Part IV // What About Job?

There are going to be some of you that will point to the Book of Job and have a whole bunch of questions surrounding Job because that part of the bible is often used in many churches to teach a message of “sucking it up” and “hurting for God” which completely misses the point. It’s also a book with a narrative involving God choosing to hurt others. It’s no surprise that it’s earned the reputation of being about pain & suffering.

Let’s take a closer look at what Job is really about.

The Inside Scoop

It’s a book in the bible that gets misread a lot because WE ARE NOT the original recipients of that story.  Therefore I believe that we often get taught a takeaway that IS NOT the takeaway that the original listeners/readers would have focused on. Our worlds are completely different so it makes complete sense that there is context that we might miss out if we only skim the surface. 

The main focus of Job, is to contradict the mainline theology of THAT time which is as follows

  • If you do good works → there will blessings

  • If you sin/upset gods/God → you will be cursed

Conversely, if you encounter strife/struggles/hardship, it is BECAUSE you sinned and upset God/the gods.  This belief system faith is based on transactions, not grace. Reading Job with this understanding will allow us to see that the story of Job counteracts this “transactional faith” belief system. How?

The Story

So first and foremost, Job was written allegorically (I believe). And this makes sense when you read this story. The hardships get worse and worse. The drama builds amongst Job and his friends. And there is dialogue between God and the devil. Obviously God and the devil did not have these meetings in a boardroom where someone was writing down the minutes nor did this happen in a courtroom where there was a stenographer writing down every word. Job is a story (traditionally told orally) to highlight a broader theme.

In this story Job LOSES EVERYTHING. His land, his farm animals, his family. They were all killed/destroyed because God and the devil were settling a bet.

That’s right, the devil walks up to God and says,

“Job is a complete fake. He only worships you because life has been cushy.”

God then says,

“Nah, bro. Job is the real deal and I could take away his wealth and he’ll still worship me.”

And this keeps going and escalating because the devil keeps on antagonizing the situation. 

Comparing our context with biblical context

To the 21st century reader, we immediately get caught up in that.

How THE HECK would a loving God just mess with someone’s life JUST BECAUSE?!?
Why would God even need to prove anything to the devil? 

When we ask these questions we can either learn the context, or get stuck, or (at worst) embrace toxic theology (like saying it’s a privilege that God has chosen you to suffer just to prove a point).

When reading Job, we need to realize that, to the original listeners, a violent worldview was normal. We may balk at it now however the fact remains that the idea of gods cursing and hurting and harming and condemning people because of their sins is normal to the listeners back then.  The rationale of “you are suffering therefore you MUST HAVE sinned in some way otherwise it wouldn’t be happening” was considered top tier deductive reasoning.

Your suffering is PROOF of your sin, even if none of us witnessed it. 

To a people in a time that embraced and believed in a transactional faith system, the violence and horrible actions done by God, was nothing to bat an eye at. It’s just another Tuesday afternoon.  

It’s in this belief system that the story of Job comes in and that’s how we uncover the main teaching point. Job uses the beliefs/paradigms of the time to challenge and push AGAINST that very same transactional theology.  This is the key take away. 

Counteracting Transactional Theology

The Bible for Normal People has a GREAT podcast episode on this exact topic (I’ll provide a link at the end). Pete Enns really dives into the book of Job and unpacks all of this way more. I’ll continue typing up a summary of Job but know that it’s all directly influenced by the aforementioned podcast. I highly encourage you to check it out. 

So Job is presented as someone who is sinless. This is important. He has NOT done ANYTHING wrong and yet, he does not reap all these blessings and benefits. Instead Job is cursed. It’s unfair, unjust, and when Job pleads his case to his friends, NONE of them believe that he’s actually innocent. In their eyes, Job’s suffering is clear evidence that Job sinned in some way. It’s the ONLY possible explanation otherwise Job wouldn’t be suffering. 

The entire story consists of Job holding his ground. He is still not sinning and he KNOWS that. He does NOT deserve this. To the listeners of that time, THIS IS HUGE because strife, pain, conflict, suffering, was always thought to be directly correlated to sinning and upsetting the gods/God.  But here, this man is pretty much flawless. He doesn’t deserve this and yet he’s been put through hell.  This story does NOT line up with the theology of the time. 


Not only does Job stand up and hold his ground against his friends, but he stands up even to God and at no time is Job said to be in the wrong for doing this.  

UH OH. Let’s recap that again because this is also huge. 

Job KNOWS he hasn’t done anything to deserve all the suffering and he stands up for himself EVEN IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD.  Not only that but in the end God comes into the picture and says that Job was in fact right. 

MIND BLOWN. 

This is a massive development.  How many people are able to stand up for themselves in the presence of God and still be alive to tell the tale. Not just that, but how many people have God side with them and proclaim that they are correct which is in DIRECT CONTRAST to the “orthodox” understanding of faith & God at the time?  

Faith is NOT transactional.  Suffering IS NOT EVIDENCE of wrongdoing. You are ALLOWED to be frustrated and angry and impatient with God because God cares.

To the listeners of the time, this would have been the big takeaway. This is the thesis. The main point. The headline.  The spark notes would focus on Job being right… NOT the twisted idea that we are supposed to suffer patiently and happily for a puppet master God who might cause all this pain and suffering on a whim.  After all, Job was NOT patient. He was NOT happy. He made that clearly known while he stood up for himself. 

Thank you.

If you made it this far. Thank you for taking the time. I have no idea what life has been like for you. Undoubtedly there’s been some degree of pain, “hurt”, and harm.  Whatever that has been in your life, it’s not easy. I don’t think it will ever be easy.  All your feelings surrounding that pain shows you’re human. 

I hope that you are able to find some degree of peace in Christ ALONGSIDE your other feelings. Too often churches push us to find peace in Christ without teaching us to acknowledge and validate our feelings. 

All of our emotions and feelings are part of being human. There is no such thing as a bad emotion.  Be yourself. Take whatever time you need.  What's important is what we do with our emotions. What will we do with our actions? What will we do with our life. Will we love God and love people?  Will our actions meet the criteria of “do no harm, do good, and love God”? 

No matter what anyone says, it’s ultimately our choice. 

Questions

  1. Have you ever read the book of Job before?

  2. What did you think? What stood out to you?

  3. If your church has ever preached on Job, how was it taught? What was the lesson?

  4. Challenge - reread Job with this new understanding. Write down what stands out. How is Job breaking down old barriers of their understanding of God.

  5. How is Job breaking down barriers of YOUR understanding of God?

  6. How else can we apply Job to our lives today?


    https://peteenns.com/episode-133-the-book-of-job/