I've heard countless sermons about Job, most of which focus on the role of friends during trials and suffering OR try to prove that God isn't a monster playing games with the life of a human.
The Book of Job tackles one of the fundamental issues of Theodicy – Why do bad things happen to good people?
I was looking round and found this –
An essay by Ethan Dor-Shav available here
It's worth a read, but I've pulled out the bit that interested me:
"... what need is there for this book at all, let alone for such a long one? The wisdom literature of the ancient East, as well as the Hebrew Bible itself, is rich with such trials, but they are most notable for their brevity. The binding of Isaac, for example, is described in a few verses. Even God’s revelation to Abraham about his motive for demanding the sacrifice is delivered not in a fanciful monologue, but in a single sentence ... The Book of Job, by contrast, consists of forty-two chapters between the culmination of Job’s misfortunes and his eventual reward. More important, these poetic chapters — Job’s dialogues with his three friends, followed by the oration of Elihu, and finally God’s revelation — consistently reject any interpretation of Job’s suffering as a mere challenge.
"... In order to propose a deeper and more comprehensive interpretation of the Book of Job, one must be willing to look beyond the book’s prosaic opening chapter and the simplistic meaning it evokes. Moreover, we must credit the book’s author with a mastery of literary nuance, in addition to his universally acknowledged poetic genius."
"... What is this alternate narrative? To begin with, it is defined by two extremes: Who and what Job is at the beginning of the story and who and what he is at the end. If we acknowledge as our starting point the radical idea that the early Job is not portrayed as a saint, but rather as a severely flawed individual, the tale of suffering that constitutes the book proves to be quite different from the accepted interpretation. It is not a story of sheer endurance and blind faith but one of existential awakening, leading to the attainment of prophecy in the book’s final scenes. The story, in other words, is about one man’s painstaking ascendance from a normative religious life to a deeply spiritual one. As this process takes place, the narrative also expounds on the biblical secrets of the cosmic order, the nature of man, and, above all, heavenly redemption through the light of wisdom.
"... Interpreted this way, the Book of Job deals with a very different question ... how a man’s honest response to worldly suffering serves as the basis for his awakening and enlightenment. Indeed, the forty oft-dismissed “interim” chapters of the Book of Job tell the story, step by excruciating step, of one man’s eventual direct experience of God. His suffering plays a critical role in his ethical, intellectual, and spiritual transformation, enabling him to move from egoism to morality, from ignorance to wisdom, and, finally, from alienation from God to a personal relationship with him. Over the course of the book, Job becomes a true tzadik, or righteous man; a hacham, or sage; and finally, a navi, or prophet. No transformation is more profound.
This makes sense to me, indeed I will look at the book afresh. It's the path to Enlightenment.
I think, for a Christian, one must eventually decide whether God has a hand in everything that happens to a person or whether God has set things in motion and is more of an observer.
I tend to sit somewhere between the two, that God is immanently present to creation, but God is not a micromanager.
I take my cue from Luke 13:1-5 "And there were present, at that very time, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answering, said to them: Think you that these Galileans were sinners above all the men of Galilee, because they suffered such things? No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, and slew them: think you, that they also were debtors above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem? No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish."
The point to me is God is not punishing certain people because of their iniquities. It's the nature of the world, things happen, fortunate or unfortunate ... but whether or not, really that should not factor into the equation, everyone needs to work towards their enlightenment/salvation.
