Essay on Book of Job

In the book of Job, Job walks through life making sure his actions and words are carefully chosen, and even goes as far as to burn offerings for sins yet committed. The book of Job, and then later the modern take titled J.B., was a new display from God, showing that bad things can happen to good people. The book of Job made it clear in the bible that God was not giving or taking anything because of our own achievement, but that all things good and bad are from God. Archibald Macleish tries to reenact Job in a more modern version that new readers today might find easier, and although so aspects might be off from the original text, the story of J.B. follows closely to Job’s story line. One area that can be compared when looking at both texts

The view of fate the book of Job expresses, though similar in that it originates from God, differs in a few important ways. In Job, situations are predetermined to occur, but the personal choices of the people involved determine the outcome of the situation. The story of Job opens with Job's fate of suffering being planned. Satan presents himself in an audience before God. God makes example of Job, and Satan rebuffs, stating that Job's constancy is only because of God's preferential treatment. Satan tells God, "But put forth thy hand now and touch all he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face."(40). In response, power is given to Satan to torment Job as a test. Job's life and finally health are viciously mangled and destroyed by Satan. Though Job does not know the reasons behind his great suffering, we are told that "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."(41), and "In all this did not Job sin with his lips."(41). Self-pity creeps into Job's thoughts and words, but there is no disenchanted turn from God. Instead in Job the reader sees a turn to God for relief and

him. How one deals with despair and suffering is what makes a person who he or

The theme of the Book of Job is the perseverance of the human spirit. Job loses everything but he does not lose his faith in God. “Job refuses to curse God” (Book). Job has not done anything to deserve this, but it is a test from God and Satan to see if Job is actually as

How do human beings talk about God in the face of poverty and suffering? This is the question the Book of Job raises for us. A moral and honorable man lives a prosperous, happy and fruitful life. As a wager between God and Satan on the issue of disinterested religion, they test to see if his faith and religion are actually disinterested. This leads to another question of whether human beings are capable of asserting their faith and talking about God in the face of suffering in a disinterested way. In his book “On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent” Gustavo Gutierrez makes the point that human beings, especially the poor, are capable of a disinterested faith and knowledge of God in the face of suffering. His application of liberation theology, way of talking about God, and interest in the poor allow Gutierrez to assert that human beings are capable of a disinterested religion in the face of poverty and suffering.

     Job is a man very limited by God. As illustrated, he has only a negligible amount of agency to begin with. By the time God and Satan finish with him, he has virtually no control over his own life. The fragment of agency he does cling to is his ability to choose whether or not to curse God. No one, except himself, could prevent Job from cursing God. Yet, he refuses to curse God, even though He is responsible for his suffering.

As we have seen, God promises a blessing to those who trust in His word and strive to live by it. Christians do not want to miss out on God’s blessing, especially those waiting for Him to reveal something. Now reading any book of the Bible, even Job, one begins to understand that God will bless you as you strive to study and practice His way of life. The Bible prophetically warns of even more pain in many different forms then what is done here Job, and through this we begin to portray God in a different light (Janzen 2012). However, the book of Job reveals God’s level of intervention during such a violent time. Due to the context and dire situation it would be difficult to imagine anything more then the pain for the members of Job’s family and the community at that time. They needed encouragement and the assurance that the trials Job faced would soon be over. The evil powers of Satan that governed Job’s life for a moment would be destroyed, and a triumphant sense of peace would be reestablished. The message of Job was intended for those in a particular time and circumstances of pain. Christians familiar with other violent writings would understand the book's symbolism, for practically everything Job went through was a test that other biblical figures felt during similar times of persecution. Job’s story was written to all people that may face the same trials, and find peace after their

The text The Book of Job, interpreted and translated by Stephen Mitchell, raises great controversy in the world of righteousness. It is a well known, universal text, and with each new interpreter who translates, there is a new version of the story brought to the surface. William Blake partakes in this conflict of ideas through his artwork rather than his writing. His art reflects his own personal view of the text and has both similar and differentiating opinions than Mitchell’s own on the key events in the book. Narrowing it down to Blake’s ideas behind the scene depicted in Figure A alongside Mitchell’s in the text, it is a perfect demonstration of the two interpretations clashing and blending their ideas.

The chapters of Job bring to light God putting his favorite servant in a situation in which he loses a throw other desire to drop in a dalliance with God castigate God himself. It starts to asking price Job dearly to throw in one lot with on to his sexual affair outside of marriage with God.

In stark contrast to God’s presence in Genesis, the character of God in Job strays from the ideal perfection of the divine. The concept of the ideal manifested in Genesis is embodied in God’s moral, reasonable, and rational behavior. In Job, on the other hand, rather than being reasonable, methodical, and creating life, God displays more human characteristics and plays the role of both creator and destroyer. The book of Job begins with God’s boastful bargain with Satan, which subsequently leads God to allow the total destruction of Job’s family and livelihood. Job is even attacked physically with “loathsome sores… from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). In an uncharacteristically immoral decision, God gives Satan the power do

hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among the people of the East" (Job 1: 2-3). God bragged to Satan about Job saying that he was blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. But Satan said, "Have you not but a hedge around his household and everything he has ... But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he

In the beginning of the book we learn that there is an all-powerful God, and there is also The Adversary who is Satan. God allows Satan to test Job to see if he will remain loyal to God. This is something that only the audience knows, and no human, especially Job is ignorant of what’s at play. This is also very important because it ties into the lesson that is being portrayed. In The story all of Job’s friends thought that Job’s suffering was due to some type of evil or sin that Job committed. From the reading we know that Job is very careful to avoid evil, so the advice his friends give him is flawed. I think the lesson here is that we don’t know what is taking place in God’s court, our knowledge is very limited and we should not assume

I think there is a good lesson here for those who provide pastoral care to the suffering. And maybe that is the lesson here. I do not believe that God causes our sufferings, but that God can use our sufferings to bring forth the Kingdom of God. For I believe that God stretches out wide God’s arms desiring to be in relationship with all. At the end of the Job narrative we find an image of reconciliation where Job is open to seeing God differently receiving the fullness that God is in all of God’s mystery and

The book of Job tells the story of Job. This section of Job, the prologue from 1:1-2:10, was a section that was probably added onto the core story at another date (Coogan 1504). Scholars

Job is a book about how does Job react, when all of his properties have been taken away because of the arrangement of God and Satan. The major part of this book is composed by the conversations between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The persuasions of his three friends are powerless, compared with Job’s unshakable faith in God.