Job's Suffering and Us.

by Blueblades 7 Replies latest jw friends

  • Blueblades
    Blueblades

    If you care to believe it,Job's sufferings present significant questions for the faith of believers in all ages.Why do the righteous suffer? What about the character of God,does his permission of suffering suggest that He is lacking in compassion and mercy?What about the reality of the inscrutable mystery of innocent suffering?Why does he let us walk in sorrow and pain?Theologians analyze the suffering and look for causes and solutions.Using all of their sound theology and insight into the situation,they search for answers.Does God really need human advocates to defend his involvement in calamity and suffering?For even the best effort at explaining the issues of life can be useless.

    Many have pre-understandings that God punishes evil,rewards obedience,and that there are no exceptions possible.However the inscrutable mystery of innocent suffering forces one to conclude that there are exceptions.In that the righteous also suffer and the wicked prosper.

    So then ,does suffering take a back seat in trying to understand the character of God? Is the compelling issue of human suffering unknowable outside the story of Job if you choose to believe it?Are there matters going on that we truly know nothing about ;yet,they effect our lives? What do you think? Thank you for your thoughts in advance. Blueblades

  • siegswife
    siegswife

    In my personal opinion, one of the most relevant issues in the book of Job is the birthday situation.

    Job's kids celebrated birthdays, Job makes a sacrifice on their behalf, they get wasted. Job is then left to wonder if all of his misfortune is because of the birthday celebrations and the subsequent sacrifices (ie. his faith). He never admitted to sinning against God, though...and he never really did.

    Think about it. The book of Job is one of the books that made me realize just how far off the WTS is regarding Spiritual truth.

  • Gopher
    Gopher

    lol @ Siegswife

    Job's kids celebrated birthdays, Job makes a sacrifice on their behalf, they get wasted. Job is then left to wonder if all of his misfortune is because of the birthday celebrations and the subsequent sacrifices (ie. his faith). He never admitted to sinning against God, though...

    The book of Job just adds to the strange way "Jehovah" is presented in the OT/Hebrew Scriptures. "Inscrutable mystery" ... indeed.

    In Job's case, the account tells us he was rewarded for not turning aside from God when he was suffering.

    But what about those whom God DOESN'T seem to notice as much? Job was a rich, influential elder among his peers. What about children and poor ones who suffer, and God doesn't intervene for them?

    The "Book of Job" doesn't solve that mystery.

    And the JW's only add to the mystery, by saying we must "wait on Jehovah" for some unbearably long time period to pass until he finally decides to end wickedness....And now, he's waiting for.. what? For JW's to complete their preaching work?

    Give me a major break.

  • siegswife
    siegswife

    Hey Gopher...Job got more kids, so what the he*double hockeysticks*. LOL

    Seriously though, I've been a ne'er do well most of my life (poor- not an elder nor well respected by most) and I have truly been blessed by God, and have definitely been protected and loved by Him.

    Can I prove it? Nope, but those who know me know why I believe in Him.

  • JT
    JT

    the book of job provides many angles of looking at things--

    for some job demostrates that god and satan are just Poker Players and humans are the pons-

    it all a big old chess game between enemies and guess who get caught in the cross hairs MAN-

  • Yerusalyim
    Yerusalyim

    I find Elihu the most fascinating character in the Story of Job. He was the youngest, but spoke the most common sense to Job, they mention the three other friends of Job arriving, but no mention is made of Elihu arriving. He's an enigma in many ways.

    Why do bad things happen to good people? We've been asking that for centuries...a divine mystery...DON'T SHOOT, sometimes that's the best answer I can come up with. Why God would create humans at all is a mystery.

  • CoonDawg
    CoonDawg

    "Im not proud of the fashion in which I bedeviled Job. I'm not proud of the fashion in which I have so often let My Brother Yahweh maneuver Me into doing His dirty work--starting clear back with Mother Eve-- and before that, in ways I cannot explain. And I've always been a sucker for a bet, any sort of a bet...and I'm not proud of that weakness, either. ... Most of your errors--this My Brother actively encourages-- arise from believing that your God is slotary and all powerful. ...That bet over Job had not been much fun; long before it was concluded I grew tired of clobbering the poor schmo."

    Jerry Farnsworth (a.k.a. Satan) in Rober A. Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice

    For those who haven't read it, this particular book makes one think a bit about the whole god / devil thing. To me, though it is a work of obvious fiction, it makes some points that I think many would do well to consider.

    Bringing into question the motives of God in the whole Job scenario is an obvious step, but one that many are too timid to do, fearing the incurring of God's wrath. Personally, I question the very existence of god because of stories like Job. If there is a god up there, I think that people's cocept of what and who he is are very misguided.

    JMO

    Coon

    Edited by - CoonDawg on 31 December 2002 11:16:5

  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    It just seems like humankind "didn't get it" when the creator tried to deal with us as a Nation, and humankind "didn't get it" when Michael came and lived like a man amidst us. All we have now is the various translations of stuff written down by men in their language of the time. We still "don't get it".

    Things just happen to us because we are living the human life. Unless we have been especially appointed or blessed, we are not promised that our lives will be filled with all good, or that we will be punnished for making wrong choices. When I was little, I was taught that if I was a very good girl, that I would be blessed with a good and happy life. I did my very best, and found that life was unfair, and life was cruel sometimes, and that bad things happen to good people. I learned people who didn't give a hoot, and just lived their life received the same as I got, and even were much better off.

    Even Jesus had to learn his lessons and pass through the experience.

    This is where the journey of the soul comes in. I truly believe that we live as humans many times, and we experience many things. It is necessary to experience everything at one time or another, so that we can fulfill our destiny and be prepared to meet our creators, once our journey is complete. So, whatever it is that we must endure, or whatever lesson it is that we need to learn, we will benefit in the end from facing it head on. Therefore, in order to learn, we must experience. Experience means that we "go through" something. We don't avoid it in the end We aren't protected from it. But, we use our tools of heart and mind, to push on through it and move on. That's life. Sometimes when looking at the outside of a persons life, we conclude that they have no problems. Believe me, they do. Get to know someone, and you will find out.

    As regards Job, perhaps it was the time for him to learn the lesson of bad health, loss, grief, desolation. Perhaps it was one of his lessons. Since we can see that he had a good reputation and was well known as a good and faithful man, this would surely test his faith in the promise to come. And after suffering all these tragedies, his life turned around. He married and had more children, but nothing could make his life exactly like it had been. Could this story have actually been discussing "two separate human lives of Job"? Could that be a possibility? Maybe. If so, then there is a lot of information that is missing. But that would also not be too unusual. There is a lot of information that is mixed up, incomplete, inhanced upon, and cut out of the "bible", so that our perceptions, concepts and faith is distorted from the real events of those days.

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