AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB Part V

Theological Bites

In the third introduction part, we saw that there are three major theological problems in the book of Job.

• The first is the question of the source of Suffering and Pain.
• The second is how a righteous man like Job can suffer all that he suffered.
• The third is how suffering and pain can coexist with the Sovereignty of God.

We handled the first one and we now embark on the second problem; how a righteous man like Job can suffer all that he suffered?

The background that shapes the second theological problem in the book of Job is the Judaism thought of consequentialism (as philosophers would put it). The Jews believed in ‘what you sow is what you reap’ (Deuteronomy 27-28). By the time the book of Job is compiled and turned into a book (part of their canon), Israel is struggling with the questions of the EXILE.

How could the people of God who historically experienced a mighty EXODUS by the hand of God from their oppressors be this embarrassed for all these years? Why would God scatter and dismiss his own chosen people of Israel? Why would righteous kings and reformers like Josiah be defeated and killed by the pagan uncircumcised enemies? How could Babylon and Persia be so prosperous than the nation of God? What is the future of the nation and the kingdom of Israel? How different are believers in Yahweh from all those other nations that worship idols?

The Righteous Sufferer

Job is a representative of Israel, for, in the mind of the Jewish writers, it is only Israel that God brags about and is confident in, as he was confident in Job (Job 1:8). If, therefore, Job is that good that even God is proud of him, why suffer?

In the New Testament, the disciples asked if a child was born blind, who then sinned between the child and his parents (John 9:1-2). The reason they asked this was because the theology of Judaism had developed from children suffering the sins and consequences of their parents’ mistakes (Genesis 7:17-24, Genesis 19:24-25; Exodus 20:5) to each sinner suffering or prospering based on their sinfulness or righteousness (Ezekiel 18:14-20).

Jews believed in people getting what they deserved, and they always prayed for the rightful predicament for the wicked (Psalm 94:3; Proverbs 13:25; Psalm 73:2-16; Proverbs 3:33). Everything is in order when the righteous are prospering and the wicked are suffering. What overturns tables in the Jewish understanding is when the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer (Psalm 73:1-5).

It is problematic for a righteous man like Job to suffer, for a man like Daniel to be thrown into the den of lions (Daniel 6:16), and when prophets are imprisoned (Jeremiah 38:6).

The oxymoron in the book of Job is that an upright man in all the land receives bad news. The loss of his wealth, then all his children die and before all that sinks in, his health is attacked. God knows Job is righteous and Job knows his own heart and insists on his innocence but still wonders why God is punishing him.

The Retribution Principle (RP)

The belief that people get what they deserve or actually act in a certain way due to particular provisions was invented by Satan himself. Satan argued that:

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9).

In other words, the Devil was saying that Job’s faith in God is based on what the theologians call the ‘Retribution Principle’ (RP).

In the Mesopotamia world where the Bible (OT) originated, people never worshipped gods unless they were in some kind of covenantal agreement with them. A worshipper had his obligation to fulfil and the god with whom he had covenanted also had his end to fulfil. Any fracture of the covenant meant evil, suffering and punishment from the gods. This was part of the tenets of the covenant and proper observation of the covenant meant prosperity and blessings.

Theologians define Retribution Principle as a deserved reward or punishment that comes to an obedient or disobedient party when a divine requirement, agreement, verbal promise, or covenant is kept or broken.

The idea is essentially grounded into what the secular man knows as; Cause and Effect.

In the Ancient Near East, however, the gods were the cause of both evil and good based on one’s behaviour. The issue in the book of Job that is addressed by the first three friends (Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad) to Job is a conflict within the framework of retribution theology. Why is Job a righteous man suffering?

The first three friends insist that Job might have sinned unknowingly but Job insists that it is not true. If Job sinned, then it adds up that he is suffering but if he did not sin, then there is tension to have a righteous sufferer.

Undeserved suffering is the debate between Job and his first three elderly friends. In the retribution theology, suffering and righteousness cannot co-exist. The retribution principle (get what you deserve) debate in the book of Job is founded on two wrong conclusions:

The first is that God (the ultimate primary principal Good) is the cause of suffering. In other words, evil comes from ‘absolute good’. (refer to Part II).

The second one is the idea that those in a covenant with God deserve a thing. A prosperous Job could have been wrong if in any way he assumed that he was prosperous because he held right to his end of the relationship with God.

The book of Job reminds all of us that God does not owe us anything (Job 41:11). If we deserve a thing from God, it is his wrath and eternal death (Ephesians 2:2-3; Romans 5:15-19).

From the poor retribution principle, we learn that none of us should ever feel entitled based on our faith or religious observances. We are not only saved by grace but even the little or the much we have is not something we deserve but God’s grace (1Corinthians 15:10). It was because of the retribution theology that the Jews exercised sharia law (Deuteronomy 21:18-21; John 8:1-5). Sinners deserve punishment and in the retribution theology, one’s sinfulness (guilty) justifies the violence exercised on him.

The retribution principle crowns us as achievers when we are blessed (prosperous) and justifies violence and suffering as the appropriate response to our wrongdoing in life.

Job was not originally prosperous because he deserved it and neither did he suffer later because he deserved the pain and loss. None of us deserves pain and suffering and neither of us deserves the success and prosperity we enjoy.

The deception of Satan in Job 1:9-10 is back in modern churches where believers now think you are blessed by God based on how much you fast and pray. How much you give to the church. Some victims in the Church have been told the reason their healing hasn’t occurred is that they lack faith. Believers struggle up this ladder so that they can deserve the gifts from God. This is wrong and it the doctrine the man Job and his three friends.

Next, I will handle the third theological problem in the book.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Pr. T.I.M WHITE

The Gospel Hawker

@iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)