[job] divine vending machine
Jan. 4th, 2023 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
svnsettiasince my first bible study entry, i learned when you read the bible for the first time, you need to accept that you won't understand most of it. none of the bible makes sense unless you read all of it, because everything happens in the context of everything else.
after finishing the book of job, my sister and i were confused and bummed out: how could god let such a blameless and upright man be tortured for so long, just so god can win a bet against satan? my sister found a video about it on youtube and sent it to me, and that's when we properly realized that the bible is way too advanced for normal people to read on their own. here are the sources i'm writing about in this entry:
you can watch these videos without reading job! they're easy to follow and they don't assume that you've read or understood job.
i already wrote about god's righteousness compared to human righteousness here, and this entry builds on that. a major theme in the book of job is humans trying to understand why god runs the universe the way he does. humans try to figure out the rules that he follows, so we can crack the code and make sense of things like suffering. it's complex though, and god has a universal vantage point. he understands so much more than we do. job's perspective is limited to his own tiny life, and only god is qualified to run the universe. we don't have the perspective to make assumptions about how god ought to do things.
the videos by bibleproject have been valuable to me, and they've been helping me understand genesis as well as i continue reading it. the reason why job suffered is never revealed because the point of job isn't to tell us why suffering exists. job and his three friends assumed that god runs the universe according to their own human definition of justice (an eye for an eye / the punishment must perfectly suit the crime), and job's friends continuously try to figure out what horrible sin job committed to earn a punishment as horrible as the one he got. we learn from job's fourth friend that god doesn't just inflict suffering as a punishment for a bad deed. sometimes suffering is a warning or a tactic to foster character development.
the book of job explained is the video my sister sent me, and it's the first one i watched. it's different than the bibleproject videos because it claims that we do know the reason that job suffered, and that it was a warning, not a punishment. the part that stuck with me the most is that when we stop walking with god, god lets us. we can choose whether to walk with him, and if we don't, we deal with the consequences of walking our own path. if we decide that we want to follow god, he forgives us and welcomes us back with open arms. job may seem blameless and upright, but his motivation was corrupt: he worshipped god and did good deeds because he wanted blessings in return. he didn't do it because he loved god and because he wanted to make the world a better place. job didn't want a relationship with god, so god didn't force job to follow him (thus, not protecting him from evil). job spoke about god for a long time, but when he finally spoke to god, god appeared. in the end, god rescued job from his choices and taught him the proper way to form a relationship with god, instead of just seeing him as the guy who rewards you for your good deeds and punishes you for your bad deeds. job's wealth is restored in the end not as a reward for doing god, but as a gift from god because god loves job.
the concept of speaking against god is very interesting to me.. job spoke rightly about god, but job's friends did not. but job talked smack about god, and job's friends did not! it's not a sin to question god, or even to talk bad about him, if those are our honest thoughts. it's worse to lie to god and to force ourselves to follow something we don't believe in, or to fear that our faith will waver when we start asking questions. it is right and just to question god if we involve him in the process and do it through prayer. even jesus seemingly spoke against god when he said "my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?"
after finishing the book of job, my sister and i were confused and bummed out: how could god let such a blameless and upright man be tortured for so long, just so god can win a bet against satan? my sister found a video about it on youtube and sent it to me, and that's when we properly realized that the bible is way too advanced for normal people to read on their own. here are the sources i'm writing about in this entry:
video: the book of job explained
videos by bibleproject: overview: job; the book of job;
website: what does job 2:10 mean?
videos by bibleproject: overview: job; the book of job;
website: what does job 2:10 mean?
you can watch these videos without reading job! they're easy to follow and they don't assume that you've read or understood job.
i already wrote about god's righteousness compared to human righteousness here, and this entry builds on that. a major theme in the book of job is humans trying to understand why god runs the universe the way he does. humans try to figure out the rules that he follows, so we can crack the code and make sense of things like suffering. it's complex though, and god has a universal vantage point. he understands so much more than we do. job's perspective is limited to his own tiny life, and only god is qualified to run the universe. we don't have the perspective to make assumptions about how god ought to do things.
the videos by bibleproject have been valuable to me, and they've been helping me understand genesis as well as i continue reading it. the reason why job suffered is never revealed because the point of job isn't to tell us why suffering exists. job and his three friends assumed that god runs the universe according to their own human definition of justice (an eye for an eye / the punishment must perfectly suit the crime), and job's friends continuously try to figure out what horrible sin job committed to earn a punishment as horrible as the one he got. we learn from job's fourth friend that god doesn't just inflict suffering as a punishment for a bad deed. sometimes suffering is a warning or a tactic to foster character development.
the book of job explained is the video my sister sent me, and it's the first one i watched. it's different than the bibleproject videos because it claims that we do know the reason that job suffered, and that it was a warning, not a punishment. the part that stuck with me the most is that when we stop walking with god, god lets us. we can choose whether to walk with him, and if we don't, we deal with the consequences of walking our own path. if we decide that we want to follow god, he forgives us and welcomes us back with open arms. job may seem blameless and upright, but his motivation was corrupt: he worshipped god and did good deeds because he wanted blessings in return. he didn't do it because he loved god and because he wanted to make the world a better place. job didn't want a relationship with god, so god didn't force job to follow him (thus, not protecting him from evil). job spoke about god for a long time, but when he finally spoke to god, god appeared. in the end, god rescued job from his choices and taught him the proper way to form a relationship with god, instead of just seeing him as the guy who rewards you for your good deeds and punishes you for your bad deeds. job's wealth is restored in the end not as a reward for doing god, but as a gift from god because god loves job.
the concept of speaking against god is very interesting to me.. job spoke rightly about god, but job's friends did not. but job talked smack about god, and job's friends did not! it's not a sin to question god, or even to talk bad about him, if those are our honest thoughts. it's worse to lie to god and to force ourselves to follow something we don't believe in, or to fear that our faith will waver when we start asking questions. it is right and just to question god if we involve him in the process and do it through prayer. even jesus seemingly spoke against god when he said "my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?"