THE JOB ENIGMA

 

THE JOB ENIGMA

I have read that the book of Job is a masterpiece of literature in its original language. Today, however, it is by no means a popular book. The primary difficulty is that, read quickly and superficially, the story appears to characterize God as childishly egotistical, indifferent to human suffering, and even stupid. When Satan appears before God, as the story opens, he seems to trick God by playing on His ego. He tells God that he is roaming over the earth at will. When God points out that Job is still faithful to Him, Satan replies that the faithfulness is shallow, and exists only in exchange for God's protection and blessings. God agrees to let Satan take Job's children and possessions, but he is not permitted to harm Job himself. Satan does his worst, and Job remains faithful; but Satan argues that Job would reject God if he were not protected from suffering. Then God permits Satan to afflict Job, but not to kill him.

When Satan tortures Job with boils, Job's wife encourages him to curse God, which act would secure him release through death. Three of Job's friends come and try to help. They remind Job that God would not be punishing him if he had not committed some sin; but Job protests that he has been a good man and has lived uprightly. A young man named Elihu upbraids Job for justifying himself and implying that God is unjust. Then God Himself speaks to Job and asks him many questions which appear to be designed to emphasize that His own power and knowledge are vastly superior to Job's. Naturally Job is convinced, and admits that he didn't know what he was talking about. Then God criticizes the three comforters for their false statements, and tells Job to pray for them. Finally, Job's material wealth is greatly increased, and he has more children to replace those that were lost.

That story certainly leaves a bad taste in one's mouth if he takes it at face value. But let's take a closer look at this fascinating book and examine it from various points of view, with the goal of finding a deeper meaning that is more worthy of the lofty literary style of the text.

First, Job's wife and his advisers present the conventional view - that God would not be punishing Job if he were not sinful. Job simply doesn't want to admit the truth.

Second, Job still denies that he has sinned. In fact, he has feared God, and feared the loss of his many assets: health, wealth, beautiful family, etc. He declares that “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”.

Third, Jung used this narrative as the basis for a personal attack on God. He argued that it actually demonstrated that Job was superior to God because he behaved kindly and faithfully, while God appeared egotistical, unmoved by suffering, and interested only in playing a game with Satan. .

Fourth, a more conventional interpretation asserts that Job's experience of communicating directly with God is much nicer than the narrative implies. It is, in fact, so wonderful that Job counts his sufferings as trivial compared with this awe-inspiring event. It represents an extreme example of suddenly shifting from an indirect relationship to a direct relationship with God. The obvious objection to this interpretation is that it requires one to read into the story something that is not explicitly stated; and seems, in fact, to be contrary to the text.

A fifth interpretation of Job is given by Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He argues that the fact that God fails to help Job can have only two possible explanations: either He is unwilling to help, or He is unable to help. Both choices appear unacceptable, but the former is the worse of the two; so Kushner is forced to revert to the latter. This is a classical logical fallacy, technically known as a false dichotomy, which assumes that there are only two possible choices, although actually there are more, as will become apparent as we proceed.

Now we come to number 6, and we'll shift to a different perspective: that of the mystic (or the spiritual man, or the Idealist). This perspective approaches the story as a parable, intended to teach an important spiritual lesson. The 20^th century mystic Joel Goldsmith, (briefly profiled in a post under this label) commented on the remark that Job makes in Chapter 3, verses 25-26:

"For the thing that I fear comes upon me,

and what I dread befalls me.

I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest; but trouble comes."

Thus, according to Goldsmith, it is not God, but the fear in Job's mind that opens the door for Satan to persecute him by tricking him into using the power of his own thoughts against himself. This interpretation is consistent with the discussion on “Thought Power” under the Psychology label.

Now, let's take a look at Elihu's criticism of Job's thinking. Job finds a certain wisdom in his fear of God. In Chapter 28, which is beautifully written, he speaks of the arduous search for wisdom, comparing it to prospecting for gems and precious minerals. Man finds a way to mine these things, but only God understands the way to wisdom. Job thinks that God is telling him, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding". Job qualifies on both counts - he fears the Lord, and he has departed from evil - and therefore, according to this verse, he has both wisdom and understanding. It is ironic that, of all the book of Job, this verse is the one most frequently quoted, even though the subsequent unfolding of events seems to imply that Job is completely wrong on this crucial matter. When Elihu speaks, he says, "Men of understanding will say to me, and the wise man who hears me will say, 'Job speaks without knowledge, and his words are without insight'. In fact, Elihu reveals so much spiritual truth, including much of what this entire label of postings is attempting to say, that I will write a brief post about him.

And God, Who speaks later, tells Job that he has neither wisdom nor understanding. So God agrees with Job in this respect. Therefore, the oft-quoted verse 28 of Chapter 28 is not an accurate description of wisdom and understanding. Yet, Job's view seems to represent the majority opinion, even of those that write commentaries on this story. We tend to feel that if we, like Job, do good things, are helpful to others, display generosity, etc., then God should bless us with those things with which we associate happiness: health, material prosperity, and descendants that we can be proud of.

