On The Book of Job

There’s a few things about the Book of Job that I come back to for.

The first is the poetry, same as the other, limited amount of books I’ve read of the Bible. It’s simple and powerful. When you read certain sentences, you believe these words might were delivered by God Himself.

But obviously this alone is not enough to separate Job—only a basic appreciation of the Bible collectively.

The most obvious greatness of Job is its mysteries of the base understanding of the world, good and evil, and God.

It is one of those Books that affects me deeply, stays with me. And it is all seemingly straight forward.

And so on the surface, Job is a great man. Then God takes everything away from him. Then he lives a long time, finds peace, perhaps, and then he dies. Doesn’t sound so spectacular so far.

*** ***

The first striking distinction of the Book of Job is a strange ‘give-and-take’ relationship between Satan and God.

They meet in council between angels and God, in which Satan appears and in which God asks Satan where did he come from. Satan says he comes from under the ground and came up in it, or something along those lines.

It’s a beautiful moment, where Satan, for a moment is revealed as a child of God, the black sheep who God still loves and respects.

And then influences God‘s decision-making. Where God says Job is a fine man who praises Him, Satan says make Job’s life ‘Hell’ and see how much praise You gather then.

*** ***

Job’s setting is also a mystery. It takes place in the land of Uz. Scholars have a pretty good idea of where this is but there is likely no way to guarantee the coordinates of Uz in a modern day geography. As far as I know, the time of the story cannot be placed either. I believe this might be an attempt to make it timeless. Also adding to the mystery.

To summarize the plot, Job loses everything, and so then the beauty occurs. He knows in his heart he’s done nothing wrong in order to deserve this, so he asks that all-time question, why?

He hosts friends who tell him he must have done something wrong in order for God to strike down such vengeance.

Finally, he speaks to God. Nothing is set straight, other than God telling him it is impossible to understand the world. In a way, God admits the world is beyond Good and Evil. An interpretation might be that the world is beyond any understanding at all.

The book’s magnificent to me for three main reasons: God’s relationship with Satan; the idea that a good man might suffer under God’s will for the sake of nothing, that we might suffer without redemption; and that there might be a God willing to admit there lies a world in which He created that He also cannot quite explain.

I cannot quite place why I find it so perfect, similar to the setting of the book itself cannot be placed; it is the lack of answers that somehow becomes soothing. The lack of explanation and the not not-knowing becomes the end-all, like we might know what God knows after all.