Job

The Jews see Job as allegorical, a sort of story with a moral. I agree that it’s fine when used in the way Old Timer suggests, but my experience has (sadly) generally been different. I very much dislike using Job as an example of how one should act/react. I am not Job, I am me. I am also not Noah, Abraham, Peter, Paul – all who had different individual relationships with God – or anyone else depicted in stories. I have my own relationship with God.

Scholars believe there was no actual Job (or at least not one who individually suffered all of these things) but Job is an amalgamation of several stories into one “Job.” That seems to make some sense and account for some of the more far out parts of the story.

I have trouble with the happy ending. That he endured his test well and was compensated with double of everything that he lost (except for his kids, he later had an equal number of new kids to the children that he had lost).

Yes, I’ve long felt that the ending undermines the moral of the beginning of the story. His hardships weren’t related to his righteousness (or assumed lack thereof) but he bore the hardships faithfully and was prosperous in the end. Maybe there’s a this life/the next life dynamic that people use to reconcile?

My head scratcher is that conceptually people at church know that bad things happen to good people, they know the moral from the beginning of the story of Job, they know that the Father makes the sun shine on the good and evil and sends rain on the just and unjust, etc. but in the very next sentence they can invoke the prosperity gospel.

I can imagine scenarios where we’ll close a lesson on Job with a testimony about being more obedient to get an answer to a prayer.

The prosperity gospel is the background radiation that’s ever-present in our cultural application of the gospel. I think most people at church would recognize that the prosperity gospel isn’t right but they don’t recognize how the prosperity gospel is manifest in what we say and believe.

I’ve been tempted to make a “That’s the prosperity gospel” flag and raise it whenever I hear variants of it at church but I’m afraid my arm would get tired and fall off from holding it up for 2 hours. 😈

I like the story of Job as a reminder that material possessions have absolutely NOTHING to do with righteousness and as a refutation of the Prosperity Gospel – that God loves the richest and poorest (and everyone between the extremes) exactly alike, with no regard whatsoever for their economic situation – that one’s economic situation has NOTHING to do with righteousness or “blessedness”.

I loath the story of Job being used in any way that detracts from or denies those conclusions.

I also read the story as a grand, epic, allegorical poem – not as historically accurate. I see absolutely no reason to read it literally and important reasons not to do so.

In Sunday School today, we had input from the class members that turned what looked like might have been a literal, righteousness-focused lesson into what I summarized above – with historicity left to each person to decide.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ being lived and taught at the local level can be a balm that overrides broader issues for a lot of members who would struggle otherwise.

Not to disagree but to offer a possible different view. Jesus taught many truths in parables. When asked why he used such references, he instructed his disciples that deep spiritual truths are “hidden” that can only be understood by those that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. I would suggest the possibility that Job is not as useful as history as it is given as revelation and prophesy concerning the righteous.

I would add at this point that the ancient understanding of the righteous are those that obey the law, participate in the sacred ordinances and keep the everlasting covenant (a reference from the ancient poetic format of Isaiah) which addresses wickedness (apostasy) as transgressing the law, changing the ordinances and breaking the everlasting covenant.

I also believe that Job makes a startling reference to Christ as servant vassal acting in behalf of the supreme Suzerain of heaven to oversee mankind and Satan’s effort to corrupt all of mankind. I see Job as a prophetic templet of the trial of the righteous endure through Satan’s temptations. I see the friends of Job as those that succumb to the discerptions of Satan and abandon the teachings of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, if we have the freedom to not take Job literally then that opens the door to a whole world of interpretations. I particularly love that multiple competing and even contradictory interpretations can exist at the same time.

I too love this and it applies to most other scripture as well (including much of Isaiah). I believe such diversity of understanding is part of the plan. The path is different for each of us.