Misunderstanding Job

Disclaimer: I am going to critique a song below. I in no way think that the artist's intention was to write a song that misrepresented the truth.. The song is simply an example of what happens when we do not pay attention to genre in our reading of the book of Job.

Song: Waters Gone By

Album: Glory Revealed

Artist: Hyperstatic Union, Shawn Lewis

If you put away the sin in your hand
And allow no evil to dwell
If you devote your heart
And stretch out your hands to Him

You will lift up your face without shame
You will firmly stand with no fear inside
You will surely forget your troubles and pain
Recalling them only as waters gone by

The song comes almost word-for-word from Job 11:13-20, which is in keeping with the goal of the album, to use the word of God in musical worship. But what is the context of the passage in which the words find their meaning? The lyrics are a part of the accusations and advice of one of Job's friends. He is in essence telling Job that he has obviously sinned in some way against God that has brought on the horrible suffering Job has faced. His advice is - if Job would put away the sin and allow no evil to dwell, then he will have no reason to fear and the memory of this time will be like water under the bridge. Unfortunately, the friend is dead wrong in his assessment. Once you know that bit of info, it is hard to rejoice much in the message of this song, even if it sounds like it is good.

Job as Literature 3: Inerrancy and Poetic Language

I just thought I would raise an interesting issue with the book of Job that should help us think a little about how we read the Bible. I'll start by affirming up front that I believe strongly in Biblical Inerrancy. Now the problem with such a term is that it has to be understood and people who like to use Straw Men characterizations of Christianity love to take a book like Job and attempt to make the idea of Inerrancy look stupid. 

For example, in the book of Job we have speeches and conversation that take place and I think we should think of them as true, accurate representations of what actually happened. But interestingly, all of the conversation take place in the form of poetry. Now, the last time I checked, five guys sitting around talking about suffering and evil do not do so in Iambic Pentameter off the cuff. So, some would suggest, then we must give up the idea of Inerrancy because the book represents the speakers in a way that did not actually take place. I would argue that we imply must define what we mean by inerrancy, because it is only a word meant to capture what we actually believe about the Bible. 

So what do we believe about the nature of the Bible? The question we are dealing with in regards to inerrancy can help us clarify what we believe about scripture and help us in interpreting and understanding the scriptures. The idea of the incarnation of Jesus provides what I think is the best rubric for also thinking about scripture. In the person of Jesus we believe that the very nature/word of God took on human form and became flesh. God who is transcendent stooped himself to human forms and revealed himself in the clearest way possible, Jesus. The person of Jesus did most completely, what the scriptures also serve to do. They bring the divine word and truth into human forms. Therefore, words that find their ultimate source in the nature of God, take on human forms to reveal God in the midst of human, experiences and issues. The book of Job has a very human form of dramatic poetry, which is used as a vehicle to unleash God's wisdom in our heart. Now when we read dramatic poetry of the biographical sort that Job is, we would expect the poet to represent the conversations in a truthful manner, but we most certainly would not expect the writer to pass along word-by-word journalistic reporting of the type we might see on FoxNews or in a court report.  Language exists in context and form, and discovering the context and form is part of our task in studying and understanding the scriptures. Doing this will help us avoid the error of quoting a statement one of Job's friends makes about God as though it is meant to be understood as a true statement about God, rather than understanding that what is true abut the statement is that it represents what the friend actually said. In the next post I will show an example of what happens when we ignore the work of understanding the human form that God has placed his words into.

Job as Literature 2

Turnabout is fair play, or so the saying goes. Irony and turnabout are often elements of the kind of stories we enjoy and serve as some of the most effective techniques of slipping past our defenses and presuppositions to deal a deathblow to our pride. One of my favorite literary features of Job is the use of Irony in the story-line.  Given what was written in yesterdays post maybe you could begin to put together some of the irony in the story.

As the reader of the conversation we are in a position to assess the conversations between Job and his comforters. With each cycle of conversation they become increasingly aggressive with their accusation that Job is a fool for not recognizing that God is trying to get his attention in regards to some particular sin and turning to him in repentance. Job continues to maintain his innocence and the accusations heighten. The problem is that we know that the friends are wrong because we have been clued in by the introduction. So it is clear to see that the message of the book has some to do with the friends judgment that is based on a lack of understanding about what God is and is not doing in this situation. They have judged harshly, failed to comfort their ailing friend, and do not have access to all the information necessary to understand the situation. 

Because of the perspective the reader has been given it is easy to relate to Job in the midst of the accusations saying, "Hey guys, you should probably withhold your judgment, you do not have all the information. If you did, you wouldn't be so quick to impugn his character." By the end of the cycles of conversations it is like the narrative is just provoking us to have this thought, and we most certainly should. It is an awful thing to judge someone before the evidence is in. Our entire legal system in the U.S. is based on the all important principle of "innocent until proven guilty." If there is reasonable doubt we recognize that we should withhold unwarranted judgment.

So is this the message of the book of Job? Most certainly not or the book would end with the conversations between the friends. But the narrative continues and so does the lesson and wisdom. The last section of the book is the conversation between God and Job. In the conversation, which is really two declarations by God, Job comes to find out that he really knows very little about how God created and governs even the simplest things in the natural world. If he cannot understand the simplest things which God has created and governs he can hardly stand and judge the creator Himself in some instance of suffering. You see all along Job has been calling God's character and justice into question and impugning His character. Unfortunately Job does not have all the information about how God governs the world or what in the end he may be up to. He has no footing on which to stand to give him the full perspective of time and space that God alone has. It is as though God is saying, "Hey Job, you should probably withhold your judgment. You do not have all the information or understanding that I have. If you did you probably wouldn't impugn My character." Now I think we are a bit closer to the central message of this remarkable book from the most remarkable library.