Furthermore, when Job details the kind of good life that he has led, in Chapter 31, Elihu dismisses Job's argument with the surprising revelation that God is not concerned with the righteousness and wickedness of this world. He says:

"If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?

And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?

If you are righteous, what do you give to Him;

or what does He receive from your hand?

Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,

and your righteousness a son of man".

This misunderstanding about sin has been discussed in more detail in a previous post (The Mystery of Sin), and so I will not repeat much of that discussion here. The point is that Elihu, as a spiritual man, or mystic, is trying to explain that Job is looking at life, and even God, in terms of those things that affect him as a human body, whereas he should be focusing on his spiritual nature.

God, who speaks to Job immediately after Elihu, completes his lecture but does not comment at all on his remarks, although He criticizes the thinking of the three comforters as well as that of Job. In His monologue He actually makes few declarations. He mostly asks questions. In fact, He begins by telling Job that He is going to administer an oral exam: "I shall question you, and you shall declare to me". That fact alone adds a certain mystery to the story. Why should God ask questions of a man?

Our first inclination is to interpret this interrogation as if it occurred in our own day and culture. This approach would most certainly lead us to think that God is belittling Job through sarcasm. He seems to be asking Job for all kinds of esoteric information that Job cannot possibly have, and He also inquires about Job's ability to accomplish certain wonders on a cosmic scale. Thus He appears to say, "Regardless of how badly you have been treated, you still have to worship me, because I have all of this power and knowledge that you don't have".

That is the superficial view. But now let us take a closer look at God's actual words. He starts off (in Chapter 38) talking about the formation of the universe: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" What is the right answer to this question? Job probably thought, as most of us would, "I was nowhere". But that is not the right answer.

In fact, God supplies several hints at this answer. First, (vs. 7) He says that at that time, ". . . the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy". Stars are symbols for celestial beings. (In Revelation, Jesus is referred to as "the bright and shining morning star".) Job is one of the sons of God, and they were all there. In verse 5, when God asks who determined the measurements of the earth, he prompts Job, "Surely you know!" Job would surely know if he had been involved in the plan. Finally, in verse 21, God stops hinting, and makes the straightforward assertion, "You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!"

In other words, this cosmic knowledge is by no means impossible for Job, but information that he has simply forgotten. God is attempting to jog his memory. Similarly, when God asks, "Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook?" and other such questions, He is testing Job's command of his divine powers. Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and Joshua all performed many miracles, and later Jesus taught that we all had these abilities. But Job knew nothing of such powers. He had seen himself as a frail, vulnerable body with a life span of a few score years, with no recourse but to accept his suffering and accuse God of being unfair.

God tells Job that he has the power to conquer all of this on his own - but again His words seem quite ungodlike when they are interpreted in terms of the thinking of our current culture. In Chapter 40 He says, "Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. . . Look on everyone that is proud and bring him low; and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you, that your own right hand can give you victory."

Could God actually be telling Job, "Go kill a lot of people, and then I will respect you"? Not likely. However, the passage makes perfectly good sense when it is interpreted in terms of Job's inner world. . "Deck yourself" and "clothe yourself" refer to the spirit and not the body, as do the references to clothing in the Apocalypse. "The proud" and "the wicked" are the ego and its children. The promise in the last sentence is similar to the promises in the Apocalypse to "him that overcometh".

How much of this does Job understand? The answer isn't clear. In Chapter 42 he does admit that his knowledge was deficient: "I have uttered what I did not understand." Also, he must have had some insight into God's message, because he speaks of ". . . things too wonderful for me, which I did not know". Furthermore, he rejoices in advancing in his relationship with God: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee".

Job certainly has understood and accepted at least some new knowledge and power, because God gives him an assignment. He is to pray for the three comforters, and God promises to hear the prayer and forgive them. Now this assignment would not make any sense if we were to accept Jung's interpretation of God's speech - that He is contrasting His own omniscience and omnipotence with Job's ignorance and impotence - because then God would simply reinforce the point by disposing of the matter of the comforters in His own way without any input from anyone else - especially Job.

But God not only is willing to grant Job a role in their salvation, He actually needs Job's help. Does this mean that God is either unwilling or unable to save them by himself? You can see the similarity of this question to Rabbi Kushner's dilemma about Job - that God must either be unwilling or unable to help him. But the answer in both situations is neither. Those are not the only two possibilities. In Job's case, God was unwilling to solve Job's problems for him, but He did teach him that he could solve them for himself. Furthermore God isn't satisfied for each of us to have a meaningful relationship with Him. He wants us to have a meaningful spiritual relationship with each other. And Job's prayers for his comforters will help bring that goal into fruition.

We can learn much from this remarkable parable if we apply everything that God teaches Job to ourselves.

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