Bob Schaefer
Job, Then and Now
October 2, 2002

• Describe the character, personality, and piety of Job (from the whole book, not just from chapters 1 and 2).

Most people know of Job only through the saying that has found its way into common parlance: “The patience of Job.” This expression is trotted out to describe anyone who has been long suffering, particularly when that person suffers in silence. Someone with “the patience of Job” is a surefire candidate for secular sainthood, a model of Norwegian Lutheran stoic piety, and the object of both admiration and pity in the community at large on account of their suffering.

The real Job is none of these.

Job, as described in the book that bears his name, is without a doubt a pious man. The very premise of the book, stated in its first verse, is that Job is a “blameless and upright [man], one who feared God and turned away from evil.” Job’s piety sometimes seems to have taken the form of caution toward God: He offers sacrifices on behalf of his children “just in case.” It could be that one of them has sinned, and God, in his justice, might bring that one to punishment of no sacrifice has been made. Job’s fear of God in Ch. 1 appears to have a real sense of actual fright in addition to the usual idea of religious fear.

Job’s life and conduct are extremely pleasing to God, to the point that the deity brags among the heavenly host about his servant Job. If a modern turn of phrase might be permitted, one can imagine the Lord talking about “my man Job!” Job is God’s man, for better or for worse, as he shall see.

During his time of troubles, Job comes across as witty and devout at the same time, cutting through his friends’ pious nothings with great ferocity, while longing for God his Redeemer (19.25)—whom he calls “wise in heart, and mighty in strength” (9.4)—to appear and hear his complaint. But if God is Job’s Redeemer, he is also his quarry, and Job is anything but “patient” in his complaint. Indeed, the words dogged, relentless and unyielding spring to mind much sooner than “patient!”

Job does not suffer in silence; he challenges the platitude of his friends, who assume that great and terrible sins hide just behind the upright façade of Jobs public life. Further, he challenges God, whom he recognizes (correctly) as the source of his woes. While Job sometimes veers dangerously close to pride and arrogance in refuting his friends, he understands clearly that he has done nothing to earn such terrible retribution from the deity. Because of this, he is cast into a sea of questioning and doubt; his whole concept of God and God’s justice has been shaken to its foundations. Like most of us, Job’s suffering is magnified by the absence of an obvious “why.”

Job’s reaction to the revelation he ultimately receives is cryptic and hard to read. Perhaps he has found deep meaning that provides a “why.” Perhaps the presence of God has lessened his need for a “why” in the first place. Or perhaps he never really submits quite as much as we (and God?) want to think he does. The question is an open one. However, Job appears willing to pray for his friends despite their contribution to his misery, and he gives of his wealth generously, even to the point of including his daughters in his inheritance. Whether he is ultimately satisfied with God’s answer we are not told, but God appears fully satisfied with “his man.”

• Which of Job’s four counselors do you like the best — and why? If you were in trouble, which would you want to come to visit you? (You must choose one. It is not sufficient to say you would not want any of them.)

None of Job’s counselors is exactly a gem when it comes to pastoral care, as we might put it here at the seminary. Each of them is prone to long-windedness, presuming to provide “answers,” and deriding Job for daring to ask questions in the first place. They are arrogant and condescending in their piety. Job’s suffering has turned his worldview (which appears to have had much in common with their own) upside down, yet they refuse to struggling with him to make sense of it. Instead, they merely reassert tired old sayings and do violence to Job’s character and the present situation in order to make them fit a certain preordained conclusion. Job’s friends never even entertain the notion that something is happening that is beyond them. One is reminded of the reaction of Hamlet and Horatio to the Ghost in Act 1, Scene 5:

• HORATIO:
  O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
• HAMLET:
  And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. / There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

The case of Job is wondrous strange, but Job’s friends are unable to welcome it as strangers. They choose to hold to their philosophies and theologies, even when confronted and challenged by the stranger things of heaven and earth.

However, the current essay compels me to choose one of those interlocutors for my own, should I have been in Job’s place. Very well, then. Elihu, the fourth counselor, is my choice.

Though he falls prey to the same shortcomings mentioned above, Elihu does some things very well. I am impressed that he holds his tongue so long in order to hear what Job and the other friends have to say. (Although, it must be said, once Elihu gets rolling, he doesn’t stop for anyone except God himself!)

Also, Elihu seems to recognize the terror of the divine that has befallen Job, and seeks to relate to him as one human to another, one earth-creature to another: “See, before God I am as you are; I too was formed from a piece of clay. No fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy on you” (33.6-7). Whether or not his words will be a burdensome pressure on Job remains to be seen, but he at least starts out right in offering words of comfort and solidarity.

Further, I think that Elihu has an important insight in 33.13-14, where he challenges Job: “Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of my words? For God speaks in one way, and in two, though people do not perceive it.” Experience suggests that we humans are very good at questioning and challenging, but not particularly adept at hearing the response should it be given us. Whether because we don’t know to listen, or deliberately keep challenging in order to avoid hearing the response in the first place, Elihu’s words are well heeded.

Interestingly, Elihu is the one friend who is not reprimanded by God in the end. (He is not mentioned in any way, either favorably or negatively, in fact.) Could it be because his speech is perhaps the closest to God’s own heart? There are moments — particularly toward the end of his speech (cf. 37)—where Elihu’s talk of “the wondrous works of God” seems practical identical to the deity’s own speeches that immediately follow. Perhaps Elihu alone among the friends prepares Job for the climactic discourse with God.

• What is the image of God that emerges from the book of Job? Is it consistent all the way through the book? Is it in harmony with your own picture of God, or do you note some contradictions?

God is a troubling character in the book of Job, no doubt about it. He is quite wrapped up in the affairs of humans, to the point that one such man appears to be a source of great pride and pleasure to God. The deity brags about this one, and even accepts a challenge: Will “God’s favorite” (to borrow Neil Simon’s turn of phrase) continue to serve God if evil should befall him? In other words, will Job continue to be faithful if God appears to him to be unfaithful? Disturbingly, God is willing to put on the appearance — or is it only an appearance? — of infidelity to Job in order to... ?…

And that is one of the main questions. Why is God handing Job over to the Accuser? Why is he putting Job to the test like this? Is it just to make a point (and if so, is it about Job or about God himself)? Is it to cause Job to grow? Or to thwart the Accuser? God’s motivations in Job—as in real life—are frustratingly not in evidence.

More troubling is that the only answer Job ever receives seems to be an overwhelming display of power designed to bring him to his knees and shut him up. Perhaps God himself is troubled by the questions that Job is asking about him? Such speculation aside, it seems as though God actually approves of Job’s speeches, as evidenced in 42.7: “My wrath is kindled against you[, Eliphaz,] and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” As much as God has been Job’s true advocate in the heavenly realms, it seems as though Job has been God’s true advocate among mortals.

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