Study 3 : Job 12 - 14 Job states his case.
Chapter 12 - after all his ‘friends’ have stated their
cases and he has answered them Job makes a major statement in these 3 chapters
of how he views the situation. Much of what he says could be regarded as very
pessimistic as he expresses his, quite natural, unhappiness at what has
happened to him and his family. But I think we are expected to learn several
things from his experiences and what he says, so we will try to make the most
of it!
To repeat yet again what was said in the introduction to
the first study: behind all the arguments of the 3 friends is what we are
calling a CEP, a cause-effect principle, operating in moral theology. They are
all, his friends and Job, saying that everything that happens to a person has a
moral cause hidden behind it. In essence: good things happen to good people;
bad things happen to bad people. From that starting point his ‘friends’ have
deduced that however much Job may protest otherwise he is not a good person
because bad things have happened to him! This theology is still around both
inside and outside the church. It appears every time someone says “he didn’t
deserve that!” or “God’s not fair!”. In these chapters Job begins to understand
and to argue that the world does not work that way. Life is just not as simple
as that.
Question: Here is a question about those verses. What does
Job really mean by what he says here? How would you describe his attitude
expressed in these words?
Answer: Job is being very sarcastic. You have to be quite
a clever person to be as sarcastic as this! He is clearly quite fed up with the
way his so-called friends are treating him. He knows, as we know from having
read the first 2 chapters of this book, that he is not guilty of serious sin;
his experiences are not a reflection of who he is or what he has done; he is
not being punished in any way for misdeeds he may have committed. What has
happened is part of the NCL, the normal chaos of life.
Job is still being sarcastic through the rest of the
chapter – the animals are wise, wiser than his friends, God treats the high and
mighty, people like his friends, just the same as everyone else, nations rise
and fall as God decrees. And we suddenly realise that, in being sarcastic, Job
has actually moved forward to understand that life is chaotic, the NCL does
happen, that is the way the world works.
The next step that he takes in the next chapter is to
start arguing that he wants to appear before God in a court of law to argue his
case. Job 13:1–19.
Job is starting to be a great deal more positive. I am no
expert on the stages of grief but I think this might be regarded as a good sign
– he is starting to think more forcefully and in it all he is still declaring
his faith. He said ‘though he slay me, yet will I hope in him’. Well done Job –
that sounds good.
He continues in much the same way in the remainder of the
chapter – Job 13:20-28.
But it proves to be a false dawn. In the next few verses,
14:1–6, he slides back into despair. He wants God to leave him alone.
But then, equally suddenly, he thinks of a metaphor for
his existence in 14: 7 – 9. READ. If a tree is cut down it is not finished – it
will send out new buds, it will sprout again. It won’t grow to be the same tree
it might have been before, but it will grow, more plant like, less tree like,
but still alive and still valuable. There is something we call hope.
And yet again he changes direction in 14: 10 – 22. READ. He
goes backwards and forwards. Humans die and that is the end of them unlike a
tree. But perhaps that is a good thing because his sin, supposing that that is
the problem after all, will be covered over. No – perhaps it isn’t because the
Lord God destroys hope the way a stream in flood wll destroy the surrounding
ground.
Make up your mind, Job. Which way is it?
It would be easy to get fed up with Job in his swinging
backwards and forward
