What are the top 5 things Americans associate with the good life? The so-called “American Dream?”
For some it is a yard, a car, children, a happy marriage, or owning a home.
What is it for you? These are, in economic terms, some would say, the rebuilding of the good ‘ole days.
But what happens when you begin to lose these things? What’s the point of life when there is no pleasure in it? Why not just end it?
Think about this statement: The quality of life should determine the quantity of life. In some sense, it’s true—as we age, our health declines, we lose mobility, we lose clarity of thought and mind, etc.
But the question pushed further becomes, “Should we help it along?”
Peter Singer, a major player in the animal rights movement,
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Job himself lived a good life (1:1-5; 42:12-17). He was wealthy and prosperous all the way to an advanced age. The story lies in the in-between years of a very blessed life (1:6-3:26).
Two questions: 1) What are the trials that Job suffered? and 2) Why did he suffer them?
1. What are the trials that Job suffered?
Most of Job’s trials are described in chapter 1 and in 2:7.
– Loss of wealth: Satan had claimed that Job only served God because he was rich. So God allowed Satan to take away from him his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, and servants. It was no small loss—the animals were the bank accounts of the day. You might say this was his 401k and stock portfolio.
–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.
-Loss of health: Satan had said Job only served God because he was well. So, God allowed Satan to afflict Job with painful sores. Do you have an illness that makes you want to curse God? As you age, will you be thankful for the past blessings and hopeful for the resurrection or resentful of what you’ve lost?
–Loss of his reputation and, more serious, the loss of his faith in God. Can you imagine a set of circumstances that would make you lose your faith? For days Job sat in want, pain, disgrace, and doubt.
2. Why did Job suffer these things?
Job was being
He still continued to be loyal to God when Satan struck a terrible disease leaving him in poor health. His wife lacks in the confidence of God. She demands Job to renounce and charge God with wrongdoing. He states “We accept good things from God; should we accept evil?”(USCCB)
The Book of Job is of wisdom genre. Job was a righteous, rich man. God and Satan have a confrontation regarding Job’s faith in God. God allows Satan to test Job by taking away his family, sheep, camels, and servants. Job was passed the test. Job was tested again. This time it was his health that was taken away. Job speaks to his three friends and curses the day he was born. The four of them have a lengthy conversation as to why Job is being punished. Elihu enters the conversation and becomes somewhat angry with Job’s lack of faith in God. God speaks to Job in question form. Job repents. God speaks the three friends and advises them to sacrifice a burnt offering. Job was them made prosperous and was “given twice as much as he had before” by God.
The theme of the Book of Job is the perseverance of the human spirit. Job loses everything but he does not lose his faith in God. “Job refuses to curse God” (Book). Job has not done anything to deserve this, but it is a test from God and Satan to see if Job is actually as
Job has, if this is possible, an even lesser degree of agency after Satan afflicts him with sores. Before this, though he suffered great loss, he still maintained the ability to direct himself by means of his physical body. Now however, God, by placing Job in Satan’s power, removes that part of his agency. He is too miserable to move and because of this, he has no choice but to listen and argue with the comforters. For all we know, if Job had been able to walk away, he might have. However, he was not able to leave because his agency was now limited by the random events of destruction and his physical debilitation.
Considering, the faith and Loyality Job had for God, he allowed Satan to torture Job. First, Satan destoryed everything in Job’s life and took the lives of his ten children. Secondly, Satan harmed Job physically, causing his health to fail. According to Maxwell, Satan infected Job with sores over the surface of his body, and Job scratched his skin with a pottery shard for relief (as cited in John C. Maxwell, 2014, p.34). Moreover,when Satan was done torturing Job. The faith and loyality Job had for God was even stronger. Job told Maxwell all of his pain, suffering and scars, Satan inflicted on him carried no pain. The only thing mattered to Job was “God see the big picture” (Maxwell, 2014, p. 34). Satan never understood the reason why Job
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.
In the book of Job, Satan receives permission from God to inflict trouble against Job. Job lost many of his possessions including his livestock, children, and servants. Distressed, Job calls upon his friends to comfort him. Not having much sympathy, his friends
In the book of Job, the relationship between Job and God is
Job’s departure is a lifestyle departure. Living his life splendidly fulfilled, Job’s life is suddenly a desolate, horrid mortality. First, savage thieves take Job’s livestock and servants, a fire claims his children, and finally his health deteriorates. “Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes.'; (Job 3:25-26) This dismal new condition leaves Job
In stark contrast to God’s presence in Genesis, the character of God in Job strays from the ideal perfection of the divine. The concept of the ideal manifested in Genesis is embodied in God’s moral, reasonable, and rational behavior. In Job, on the other hand, rather than being reasonable, methodical, and creating life, God displays more human characteristics and plays the role of both creator and destroyer. The book of Job begins with God’s boastful bargain with Satan, which subsequently leads God to allow the total destruction of Job’s family and livelihood. Job is even attacked physically with “loathsome sores… from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). In an uncharacteristically immoral decision, God gives Satan the power do
Job trusts God no matter the circumstances, and though he might question, it is simply because he wants to know what he has done wrong so he can correct it and show God that he still loves him.
They then say that God is just and that his sons and daughters had died because of their own sins. Then God appears before Job and curses him asking why he was not there when he created the world or why he isn't omnipotent. God goes on about how Job dares question God's power, wisdom and decisions. God continues to pound him with questions and Job apologizes for questioning God and finally repents to God. God then addresses Job's three friends and tells them that they have angered God and they have to offer seven bulls and seven rams to clear their wrongdoings against God. After all the repenting and prayers, God then gives back all of Job's losses, blessing him with twice the number of livestock he had before and blessing Job with seven sons and three daughters. Job goes on to live joyously for another 140 years before dying.
Job argues with each man, never wavering in his insistence that he is guiltless. This great debate continues until Job becomes tired of his friends' ill advice and expresses his desire to argue his case with God himself. His friends fall silent, knowing that they cannot sway Job from his self-righteousness. God then appears to Job as a powerful whirlwind and questions Job, unmercifully, as to whether he could perform the works of God. It is through this barrage that Job comes to accept, without question, his lot, and the awesome power of God.
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
making him suffer. Job had always been true to the Lord's word and had never