So I was reading the book of Job in the Bible, and I got confused. Partially because it’s difficult to keep straight what people are actually saying (because there are long strings of verses exalting god’s power). But what struck me was that it does not appear to tell the story I was lead to believe it tells.
As I learned it long ago in church, Job is thus:
Satan and God get into a wager, where Satan says Job is only a good man because Jehovah has blessed him and provided him with lots of wealth and power, so Jehovah says Satan can take it all away and they will see. Satan in waves first takes away all the wealth and land, then later afflicts Job with sores and illnesses. Through it all, Job remains faithful to Jehovah, despite calls from his “friends” to curse Jehovah. Because he is so good, Jehovah wins the bet (so to speak) and then restores to Job all that he lost - new children, new land and wealth, restored health and long life.
Okay, some of that is accurate. But not all of it.
First, it is Jehovah that brings Job to Satan’s attention, saying, “Have you seen my servant Job?” It could be argued as interpretive that it is, in fact, Jehovah that sparks the bet. Be that as it may, that’s not where the trouble for me is.
After Satan destroys all Job’s wealth and his children and afflicts him with boils and disease, then the string of debates start. Three “friends” come to visit Job and mourn with him, and they sit for some time (seven days) before they finally start talking.
Job begins by lamenting his fate, and cursing the day he was born (yes, he actually curses the day as if it is an object or event that can be relived). He basically says “I wish I had never been born, or died in childbirth. Just kill me now and get it over with.”
Each friend in turn accuses Job of being a bad person. They say, in effect, “God only punishes the wicked, and since you’re suffering you must be wicked. Repent.” Job responds to each set of arguments that they lie, he is a good person, and Jehovah is picking on him. “But who am I to stand up to God? He’s so powerful he makes me afraid, and if I were to try to stand up to him he would just make me too afraid to do so.” A lot more pity talk, but also a fair amount of saying that there’s no point in being righteous and good, because the wicked get off scott free while Job suffers wrongly. Which is actually correct, by the story, but Job is accusative in his tone.
This goes on repeatedly, each person taking two or three times to say the same things. Job still maintains his goodness and the unfairness of his punishment. While he doesn’t actually curse God, he does state that he is blameless and wishes that he could get Jehovah to show up and confront him so the lack of wrongdoing could be sorted out.
Finally a fourth guy shows up and argues that Job is being sinful by rebuking Jehovah, by declaring that Job is righteous when he must be sinful, and accusing Jehovah of wrongful persecution.
Suddenly Jehovah appears (as a whirlwind), and then he, too, jumps on Job’s case. “Who are you to accuse me? Did you make the world? Did you create the dirt and make the heavens and tell the birds how to build nests and teach them to sing and …” blah blah blah, a long string of “I’m powerful, you’re not”.
So here’s the kicker, Job repents. That’s right, Job says, “I was wrong.”
And then Jehovah restores all his wealth and gives him new children and lets him live to 150.
And then Jehovah tells the others that they spoke wrongly about Himself, and should all repent. But that doesn’t make any sense, either, because they all describe God as just and as punisher of the wicked. So how were they lying about God?
So, according to the story, Job did in fact sin by accusing God (whether the accusation was true or not is apparently irrelevant as Jehovah was offended by being accused). But that is in disagreement with they way the story was taught to me, where Job was blameless and didn’t sin even after all the downfall. According to the way I learned it, God won the bet, but by this version Job was prideful and had to repent, so wouldn’t that mean that Satan actually won?
Besides which, Satan didn’t even make a follow-up. He shows up twice in the first chapter, then is gone for the rest of the book. And note that the only person that actually tells Job to curse Jehovah is his wife, and that’s dealt with in the first chapter.
So, I’m confused. If I’m in error, please point out where. It seems to me that churches are teaching this story incorrectly. Or at least mine did.
One final irrelevant detail that struck me as funny. There is actually a description of a dragon in Job. Sure, the annotations say it is unspecified and is perhaps a crocodile, but the description clearly includes breathing fire.