COMMENTS ON THE BOOK OF JOB

Reading an analysis of the book of Job for this panel meeting, I looked and looked and tried to find some meaning for myself, and I found I could identify with Job in this respect--- that if a deity exists, I am angry with Him. I am not afraid of Him. I do not bow down and pray to Him. If I have good luck, I do not praise the Lord; chance favors a prepared mind. If I have bad luck, I have probably made some bad mistakes along the way and I will analyze myself as well as I can and try to learn from experience. I don't go along with the concept of 'sin'.

I know that ultimately I will die, decompose and be recycled into Nature. I accept this reality instead of praying for eternal life. This belief makes me appreciate my present life.menwatchessell.com I believe that when my brain is decomposed, my 'soul' will disappear like smoke. My only legacy can be to be remembered, with the hope that my life has contributed in some small way to the betterment of the world (Tikkun).

Job was a primitive man in primitive times. It is written that he was successful, prosperous and happy and that he was a good man. And then, one by one he lost everything, his prosperity, his family, his health, his good feeling about himself. He went from the highest to the lowest, and he thought it was not just. So he complained to God.

Job asked God, why me? The answer given to him from one of the wise men was, do not ask, just accept your punishment. (You should know that you are a sinner because the Lord created us imperfect.) Job complained that he did not do anything to deserve punishment--- he was law-abiding, helped the poor and was faithful to God in his heart. The wise men answered that Job is only a man and could never comprehend the mind of God. He was a mere mortal and God was the Creator of everything, in all His Glory and Majesty.

Job (like Tevye?) was stubborn and argued with God. He asked at first why He was silent. He couldn't stand the silence, as that made matters even worse for Job. (Maybe there was no God). God was silent for a long time, but then He spoke, seemingly because He was aggravated with Job's pestering and praying. And maybe God, Himself had some pangs of guilt and was realizing that there should be some better justice in the world He made.

However, God was pompous and arrogant and said that Job was a miserable wretch and He, Jehovah, was Lord of the Heavens and Job should just appreciate his existence, which was given to him by God. Due to his misery, Job could not appreciate God's gift.

At long last, Job submitted to the supreme power of the Lord. He admitted that he should have believe in Him, no matter what, no matter that he doesn't understand what he is to have faith about. And in abject submission, he prospered again. It seems God wants abject submission and complete blind faith. We should bow down to God no matter how much we are punished and downfallen. That is the ultimate test of faith. Job says, but why me? And God spake, why not you? (I'm giving the people a message; I have chosen you).

I hope I am not so Chosen.

I realize, reading about the book of Job, why there was a Christ. The biblical writers were not getting many sales after centuries o@f God's wrath. So they came up with The Greatest Story Ever Told, which is that God softened, (no more wrath) and came down to earth to talk to the people. This is in the direction of positive reinforcement, rather than the aversive conditioning of God's punishments. Needless to say, the people liked it better. The people preferred to read about a God who is compassionate, forgiving and redeeming. And for icing on the cake, He did miracles and healing. Best if all, the people liked the idea of everlasting life.

There are great profundities and philosophies in the Old Testament. There is history and drama in it, mythology, poetry and allegory. They had some really great writers in those days. Actually, there were only a few, but the stories that were 'keepers' were the ones that were impactful; therefore they w�ere handed down and last to this day, being revised and edited all along the way to the present. The writing was to please and teach the people, but there was a reciprocal relationship between the writers and the readers. Bad writing was not perpetuated into succeeding generations. Instead of 'survival of the fittest', it was survival of the most clever and creative.

There are many hints that despite some of the wonderful poetry about suffering and the glorification of God, the whole story lacked a compelling power of persuasion. Consider this analysis of the third part of the scholarly research into the story of Job.

This is a quote about the book of Job from "The Hebrew Scriptures" by Samuel Sandmel, who was one of Rabbi Behrmann's professors at the Hebrew Union College:

"Finally Job is resigned to the power, glory and righteousness of Jehovah and he says:

I know that Your power is unlimited

And no plan impossible to you...

Therefore I spoke, but really did not understand,

Things too wonderful for me, which I did not comprehend...

By the report of the ear (previously) I heard of You,

But now my eye has seen You,

Therefore I reject my words

And I repent, sitting on dust and ashes. [42:2, 3B, 5-6]

"This reply of Job is obviously much less than what we might reasonably expect as a conclusion to the long and profoundly exploratory speeches and to that portion of the Deity's speech which is authentically part of the original poem. We feel a double letdown at the speech of Job, first, because of its brevity, and second, because we seem to feel the need for him to say something of such substance and weight that it will be a climax and conclusion to what has gone before."

To say that the book of Job ended with an anti-climax is not an understatement (VB)

Rabbi Sandmel goes on to say:

We cannot know whether it is a mangled text that disappoints us or whether the author of Job has in these short words said all that there was in his mind to say. Job has challenged God to meet with him and dispute. Contrary to Job's spoken expectation, the Deity appears to him. The Deity speaks, and thereupon, as the text now stands, Job is rebutted and convinced, and in a few halting words expresses his regret at having raised the issue. Perhaps it is inherent in the essential problem of evil and theodicy (a vindication of divine moral force), that there is not much more to say (other) than Job is reported to have said. There have been many who have written at great length on the matter, yet when an analysis is made of what is said, one wonders whether it is simply a multiplication of words, or whether new and convincing ideas are being expressed.

In other words, in today's day and age, the Job story is exceedingly unconvincing. What value can we possibly get out of it?

