Job: A Life Influenced by God's Grace, Mercy and Evilness

J.B’s comforters add nothing meaningful to the conversation of suffering and why God has acted in the ways he did, and one might even question the role of the comforters in J.B except mimicking the book of Job. The book of Job keeps itself continuous and even though the comforters miss the overall point of the testing, they still root themselves in the word and use past examples of God and how he acts to attempt to aid Job during his state of suffering. This distinction between comforters is critical as one story truly adds meaning to the reader's life and has a discernable

The view of fate the book of Job expresses, though similar in that it originates from God, differs in a few important ways. In Job, situations are predetermined to occur, but the personal choices of the people involved determine the outcome of the situation. The story of Job opens with Job's fate of suffering being planned. Satan presents himself in an audience before God. God makes example of Job, and Satan rebuffs, stating that Job's constancy is only because of God's preferential treatment. Satan tells God, "But put forth thy hand now and touch all he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face."(40). In response, power is given to Satan to torment Job as a test. Job's life and finally health are viciously mangled and destroyed by Satan. Though Job does not know the reasons behind his great suffering, we are told that "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."(41), and "In all this did not Job sin with his lips."(41). Self-pity creeps into Job's thoughts and words, but there is no disenchanted turn from God. Instead in Job the reader sees a turn to God for relief and

him. How one deals with despair and suffering is what makes a person who he or

     Job is a man very limited by God. As illustrated, he has only a negligible amount of agency to begin with. By the time God and Satan finish with him, he has virtually no control over his own life. The fragment of agency he does cling to is his ability to choose whether or not to curse God. No one, except himself, could prevent Job from cursing God. Yet, he refuses to curse God, even though He is responsible for his suffering.

As we have seen, God promises a blessing to those who trust in His word and strive to live by it. Christians do not want to miss out on God’s blessing, especially those waiting for Him to reveal something. Now reading any book of the Bible, even Job, one begins to understand that God will bless you as you strive to study and practice His way of life. The Bible prophetically warns of even more pain in many different forms then what is done here Job, and through this we begin to portray God in a different light (Janzen 2012). However, the book of Job reveals God’s level of intervention during such a violent time. Due to the context and dire situation it would be difficult to imagine anything more then the pain for the members of Job’s family and the community at that time. They needed encouragement and the assurance that the trials Job faced would soon be over. The evil powers of Satan that governed Job’s life for a moment would be destroyed, and a triumphant sense of peace would be reestablished. The message of Job was intended for those in a particular time and circumstances of pain. Christians familiar with other violent writings would understand the book's symbolism, for practically everything Job went through was a test that other biblical figures felt during similar times of persecution. Job’s story was written to all people that may face the same trials, and find peace after their

Job faces three trial conglomerations: curses, comforters, and unanswered inquisitions. The curses he deals with cause Job extensive agony: he loses his livestock, servants, children, and health. Although his physical health and social stature have diminished, Job's faith never wavers. The comforters, three friends and a wife, offer Job advice they presume will end his anguish. The friends believe, to be so cursed, Job has sinned horribly and they tell him he must repent his sins so God will forgive him. Job knows he has not sinned and, therefore, does not deserve the torment brought upon him.

However, the same cannot be said, for the God that were portrayed in the “Book of Job.” At the beginning of the book, God was presented as Job's protector and defender; however, at the end, God appeared as the supreme being lecturing and preaching to Job with hostility and allowed Satan to wreak havoc on Job’s life causing the death of his children as well as the destruction of land just to prove a point that Job worships God despite many bad things happening to him. Although Job could not begin to understand why many unfortunate events happened to him and his family, he knew God was aware of it. He did not react, as Satan had predicted, by cursing God. Rather, Job told his wife, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?

Although God appears to be insulted by Job’s rage, he recognizes the love, loyalty, and appreciation Job has for Him. In return, after all the troubles, God gives Job a long life filled with joy, happiness, and peace.

After these tragic events occurred one reads later in Job, that Satan began to attack Job’s health and Job continues to worship God. In chapter two of Job, Job’s wife asks Job, “Do you still hold fat your integrity?” In the ESV study bible the commentary suggests that the content of her question is significant for how it relates to the heavenly dialogue of God and Satan. She asks Job a rhetorical question that the doubts the sensibility of the very thing that God find commendable about Job, his consistent integrity. The latter part of verse nine expresses the anger that Job’s wife is feeling, she answers her own question saying, “Curse God and die.” Job’s wife lives in a culture where women did not have opportunity to obtain success in a

–Loss of children: Satan had said Job only served God because he was protected, so God allowed Satan to take his children, and still Job did not curse God, because he knew that God is both sovereign and good.

Job, known as J.B., in Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. is first introduced to the reader as a successful businessman, who, like Job in the Book of Job, is upright, fears God, and shuns evil. However, unlike the careful, and at times paranoid, Job of the Book of Job, J.B. seems confident in God’s love and grace. In fact, J.B. preaches to his wife about his faith in God’s blessings, saying, “Never since I learned to tell my shadow from my shirt, not once, not for a watch-tick, have I doubted God was on my side, was good to me.” (J.B., p. 35, pp. 3) J.B.’s faith in God’s justice and grace is put to the test when his children are killed in increasingly tragic ways; unlike Job’s suffering in the Book of Job, J.B.’s suffering is drawn out. J.B. loses

But he continues to be loyal to God, in spite of his own wife suggesting to curse God for his suffering. Hearing of his illness, his friends visit Job and they convey their advice. It is at this point where Job curses God, as he cannot handle his pain or his friends and their beliefs that his sin is the cause of his suffering and that he must repent in order to be saved. The following upbraiding proves too much for Job, and he grows sarcastic, impatient, and afraid. He laments the injustice that God lets wicked people prosper while he and countless other innocent people suffer. Job wants to confront God and complain, but he cannot physically find God to do it. He feels such wisdom is hidden from human minds, but he still remains God-fearing. God finally interrupts, calling from a whirlwind and demanding Job to be brave and respond to his questions. Overwhelmed by the encounter, Job acknowledges God’s unlimited power and admits the limitations of his human knowledge. God returns Job’s health, providing him with twice as much property as before, new children, and an extremely long life.

Without provocation, another friend, Elihu, suddenly enters the conversation. The young Elihu believes that Job has spent too much energy vindicating himself rather than God. Elihu explains to Job that God communicates with humans by two ways—visions and physical pain. He says that physical suffering provides the sufferer with an opportunity to realize God’s love and forgiveness when he is well again, understanding that God has “ransomed” him from an impending death (33:24). Elihu also assumes that Job must be wicked to be suffering as he is, and he thinks that Job’s excessive talking is an act of rebellion against God.

Job could be considered the perfect role model in the sense that he did no wrong, however he went through a lot of strife in his life. Job lost his family and all that he owned and as time went on he began to feel very sorry for himself and wonder what he had done to deserve this treatment from God. Eventually God and Job have a discussion in which God explains that he is merely a small part of a bigger picture and that no mortal could ever understand the complexities of Gods plan.

The prologue of the book, set in prose style, is made up of chapters one and two with the introduction of Job and his family and how successful he is and that he is blessed by God wonderfully. It goes into Job's first test which Satan presents himself before the lord. God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8). This is when Satan puts up the challenge for God saying, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his