The Enigma of Job Focusing on Job 1 and 2 by Michael Thompson Job presents difficult theological and ethical questions regarding the relationship of the believer’s faith to situations involving suffering and the believer’s approach to God during difficult times. Most of these questions come up very early in the text, within the first two chapters of the book. We will endeavor to point out some of those issues and show that they are consistent with difficulties and crises that believers encounter today. The main theme of the book centers on Job’s exercise of faith as he interacts with his circumstances, the other characters, and ultimately God Himself. Through it all, Job becomes the model of the “believer-for-all-ages” who deals with life by faith in his omniscient, omnipotent, and caring Creator (1 Peter 5:6-7). Introduction—The Man and His Circumstances Opening Comments Job is a book foreign to most Christians, even those who have read it several times. The story and plot are easily mastered. Even the methods of the writer, whoever he was, are not that difficult to discern. But questions about the message of the book, the author’s intent, and his purpose will produce as many different answers as the number of people you ask. Is it a book about human suffering or about the human condition? Is it about the necessity of man to accept the hand that is dealt him, whatever it is, or is it rather about the spiritual realities behind all suffering? Could it have to do with the purpose (or lack of purpose) behind suffering? What does the book say about God’s involvement in suffering? The questions go on and on. They build. They escalate. And if we follow them, our course may be set until we arrive at some conclusion about ourselves or God that we find either extremely distasteful or impossibly wrong. If we have been particularly precise in our logic and reasoning without paying much attention to where we are headed, we may find ourselves thoroughly convinced of some notion that is utterly unbiblical and contradictory to obvious facts. After all, it is logical, isn’t it? The Book The Outline of the Chapters 1–2 is simple: Round 1, Chapter 1 Introduction to Job’s character and station (1:1–3) Example of Job’s godliness (1:4–5) First interaction between Yahweh and Satan (1:6–12) 20 CTS Journal 12 (Spring 2006) Job’s loss of property and family (1:13–19) Job’s godly reaction to his loss (1:20–22) Round 2, Chapter 2 Second interaction between Yahweh and Satan (2:1–7) Job’s godly reaction to his physical calamity (2:8–10) Job’s three friends arrive to comfort Job (2:11–13) The most significant questions in the book are raised in the first two chapters, the first prose section of the book. Surely, there are life issues raised in the rest of the book, but they are mostly corollary to those raised at the beginning. This book contains basic wisdom about man's relationship with God, righteousness and evil, life and death, fortune and misfortune, and it explains how this wisdom works in practical terms for the God-fearer. It is no accident that Job predates even the Torah as our written record of God’s interaction with man.1 With an understanding of the principles found in this book, we are much better equipped to handle the exceptional events of life, good and bad. The Man and His Circumstances As the book opens, we quickly find out some things about Job, and we feel we have a little insight into his character. But who is this man? Where did he live? When? What kind of life did he have? The prose of the first two chapters is immensely compact and purposeful in providing us only with certain information and details that will lead us in the direction the author wants us to go. People are there and events simply happen. Explanations are scarce and cryptic, leaving us with questions. The author wants us to be satisfied with the information he is providing, but our discomfort with the details compels us, drives us to want to go beyond. The first two chapters start out by telling a story—a story that quickly turns into a nightmare. Questions fly through our minds almost uncontrollably as we try to deal with our vicarious shock and imagine the trauma Mr. and Mrs. Job must have dealt with. To cap it all off, there’s a spiritual dimension: a Deus ex machina “in reverse” is thrown into the mix as we see both the Lord Yahweh and Satan working behind the scenes to engineer a calamity without Job’s knowledge or permission. 1 The dating of Job is difficult. Martin Luther and Hugo Grotius, as well as Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949), 20-26, and F. I. Andersen, Job: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1976), 63, either attribute it to Solomon or place its writing in the time of Solomon. However, the traditional dating, based on the language of the book, as well as the customs and religious practices attested to in the book, place the original writing of the book at a much earlier time. The Enigma of Job 21 It is really just a terrible situation all around for everyone involved. Many people die apparently for no reason whatever. Job’s ten children are crushed when a house collapses, and his servants are almost all killed in a matter of hours or days. Job is ruined financially as his life’s work is destroyed. Then his health is attacked in a most vicious manner. Job’s wife, who we must remember is also an injured party in all this, does not prove to be particularly helpful as a “valued team member.” Her only recorded comment to Job reveals her own despair and yet elicits a measured gentle reply from her mate, considering his obvious discomfort.2 He is left as an outcast. This man who had been a ruler is reduced to ruin. The obvious question at this point is, “Why?” Yet that question is neither posited nor answered in the opening chapters of the book. The characters are nowhere close to dealing with it. They are still in shock. To go down that path at this point is a dead end. This comes out as the writer carefully interjects into the narrative of the first two chapters the words about Job continuing to cling to his righteous behavior (1:22; 2:10) and correcting his wife's admonition to “curse God and die” in 2:9. If we look at how people deal with grief in terms of the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—we can easily identify several of them in the interactions that take place. As far as Job is concerned, we cannot find any traces of denial, and I do not believe that he shows any overt signs of fist-shaking anger in the first two chapters. However, it is quite obvious that Job is willing to engage in some aggressive bargaining with God over his situation as the book progresses. He spends most of the poetic section of the book in a deep depression (cf. Job 14) and seems quite resolved that the next logical event for him must be his inevitable demise. In fact, his words could almost be those of Qohelet when he speaks in Job 7:1–10: Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, And like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages, So I have been allotted months of futility, And wearisome nights have been appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, “When shall I arise, And the night be ended?” 2 Job’s comment to his wife has often been taken as a harsh reproof for her admonition to him to “curse God and die.” However, the actual tone is actually more of a gentle correction than a harsh reproof. Job is not calling her a foolish woman, but rather saying that her comment is like one that the foolish women would make and therefore unworthy of her. 22 CTS Journal 12 (Spring 2006) For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn. My flesh is caked with worms and dust, My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is a breath! My eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will see me no more; While your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be. As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, So he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, Nor shall his place know him anymore.3 Job’s Three Friends The visit of Job’s three friends, while mentioned in the concluding section of chapter two, does not play a primary role in the set-up of the book. The author introduces them here to give insight into their character and to place them into the overall structure of the book. Their role is to provide a foil and a continuing irritation for Job in chapters 3–31.