Job

[Wiccan_Child]

In the Book of Job, God torments the pious Job to show Satan that he will still praise God's name, even after his prosperity is destroyed.

My question is this: how do Christians reconcile the horror that befell Job by the hand of God, with their conception of an loving and merciful God?

Mentally and physically torturing an uninvolved third party, just to make a point, is hardly behaviour I'd associate with the Christian deity.

Do Christians take it as a metaphor for our own suffering? A proposed solution to the problem of evil? The latter seems more likely: the Book rounds off with God talking about how he is free to do whatever he likes to whomever he likes, and does not need to answer to his creations. I think that's an astoundingly arrogant response, but there you go.


So: how do you reconcile God's (indirect) actions towards Job? What possible justification is there? Indeed, is there justification at all?

 

[aiki]

In the Book of Job, God torments the pious Job to show Satan that he will still praise God's name, even after his prosperity is destroyed.

Satan tormented Job, not God.

My question is this: how do Christians reconcile the horror that befell Job by the hand of God, with their conception of an loving and merciful God?

Mentally and physically torturing an uninvolved third party, just to make a point, is hardly behaviour I'd associate with the Christian deity.

Do Christians take it as a metaphor for our own suffering? A proposed solution to the problem of evil? The latter seems more likely: the Book rounds off with God talking about how he is free to do whatever he likes to whomever he likes, and does not need to answer to his creations. I think that's an astoundingly arrogant response, but there you go.

It appears here that you've asked and answered your own question.

Your opinion of God's response to Job reveals a great deal about your understanding of Him. Arrogance is a human failing. It arises from pride and selfishness and is always unwarranted. God, however, is most definitely not human, nor is He arrogant. He truly is free to do whatever He wants with what He has made. This is, in part, what it means to be God. It is not arrogant of God to be this way, it is precisely His right, His divine prerogative as Creator, to do as He wishes with what He has created. That sticks in the craw of us humans because we innately despise authority - especially such an all encompassing and exceedingly powerful authority like God wields. We think God must view us as we view ourselves: as the center of the Universe. And when we see that He doesn't, we ascribe to Him the lowest human motives and attitudes as an explanation. We humans just can't seem to avoid anthropomorphisizing everything. Particularly with God, we are quite incapable of seeing things from His perspective. So, we read of God dealing with Job as the small thing that he is and we recoil in dismay, for this means we, too, are small and so may find ourselves superceded by God's higher designs. In response to this realization we angrily attempt to judge God as though He were one of us, by the standards by which we assess the conduct of other humans. Obviously, as God points out to Job, the finite is not in a position to judge the infinite.

So: how do you reconcile God's (indirect) actions towards Job? What possible justification is there? Indeed, is there justification at all?

The record of Job's tribulations have been read and pondered for many centuries and through them countless people have been both challenged and comforted. Beyond this, there is simply God's divine prerogative acting upon human existence. This is what God does - whether we like it, or understand it, or not.

Peace to you.

 

[ebia]

In the Book of Job, God torments the pious Job to show Satan that he will still praise God's name, even after his prosperity is destroyed.

My question is this: how do Christians reconcile the horror that befell Job by the hand of God, with their conception of an loving and merciful God?

Mentally and physically torturing an uninvolved third party, just to make a point, is hardly behaviour I'd associate with the Christian deity.

Do Christians take it as a metaphor for our own suffering? A proposed solution to the problem of evil? The latter seems more likely: the Book rounds off with God talking about how he is free to do whatever he likes to whomever he likes, and does not need to answer to his creations. I think that's an astoundingly arrogant response, but there you go.


So: how do you reconcile God's (indirect) actions towards Job? What possible justification is there? Indeed, is there justification at all?

If one reads Job as wisdom literature exploring the issue of suffering (which is what it is), rather than a factual account the problem you describe doesn't exist.

 

[FutureAndAHope]

It is really a very hard question that you have asked, and I doubt that there is any with the wisdom to give an answer, however I could be wrong. I have thought about it a while and can not formulate a good answer because Gods ways are not all made clear in just the bible, some of his ways are mysterious.

The bible does say God does not tempt any one to sin, so he was not trying to get Job to sin. So the "test" must have been for some other reason. Maybe God did not see a person cursing him because of grief as a sin, rather just the bye product of emposed grief. The bible does say that God had planned a good end for Job. So God's purpose was to always extend grace to Job. Job did not hold up well under the pressure, he spoke out against God, but regardless of that God still had a good plan for Job. It shows that God is not as worried about what we say some times when under pressure as he is about displaying a gracious end.

 

[drich0150]

how do Christians reconcile the horror that befell Job by the hand of God, with their conception of an loving and merciful God?

As it's been said God did not torment Job, Satan Did. God merely allowed satan to have access to Job to do as he willed with him, with in God's boundaries..

Job 1:
9 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."
12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."

Do Christians take it as a metaphor for our own suffering?

Some do, but remember these teachings were Originally written for the Jews, and are not "christian" by nature, These teachings have merely been adopted by christianity.

A proposed solution to the problem of evil?

I think on the surface or for someone on the outside looking in this can be a viable explanation, but in reality Satan is not the King of all evil. Evil is a product of sin. Sin being anything not in the expressed will of God. Making Evil, a malicious desire or intent to commit sin.. Not all sin is Evil, but all evil is sin.
Satan Has little to do with this. These decisions are tied to our own freewill, and again have little to do with Satan.

The latter seems more likely: the Book rounds off with God talking about how he is free to do whatever he likes to whomever he likes, and does not need to answer to his creations. I think that's an astoundingly arrogant response, but there you go.

If you took in a Dog and it needed shots, to be dewormed, neutered, and or some minor surgery to repair a lame leg, do you explain your intentions in complete detail to your dog? Or do you simply do what needs to be done, Even though he may endure much pain? Is this arrogance, or love?

Even if God personally gave you a complete account of his actions do you think you could full comprehend? I personally think that is an astoundingly arrogant position to take.. Look at the explanation he has given us in the book of Job. You have mistakenly interpreted God's will, intent, and actions, all for the sake of your personal version of righteousness.. But I guess, there You go..

 

[drich0150]

So: how do you reconcile God's (indirect) actions towards Job? What possible justification is there? Indeed, is there justification at all?

Sorry I missed this bit..

The book of Job explains it best, although it's evident that it's meaning provides you with little understanding..

But basically our Relationship with God should not be Dependant on the "things" he provides with or the size of the "hedge" he places around our lives. Our relationship Should be based on real love.. The type of Love that He places in our wedding vows. For better or for worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in Health for long as we live.

God's love for Job placed what satan called a "hedge' around his life. Job's love for God endured all that satan could throw at him.. In the end of the book they had a disagreement, but in like any Godly marriage the relationship does not end in divorce because of circumstance or misunderstanding. God knew how Job would react to these trials, so Job's suffering was not for God's benefit but for his own and all who hear of his life..