The Book of Job

[liralen]

I was really, really tired last night, and it felt so good to just sit and watch Cardcaptor Sakura with Jet at home. But, at 6:30, we stopped watching and I took him over to the neighbor's house and I dragged myself to the church for my Bible class.

I did it because it was the book of Job.

I've always loved the book of Job. All the contradictions, the arguments, the ignoring each other process of arguing, the young speaking more wisdom than the old, and finally the beautiful passage of God side-stepping Job's original questions and asking a few of his own. I've never seen it as just an example of God gaming with people's lives, and it was cool to realize that the beginning and ending were written at a different time than the poetry of the central stuff. I've loved that the friends that constantly say Job had to have done something wrong because he's afflicted have to have Job intercede for their transgressions with God, because what they've said was far more sinful than anything Job said or did.

I loved it as a direct refutation of all those people who say, "XYZ had it coming to them, because they did OPQ."

But there's more! *laughter* The class was really fun as I got to see a lot more in the book than I would have, normally, and there were some excellent quotes from the editor of the Good News Bible. I've always had a problem that when someone comes to me with a story of affliction I want to FIX it. Or, more insidiously, fix the *person*. Guilty, me. But now I really see why it's something that is really not useful. And, perhaps, the Book of Job is about just being there, listening, not judging or fixing, but just letting someone know that the relationship is there. As God lets Job see him right there and just interacts with him.

There are other interpretations, too.

And I just am ridiculously in love with the various bits of language throughout.

I'll admit, that this time through, Job's emphasis on needing and just wanting compassion rather than anything else really hit home.

What was really interesting was that I spent a chunk of today reading Tsubasa and there's this point where Syaoran-kun learns a lot about Kurogane-san's really painful past, and Kurogane-san tells Syaoran-kun that just because he knows it doesn't mean he has to carry the weight of Kurogane-san's wounds. And I was like, "Aaaaahhhh!!! NOW I get it."

It all mixes together. Gonna be interesting compost to grow my stories from...

Comments

[rephetibel.livejournal.com]

Isn't it in Job that God says, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world while all the stars of the morning were singing?"

I've always loved that image.

Declare

[amberley.livejournal.com]

"Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if thou hast understanding." -- Job 38:4

Re: Declare

[rephetibel.livejournal.com]

Is that the King James version? The language is so beautiful.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... yeah... I love the cycle of water in that same passage. :-)

Job 38: 4-11
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,
Who set its measurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the line on it?
“On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who enclosed the sea with doors
When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb;
When I made a cloud its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,
And I placed boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
And here shall your proud waves stop’?

[tagryn]

Rabbi Harold Kushner's "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" is my favorite work on Job; despite the self-help title, its actually a good balance of theology and accessible writing as he walks through the Book of Job. Kushner's interpretation of what God said, as well as God's relating his struggle with Leviathan (which Kushner interprets as the forces of chaos), boils down to "If you think running the universe is so easy, Job, *you* try it!"

Kushner's perspective doesn't mesh too well with belief in an omnipotent God, and Kushner does discuss that as well in the book.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

That book was discussed during the class, too, that it was something related to all this and to the study of this book, too.

Very keen.

[rephetibel.livejournal.com]

Yes! Wonderful imagery.

Do you know if your bible study group made up its own program or if it uses one of the many published ones? If it's a published one, could you tell me which one it is?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It's a published one. It's the Disciples study guide, I think it's titled "Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study".

published by Abingdon.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

I've always loved the Book of Job, as well. There are some passages in there that put me in awareness of the connectedness of all things, and beautifully at that.
"Who prepares for the raven its food
When its own young ones cry to God for help?"

[liralen.livejournal.com]

MMmmmm... yes!! All those big things and little things, and all the connections... it's very cool.