Week 10

11/17/2024

Fall 2024

Central Passage: Job

The Hebrew Tanak organizes the books of the Old Testament differently than our tradition, placing Job immediately after Proverbs. Proverbs makes normative claims for the wisdom principles that govern God’s creation, primarily that sowing wisdom/righteousness reaps blessing and flourishing, but wicked/foolish living leads to destruction. Job (and Ecclesiastes) are the flipside of the wisdom coin. The Hebrew word that is often translated as wisdom also means skill or shrewdness. More than just collecting facts, wisdom develops (like a carefully trained skill) to shrewdly discern right from wrong and wisdom from folly by applying knowledge of God’s character and our relationship to our Creator as his creation. Wisdom also involves discernment that can rightly see that there can be more than one or two choices as the fool might believe; there may be multiple choices before us for living ethically and worshipfully. In other words, discernment sees the many shades that may exist between what appears to the unskilled fool as merely black and white.

Thus, as Job follows Proverbs, the careful reader sees how the principles of wisdom in Proverbs play out in story of the wise (yet limited and emotionally tumultuous) Job and his undiscerning friends who can’t believe that Job’s suffering was not caused by sin. Rather than just leaving us with the wisdom principles of Proverbs to rigidly navigate our toilsome, broken life under the sun, God then stories wisdom and folly for us. Like a musical with an establishing narrative prologue, captivating poetic character response, and narrative epilogue, God does much more than just show us that we need discernment—He shows it for creatures who learn best through story. Through Job’s story, we enter Job’s world, identifying with his struggle, feeling the bitter pain and discomfort of Job 2:13 as the friends and Job sat in silence and grief, and understanding the chilling humility God’s presence forced onto Job in the final chapters. Stories give us better discernment, showing us that there is more than just the black and white answer that “Job sinned, so he’s being punished by God.” Discernment makes us careful listeners and disciplers.

So, why did Job suffer? For God to simply prove a point to Satan? As Satan accused Job before God (note that the Hebrew word satan appears here as a title with a definite article—he is the satan/adversary), he also accused God. The accuser, bankrupt in discernment, did not believe that Job would love God in the midst of tragedy, nor that God was good, holy, and praiseworthy enough to be praised apart from His blessings. For this reason, when we question along with Job and his friends why God allowed his suffering, the end of the book refocuses us on God’s holiness. Elihu came later as a reminder to Job that God is not an unjust mocker of those who suffer. Instead, God refines His people through suffering (Zech 13:9) that brings about future repentance.

As I have been studying John, I questioned why the disciples in John 9 thought like Job’s friends. Our natural tendency is to take the normative wisdom principles of Proverbs without the discernment of Job. Thus, the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Rabbis taught that we can sin in the womb (citing Jacob and Esau in Gen 25:22). Pharisees linked suffering directly to illness. But this is paganism. Just as the barbarians on Malta believed Paul was a murderer when a snake bit him, ancient paganism fearfully believed that behind the smallest misfortune was an angry god whose proper appeasement ritual must be determined by the sinner. But Job's story gives us the discernment to know that suffering occurs for reasons other than punishment. Therefore, God first spoke to Job and his friends through Elihu’s rebuking reminder of God’s justice and greatness (34-36). He then spoke to Job out of the whirlwind to remind Job that the Creator is worthy of worship in both blessing and tragedy. The question for why God allows the righteous to suffer is left unanswered. But the answer for “Is God still just and worthy of worship in tragedy?” and “Is there more to the story than suffering as God’s punishment?” is a resounding yes.

For more on Job, the Bible Project has a helpful video. Click here to watch it for free.