Post Tenebras Lux
" After darkness, light"...
In the Old Testament we find the greatest short work from antiquity from Sinai-Israel...The Book of Job. (Originating sometime between the time of Moses and the Babylonian captivity -about 1,200 -550 BC. Structured as a prose-poem- parable in the middle, while basically a prose 'story' at the beginning and end). Job is suppose to have lived about 1,400 BC.
A council in heaven has an accuser, or prosecutor (maybe Satan?)...The accusation: God has the love of Job only because God pays Job off- with a good life. Take everything away from Job-will he still praise the Lord? God makes the bet that Job will still love him, even if he strikes Job down. The accuser seems to have the power to cajole God, and inflict the punishment(?) upon Job.
Bit by bit, Job loses everything- his wealth, his children. " The Lord giveth, and the Lord has taken away" Still, he will not condemn the Lord. " Though he slay me,yet will I trust him"(13:15)
The accuser presses on- "touch his skin...take away his health...then he will curse the Lord"
God causes Job to suffer a disfiguring disease. Job's friends come and sit in silence for seven days, then speak. Job must be guilty, and needs to confess..."Miserable comforters are ye all"...(or) God is indeed mysterious beyond any understanding. " Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow,and continueth not." (14:1).
Job cries out. He curses the day he was born. "Let darkness and shadow stain it...let the blackness of the day terrify it" (3:5)
Eventually, an intercessor mediates for Job...the 'middle-man' is God himself.?..or the Redeemer...Job is partly restored. "I know that my redeemer liveth."
What are we to make of this ? Is this a story about suffering and evil? An attempt to explain God's ways to Man (Theodicy)?
Or is this really meant to be a story about a relationship-the relationship between Job and God? The I and the Thou? Job assumes the view of Aristotle -annihilation is our fate. What about punishment and rewards?
Job also condemns his birth-date- is this a nod to astrology? Near the end of the text, a 'redeemer' intercedes on his behalf- this is God in another aspect...a forerunner of the Christian trinitarian concept...also, in the opening scene, the accuser (Satan?) is a part of the heavenly host or team, and not an outcast. In the end, at least to modern sensibilities,God seems to come off as a weird and cruel tester...why is there pain in the world? Because God made a bet with the devil? This answer cannot satisfy us...The Book of Job is more about the relationship between the principals involved.
A moral: we are suppose to examine our spiritual life.
In the Old Testament we find the greatest short work from antiquity from Sinai-Israel...The Book of Job. (Originating sometime between the time of Moses and the Babylonian captivity -about 1,200 -550 BC. Structured as a prose-poem- parable in the middle, while basically a prose 'story' at the beginning and end). Job is suppose to have lived about 1,400 BC.
A council in heaven has an accuser, or prosecutor (maybe Satan?)...The accusation: God has the love of Job only because God pays Job off- with a good life. Take everything away from Job-will he still praise the Lord? God makes the bet that Job will still love him, even if he strikes Job down. The accuser seems to have the power to cajole God, and inflict the punishment(?) upon Job.
Bit by bit, Job loses everything- his wealth, his children. " The Lord giveth, and the Lord has taken away" Still, he will not condemn the Lord. " Though he slay me,yet will I trust him"(13:15)
The accuser presses on- "touch his skin...take away his health...then he will curse the Lord"
God causes Job to suffer a disfiguring disease. Job's friends come and sit in silence for seven days, then speak. Job must be guilty, and needs to confess..."Miserable comforters are ye all"...(or) God is indeed mysterious beyond any understanding. " Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow,and continueth not." (14:1).
Job cries out. He curses the day he was born. "Let darkness and shadow stain it...let the blackness of the day terrify it" (3:5)
Eventually, an intercessor mediates for Job...the 'middle-man' is God himself.?..or the Redeemer...Job is partly restored. "I know that my redeemer liveth."
What are we to make of this ? Is this a story about suffering and evil? An attempt to explain God's ways to Man (Theodicy)?
Or is this really meant to be a story about a relationship-the relationship between Job and God? The I and the Thou? Job assumes the view of Aristotle -annihilation is our fate. What about punishment and rewards?
Job also condemns his birth-date- is this a nod to astrology? Near the end of the text, a 'redeemer' intercedes on his behalf- this is God in another aspect...a forerunner of the Christian trinitarian concept...also, in the opening scene, the accuser (Satan?) is a part of the heavenly host or team, and not an outcast. In the end, at least to modern sensibilities,God seems to come off as a weird and cruel tester...why is there pain in the world? Because God made a bet with the devil? This answer cannot satisfy us...The Book of Job is more about the relationship between the principals involved.
A moral: we are suppose to examine our spiritual life.
posted by Zero at 2:32 PM
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