Was Job guilty of anything in this story? If we focus on the center of the book Job's friends spend much of their speeches giving supposed evidence of his guilt. Taken out of context, these speeches will make it appear that the book is pointing to Job's guilt, but when taken in the context of the whole piece, a case for Job's innocence and vindication can clearly be made. We have analysed all the other characters of the book, Job’s wife, the four friends, the satan, but they are mere dramatic foils in this story. The real story lies in the relationship between God and Job. In the next three chapters we will analyse this relationship as we look for meaning in Job’s suffering and in the struggle that God allowed to fall on Job.
In the beginning of the book, the narrator introduces Job by saying he was "blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil"(1:1). In 1:8 the Lord states that Job is "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." In 2:3 God again calls Job "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." Three times in the first two chapters the same description, in almost the same words is repeated. As a testament to who Job is, this repetition is important. At the beginning of the book, at least, this is a point that the author is trying to draw the attention of the reader to. Job is, apparently, a good man, approved of by God. The fact of who Job is is also the reason the satan challenges God for Job. If Job had been an evil man, one who was not blameless and upright, one who did not fear God and shun evil, the challenge for him would not even have come up. The satan tries to interfere with those who have relationships with God, as he did in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and as he tried to do with Jesus when he tempted him in the wilderness. Evil men have turned their backs on God and no longer have a relationship with him. Adam and Eve, Jesus, and Job all were close to God and the satan tried to break all of their relationships. He succeeded with Adam and Eve (Gen.3:1-10). He failed with Jesus (Mt.4:1-11, Mk. 1:12 & 13, Lk. 4:1-13). He also failed with Job. The satan can only have victory when he destroys relationships.
The satan's challenge says that Job is only doing what God says because of the rewards God gives him; the fine family, riches, high position among his peers and their respect, and robust health. The satan proposes that if all of these things are taken from Job, Job will curse God to his face (1:10 & 11). This is where the whole story’s plot resides. Did Job curse God to his face? After the first attack, Job says that since the Lord has given him all his material blessings, the Lord has the right to take them away (1:21).
After the second attack, his wife tells him to curse God and die. Job's reaction is to tells her that she is behaving as a foolish woman and to ask her if they can only accept good from God but not trouble. The narrator states that in all of this Job did not sin (2:9 and 10.) His integrity is maintained throughout the beginning narration. In Job's speeches, we hear him curse his life (7:15, 9:21, 10:1), his birth (3:3, 10:18 & 19), he complains of his anguish(3:25 & 26,6:2-5,7:3-14, 9:25-28, 16:6-16, 17:1, 2, & 17, 19:6-20, 22:2, 27:2, 30:1-23, 26, 31:2), questions God (7:17-21, 10:2-20, 13:20-25, 30:25), and he begs for death (10:19).
Through the whole story, he never curses God. When, in fact, God speaks to him out of the storm (chapters 38-41) and Job has a chance to speak to Him "face to face"(42:1-5), he repents in ashes (42:6). Of the charge of cursing God to His face, Job is clearly innocent. The friends seem to be shocked at the kinds of things Job has said about God and about the state he himself is in. Is this, then, something that brings Job into error? If you read his speeches carefully you find a man railing against his condition. Is this something that makes him guilty? Is he guilty of complaining perhaps? Is complaining a sin? Who, in the midst of suffering, does not complain about the situation? Does God punish people for complaining? Generations of people have been brought up to believe complaining is a sin and not allowed no matter how bad life gets. If this is the case, Moses would never have survived to lead the chosen people out of Israel. Jeremiah would have been dropped as a prophet. Many of the Psalms would not have been written. Very few of us are able to keep from crying out in the midst of suffering, even Jesus was not able to keep from asking His father to lift his suffering from Him (Mt. 26:29, Mk. 14:36, Lk. 22:42), and before He died He asked His father why (Mt. 27:46, Mk. 15:34). This is what Job does in the poetry of his speeches. He asks his God why he is being put through these trials. He seeks, as we all do, to find reasons for his suffering, but he never, once, curses God to his face.
