Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Job

[AlphaT]

Job suffers immensely in this book, and when he finally cries out to God, God gives him a multiple chapter long lecture on who He is and who Job isn't. Is this the "God works in mysterious ways" theodicy, where God is telling Job that he's in no position to question why God acts in the way that He does?

[jimwalton]

(By the way, for anyone else reading this, "theodicy" means "A vindication of God's attributes, particularly holiness and justice, in establishing or allowing the existence of physical and moral evil.")

In a sense, but maybe not as you are thinking. It's always OK to question God. We have to relate to Him honestly, and not on a "just shut up and trust with blind faith" basis. The book of Job is not about Job's suffering or the reasons for suffering. It's about how God runs the world, and what kind of God He is. For instance, the book of Job asks the question most people ask: Does the world run according to the retribution principle (good people get blessed, and people who do wrong get punished)? We all expect the world to run that way. God says it doesn't. Justice is not the foundation of how the world operates. We can't explain our circumstances by thinking about good or bad behavior. (That means about 90-100% of what people say about their circumstances is misguided, because we think in terms of "fairness", justice, and retribution.) God is just, but he's not accountable to our standards or perceptions, and that's not the way He runs the world. God is just, but we can't expect life to work that way. It doesn't, and it won't, and God is not to be blamed when it doesn't. He tell us that's not how he does things here and now. Justice will out in the end, but it's eschatological, not of this world.

Instead, the book tells us, the word runs according to the Wisdom principle: God's sovereignty and wisdom, to which we have no practical access, except what He tells us. The way God operates the world is more complicated than people can imagine, and we don't have access to enough pieces of the puzzle to ever figure it out. This is where trust comes in; not "Shut up and don't ask questions," but "Trust me when you can't see very far."

John Walton (my brother), in his commentary on Job, says, "The book wants to transform how we think about God’s work in the world and about our responses in times of suffering. Most people look at it and think it’s about why righteous people suffer. Instead, the book sets out the question as, 'Is there such a thing as disinterested righteousness?' In this sense the book is about the nature of righteousness, not the nature of suffering." It is trying to shift our attention from justice to wisdom. God's lecture in chapters 40-41 is more about the certainty of God's righteousness. God is not to be judged by us as seeming unfair, because that's not how the world works. In many ways, when it comes right down to it, the life on earth is outrageously unfair. God didn't set up the world to be a fair place. Disorder and unfairness exist right alongside order and fairness. Wisdom, instead, is the foundation of how God has set up the world. Purpose, not circumstances, should be the focus of our attention when we face difficulties. Again, Walton says, "We must not underestimate God by imagining that we could do things better. Concluding that God is incompetent or less than what Scripture presents him as being is the first step to setting ourselves up as God—a transaction doomed to miserable failure."

It's perfectly OK to question God, but concurrent with the questioning must also live faith. The point of God's lecture is not "don't ask questions" but "it's beyond your understanding." In that sense it's like your "God works in mysterious ways," but not in the way that most people think. That's why I'm trying to correct you while affirming you, because people's mind automatically go in the direction of justice, and this isn 't about justice. We easily shift from discrediting God's justice on earth (which isn't the way he works anyway) to discrediting the character of God (a huge blasphemous mistake, since God is righteous and wise). I can't explicate all of Job here, but hopefully I'm pointing you in the right direction.

For further in formation, all of my Bible notes on the book of Job are on the website. Go to the home page, scroll across the top menu to BIBLE STUDIES, and click on "Bible notes and commentary." Click on Bible notes and commentary, find Job and click on it, and all 42 chapters are there. For the purposes of your question, depending on how much information you want, you'll probably want chapter 1, 40, 41, and 42.

[Scape211]

Whoa! I just happened to check this as I was trying answer someone about Job from a historical (or lack there of) narrative. I had no idea you had commentaries/notes on your studies of various scriptures! I will definitely be taking a look at those more as I study. Thank you

[jimwalton]

Scape, ALL of my Bible notes are digitized and available on the site. Have fun!