Job Reflection

In the book of Job, God presents Job as his righteous and faithful servant, but Satan challenges God’s judgment. Satan believes Job is loyal to God only because God blesses and protects him. Satan is confident that Job will turn his back on God if God stops protecting him. However, since God has faith in Job, He tells Satan to do his worst, but he cannot kill Job. It is significant that Job is not privy to this conversation between Satan and God and therefore is unaware that Satan, not God, is the one testing him. When Satan takes over, he begins attacking Job’s earthly possessions, his family, and his health. As Job tries to make sense of his sudden losses in light of his supposed innocence, he is forced to face the advice and sometimes

Satan continues his assault on Job and kills all of his servants and his children, by causing a gale-force wind to level their house during a feast. Job’s initial response to these horrific events is not to curse God, but shave his head, fall naked on knees, and praise the Lord, saying “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). Even after Job fosters infectious boils on his body and becomes severely ill, he never blames God for his misfortune but continues his faithfulness. Job’s wife does not have the same faith as Job, she tells him to “curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). Thus, Job has no one to console him until his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, come to see him. Although Job is unrecognizable to them, he begins to try to explain his grief, as he curses the day he is born. Since his friends are known to be wise, Job welcomes their consolation in the hope that he might come to understand what has happened in his

He is quiet and listens intently to the advisers, but his opinion differs from the others. Elihu believes “it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding” (Job 32:8). He tells Job he should be ashamed of himself for justifying himself in front of the Lord. Job’s three friends also receive Elihu’s wrath, since they did not solve Job’s problem, but treats him cruelly. Elihu believes suffering is a form of God’s love to “turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride” (Job 33:17). Furthermore, Elihu assaults Job’s claim that God denies him justice because “It is unthinkable that God would do wrong that the Almighty would pervert justice” (Job 34:12). He then disputes Job’s claim that God owes him something because he is righteous. He concludes his speech by focusing on God, and then claims, “the Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. Therefore, people revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?” (Job 37:23-24). Job is left to ponder the words of Elihu when God rains down in a cloud of righteousness to confront Job. God does not offer any sympathy or explanations to Job. Instead God presents Job with the question “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand?” (Job 38:4). God continues asking Job multiple rhetorical