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Friday, February 22, 2019

Book of job: the unwritten message

The Bible is a library of umteen passages, written by authors from the ancient beats dealing with contrasting topics like creation, faith, suffering, glory. These and many more than ar scribbled al cardinal through out the texts and atomic number 18 divided into clusters c entirelyed the account phonograph records. The authors of these books came from different times and places. There are point views that additional chapters are added later on the original book has been finished.Having give tongue to these, one cannot be sure of the read origin of the stories, nor the message conveyed with in them. One of these books tackled on the idea of salutary penalisation, a very simple one yet with a hole of twists. It was a part of the bible that was read, reread, and tested from time to time. Scholars tried to provide the many double meanings undercoat in the book, as well as come up with their own ideas regarding it.The Book of business organization tells the story of a m an, commercial enterprise, who had everything that he could possibly dream of. He has a nice family, healthy health, material possessions, and a peaceful life all of which he thanked idol for. This was noticed by the devil, who in turn made a reckon with paragon saying that contemplate just now praises immortal because he has everything he would ever need, and that in times of calamity he would definitely depone divinity fudge. God agreed, and allowed Job to lose his possessions, his sons and daughters killed, his skin covered with boils, and his life altogether ruined, provided that Job would not be dead.After these tragedies, the book focused undermentioned on the debates Job had with his three fri fetch ups Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. These debates marked the first of several conversations found in the book. The run-ines were designed in such a route that Job reacted each one of them and tried to defend himself. In the end, God himself talked to Job, fetching p art in another(prenominal) speech portion which led to Gods answers. The story ended with God giving back Job his lost health and wealth. God withal ordered Jobs friends, who mis understand Jobs misfortunes, to ask him to pray for them.The Book of Job is a very controversial part of the Bible, since it deconstructs the logical belief on penalty that a just penalization is given to those who have sinned and the level of the punishment depends on how grave the committed sin is. But for punishment to be rendered to more or lessone like Job who in his whole life praised and idolise God for all the goodness He has given him and the prosperity he has acquired, surely, we whitethorn say that there is injustice.That is why there are many assumptions on why God allowed these to happen to Job. It whitethorn be to tolerantle to the devil that Job is really Gods man, or to fork out that God is really all violenceful and all righteous, or it may also be for the atonement of the sins th at Jobs sons had committed. These are baseless guesses and cant be really answered without reading and understanding the book as a whole.In the story, God responded to Jobs questions by a series of statements that could mean many things. His replies are intellectual, and may be interpreted in many ways and may take many points of view. In fact, the story itself may be seen in many ways. It all depends on who reads the text and how the said text is understood. The last chapters of the book doctor many things and answer a lot of questions that is reflected all throughout the book as well. To narrow it down, Gods reply can be found in chapters 38 to 41. The first verses from the said chapters may be analyzed in two ways.At a first glance, one can see Gods answers to Jobs questions as proof of His omnipotence and self righteousness. And the questions such as Where were you when I laid the foundations of the mankind? (Job 384), Have you seen the gates of death? (Job 3817) and Who pro vided food for the infantile? (Job 3841) that come out to have God as the only answer thus proves His confirmation of His omnipotence and self righteousness more. They can be interpreted as Gods way of proving to Job that though the causal agencys keister His actions may be uncertain to us humans, He, in contrast, as an almighty being is certain of them.Another possible explanation would be that of Gods attempt in providing proof that ideas such as that of parsimony and purpose exist purpose defined as being the reason given to everything that happens within the realm of God and providence as His way for intervention with everyday human life. And so, these assumptions suggest that there indeed is a purpose behind Jobs suffering.This purpose is also unembellished in evil which can be seen in Gods second speech to Job. God portrayed evil in the variety show of two fearsome beasts the behemoth and the leviathan. The behemoth was described as having grind away of brass and gris tles of iron (Job 4018). And that it could be found in the mountains take ox as if they were grass (Job 4015).On the other hand, the leviathan was depict as a beast that lives by the river and that it has skin so dangerous it would be questionable to pierce it with barbed irons and fish spears (Job 4031). The Bible had even more descriptions of this leviathan scattered in the Book of Isaiah, all pertaining to the beast as a possible manifestation of evil itself. Having said these, God made a point to Job that humans are indeed no match to these beasts and that nothing could bring them down overlook God Himself.In doing so, He admitted to have created these evils and He alone has the power to banish them (Job 4019). Therefore, God concluded in His second speech that the purpose of evil in this case, Jobs suffering, will be explained at the end of the world as He smites the beasts.God, in His remainder, only gave a hint of His side of the argument without actually producing a na me answer to Jobs many questions about his misfortunes. In this lack of explanation, a recover opened up for Job to question and criticize God. But instead, he still chose not to condemn God only if to worship Him even further. It seems that despite everything, he understood the existence of the hidden purpose in evil. He also came to realize that had judged God prematurely and without faith.By analyzing Gods response to Job, we can draw a number of conclusions as to what He wishes us to understand. One is the purpose in evil, which was discussed in the previous(prenominal) paragraphs. Another is the presumptuousness of mankind. God may want to show that humans think that they know all. But by asking questions such as Do you observe the calving of deer? Can you hunt the eat for the lions? (Job 391), He can easily mock this said senior high school intelligence of humans probably hoping that instances as such may contribute humility. Also, in the debate between Job and his friend s, we can see another pitfall in human perspective, which is the hasty judgment of suffering as the end result of wrongdoing. It was stated in the book that his friends even asked Job to repent for sins that he didnt commit.This is because we tend to see a misfortune merely as a retribution for offense. In line with this thinking, we automatically assume that there is a need for repentance, and that it is the only way to redeem ourselves and be given back what we lost through misconduct. The next conclusion is the mentioned existence of the end of time where unanswerable questions will be answered. It is also in this said time that God will frame an end to the evil He has created. Finally, the statements made by God reveals a kind of test for us humanity Will we condemn God so that we can justify ourselves?The Book of Job may seem controversial, but God in the end provided some sort of answers which to some may be incomplete. The way to view this book may differ from time to tim e, from reader to reader and from place to place. We really cant put our finger on what the final message is but I weigh that the conclusions drawn above are enough for now. Summarizing the whole paper, we humans seem to have a certain fear against punishment, and quickly tie it with some sin or some failures. The Book of Job awakens us that the reasons for punishment come in different forms, and as long as we are certain of our faith, we must not judge and condemn anyone, for that matter, prematurely.Works CitedThe brand-new Oxford Annotated BibleBook of Job Chapters 1-31 38-42

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