Job Studies

Suffering and the why of it    Short Notes on the Book of Job

 

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

14 December  2011

 

         The book of Job was written by Moses while he was in Midian hiding from Thutmosis III, who was living with the apparent psychological horror that one of Hatshepsut's favorites [Moses, the child who was found by her on the Nile] could return from wherever he is hiding, and usurped the throne from him. I assume that the 16 Syro-Palestinian campaigns were attempts to bring booty and wealth, or capital but also to search for Moses, the runaway criminal who manslaughtered an Egyptian in a moment of "blindness with anger". That was after 1490 BCE and it is assumed that his mother gave him the Book of Adam, the Book of Noah, the Book of the Patriarchs and probably also the History of Job. With the Book of Adam he composed chapters 1-5 of Genesis. With the book of Noah he composed chapters 6-11 of Genesis and with the book of the Patriarchs he composed the other parts of Genesis. With the Book of the History of Job, he wrote an epic poem surrounding the life of Job. 

              Job probably also lived in the time of Abraham, who was born in 2175 BCE. The nomadic ethos fits the times of the patriarchs very well, as many scholars have pointed out in the past. Moses was fluent in Middle Egyptian and he should have been, since he lived in the palace of Hatshepsut since the age of 12, since 1518 BCE [note that our calculations are based on mathematical precision of 1 Kings 6:4 calculated from 970 BCE as the fourth year of Solomon]. Ancient historians kept very good records of their dates and events and if they had computers, they would have used it very well. They had data-systems that are not always clear to us but it is not a good policy to reject their systems and allocate errors to it, simply because we cannot see their calculations thousands of years later. John Brinkman of Chicago University in his doctoral dissertation on the Kassites, too readily appeals to errors as a way to stop thinking of solutions. For us this is unacceptable. Despite the fact that he is a very nice person.

Moses intended to show us in the book of Job someone who is suffering although he was walking with God. What Moses did is to display a group of characters around Job and his suffering who acted as counselors. But note one thing: Moses took out a very important doctrine of the Bible and a very important aspect of the understanding of ontology out from the events of Job. He took out the understanding by Job and his counselors of the role of the Rebellion in Heaven Event and the Fall of Man Event. Moses felt that without a proper understanding of the origin of evil in heaven and on earth one cannot understand creation in Genesis 1 and 2 properly in relation to ourselves, and just so much one can see the off-road comments of Job and his friends when they lack this proper perspective of the role of Satan in chapter 1 of Job. One is suppose to read every chapter of Job alongside chapter 1. It is because Satan rebelled in Heaven, was cast out and corrupted Adam and Eve and continued to do so in this world, creating disasters and tragedies, that Moses felt that his audience, us, should know how off-tune we are when we try to analyze everything just ontologically, just existentially, just analogia entis, as I see it in my experience, senses, memory, and cognitive abilities including reason.

           In the Book of Job, Moses let us see his own encyclopedic knowledge: of astronomy that he studied under the very famous Egyptian professor in astronomy in the court of Hatsepsut, Senenmut as one can see in his explanations of cosmology and astronomy in Job 26. One see the knowledge of Moses of geology and mining technics in chapter 28. One sees Moses' understanding of the ancient cuneiform data regarding the ideal kingship expectations: take care of orphans, widows, poor, justice, instruction, wisdom, sick, lame, blind, removing the wicked. The Shepherd role of the king was a very old motif in cuneiform tablets and it is almost a programmic statement in analogy with Matthew 5, but for the king. Moses let Job list his good deeds which include all these attributes in Job 29. The Shepherd role was also claimed by Gudea in his cylinders in 2143-2124 BCE [for a treatment of the cylinders of Gudea, one can see the early work of Thureau Dangin (F. Thureau-Dangin, Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen Königs Inschriften [Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs' Buchhandlung, 1907]: 136-9 Lagash, Gudea: Cylinder B 17: 17-18:10.         For seven days the king went into the temple and during that week, the orphan, widow, slave and others were treated very well and the focus was on righteousness). Job claimed it also for himself in Job 29. One can say Gudea and Job were contemporaries and both are claiming these activities. Moses was also aware of the ancient Fall of City Lamentations. This was a genre that was well-known in cuneiform texts: Lamentation over the Fall of Ur [fell in 2004 BCE and explained by Samuel Kramer, professor of Sumerology at Chicago University], Lamentation over the Fall of Uruk, Lamentation over the Fall of Jerusalem in the works of Jeremiah and Lamentation over the Fall of Tyre (in the Bible in Isaiah 14), Lamentation over the Fall of Babylon (in Revelation 18).

           Job and Moses is indicating that eschatology is also part of the ontology of man. There is an end in sight for the wicked and although they are not dealt with in the present, current ontology, current life or existence, at the end of time, the end of history, at the endpoint of all events, God is interrupting to take care of them and mete out their executive judgment or punishment. This is all explained at many places in Job but also in Job 27.

