Job and the Problem of Suffering

Gennady Gumilevsky:Was Job righteous before God?

Introduction:
"Job and the problem of suffering. Its main character, Job, a very wealthy and God-fearing man, lost all his possessions, his children, and his health in a matter of hours. Even his wife did not support him in the misfortunes that befell him, and advised him to die, after first blaspheming God. And then, as if to exacerbate Job's suffering, his friends appeared, from whom, instead of words of comfort, the unfortunate man heard words of condemnation. But worst of all was that God seemed to have turned away from Job and for a long time did not answer him or come to his aid.

The Book of Job is called unparalleled in world literature. In its content, it reaches the heights of religious thought, and in its form, it belongs to the best examples of poetry ever created by man. Thomas Carlyle's often-quoted words about this book are well-known: "I think that neither in the pages of the Bible itself, nor outside of it, is there anything written that sounds with such power and can be compared in its literary merit to the Book of Job."

The structure of the book itself is unique: it is an amazing combination of prose and poetry, monologue and dialogue. The prologue (chapters 1-2) and the epilogue (42:7-17) constitute its prose part. But everything "in between" (with the exception of the introductory verses that begin each monologue in most chapters) is the poetic part (in the Hebrew original). In principle, such a combination of prose and poetry is found in other ancient literary monuments of the Near East, but it is not characteristic of any other book of the Bible" (http://otveti.org/tolkovanie-biblii/iov/). 

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"For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me." (Job 3:25)

As I recall, for most of my life, I thought I was living correctly and well, understanding what is right and good solely according to human standards. People create standards not only for the manufacture of various products, but also for ideology, culture, rules of communication, and so on. Only later did I learn that there is another standard, and in many ways, or rather, in the most important ways, it does not correspond to human standards. Therefore, when I read the description of Job's life at the beginning of my Christian life, I didn't understand: why did God allow this punishment for him? To comfort Satan? No, of course not. To test the sincerity of his heart? But we know that God knows the heart of every person, and the Word of God is a different standard, different from the standard of people.

Was Job really not guilty of anything before God? Did God really allow Satan to inflict such great sorrow on Job for no reason? Let's understand the true reason, which lies in Job's sins, and very serious ones at that! And what were these sins? Perhaps we have many of them too? The matter here is not only about the accusing friends. After all, Elihu not only accused the friends, but much more so accused Job!

According to verse 4 of chapter 1, Job's sons feasted every day, which means not just eating, but eating and drinking to excess. Job acknowledged the possibility that his sons might be blaspheming God (verse 5): "When the days of feasting were completed, Job would send for them and consecrate them, and rising early in the morning, he would offer burnt offerings according to the number of all of them [and one bull for a sin offering for their souls]. For Job said, 'Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' This is what Job did on all such days." Job probably had reasons for saying this. From the text, it can be understood that Job did not prevent his sons from leading such a dissolute life, that is, he acquiesced to it.

What was Job doing? When another drinking bout ended, Job "offered burnt offerings." Here we see Job's pure hypocrisy. The Bible describes a similar situation in the family of Eli, 1 Samuel 3:13-14, when the Lord spoke of the punishment that the head of the family would receive: "I will punish his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them; therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever." Of course, Job had no repentance, and therefore there was no true righteousness: "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." Luke 15:7

What kind of righteousness did Job have? According to the verses from the Bible, the Lord says this about it: "Even if I sent a plague into that land and poured out my wrath upon it in bloodshed, to cut off from it both man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would save only their own lives by their righteousness." (Ezekiel 14:19-20) Noah, Daniel, and Job are taken as three righteous men who preserved their purity amidst the general wickedness of those around them and thus were saved from general destruction.

The seemingly strange order (Daniel is not last) is explained by the fact that Noah, through his righteousness, saved his entire family—8 people, Daniel only saved friends similar to him in righteousness—3 people, and Job could not even save his children. Job's righteousness was too small! How great is the difference between David and Job in their repentance before God: "For You do not desire sacrifice—otherwise I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psalm 18-19.

But was Job and his children solely to blame for this? Job acknowledges himself as a sinful man (7:21), but despite this, he tries to prove his righteousness before God. In chapters 29 and 31, he lists all his good deeds, emphasizing his greatness. Verse 1 speaks of Job's blamelessness. Blamelessness is a word more commonly used among people, related to their morality. Blamelessness does not mean sinlessness. Did Job do evil? It is said that he turned away from evil, that is, he tried not to do it, but this does not mean that he did not do evil.

Job tells God that he will go to court with God, declaring his righteousness before God (Job's self-righteousness): "Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be justified" (13:18). Elihu, addressing Job, says: "But you are full of the judgments of the wicked: judgment and condemnation are close. Beware, do not incline to wickedness, which you have preferred to suffering" (36:17 and 21). To avoid punishment, people also often incline to wickedness. Job was confident in his superiority over other people, calling them "the refuse of the earth" (30:1, 8). Job helped many people, but based on (30:1:8) it can be said that he did this without love for them.

Job was a believing man, and what unites him with us is that in our current hectic lives we often forget about God. This life of ours is what is most important to us, and God is somehow an addition to it. This is also the reason why God had to punish Job so severely. This lesson is important for us. Job's righteousness is nothing more than self-righteousness, which is also characteristic of today's Christians. Just like Job, we have a lot of self-confidence that we understand everything and do everything correctly. However, it would be better for us to ask God in prayer about this, so that He may enlighten us before we decide to understand or do something.

The defenders of Job refer to the words (Job 2:3): "And the Lord said to Satan:...but you incited Me against him to destroy him WITHOUT CAUSE." What can be said about this? No one denies that Job was a believing man, a good and caring family man, who remained devoted to God until the end of his suffering. Therefore, God initially told Satan that He would not allow Job to be destroyed (killed) (1:12). That is, there was no guilt for that. But God allows punishments (terrible for every person) for Job not for fun, but on the basis of Job's sins, which are reported in the text. And every sin is guilt before God. That is, Job is not guilty of destruction, but he is guilty of punishments during the test through Satan.

The poetic description of the beginning of the book of Job should not mislead Christians about the ease of everyday sinful life. This book is very serious in reality. Job can be considered a prototype of those Christians who want to live easily, paying off their sins with alms to the needy and other good deeds in our time. Job's friends are also similar to many modern people. They have good qualities, but also Pharisaism. Job's friends became a prototype of the Pharisees in Israel. At the end of this story with Job, we are told the most important thing: that Job repented before God. Job did at the end what he should have done at the very beginning of the narrative about him. This book will be interesting and useful to everyone who wants to understand why we experience suffering in our lives.

Note: I was asked the question: Do you allow for God's arbitrariness? Here is my answer:
1) I answer with words from the Bible: "In this you are wrong, I answer you, because God is greater than man. Why do you contend with Him? He does not give an account of any of His deeds" (Job 33:12,13).
ARBITRARINESS - unlimited willfulness, absence of legality, justice; autocracy: therefore, all words, with the exception of ABSENCE OF JUSTICE, should belong to the concept of the word GOD. But "Who will show Him His way; who can say: You are acting unjustly?" (Job 36:23)

2) It is not easy for me to answer this question, as it is connected with my life, and in many ways I am similar to Job. It is impossible for me to understand and explain the many sufferings of people on earth, including in my own life. I do not understand the murders of Job's children. It would seem that the punishment of Job and his children should not have been so terrible, but all this is only our understanding. Only one thing remains: we can only find the answers to all our questions in our future. Looking at my past life, I come to the conclusion that I am more deserving of punishment than Job and Job's children. And what about you?