The good rabbi continues:

"What is missing at the point in the Book of Job is a further explanation, not of ideas, but of Job's state of mind at this juncture. Not that the text of the Book of Job ends here. An epilogue runs another ten verses. This epilogue is, in all probability, itself made up of different parts. In the first verses the Deity rebukes the three comforters for having offered wrong and misleading arguments on His behalf. They are enjoined to offer up animals and to have Job pray for them, for Job has spoken what is right.

"This is lame, but the remainder of the epilogue is even more so. It relates that after Job had prayed on behalf of the friends, the Deity granted him twice as much as he had previously had. All of Job's brothers and sisters and acquaintances came to visit him with gifts. The text enumerates how many sheep and cattle and oxen and asses Job now came to possess. It tells us that he was now blessed with seven sons and three daughters and assures us that in all the land there were no women as beautiful as these. This is indeed a pathetic conclusion. (sic)"

There is another passage which reveals the futility in man's speaking to God:

For He is not a man like me, for me to speak to Him,

Or for us to come together for a trial.

Would that there was a referee between, to put a hand upon us both,*

And to take His rod away from me,

And stop His terror from overwhelming me!

Then I would speak, and I would not fear Him.

But such is not the case for me. [9:32-5]

*This prophetic (fantasy, wish) must be one of the factors that led the biblical writers to eventually create "The Greatest Story Ever Told." As if God finally listened to Job and heard him and cared about his suffering and sense of injustice, He condescended to come down to earth and be with the people.

The writers embellished the new story with the Annunciation, no room at the inn, the Virgin Birth, the manger, the Star in the East, the Three Wise Men, the gifts, the Maji, the farm animals and Holy Mary, the Mother of God.

So consider, God has a new beginning, or at least a part of him has a new beginning as a caring, healing, miraculous, preaching God's Word, not so mysterious and imponderable. Presumably Jesus was a nice Jewish boy who had a briss (was circumcized), who went to Hebrew school, was Bar Mitzvah'd and helped his father, Joe, in the carpentry shop.

Then he was lost and presumably wandered the countryside preaching and healing and re-emerged at age 33 in his full powers to preach The Word, "Love thy Neighbor," which included miracles and more healing. People say the miracles prove his divinity, but skeptics think the miracles are a combination of clever writing the gullibility of the public, and effective trickery. It seems that our present day magicians also perform miraculous acts. But we now know there is a trick to it. If one does not want to die, one believes.

Very important is the message to us that we mere mortals cannot judge and punish. That is His realm. Remember He said, "He who is without sin should cast the first stone!

In our society, it is not seemly to dismiss religion as a massive con-game, since the people seem to actually need The Big Parent in the Sky and the promise of Everlasting Life. Religion was explained and dismissed respectively by Freud and Marx, both secular Jews. It was "the opiate of the people." But the precondition for Eternal Life for is that you have to follow Jesus from now on, not Jehovah anymore.

This Christian belief has been the basis of Christian antagonism toward the Jews for almost two millennia. When Martin Luther became frustrated trying to convert the Jews, he said he wanted to murder all the Jews and burn down their synagogues. This is the very root of German antiSemitism.

The Jews are given credit in the history of Western Civilization for first conceiving the one true God, monotheism, out of the polytheism and animism of the primitives. The Christians believe in a 'mystery' where there is an entity called the Trinity, where 3 = 1. Jewish accountants do not agree, perhaps because they think 3 is 3 and 1 is 1 and never the twain shall meet. No wonder some people feel the Jews should be eliminated.

For some strange reason, the Jews, only following the Old Testament, whose Jehovah made everything and then was wrathful and vindictive when things didn't go His way, didn't have a god of mercy and compassion. So when tragedy befell them the pious knew that they had sinned and were being punished, or prepared for some purpose in His Master Plan. The old Jews would say about tragedy--- "it's God's will." With the concept of "God's Will", one can only wonder what the Jews in the Holocaust were making of the relentless persecution perpetrated upon them from every corner of the world. Was this God's Will? Who can say he or she is not a sinner, and somehow deserved punishment?

A very religious correspondent of mine interpreted the Job story as the Lord polishing a diamond. Job was a rough diamond! Pain was the inevitable result of growth to maturity and wisdom.

But the people did not want to be punished by the heavenly Father, they didn't want to suffer His wrath and stern teaching, any more than a child welcomes punishment and discipline.

The people much preferred the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself in the place of all the sinners, so that they would not have to suffer so much for their sins. Here is a unique precedent--- a God who will take suffering and punishment upon Himself! Instead of requiring sacrifices from the people, He now sacrifices himself. He wants to be the role-model of sacrifice, like a good parent. (Wonder of wonders, He cares about us!) That is the revolutionary message of the New Testament.

To the Christians the Jesus story is a happy ending, but to the Jews, a happy ending is not only unrealistic, but not good literature, and hardly believable, considering life as it is.

On the other hand, the Christian is 'lucky' in that he knows that no matter how bad things get on earth, if he follows Jesus and believes in Him with all his heart, he will live forever.

So here are the Jews, 15 million of us, and there are the Christians, a billion of them, and which do you think is the better book? Take your pick, a God of wrath and punishment, or a God of mercy, compassion, forgiveness and redemption?

It is a wonder the religious Jews choose, like Job, to debate with God and beat their breasts and submit to His Power� Glory and Wrath.

Perhaps the secular Jews have a better idea.