All Suffering is Sacred

There is an interesting note about the Satan character in the OT Book of Job. It is not yet the devil as we think it (ie. antichrist) but an agent of the sons of God, a kind of spy or overseer. Note: God starts the action (v. 8): Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?

By the time we get to the 29th chapter: Job has lost his property, his children, his health and now resides on an ash heap.

Job’s wife says to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job reproves her in saying, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

He is then visited by friends who begin in silence and then give counsel. His friends are so certain of their own theology that they are increasingly unable to hear Job’s pain, to see the depth of his wounds, and to accept what his experience presents to their traditions.

Job tries to absorb what happened to him and to be understood. He reflects on how he imagined how his whole life was “supposed” to play out – only to realize his error and exercise in fantasy.

“…Then I thought, “I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand, my roots spread out to the waters…” 

Job’s faith and religion positioned him to believe all would remain good in his life: “Because I delivered the poor who cried and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.”

Job’s theology of retribution (Good behavior yields divine blessings and bad behavior provokes divine punishment) that had supported his life collapses, so he asks why this is happening to him.

Then, there is the fourth character, young Elihu who rebukes Job’s friend. Elihu is long-winded and sometimes arrogant but attentive to Job, and he encourages an intimate, personal relationship with God.

“But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beast of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?” (35:10)

Elihu also proposes that Job wait, in a language that does not deny his pain and suffering but gives tragedy a way to speak to God.

In the end, Job meets God face-to-face and can now see beyond the limits of his suffering. He no longer needs to argue it out. His integrity remains intact. Job is faithful to his experience. Job has moved through his suffering and his world is now different: family, feasting, praying, and the larger community.

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The Book of Job falls under the category of Wisdom literature and written almost entirely in poetic form. Scholars believe it to be written in the seventh century B.C. after the Babylon exile serving as an allusion to Israel’s loss and suffering – told in the one character of Job.

To hear Job’s voice, who cries out, is:

to know our own suffering and to open us to caring for the suffering of others, …

To which, I am no different.

My life has been fortunate but like everyone else, I have experienced generosity as well as loss, injustice, suffering, and redemption. I allow myself to feel its effects while not wishing to exaggerate nor hide it from other people. I will honor it. It is my way of moving through and letting go. Always asking God to enlighten me on what I am to learn. In due time, …Wisdom and Understanding come.

I do believe evil exists but avoid crediting God for the good and Satan for the bad. It is just simply too easy to rationalize life and God in this way. It is too easy to be wrong and no benefit in being right. The point in the story where the Lord begins to answer Job is quite chilling:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell me if you have an understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or, who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning star sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

“Absolute Truth” is not subservient nor does it conform to my conclusions, or anyone else. I am constantly seeking the “Why? to this life but at the same time content with the unknowing tension of “Mystery.” As if I had a choice.

I remain naïve to the good I believe is at the core and desire of every human life. And if I am to err, I choose to err on the side of “good.”

Reflection: What does your experience tell you about the divine-human relationship in overcoming evil in this life?

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The featured image is a simple doodle using a piece of custom art personally crafted from a Japanese technique called Sumagashi. The outcome had a bit of a “sinister” look.