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[alpharaposa]

• 06:32 Dangit, I'm awake. #
• 06:55 In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. - Job 42:15 #
• 09:49 Brr. There was frost on the grass this morning! #
• 10:01 Things Mr. Welsh Can't Do in an RPG: bit.ly/4pwSxP #

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Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

Y'know, Job sounds like the greatest guy in the world -- beyond his time, even, in his treatment of others. No wonder there was a contest over his loyalty. Which, I note, did not waver -- rather, he chose to cry out his grief and ask why he was selected for such a test, and got upbraided for being honest but not supremely wise. It speaks to either the disconnect between God and Mankind at that time, or the nature of Hebraic faith, that compassion is expressed primarily in terms of "it's good for you and I know better than you, so you have no complaint." And only after Job realizes that he's not getting -- nor going to get -- any sympathy for what is essentially a series of bad circumstances that any human would see as fine cause for grief, and then shrugs and says God must know what He's doing, does anything get better. Job decides that since he has nothing, he might as well move on and do what he did before with a little extra humility, which is apparently how he got in such fine estate as he had at the start of this story. The primary changes in Job are that his ego has been pretty thoroughly broken, and he pays less attention to misfortune afterward, giving thanks for it instead of complaint, because obviously God meant him to get slapped down and take it.

That's just my own understanding of the book, and the message here is pretty murky. But if we focus on the personal change at the end, here we find the active principle, the thing that I think is important to learn -- it's not about approaching God with a broken spirit, or just enduring misfortune because God knows better than you. If you reinterpret this with a more positive spin, it's about taking personally the acknowledgment and acceptance of God's influence (which Job obviously already did, just without the personal acquaintance), and about giving thanks for lessons one can learn when misfortune occurs.