Recent thoughts on Job...
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:54 pm
I've been struggling a bit with the book of Job (one of my favorite books)
Up until recently, I believed that Job (the man) was a historical person and that Job (the story) was literally true
I still believe the man was a historical person (though I don't see the point as particularly important)
And I still see the story as something that actually happened for the most part...
But I especially struggle with Job 1-2
To put it briefly, I believe Job lost all the things it says he lost in Job 1-2. And I believe Job and his friends discussed 'why' this happened. And I believe God spoke to Job, as is recorded near the end of the book.
But I struggle, specifically, with the idea that Satan requested specific permission to do specific things to Job.
I like to think (though I could be wrong) that God made the decision to create creatures and endow them with powers/authorities at the beginning of the world... and that some of those creatures fell (some angels and the humans)... and that they now use their God-given freedom to mis-use/abuse their power and authority.
In other words, I feel more comfortable with saying that God created a good angel that went bad at the beginning and is a renegade than I do with saying that Satan continually goes back to God for permission to do specifically terrible things. The latter doesn't resonate well with my understanding of God. It seems to render Him as someone who plays with us as pawns. The former view, to my mind at least, suggests that Satan does is just a consequence of God having created a free world.
It seems to me that it is only really Job 1-2 that paints this picture of God & Satan bantering about specific evils. And it seems quite possible to read Job 1-2 as a dramatic literary fiction meant to stress the point that there are things going on behind the scenes (Whether at the beginning or now) that we don't know about.
Just thinking out loud.... feel free to comment
Up until recently, I believed that Job (the man) was a historical person and that Job (the story) was literally true
I still believe the man was a historical person (though I don't see the point as particularly important)
And I still see the story as something that actually happened for the most part...
But I especially struggle with Job 1-2
To put it briefly, I believe Job lost all the things it says he lost in Job 1-2. And I believe Job and his friends discussed 'why' this happened. And I believe God spoke to Job, as is recorded near the end of the book.
But I struggle, specifically, with the idea that Satan requested specific permission to do specific things to Job.
I like to think (though I could be wrong) that God made the decision to create creatures and endow them with powers/authorities at the beginning of the world... and that some of those creatures fell (some angels and the humans)... and that they now use their God-given freedom to mis-use/abuse their power and authority.
In other words, I feel more comfortable with saying that God created a good angel that went bad at the beginning and is a renegade than I do with saying that Satan continually goes back to God for permission to do specifically terrible things. The latter doesn't resonate well with my understanding of God. It seems to render Him as someone who plays with us as pawns. The former view, to my mind at least, suggests that Satan does is just a consequence of God having created a free world.
It seems to me that it is only really Job 1-2 that paints this picture of God & Satan bantering about specific evils. And it seems quite possible to read Job 1-2 as a dramatic literary fiction meant to stress the point that there are things going on behind the scenes (Whether at the beginning or now) that we don't know about.
Just thinking out loud.... feel free to comment