumes his sheep and servants (1:16). The Chaldeans carry his camels into captivity and slaughter his servants (1:17). A mighty wind strikes the four corners of his children's house and they all die (1:19). Finally, after Job refuses "to sin by charging God with wrongdoing" (1:23), Satan secures permission to "strike his flesh and bones" (2:3).
In all of this it is crucial to read the text carefully. Satan is only Yahweh's tool. When Yahweh calls Job's faithfulness to Satan's attention after the first round of devastations, He says, "he still maintains his integrity, though you incited Me against him to devour him without any reason" (2:3). Similarly, Satan himself understands his roll as a tool in the hand of the Almighty when he says to the Lord, "But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones" (2:5). Clearly, Satan is an instrument in the hand of the Lord to accomplish His will against/for Job. Job also recognizes this fundamental truth when he rebukes his wife: "Yahweh gave and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be His Name!" (1:21).
This background is all the more important because it is precisely Yahweh's complicity in Job's suffering that must be explained or at least satisfactorily expounded. Yahweh has arrayed the whole cosmic order–inanimate, animate, angelic, and human–against his servant Job! This is Job's principal and consistent complaint in all of his monologues and dialogues. This means that the problem addressed in the book of Job is not so much the problem of suffering per se, but the problem of the moral order of the world, specifically God's maintenance of the world. Can what God does and allows be justified? It's not just "why do people suffer?" and "why do godly men and women like Job suffer?", but can suffering people trust God? Since there is so much arbitrary suffering in the world (arbitrary from our perspective anyway), can we assume that God is managing the world well? Can we rely on Him? Does He control all things? Or is He just Dr. God, as the Open Theists teach, trying to do the best He can with a bad situation?
Now, if the principle of retribution (which was foolishly offered by Job's three friends as the solution to this problem) is not the key to unlock the reason for evil and suffering, then what is? God was not punishing Job because of Job's secret sins. If God does not order and manage the world according to the principle of justice and retribution, if the suffering we see in the world is not a tit-for-tat punishment for particular sins, then can there be anything like an orderly, managed world given the extent of suffering and evil that man experiences? Does God do all things well? If so, should we be able to discern His ways in the world?
The answer is given at the end of the book of Job. Read more.
Read the conclusion (Part 2) here.. |
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