The Meaning of the Book of Job

 The book of Job is a strange book. 

Satan appears as one of the Sons of God in Heaven - that's unusual for starters - who knew Satan still lived in Heaven? Wasn't he supposed to have been cast out? Then he appears to challenge God - is he tempting him? - into sending terrible disasters on his most loyal and faithful servant Job.

God does this - first Job loses his possessions. His 7,000 sheep are killed by fire from heaven, his 3,000 camels are taken by the Chaldeans, his 500 oxen and 500 donkeys are taken by the Sabeans and his children (seven sons and three daughters) are killed when a wind blows down the house they are all in. For each disaster all his servants die but one who is able to escape and bring Job the news of what has happened.

Job is devastated but still is faithful to God and continues to worship him.

But Satan challenges God that job will lose his faith if he is physically afflicted - and God allows Job to be covered in painful sores all over his body.

This all happens in the first two chapters - What happens in the following forty chapters (there are 42 chapters in the Book of Job) is how Job deals with what has happened to him.

Early on three friends come to sit with Job and most of the book is their conversation. Each friend insists that Job must have done something to anger God in order to have had this happen to him. After each speech from one of his friends Job responds that he didn't do anything wrong and he wants to talk to God to find out what is going on.

Every person - Job included - says that God is great and mighty and beyond anything we can understand - so they all agree that we cannot understand how God works, but the friends still insist that Job must have sinned for this to happen to him, and the solution is for Job to repent and ask God's forgiveness. Job continues to insist he hasn't done anything to deserve this and to also point out that his friends aren't being much comfort to him.

Near the end another guy turns up - younger than the others and quite full of himself and tells them that he has the answer to what is going on - but actually he just repeats what Job's friends had been saying about Job having done something to deserve what has happened.

At this point God turns up and speaks to Job, and reveals how mighty and powerful he is, and asks Job a series of questions that he cannot know the answer to. The speech is quite strange in that large sections of it are given to describing how God really likes the hippopotamus and in particular how he loves the crocodile, it appears to be his favourite creature.

He then speaks to Job's friends and says Job is correct, he hasn't done anything wrong, and they have sinned in saying he has, however God will forgive them if Job prays for them. Job does so and God accepts his prayer.

The young guy who appeared doesn't get a mention - it seems he said his speech and left.

God them gives Job back everything he had lost and more - he now has 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen and 1,000 donkeys he also has seven sons and three daughters.

Job is restored to health also of course, and after this lived another 140 years.

So what is going on? 

I suggest that when Job's friends heard the young guy saying to Job what they had been saying, they saw how mean and hurtful it was - seeing a stranger doing what they themselves had been doing gave them a new perspective on how they had been hurting their friend. 

After all - they had still sat with him, even though they had been arguing. Job similarly saw that God was beyond understanding and maybe he wouldn't ever get every answer to every question - there are so many things we don't know, we just have to deal with unanswered questions.

So God speaking is really a reconciliation between Job and his friends - the friends stop judging Job and Job sees that his friends mean well and have been sitting with him - unlike the young guy who just turned up, said his speech and left again.

So Job is about letting go of answers - the friends have to stop assuming they know how God works and just care for their friend who is suffering. Job has to let go of wanting to know why this has happened to him - he realises there are a million things he doesn't know and it doesn't matter.

I think they all end up valuing their friendship and caring more for each other. What matters is how we treat each other, caring for our friends, being kind and helping. It isn't about knowing all the answers or judging people, it is about being loving and accepting of others.