With friends like these...

I've been making my way through Job for the last few days. Since I'm doing more dog walking because of Linda's health stuff my way of "reading" is to listen via my ipod. One of the great things about listening (which by the way, the Bible was originally designed not merely to be read but to be listened to and memorized) is you often hear things differently. One of the things that has really gotten through to me is the arrogance (and unhelpfulness) of Job's friends. They all spout the party line about why Job is struggling, they all point out that Job must be one very sinful guy to have all that has happened to him happen, they all do this--even though they have certainly observed his life and seen his faithful following after God. The conclusion they come to is something like, "Well sure you look like you follow God, but we know that can't be so because you are suffering--so you must have done nasty things in secret." Anyway, as I listened I really felt for Job and was reminded for myself that pious and sure platitudes in the midst of suffering do very little good. Probably the best things his "friends" did is what they did at first: they were so overwhelmed by his suffering that they sat with him and said nothing.

The other part of Job to keep in mind is that Job's friends are in fact spewing forth the accepted wisdom of their day, namely, the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. The book of Job is designed to raise the question of how do you deal with things when the righteous suffer, how do the righteous suffer and how do they deal with God in the midst of their suffering? What is most stunning is that the solution for Job's suffering and the pain of it, is not God telling him why he is suffering, rather it is a demonstration of the greatness of God. In the last chapters of Job is given a picture of God's greatness. When he sees that greatness he puts aside his demand to have his day in court. One has to wonder how seeing the greatness of God is a remedy for what we see as unjust suffering. Could it be that we have made God so close that we can no longer see him as truly great and because we cannot see him as great we can't deal with our suffering--except to demand an answer for it?