Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2016-04-25 05:50 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2016-04-25 05:50 pm
[ SECRET POST #3400 ]
⌈ Secret Post #3400 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
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02.
[The Secret of Crickley Hall]
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03.
[Longmire]
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04.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiKj0Z_Xnjc]
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05.
[Great British Bake Off]
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06.
[The West Wing]
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07.
[Kim Possible]
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08.
(Free! Iwabi Swim Club)
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09.
[Hyper Light Drifter]
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10.
[Sword of Truth]
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11.
[Count Cain/Godchild and Kuroshitsji]
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12.
[Discworld]
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13.
[assassination classroom]
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14.
[Monster Pop!]
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15.
["Magical Diary: Horse Hall" and "Harry Potter”]
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16.
[Silmarillion]
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17.
[Once Upon a Time]
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 084 secrets from Secret Submission Post #486.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: Unwarranted criticism
So, uh, I would have liked more elaboration on Satan waltzing up to heavenly court and why anyone listens to him? There. GO. DEFEND YOUR BOOK.
Re: Unwarranted criticism
Re: Unwarranted criticism
Later people didn't like that, so they added the Satan bit to restore the role of man's moral judgement to the story. In the new story, Job truly was righteous, and his faith was merely being tested by God in order to prove a point to the devil.
THE BOOK OF JOB IS GREAT
-the traditional Jewish reading: "this is what happens to Gentiles"
-the traditional Christian one: "this is what the world was like before Jesus"
-the semi-secular one: "wow, God is crazy and kind of a jerk and hangs out with Satan and this book is unrelentingly depressing"
But here's what you have to understand about the Book of Job--it's part of a series. It comes in after books and books establishing two things, which are:
1) The Deuteronomic model of theology/history which, in grossly simple terms, states that good deeds are rewarded and bad deeds are punished. This is a bigger deal than it sounds like, because it establishes several revolutionary tenants: that bad shit happening is still God being a part of your life, that there is only one God and he cannot EVER be ousted, that you can FIX bad shit happening in your life by being a good dude, and most importantly:
2) God cares about you. Yes, you. The single dude. Not the village, the priest, the temple, the worship, the city, the army, the king. You.
But here's the thing: the traditional Deuteronomic understanding of divine justice offers pretty cold comfort for the suffering. If good deeds are rewarded and bad ones are punished and that's the whole system, then sure, the suffering have the option to repent and patch things up with God, but in the interim, their misery is their fault. Which sucks, and isn't fair because this is the world and bad things happen to good people, and actually presents a really sticky moral quandary. If I believe in Deuteronomic justice and I'm a doctor, am I morally in the clear if I help you with your broken arm? Isn't your broken arm technically a result of your, your father's, etc., bad deeds, and God's will, and therefore not for me to fix?
Yeah, it's a real problematic system.
But when Job opens, that Deuteronomic system of justice would appear to be functioning perfectly. Job is a model citizen, a kind and pious man, and his standing in life reflects that. God has rewarded him, just like he's supposed to.
And then, of course, the system breaks down spectacularly. It's not pretty, and from the reader's perspective it's remarkably unfair--God is ruining an innocent man's life for no discernible reason. (FOR THE RECORD, the "Satan" God is playing dice with in the book is not your horned king of hell--he won't appear for a while yet. This is a guy named Ha-Satan--the adversary. He's a wily son of a bitch, and you'll notice that he vanishes from the narrative pretty quickly, as human agents take over and play his blame games for him. That's not cuz the devil snuck into their head, btw. It's cuz they're humans.)
From Job's perspective, it’s certainly not fair, but it's also recognizable--Job lives in the real world, and he knows that good people can suffer without inviting it. His "pious" friends, the ones who so willingly take on Ha-Satan's roll as The Accuser,maybe less so, but Job is wiser than they are. (For those who don't remember/haven't read: many of Job's friends and neighbors blame him for his trials, refuse to help him, counsel him to reject God, etc.)
If the brilliance of Jewish monotheism is allowing an unsevered relationship with God even when things are profoundly bad (in fact, God is likely just holding up his end of the covenant--if bad shit is happening that means God is still involved in your life to make it happen, yo!), then the brilliance of Job is reminding you how that works in the real world. It's not "the Lord works in mysterious ways," so much as the acknowledgement, by the humans both in the story and those composing it, that God is frequency beyond comprehension.
The Lord works. The rest of it doesn’t really concern you.
In fact, in the whirlwind speech, God objects to the notion that Job or anyone could fully understand the inner workings of his justice—it isn't his place to know or to do what God does. And by the way, God showing up for that whirlwind is amazing in and of itself--a single man calls God and says "I'm taking you to task, old man," and the master of the moving universe, the arbiter of all history and time, shows up to dress him down and tell him how misguided he is.
The book seems to say that divine, Godly "justice" as it is conceived by people living in a single moment, or even by people at all, is not necessarily comprehensive or correct. It isn't people's job to know what God is doing, which events are the result of which act of sin or righteousness. Such speculation doesn't make them any closer to God and, as Job's deeply unhelpful and eventually even cruel friends clearly prove, it's an unproductive project that doesn't foster kindness or justice, which is what people should be striving for.
Job is a book about the world as it is. It's a book about, to paraphrase Graham Greene, "the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God" (of which, Mr. Greene reminds us, we cannot conceive).
It's not a book about God not caring much for human life--and no, it's not a book about how cuddly God is, either. It's far more complex, and in that way, real and authentic and reassuring. God may scoff at the notion that Job can play lawyer in a divine courtroom, but he shows up to the conversation.
Re: THE BOOK OF JOB IS GREAT
I have never thought this deeply about Job. I think it's really cool that you've analyzed it like this.
Re: THE BOOK OF JOB IS GREAT
--Mac
Re: THE BOOK OF JOB IS GREAT
(Anonymous) 2016-04-26 09:26 am (UTC)(link)