August 7, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Before I selected the Book of Job as the focus of the July Quarterly Discussion, I knew a little bit about Job. I’d heard snippets at church, an occasional reference to the plight of the unfortunate, and the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” Honestly, that’s all that I knew of Job. So, imagine my surprise to read forty-two chapters of gorgeous poetry! In these stanzas, Job became a real human to me, a representative of universal suffering, and a reminder to listen.
Job is listed as one of the Core Wisdom Books from the Bible. When I opened the book, I kind of hoped that it would simply reveal the message of wisdom in plain terms. As you can imagine, that naive notion never panned out. However, struggling to understand the various points of view in the text did offer many ideas about the nature of wisdom.
In the first two chapters, Job loses everyone (except his wife…which we’ll discuss next week) and everything, including his health. God allows Satan to take family, friends, land, animals, wealth and health. God does not, however, allow Satan to kill Job. Job endures this torture as long as he can. In his moaning, he asks why God has forsaken him. Then, three of Job’s friends arrive to comfort him. These three sit in silence with Job for seven days, a period of comfort and acknowledgment. At the conclusion of this silence (which even I found comforting), the three friends begin to lecture Job.
All three tend to agree that somehow Job has erred. Yet, the reader knows the truth: Job is blameless. The lecturers blame Job, oblivious to Job’s pain. To me, they come off as tone deaf and insensitive. In blaming Job, they increase the pain of an already open wound. Furthermore, they lack evidence of Job’s bad behavior. They even blame his family, also without evidence. In fact, Zophar goes so far as to say that Job deserves this punishment, as did his children (who have paid the ultimate price in their deaths).
This question plagues me: why does God demand that Job remain alive while the rest of his family can be killed? This game between Satan and God has a number of casualties which I cannot reconcile. In the process of testing Job, the whole community is likewise tested. These three friends represent the community’s response. In desperately avoiding any challenge of their worldview, the three suggest that surely Job has done something wrong because bad things don’t happen to good, pious people. They understand the world of cause and effect. And if Job has been punished for no fault of his own, then their worldview is flawed and they too may be at risk of such reduced circumstances.
As the three friends rail away at Job, the reader knows they are wrong. Privy to the deal between Satan and God, the reader understands that the three friends do not represent wisdom, simply common opinion. Neither does Job represent wisdom, however. In my estimation, he represents honest experience. When something goes wrong, many people ask “what did I do to deserve this?” because we want to believe that the world makes sense.
If this is not a world of cause and effect, however, what can we know of it? Does knowledge of the physical world equate to wisdom? Or is wisdom of a different nature? Apparently, we cannot learn our way out of painful circumstances. We cannot study enough or improve enough or work hard enough to avoid the unexpected. The education matters, of course, but is more like a skill or tool, rather than an antidote. In fact, as I’ve been studying Job, I think that pain avoidance might also be directly linked with wisdom avoidance. I also hate to claim that something good comes of bad situations because that seems minimalistic. Like Job, I don’t know what else to do with humanity’s darkest stories other than survive them.
In chapters 38-41, God speaks to Job in the form of a whirlwind. Job wants to know what he’s done wrong. God doesn’t answer. He simply reiterates the fact of his own power and might. He asks Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” God reminds Job of His greatness and eternal nature in comparison to Job’s insignificance.
The Book of Job doesn’t offer any answers. It simply underscores that many things are out of our control. This is just how it is. Humans, then, gain wisdom in understanding the limits of their nature. I don’t think this fully explores the wisdom available in the Book of Job, but it’s a start.
In the introduction to the chapter on “Wisdom” in the Syntopicon, Adler writes: “We believe that, with the centuries, knowledge can be steadily increased and learning advanced, but we do not suppose that the same progress can be achieved in wisdom. The individual may grow in wisdom. The race does not seem to.” The Book of Job underscores Adler’s point. The community reacts against Job (who remains blameless throughout). God punishes those who would speak for Him (the lecturers). And the community is reminded of God’s power. They have all learned of their insignificance, but only Job has learned how to handle suffering. Perhaps navigating suffering is the only type of wisdom that humans can attain.
In a strange twist, God replenishes Job’s stocks at the end of the book. Job suddenly has a new family, new animals, lands, and wealth. Whether or not this compensates for Job’s plight is a question for another day.
Thanks to the participants in the July Quarterly Discussions. I am grateful for the insights I gained from everyone, some of which have informed this series of blogs. Check back next week for more on Job!
Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Janaka Dharmasena
