Im not the only person who loved the wifely tribute in proverbs 31. Rather, it begins with a typical day in the divine oval office, and the topic of gods just operation of the cosmos is put on the table. Was it unfair for god to allow job to suffer over what was. God not only wagered satan over the outcome of job s trials, but he actually provoked the bet job 12. The entire saga of job and his family and friends was planned beforehand by god, and he just used satan as an active participant and the chief antagonist. Now, there was a righteous hebrew in the land of uz named job.
Why did god make a bet with satan that allowed satan to torture job. Allowing the questions is necessary in order to be able to address them. A classic old testament skit, pungent as a piece of absurdist theater or a story by kafka. In it, god brags to satan about the devotion of job, an upright and virtuous man. I am in a study group at my church and this week we were studying job.
No red skin, no horns, no pointy teeth and tail, and no devilish grin. The book of job is a lengthy poem set in the framework of a prose narrative. Job is described as an upright man who follows gods commands, and is blameless in gods eyes. What the devil and job got wrong about god stephen moore on. The book of job is a very interesting book in the bible. Satan makes the wager that if job were to suffer, he would not be so loyal, pious and faithful. The book of job is a wisdom story to make some important points some of which have been covered in other answers. In the first two chapters we are introduced to job and to yahwehs wager with. If god does not permit satan to test his theory about the motivation of pious folks like job, then satan can say, you are afraid i might be right. There is no indication at all that job s children and servants were good followers of god. There are a variety of views on chance to be found in the hebrew bible, or old testament. The tone of the work abruptly changes, however, in chapter 3, as job begins his poetic speeches by cursing the day on which he was born.
Many readers wrote to tell me its one of their favorite bible passages, and. The book allows hard issues to emerge because they do in human experience. The bible pulls back the veil to glimpse heavenly affairs. To make matters worse, job never finds out why he was afflicted in the first place. It reveals that satan as a rival god appeared before the true god jehovah in heaven, challenging jehovah in the assembly of all the angels before god. In the book of job, how was it possible for god and satan. Why did god allow satan to harm job s health and wealth. Job is going to be immiserated, sealed into sorrowfor a. I am a faithful reader of your column and am curious how the jewish. The word blameless doesnt mean sinless, but rather. Third of all, if we analyze the language job contains the most difficult hebrew of the tanakh, with more hapax legomena than any other book we find that the frame story of god and the satan was almost certainly added to the text of job long after the creation of the majority of the text. The book of job is ancient israelite wisdom literature, and its purpose isnt to teach us about how satan and god make bets and leave innocent peoples fates hanging in the balance. Satan makes the wager that if job were to suffer, he would not be so loyal, pious.
Full text of a dictionary of the spanish and english languages. The bet the bibles book of job is one of the most difficult for religious apologists to explain. The book of job is a book in the ketuvim writings section of the hebrew bible tanakh, and the first poetic book in the old testament of the christian bible. Full text of a dictionary of the spanish and english. In this chapter we will discuss the book of job and. In hebrew, satan actually means the accuser or the prosecutor, and he is referred to as the satan, not just satan. We are first introduced to job as a blameless and upright man job 1.
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