Job as Literature

I have Dr. Branson Woodard from Liberty University to thank for being the first to introduce me to seeing literary technique and beauty in Scripture. His course The Bible as Literature was so compelling and eye-opening that I have never forgotten the important things I learned. When we read the Bible with literary quality in mind we may ask the question, how did the author write the book to assist the reader in understanding and experiencing the main overall point of the story?

In Job this is particularly important because it yields a hint into the overall meaning of the book. As we begin we have the most well-known portions of the book. Through a glimpse into a conversation between Satan and God we come to find out that Satan will have permission to bring a testing against Job to try and prove that people are only faithful to God if prosperous. After an unsuccessful attempt to prove his point Satan returns to gain further permission to afflict Job personally. Interspersed in the scenes is an account of the calamity that comes upon Job. The particular portion is short and to the point and moves the reader quickly to the main portion of the text which is the cycle of conversations to follow that involve Job and four friends who have come to "comfort" him. 

As you move into the conversations, you as the reader have an advantage in assessing what is going on  (which is what you should be doing as you read the conversations). The three friends will be making attempts to tell Job why this has happened to him and you have information that they do not. From the very introduction of the book in this manner you can know one thing, the calamity that comes upon Job is not God's judgment on some particular evil in his life. Much is said and dissected in regards to the introduction, but this seems to be the main purpose: to give the reader a different perspective than the characters in the text so that you can see how wanting their arguments are. In my best assessment, the overall message of the book has something to do with showing the difference that a little piece of information can make.

So, what is the book of Job all about?

I wouldn't pretend to understand it fully, but I decided to read the book of Job last week as I continue my enjoyment of Old Testament wisdom literature. I am starting to think that Wisdom literature is my favorite genre of the Bible. After reading Ecclesiastes I headed for Job with the aid of the new ESV Study Bible, which I received as a gift courtesy of Jeremy Morrisey.
Job is a book that is highly regarded as valuable for it's wilingness to honestly address the issue of suffering. If you are a part of a church or have studied the Bible long you have heard someone make reference to his life and his resolve to trust God in the midst of suffering. Trusting God in the midst of suffering is good and all, but I went into the reading thinking, "There's got to be more meat to the story than that." Usually the Bible has a lot to say about how we could do such an impossible task, or provides some sort of perspective that can prepare us to handle the storms of life even if ours pale in comparison to Job's (and they most certainly will, which is part of the book's value).
In an effort to keep the posts short I am going to use a couple of days to post the thoughts I have about the book and share what I learned over the past week in my own reading. If you do not currently have a part of the Bible that you are studying or reading, plan to read Job this week and you can decide whether I am way off on my take on the piece or not. So, I will begin the posts the way I began my reading. Given what you may already know about the story of Job, what specifically do you think is the message or central argument of the book? I would suggest that this is the way that we should read any book of the Bible, beginning with a desire to understand the one thing that the whole thing is saying, and then understanding the parts in relation to the whole. Yes, Job is about suffering, but more importantly it is a book about God, and tomorrow I will try to unpack what we can learn from it.

Halloween

I better blog about last weekend before it's too late...

This year Haley insisted that she wear her hand-me-down, ripped, purple princess dress despite the fact that she has many new, sparkly dress-up dresses.  Oh well...I am trying not to be a controlling mother.  She was thrilled with her whole get-up, and proudly announced to every neighbor that her hair was Jasmine hair and her body was the princess from Magic in Pegasus (I have no idea what she was talking about....Elizabeth Fauth must know).  Darcy was her trusted steed and galloped from house to house.  Having Jeremy and Bobby-O along for the festive weekend was especially fun.

At the Restaurant: Part 2

I sat down to do some Icelandic self-study today through the online program Colby got us called "Before You Know It."  Here were the flash cards I studied:

sviðin-  singed sheep heads

hakarlinn-  rotten shark

hrutspungarnir-  ram's testicles (kept in sour milk)

skatan-  fermented skate

sviðasultan-  sheep head jelly

My new life is going to be so weird.  

  

Alpaca Annie

Eastland Alpaca Farm

This morning we headed out to the Eastland Alpaca Farm for an agri-adventure.

Q and A Ecclesiastes

In the Comments for the last post I answered the basic question below. I wanted to include the answer on the main page so here it is.

Q. "Are we to see the blessings we have here and imagine that they pale in comparison to heaven's blessings awaiting us...
i dont know...in a way it makes sense to me that true satisfaction in anything wont come until we go to heaven"?

A.I think the way to think about is that there are two categories of desire. First the desires that God created us with and intends to fulfill through natural means. An example of that would be hunger, and the means would be the provision of food. Other desires like this may be, the desire for companionship, the desire for meaningful work, sexual desire, or the desire for meaningful thought and understanding. The second category is eternal desire for God himself that He has placed in our hearts for the sake of eternity. All of the above desires find a certain fulfillment in the regular course of life, but also leave us aware of a particular desire that remains unfulfilled, at least in its fullest extent. The eternal desire is so much deeper and more important to our sense of well-being that the lack of its fulfillment would render everything else meaningless.