Job's friends make the same mistake many people do when they are confronted with other people's suffering. They try to find out from Job what he did to deserve the suffering he is going through. The implicit accusation is that he must have sinned in some way or this wouldn't be happening to him. This is a limited understanding of the nature of suffering and will be dealt with later on in this study. Suffice it to say, we know, as observers, that Job is not suffering because of anything he did or didn't do. He isn't suffering for any sin of commission or omission. Rather, he is suffering because he is too good. Because of this, he has caught the satan's eye. He is suffering to enable God to prove a point to the satan (chapter 1 & 2).
In this way we can compare his suffering to that of Jesus. We know that Jesus suffered undeservedly. He was a truly innocent man. He suffered because he was innocent. I think it is the same for Job. This, too, I will address more fully when I speak to the subject of suffering.
The end of the story vindicates Job of wrongdoing. There are two actions showing this:
1) God restores all the things to Job that the satan has taken from him.
2) God says so.
Chapter 42:10-17 has the narrator telling us that all the things that have been taken away from Job are restored to him two-fold. He is not just blessed, but doubly blessed. This alone should be a good indication the Lord does not hold Job responsible for his own suffering. In chapter 42:7-8, the Lord says twice Job has spoken correctly about Him and his friends have not. Again, it seems this is an important fact because it is repeated. The Lord's own words vindicate Job at the beginning and the end of the story. This pattern of things happening at both the beginning of the story and at the ending help to point out their importance. The Lord's witness is the most important testimony in Job. He is the character that makes Job's innocence known to the reader. The words of Job's friends should not take priority over the words of the Lord.
The speech of the Lord (chapters 38-41) and Job's speech in 42 are another point of confusion for many people. The two speeches seem to contradict what the Lord says about Job speaking of Him correctly. Is it really a contradiction? God begins the speech asking who darkens his counsel (38:1.) It can be read as a condemnation of Job. In the context with the Lord's words in chapter 42 the verse can be a question to Job's friends. The next part of chapter 38, "with words without knowledge" can then be linked to 42 when the Lord speaks to Eliphaz "I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right." This can be understood to say the friends of Job have been interpreting God and His motives throughout the speeches incorrectly. They have darkened his council.
Job, however, has been asking questions of God. Eliphaz and his friends know who Job is and yet they still accuse him wrongly (8:4, 11:11-14,15:5-6, 22:5-9, 15, 34:7-9, 37, 35:17). Their vision of God says God rewards the righteous and punishes the evil doers. They hang onto this "knowledge" of God even when Job's predicament shows their understanding to be faulty. They force their view of Job to match their understanding even when their eyes and knowledge of Job betrays them. Job argues that if what they say is true then God has made a mistake where he is concerned. The friends have God all sewn up into a tight little box and they'll make the situation fit whether it does or not instead of trying to work through the inconsistencies they are witnessing. They're hanging on to old, worn out conceptions instead of trying to find a deeper knowledge of God by questioning their beliefs in the light of what they are experiencing. They are limiting God and God is letting them know this is unacceptable. They cannot limit what they do not understand. Job has more understanding of God in his questions than they do in all their "wisdom." God's speech is a condemnation of all those who would refuse to acknowledge their lack of understanding of Him. Job reacts to his situation saying in the light of what they believe about God, saying something is wrong. God is telling them that Job is right, what they believe about Him is incorrect.
Job was not suffering because he had sinned. Job was suffering so that God could prove a point to the satan. In the midst of his suffering he maintained his integrity and did not fall into error. At the end of the story God vindicates Job but accuses Job's friends of wrong teaching about him.
Job is just a man and no confusion should arise about him standing equal with Jesus in this paper. There are some similarities that can be drawn about them in a treatise about suffering and redemption themes that will be dealt with in the next chapter.