Teaching Young University Students

[bling]

I teach Bible to many University students, one non-Christian, 18-year-old girl said, her Atheist English teacher was having them read Job and wondered if I could help her understand it.

The shallow understanding of Job makes God out to be cruel, uncaring, manipulative, playing with people, lacking knowledge, and satan to be on an equal plain with God.

What is God’s objective in all this?

What is Job’s objective in all this?

What good do we learn from the Book of Job?

What do we need to know prior to understanding Job?

 

[PloverWing]

I'd add this question: What is the poet's objective in writing this story for us?

One of the major themes I see in the book of Job is that suffering isn't always about reward/punishment. Does God reward virtue and punish wickedness? Sometimes, maybe, but not always. Sometimes bad stuff happens to good people, and it's not because of anything they did wrong; bad stuff just happens sometimes. Job's companions look at his suffering and tell Job that he must have done something evil, but they're wrong.

The book of Job does not give us easy answers to suffering, but it opposes one of the easy answers people come up with (namely, the answer of reward/punishment).

 

[DragonFox91]

In Job 1, Satan has no power God doesn't grant him. It's in fact God who turns to Job & initiates the conversation. It is God who suggests Job. It is God who lays down what Satan's allowed to do.
So the idea that the books shows Satan as equals w/ God is completely wrong from a simple reading of what the text says.

One quote I'm always reminded of from Job is "strike him & he will surely curse you to your face". I think God wants to use Job's exeprience to remind us do we have assurance? What is our trust in?
I tend to think what God did to Job was to give him assurance. Perhaps Job sometimes really couldn't trust his faith. Maybe he thought it was just due to his blessings. After all that struck him, the book concludes w/ Job doubling-down on his trust in God. He is silenced after God reveals himself.

We see this frequently in the Bible where the faithful are given humbling experiences, physical weakness, etc. to learn it is God who gives them their power. Another example I can think of is the thorn in Paul's flesh. I believe he continues to work this way to this day. It's not b/c he's mean.

God's objective: to reveal himself to Job
Job's objective: ended up being he got assurance
What good: God is perfectly soverign over all things. Present suffering not indicator of future (Job's fortunes doubled after it ended)
Need to know prior to understanding Job: God is good

Cruel: no, restores all things doubled what he had before. It's generous.
Uncaring: no, personally revealed himself to Job & spoke to Job. Someone who wouldn't care would stay distant
Manipulative: no, Job could've walked away
Playing w/ people: no, was very serious
lacking knowledge: God goes on & on about his knowledge over Job for several chapters

God isn't interested in spoiled brats. He's interested in character growth.

 

[Fervent]

One thing about Job is that it's structured like an ancient trial with 3 rounds of examination and defense followed by a sworn oath of innocence. Ultimately, what is on trial is God's goodness because both God and Job state that Job is innocent in his suffering. The three friends each present a common theology that sees suffering as evidence of wrong doing, and then Elihu shows up just before God. Elihu is a bit ambiguous, because several of his characteristics inclined the original audience to reject him as brash, arrogant, irrationally angry, and possibly even drunk but much of what he says is repeated in God's speeches. Personnally, I think Elihu is a semi-villainous character because he vehemently accuses Job and the 3 friends. God's speech then takes place in 2 rounds, the first asking questions establishing Job's place in questioning divine wisdom and highlighting God's care for the loweliest of creatures. The second points to eschatology, implying that in the proper time the forces of chaos and evil will be dealt with. Its easy to miss one of the most important things about Job(and sadly some modern expositors teach the exact opposite from some of God's questions to Job) because we aren't familiar with theodicies of the time, but a major point is that God is not capricious and justified just because His power as the deities typically were within such works.