We have recently begun a study of the Book of Job. For the benefit of interpretation, the reader is offered knowledge, which the four main actors of the play are not given. We, as readers, know that God is behind Job’s troubles. He has afflicted him, according to the challenge made by one of Job’s enemies (called satan,[1] which means adversary, enemy, opponent). We don’t know who this character is, but his identity isn’t important to the plot of the play.[2] As we listen to the reaction of the actors, we come to understand that worldviews are in conflict. Job’s truth about life and God has been shattered. He realizes this and simply wants to die, because nothing makes any sense to him anymore. He is suffering beyond his strength to endure, actually cursing the day of his birth. Job believes that even never having been born would be better than this life.
His friends, on the other hand, begin to respond to Job’s outcries for mercy and comfort by reacting according to their worldview, as that pertains to God and why men suffer. They, in the person of Eliphaz, the first of Job’s friends to speak, believe Job has committed a secret sin, which has found him out, and he needs to repent. They contend: God disciplines the righteous, bringing them back to the correct way, but the wicked, those who refuse to repent of their evil ways, are judged to the death.
Eliphaz told Job earlier: “Wrath (H3708) kills the foolish man, and envy slays the silly one” (Job 5:2). It seems Job took offense with Eliphaz’ words at this point, because he takes Eliphaz’ word wrath (H3708) and repeats it in his reply. Job tells him: “Oh that my grief (H3708) was thoroughly weighed…” (Job 6:2). The KJV translates the word with grief at Job 6:2, but it is the same Hebrew word, no matter how the translators wish render it. Job is, in fact, replying to Eliphaz’ accusation that he is acting foolishly and silly (vis-à-vis Job original outcry in Job chapter three). If Job is a fool (Job 5:2), then his wrath (H3708) or grief (H3708) over how God is treating him will end in his death.
Job, however, takes exception to Eliphaz’ accusation. He tells his friends that he is not a fool. Rather, if God’s wrath (H3708) or Job’s grief (H3708) were weighed in the balances against his suffering, it would be found that those balances would tilt in Job’s favor. In other words, God is not treating Job according to his sins, nor has his complaints reached to the degree of his suffering, and Job insists that he doesn’t deserve how he’s being treated. If the Lord is behind what has occurred to Job, and if he isn’t disciplining Job for the sins he committed, why was God treating him this way? Nothing made sense. Job did hold the same worldview as his friends, but this understanding of God and life no longer works. Therefore, Job is confused, and sees only chaos in the wake of the collapse of his worldview. God isn’t making sense, and Job would rather die than live in a world that doesn’t make sense. If God were correcting Job, then Job would be able to understand that his suffering would end, but Job hadn’t done anything to deserve what had occurred to him. Thus, Job perceives a world that has become chaotic, where logic and worldviews fail. Job sees no hope of ever getting well again. If he couldn’t hope in the Almighty, Job would rather not exist.
___________________________________________________
[1] There is absolutely no proof for the character of Satan, the evil angel, as he is understood today. There is no record of an angelic rebellion in heaven, so, if we stick to the word of God, the text, and only the text, we must conclude that satan is a human adversary, and in our present context he is Job’s adversary. He is jealous and wants Job’s wealth. He may be the leader of either the Sabeans or the Chaldeans who attacked Job and confiscated his property (Job 1:15-17), but whether an ally or a disgruntled servant, a betrayal is at the source of Job’s calamities.
[2] While I do believe what occurs in the Book of Job is real, it is presented like a play, having seven main actors, God, satan, Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu, a character we will meet later. It also has a supporting cast of fifteen others with minor rolls, Job’s wife and his four servants who brought him the bad news, and his ten children. The reader is witness to what happens in the background between the Lord and satan, concerning which the other main characters of the drama know nothing. Knowing the background, the reader becomes a witness to the errors of the wrong worldviews held by Job’s friends and how God eventually changes the worldview of Job and, presumably, that of the others, as well.
Smoodock's Blog 