           The friend of Job, Bildad the Shuhite tries to show that all men are sinners and for that matter useless in any good works. Their ontologies are of no avail. Can there be any good from a woman? Job 25:4. Even here Moses tries to indicate that without a proper understanding of the Fall of Man event in Genesis 3, one cannot really understand salvation and its engine properly. God wants humanity to bear fruits of salvation, called sanctification, to be shining lights for Him, to witness for Him. Thus, to have a fatalistic approach to all good of humanity is Bildad's approach but not God's or that of Moses.            One must remember that although Paul in the book of Romans 3 also touched upon this truth, the sinfulness of man it was in the context of the self-ability of humans to save themselves. It was not in the context of sanctification that follows the salvation event. That is why Paul is saying that he is not making the law of no avail. There is no difference in the message of salvation of Moses or the message of salvation of Paul. Paul saw the true function of the law in the same way as Moses saw it and in the same way as Jesus saw it. There is a blessed continuity, not discontinuity. If sanctuary activities stopped at the cross, that is where they were supposed to stop as Isaiah 53 explained the Messiah would suffer as Lamb of God. All of them understood perfectly well what was to happen in future with the Shepherd Messiah that became lamb and offering.

           Moses knows very well the follies of men which were also listed well in the ancient cuneiform literature since Sumer, wicked men who destroy crops, move landmarks, rob, steal, acted wicked against the widows, poor and the orphans. Job complains that God permit all this to continue and does not stop it. The absence of a eschatological program of God understanding, creates Job's arguments. That is the fallacy in Job's thinking in Job 24. Job laments that the wicked prosper in their wickedness and it seems as if there is no end it that. When is God going to act? Job do acknowledge though that analogia entis, all men die and so does the wicked. He goes to Sheol and no one remembers him (Job 24:19). It was a recurring folly that Solomon also focused on in the book of Ecclessiastes or Qohelet. It is an essential element of ontology that all men die, good or bad. To understand why all men die, is what Moses thinks is important and Job's understanding of it is in need of this refinement. So his friends.

           A beautiful ontological faithful witness of Job is in Job 23. Job says that he wished to have an advocate in heaven in the heavenly judgment scene of the investigative judgment. He says that he would surely be acquitted as innocent. He does not know that what he is outlining was exactly what Christ our Highpriest was doing after His crucifixion in 31 CE and since 1844 with the Heavenly Investigative Judgment. "I would be delivered forever from my judge" (Job 23:7).

Job knows that God works in programs, decrees, appointments, schedules, assignments, and that He acts according to His thoughts (Job 23:14). Job also knows that no matter what suffering may surround him, he will come forth as pure gold. In a way, Moses was speaking to himself. The difference between Moses and Job is that Moses killed a man in a moment of anger but Job claimed that he was sinless. Moses had many heart-searching things to work through in his own life, sitting in his own suffering in the heat of the desert of Midian in poverty and discomfort, away from parents and relatives. Job's questions were probably also relevant questions that Moses were asking about himself.

           In Job 22, Eliphaz the Temanite struggled with the same syndrome that Asaph had in Psalm 73: why the wicked prosper and the good suffer so much in comparison. It is the common error that one experience when the origin of evil history and reality is remove from our present reality. Asaph was a contemporary of Moses if one counts 600 years from King Jehosaphat back, according to 2 Chronicles 20:14. Other Asaph Psalms are Psalm 50, 74ff, nearly 12 of them. To get back to the argument between Eliphaz and Job, if Eliphaz and Job were in heaven, then one can argue like Eliphaz, namely, only good comes over the good and only evil comes over the evil. But, this earth and its reality is not heaven any longer, the Edenic situations are not nearly preserved as they use to be. There are beautiful scenery areas and sites but the goodness of God prevented Satan from destroying everything. Satan would have made the earth look like Mars and the Moon, if he had his own way without God stopping him. The wicked feels that God is beyond the distant stars and behind clouds so that He cannot see what they are doing (Job 22:12-14). Moses then refers to the Flood of Noah that washed away the foundations of the wicked by a river (Job 22:16). The predeluvial people said to God to be far from them yet He was kind to them and filled their houses with goods. Eliphaz felt that if Job be at peace with God then good will come to him. It is true that God do bestow blessings always on the righteous, but it is not true that we are not tested or suffering in groups or among or with others although we are totally innocent. Job knew, that if he is suffering, God is suffering with him. This is the New Testament concept of Jesus in Matthew 25 that the mystery is this that God identifies 100% with the suffering of the righteous. He is co-sufferer. "If you have done it to any of these bretheren of mine [faithful ones suffering] you have done it also unto Me" (verse 40). The righteous is not God but God identifies 100% with the suffering of the righteous. Job also had this strong conviction of connection with God "But He knows the way I take, when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Presence of suffering is not absence of God and presence of God can mean absence of suffering, especially if it is part of his long-term plan, this short-term suffering. In Job 21:7 Job also asked this question, why the wicked prosper. He said: "Why do the wicked still live, continue on, also become very powerful?". It is also a case of the Psalm 73 syndrome of Asaph.

           Asaph said: "Behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease they have increased wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence, for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning" (Psalm 73:12-14). But Asaph was wrong and so was Job, especially when God revealed to Him at the end his situation.

 

 

Job was written by Moses to explain to humanity that if you do not have a proper protology you cannot have a proper teleology and do not have proper presentology either. Thus, a proper past will have a proper future and a proper present undertanding