Why We Suffer: Diving into the Book of Job
Millennia before I sat down to try to tackle the question of why bad things happen to good people, another had set out to do the same thing. Drawing on traditional wisdom and using it as a framework for his own argument, the author of the Book of Job created a foundation that a host of others and I would stand on many years later. As is often the case, the author didn’t leave any easy answers. Many who walk away from reading Job are left with more questions. And that’s largely because the author wanted to force his readers to reach their own conclusions.
While the author of Job does help lead his readers to an ideal answer, he doesn’t simply dole it out. He wants those who read his work to really think it through and contemplate what he’s saying. Because his work isn’t simply trying to address a question, the question of theodicy: if there is an all-loving God, why does evil exist? His work is also an argument against traditional wisdom, and if he’s truly going to get his readers to reject those ideas they grew up with, he’s going to need them to come to that conclusion on their own.
This is why the book of Job is so difficult and so often glossed over. Many of us know the traditional story of Job, a man of the utmost righteousness, who, even though he did no wrong, suffered immensely. Yet, even though this story is so well known, the heart of the work is often ignored. That traditional story, that outside story, is only a frame for the truth Job is trying to portray and merely serves to set up the actual narrative.
More than that, though, that traditional story, that prologue, is the manner that the author of Job is using in order to question conventional wisdom. He’s using it to say, Hey, here’s the story of Job, who we all know is without blame. And yet, the impossible happened. An innocent man is suffering. This sets the stage for the dialogue between Job and his friends, in which they repeatedly argue that Job must have done something wrong to deserve what was happening to him.
Job’s friends are the voices of traditional wisdom. While they attempt to console Job, they also continue their accusations that Job did something wrong. The prologue here provides a bit of dramatic irony, as we, the reader, know that Job is guiltless, and yet he is still suffering. We know something that Job’s friends don’t. But the truth that we know, that Job is innocent, would have been unimaginable according to the conventional wisdom of that day.
The idea that suffering was tied to divine punishment was so strong that one could even imagine Job having made the same accusations against his friends if the roles were reversed. But what the author of Job wants to make very clear is that Job is not guilty. He’s a good person who is going through bad things.
Eventually, the accusations that Job’s friends are making, that he’s sinned or is guilty of something, become offensive to Job. And I think we can imagine that the same idea, that we deserve all the bad that happens to us, that we are responsible for the evil that befalls us, was offensive to the author of Job, as it should be.
What the author of Job is trying to tell us is that no, we don’t always deserve the bad that happens. Sometimes, innocent people do suffer, and we need to come to terms with that. Instead of relying on conventional wisdom, we need to reach a different understanding. And unlike Job’s friends, who just keep piling on him, we need to give people some support.
For the author of Job, that different understanding goes back to creation and how God creates. Job, in his fiery discourse, briefly hits on this idea. In Job 9:5-8, a frustrated Job declares that God creates by undoing order, by bringing forth chaos. Job says this as an accusation against God, almost as a condemnation, but within his anger, there is some truth.
This view that Job spits forth is taken up in the divine speeches (Job 38:1-42:7). It is here that God makes himself known. God also reveals something about himself. For the entire time that Job is lamenting about the wrongs done to him, while he is making accusations against God, while he is questioning God, God is there. God listens and allows Job to express his anger and frustration.
It is only after Job has made his view heard that God enters the fold. However, when God meets Job, it’s not to directly answer Job’s questions about why he is suffering, or even to address the issues that led to this point in the narrative. The truth that Job has to learn, that we have to learn, is much more. It’s complicated. And for us to really come to a realization of what that truth is, we have to come to our own conclusion. Sure, we will be helped along the way, but the conclusion is nevertheless ours to make.
In these divine speeches, rather than answering the questions Job has posed, God asks a series of questions himself. The questions God poses stun Job to the point of silence. They begin a transformation in Job, making him more humble and patient.
The questions God asks show where Job stands in the grand scheme of things. Each and every human is just a small cog in a much larger machine. In Job 38:4, when God asks Job where he was when God laid the foundation of the earth, Job can’t answer. In Job 39:1, when God asks whether Job knows when mountain goats give birth, the answer must be no. And in Job 41:1, when God asks Job if he can draw out the mythical Leviathan with a fishhook, Job can only answer in the negative.
But this isn’t God simply puffing out his chest. God admits that there are limitations even to his power. When speaking of the Leviathan in Job 41, God struggles to battle the beast. But this isn’t just some mythological battle; it represents so much more. Leviathan is a symbol of chaos, and God tells Job that even he has difficulty keeping it in check.
The point that is being hammered home is that there are limitations. Humans are created with limitations. We are finite beings that are part of a much larger picture. Because of this, many things are beyond our understanding. And while God supersedes these limitations, even he has limitations.
As we’ve discussed in a previous article, the limitation on God is self-imposed. For creation to occur and for humans to exist, God had to limit Himself. God is committed to human freedom and will not compromise that freedom. A freedom that allows us to choose between good and evil.
It is not just for human freedom that God limits Himself. It is for all of creation. God allows his creation to become what it was created to be. At the same time, creation is interconnected and dynamic. Because of this, there is a potential risk. There is also the potential for much more.
With creation being dynamic, as well as interconnected, there is a sense of creation being a continual ordeal; a long-term project. So again, we see that potential for risk and a sense of chaos. This chaos allows God and creation, such as humans, to be creative.
In the end, the answer that Job, as well as the reader, is led to is that suffering is simply a part of creation. To understand suffering, one must also understand the nature of creation. For creation to be a long-term project, and for humans and God to be creative, there must be a level of chaos in creation. This chaos, or we could say disorder, leads to the potential for suffering. Creation is not risk-free; it can be dangerous.
But for some level of chaos, which is the potential for creativity, to be maintained, God must take a step back. And we must remember that this chaos is part of creation as well and, by default, is good.
This explanation, this realization that Job comes to, is not an easy answer. The idea that suffering is just a by-product of creation kind of sucks. People want to believe that there is a reason, some purpose behind the evil that happens. According to Job, though, there isn’t always some grand reason. Sometimes, bad things simply happen because that is how creation works.
In reaching this conclusion, Job makes a number of trade-offs. But possibly the largest trade-off is seeing God as not all-powerful, as one who has limitations. Instead of an all-powerful God, Job accepts a God who is all good.
The Book of Job then does something else that is important. It gives a new perspective regarding God. Comparing the God that we see in the prologue to the God that we see in the divine speeches, there is clearly a difference. This could very well suggest that human perception of God does change. Instead of a God who is all-powerful, we see a God who is good yet limited.
This perception of God is also loving. The divine speeches begin in a manner that Job claims would never happen: God meeting with Job in a fair argument. The very fact that God would do such a thing suggests that God was always there, listening. It portrays a God who loves Job and wants to be known to Job. God is not some distant figure who does not care, but one who is right there.
Moreover, though, God is willing to listen and encourages questioning. God does provide a response to Job. It may not be the response Job wanted, but his questioning is vindicated by God’s response at all. The author supports this even more, though, by challenging the conventional wisdom of their time and writing his work. In two ways, then, the reader is encouraged to question one’s traditions and beliefs. And even if we do not reach the conclusion we want or find the response we were looking for, it is still worth the effort.
