12/9/19
Anling Chen
PD1
Aim: How does the Book of Job exemplify human pain and retribution?
Today we talked about the Book of Job, a book in the Old Testament of the Bible that details the rise and fall of a man. Job is a wealthy farmer with a large family and livestock who is a devout follower of God. One day, Satan goes to God and tells him that if any of his followers face insurmountable hardship, they will renounce their devotion to Him. God was unbothered- he retorted that none of his followers would do such a thing. Satan gives God a challenge: put forth in Job's life a series of catastrophic events and watch how he reacts. There is one caveat God demands before accepting: Job must not die himself during this time.
And so Job becomes victim to his family dying, his livestock perishing, natural disasters, and thievery. Everything he loves is gone. Job is distraught and dressed in rags and a shaved head, but he is still devoted to God. When Job's friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, go to visit Job, they claim that Job must have committed sins or done something to deserve the life he has now. For example, Eliphaz claims that Job was disingenuous when he was helping others, for only now does he understand the extent of their pain. His friends implore him to make up for the sins that he must have committed. Job denies that he has any wrongdoing. He is depressed, feeling the injustice of the situation, and nihilist. He questions why he was born in the first place, if all he had to look forward was suffering and bleakness.
Then, Elihu, another friend of Job's, interjects that what Job is experiencing is a form of pain God utilizes for man to return to God and ask for forgiveness. The physical and emotional pain Job is enduring shows how evil the deeds Job did, or else he would not deserve pain of this magnitude. However, God soon restores Job's life and increases his material possession tenfold.
We first started the lessons with a summary of each book in the Bible. They are, along with the theme they address:
- Job - How to suffer
- Psalms - How to pray
- Proverbs - How to act
- Ecclesiastes - How to enjoy
- Song of Solomon - How to love
We then watched a Youtube video about the Book of Job, which detailed the specifics aforementioned. Watching it we learned that God is a complex being that must juggle multiple factors at once, and what we think is not just is perhaps just another cog in the machine. There is a larger macrocosm to be considered here, and we only see a very small slice of it.
We then addressed these questions:
Was God's test of Job justified? Does Job fear God for nothing?
- Some students said that the test was not necessarily justified nor unjustified, but a necessary obstacle in Job's life. One student gave an example of salt in a meal: we all need salt in our food to make it taste good, but without it, we will have to make do and still eat. The same analogy applies to Job, who did not deserve what came to him suddenly, but what he endured was important to how he came to be as a man.
- Some students said that the test was not necessarily justified nor unjustified, but a necessary obstacle in Job's life. One student gave an example of salt in a meal: we all need salt in our food to make it taste good, but without it, we will have to make do and still eat. The same analogy applies to Job, who did not deserve what came to him suddenly, but what he endured was important to how he came to be as a man.
- Other students agreed with this idea. Suffering is inevitable, and even thought Job questioned why he had to receive the short end of the stick, he still braved through it to become a more prosperous person.
Reflection:
Today, I learned how the Book of Job applies to human tribulations and how they react to them. Oftentimes, people are hesitant to accept change or challenge because failure is a scary concept. However, failure is essential to how people become who they are. In addition, God is always behind the person and there is a larger world behind one's small bubble. God looks upon the world as a puzzle with thousands of pieces and just because one piece became eschew, the whole puzzle must not be given up. Instead, the person must be resilient and perhaps the ending will be even more pleasing than what was there in the beginning.
Today, I learned how the Book of Job applies to human tribulations and how they react to them. Oftentimes, people are hesitant to accept change or challenge because failure is a scary concept. However, failure is essential to how people become who they are. In addition, God is always behind the person and there is a larger world behind one's small bubble. God looks upon the world as a puzzle with thousands of pieces and just because one piece became eschew, the whole puzzle must not be given up. Instead, the person must be resilient and perhaps the ending will be even more pleasing than what was there in the beginning.
This tied in with the idea that creation stories are not about humans and ecosystems, but rather enormous systems that tie in with each other to make a place viable. Just like in Aztec religion, which required five different successive worlds to become the world we live in now, the Christian creation story needed to have its own trials and failures to know what works and what does not. In this way, Satan's challenges to God may be compared to the changings of the worlds. Each challenge proposed a new way of "human operations" just as Satan was himself an obstacle. Life is about understanding that what is in front of you is just a wall, but climbing over it may lead one to a sweeter, brighter universe.
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