The book of Job has been instrumental in teaching the fundamentally Christian lesson of obedience with God. ... The author of the book of Job paints a complex picture of this main character. The story begins with a short narrative of Job’s life including the many selfless and righteous acts Job undertakes in his daily life such as sacrifices for the sins of his children and daily devotion to prayer and worship. After a sort-of bet between God and the Adversary, God inflicts many sufferings on Job and we then see the consequences Job must endure such as the loss of his family and an illness of the skin. At the end of the book, after remaining faithful to his Lord, Job is rewarded with double his previous blessings and the approval of the God who had tested him. ... However, maybe this view of Job is too narrow and simple. ... Instead of settling for the conventional view of Job as the intercessor described in the prologue and epilogue of the book, a true study of the work should delve deeper into the character of Job and his purpose in the eyes of God.
To begin, let’s first recall the conventional view of Job as an intercessor. The epilogue in the book of Job (Job 42:7-17) clearly intends to return us to the prologue (Job 1-2) and to the utopian, fruitful world of Uz by the narrator of the book. In that world, Job is a pillar of virtue and faith. God remarks of Job, “there is no one like him in all the earth” (1:8). God’s assessment of Job is justified by three affirmations of his character in the first two chapters (1:1, 1:8, 2:3) as a “blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” We also quickly learn that Job often offered sacrifices on the behalf of his children, just in case they had sinned without realizing it or had “cursed God in their hearts” (1:4-5). In all these ways, Job is depicted from the beginning as a unique individual (Balentine 2).
However, when God makes his deal with the Adversary and when Job’s world collapses around him, Job heroically maintains his devotion to God. ... Even when Job’s wife urges him to curse God, he dismisses her and remains true to his assertion – “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21).
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