Bewildered and Bewilderning Job

Satan: “What do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He'd curse you right to your face, that's what.”
God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead -- do what you want with all that is his. Just don't hurt him.” From Job 1

The gloves come off. When natural evil occurs, if God, who should know it’s coming down the pike, does nothing to prevent it, then an all-powerful God cannot be considered “good.” If God is all-good but cannot stop evil, then God is not all-powerful. Neither concept fits our classical concepts of “God.”

Job knew this contradiction in his own family and body. The Bill Gates + Mother Teresa of his day, Job had it all, and he was good. He was unique in these respects. Got it?

Before you read further, read the first two chapters of Job (I’ll wait while you do; http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%201-2&version=MSG has it.). Now that you have read these chapters, notice something really strange? Without telling Job about it, God and The Satan have a conversation which ends up with God entering into – not one, but two – barroom bets with The Satan.

(When I say, “The Satan,” this is the direct Hebrew translation. Not at all the Devil of the Christian Scriptures, “The Satan” is on God’s payroll, with a job description similar to an FBI sting operator.)
Back to the bets. God wagers with The Satan that Job is so good that no matter what sting operation he pitches to Job, Job’s faith and goodness will never waver.

This happens twice…

Now wait just a minute! Think about what you’ve just read. Here’s the wonderful, great and good God you may worship, love and pray to, the One we tout to our children as trustworthy and good, allowing one of His employees to throw his full bag of dirty tricks at Job. Cattle and livestock die. Shepherds die. Job’s children die. All for the sake of some capricious bet on God’s part, who, by definition, shouldn’t have to bet because He knows everything.

God places dice, and people die. Is there anything right about this picture?

Nothing is right in this picture depicted in Job. Who needs a God like this? Who would tell this story as a bedtime story to children? (And the moral of this story, little Johnny, is you cannot trust God not to throw a little evil your way for no good reason.)

Through it all, Job suffers mightily, but not in silence. There is no “patience of Job” in the book of Job. He demands what lawyers call certiori, or legal standing at a court of law. He wants to bring his case into God’s court and bring God’s motives and actions to trial. Job demands accountability, and answers from God: “What were You thinking when You made those bets?”

Job refuses to listen to his so-called friends – who still populate religious circles today – who explain Job’s problems with insipid pabulum. And in the end, God does not answer Job, but only throws him off-balance with questions that have nothing to do with Job’s questions.

Here’s the sports commentator: “God fakes! God punts! God wins!”

What is at stake here? Job, you and me – learning about God from childhood as the supremely moral and good God worthy of worship, and putting goodness into practice every time that we can – turn out to be more moral than God.

That troubles the hell out of me. You?