Gleanings from the Text
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
The book of Job challenges the social justice system promoted in the preceding book of Proverbs. Job is a folktale that speaks an alternative reality. The setting is far from the familiar context of Israel, in “the land of Uz.” This distance helps to transport us to a place where a new perspective and reality may be possible—away from the moral certitudes, the absolutes and predictable God of Proverbs or our own time and place.
The main character is Job, a man who is “blameless and upright” (v.1). Job epitomizes a life of integrity and piety and has been blessed accordingly. A heavenly courtroom debate is about to change all that and discredit conventional ethical explanations. We are introduced to God and satan—more appropriately understood as “accuser” or “adversary.” God praises Job’s loyalty and respect as “the greatest of all the people” (v.3). The accuser challenges God by questioning the motive for Job’s behavior. Is Job’s piety only a consequence of all his blessings? Satan suggests a test: Take everything away from Job and see if that doesn’t make him curse God to God’s face!
Job denies the accuser satisfaction. In his grief for all that he has lost, Job utters that famous phrase: “the Lord gave; and the Lord has taken away” (v.21) and then he blesses God. Not satisfied, the accuser reasons that a man will give all he has, but there are limits when it comes to his own life. This time the test is to inflict loathsome sores over Job’s entire body. Surely then he will curse God. In misery, Job settles into the ashes and scrapes his wounds. Mrs. Job suddenly appears and decries the injustice of the situation: “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die” (2:9). Job chastises his wife, but the thought lingers and later, Job expresses the same anguished perspective with his friends and with God.
Food for Thought
• In ancient culture, Mrs. Job belongs in the category of Job’s property and yet she survives the first test. Her role in the story is to incite Job to challenge old complacencies and perceptions of God. Mrs. Job is often maligned as being satan’s foil, but she is the first to identify the ambiguity of Job’s “integrity.” Integrity (tummah) denotes the characteristic of complete honesty in accordance with righteous living. If God blesses righteous living, then God has unjustly punished the “blameless” Job. Or, if Job is honest, then he is obliged to confront God with the injustice of innocent suffering. Either way, Job’s experience is inconsistent with his image of God.
• Job’s abundant life as patriarch and wealthy landowner contributed to his perspective of blessings as reward for proper moral conduct. People got what they deserved. But Job discovers that in suffering we can most clearly see the inconsistencies and limits of this worldview. Liberation theology recognizes this. Surely there was injustice around Job all along, but his awakening to it only came through his personal experience with suffering. Tough way to learn!
Sink you teeth into this!
I wonder if health care was part of Job’s abundant life—deservedly so because he worked hard for it through righteous and honest living. Did health care disappear along with all his other belongings and property—through no fault of his own? And now, with loathsome sores, he has a pre-existing condition.
In the health care debate, followers of Christ have an opportunity to advocate for justice in calling for a national medical plan that will ensure access to equitable, affordable, high-quality health coverage for all persons residing in our country. In its call for health care reform, the Peacemaking program of the General Assembly Mission Council of the PC(USA) church, states: “Jesus came so that we may have life, and have it abundantly. The gift of abundant life includes the promise of shalom – health and wholeness – for all children of God.”
For more information on the PC(USA) call for health care reform: http://presbyterian.typepad.com/peacemaking/2009/08/presbyterian-church-usa-calls-for-just-health-care-reform.html
Mays, James L., ed. HarperCollins Bible Commentary. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Newsom, Carol A., “The Book of Job.” New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 4. Leander Keck, et. al. editors. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Biographical Information
Catherine Devins has recently completed requirements for her M.A.C.E. degree. She looks forward to graduating in May 2010 with fellow ECP classmates. Catherine is an elder of the Kirk of Kildaire in Cary, NC and lives with her husband and two dogs. Her daughter, Kaitlyn, is serving in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. Son, Curtis, is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill.
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