In Chapter 1, of The Book of Job, God is depicted as a creator, who not only entrusts his faith into his creation but also as a maker, who is extremely proud of his property. Talking specifically about Job, God demonstrates emotions toward his slave, as he converses with Satan. As God talks to one of his sons, he portrays qualities in which he is revealed as a prideful and faithful creator, towards Job. When Satan returns from his wanderings on earth, God asks him about hid ideal slave, Job, and while asking, God boasts and demonstrates a sense of pride he receives from Job. For example, In (Job 1:8) God states, “Have you noticed by servant job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil?” As God asks Satan what Job is up to, he doesn’t simply ask, to know about Job, but he asks in a way that showcases just how proud God is, of Job. In the process of asking, God starts to boast about Job and how great he is. The way God questioned Satan showcases that he truly just hoped that Satan …show more content…
The scholar, named J.P. Fokkelman, states in his commentary, “God does trust in ‘his servant’…It is a bit too facile to take refuge in the theological reasoning that says: because God is omniscient (And also has fore knowledge of what is coming) he for sees the good outcome.” In my opinion, what Fokkelman states is true, the natural belief that God’s trust in Job is because God knows everything, is wrong. The text portrays no details that God knows how Job will react, by putting Job against the test of Satan, God shows just how much faith he has in his slave, Job. The Book of Job demonstrates God emotions toward his creation in Chapter 1. As God talks about Job, with Satan, he reveals that he is not only extremely proud of Job, being his follower, but he also has faith in the quality of Job’s
The first question which must be addressed is, "Why have these men been made to suffer?" To simply say that Zeus or God is displeased is not enough, and to say that Prometheus and Job have sinned is confusing. Most Western readers approach these works with a pre-conceived notion of sin which has been born out of the Judeo-Christian theological tradition a tradition which dictates that there are specific moral rules which must be followed, and to transgress them is to sin. While this interpretation of sin may be functional for a reading of Job, it is useless for understanding Prometheus Bound.
By being one of God’s most illustrious angels, Satan proves his devotion towards God by serving him. He is so zealous that he desires to be God’s only second in command. Similarly, Satan’s dedication to God is like the Grand Inquisitor’s. The Grand Inquisitor served God as a follower and preacher of his word. “It’s long— eight centuries— since we have been on his side and not on Thine” (Dostoevsky, 238) The Grand Inquisitor, like the Church’s predecessors, followed God’s word and Jesus for a long time before they abandoned God an...
He wants to find a way to justify God’s actions, but he cannot understand why there are evil people who “harm the childless woman, / and do no good to the widow,” only to be rewarded with long, successful lives (Job 24:21). Job’s friends, say that God distributes outcomes to each person as his or her actions deserve. As a result of this belief, they insist that Job has committed some wrongdoing to merit his punishment. God himself declines to present a rational explanation for the unfair distribution of blessings and curses. He still suggests that people should not discuss divine justice since God’s power is so great that humans cannot possibly justify his
Throughout the Bible God can be represented in a number of different ways. In some chapters of the Bible God can be found to be a compassionate, loving God, who would do anything for his people. To contradict this, in other chapters of the Bible God can be found trying to instill fear into people so that they believe in him, or do what he wants of them. In both instances it shows how different God can be seen and why believers can have doubts about how God really is.
As the book opens, Job is God's "pride and joy", so to speak. Job was free of sin, he "feared God and shunned evil"(1:1). God apparently thinks higher of Job than any other mortal. This is evidenced when he tells Satan that "There is no one on Earth like him; he is blameless and upright . . ."(1:8). When Satan questions Job's faith God allows him to test Job, as if to show off his favorite servant. This is an almost human quality in God--pride. Satan's test involves the total destruction of everything Job owns and lived for: his children his animals, and his estate. Everything was destroyed but his wife, and of course the Four Messengers of Misfortune. "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing"(1:22).
...ade to choose him for the spiritual task. Job realized he had to experience loss and suffering in the name of God to pass the test God bestowed upon him. God stated “Who is that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me... Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth” (p.667) God notified Job he was in no position to question the loss he must undertake in order to complete his mission. Job realized the meaning of his life, when he realized the magnitude God went to convince him of his calling. Job forgave himself for his sacrifices, because he realized it was instructed by God.
In order to make sense of these inherently opposite features, we must seek a higher authority and focus on God’s beauty, mercy, love, and grace. Our God, who is the creator of the world, has a plan for us all and intends for us to seek out His will. When we look around us and see that God created and feeds the sparrow just as he created and feeds us, we can begin to understand God’s will and His purpose for us. The entire enormity of this world and what God created becomes clearer. God seeks a relationship with us. There are times when reading the Bible, a passage or verse may seem too confusing or unrelatable in our current situation, although a God who created nature and everything in it always reveals the truth in His time for His plan for
Job was a man of the purest faith. When the world shunned God, Job's faith never declined. Job was a wealthy, handsome man with a beautiful wife and a vast amount of property. At some point in time, Satan made a bet with God that if Job situation was changed, his faith would quickly falter. On this note, God took Job's wealth, his property, his family, and his wife. When times were at their worst, God gave Job pus welts on Job's face, taking his looks. Job's faith, however, did not falter, instead it becamestronger. Job passed the test. God then healed Job, gave him more land, greater wealth , and a better wife. Job was baffled, he wondered the purpose behind his fall and rise. When he asked God this, God replied: "...Because I'm God." That was answer enough.
At the early stage of novel, God is used as narrator’s scapegoat for failures that resulted from his actions. Narrator mentions God multiple times in the passage that usually talks about his failure. The views on God seem to be neutral as Narrator slightly mentions that “…God only knows if there’s any sense in my looking for a job any longer! All these refusals, these partial promises, simple noes, hopes built up and knocked down, new tries that ended each time in nothing” (Hamsun 5). Narrator believes that God is omnipresent and confess that only God understand what he is going through. But narrator’s view on God turns into anger as more misfortunes befall upon him and he states that “I came on the weightiest objections against the Lord’s arbitrariness in letting me suffer for everyone else’s sins” (Hamsun 20). The narrator suddenly changes his attitude toward God and goes into delusion like thought that God has chosen him to suffer and he thinks the God is the root of problem and that he is the problem for all his unfortunate ends regarding his living conditions and job status.
Why does God allow Satan to cause such tragedy in Job’s life, a man whom God has already acknowledged as “my servant Job, that there is none like on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”(1.8) From the beginning, it is known that Job is in no way deserving of his injustices, so a reason must be given. God gives Job an opportunity to prove that under any circumstances Job will still have faith. This simply a test for Job. The whole Book is a “double” journey for Job -- he shows God his faith and realizes the faith God has that Job will not stray from his path. Job knows deep down that God has not forsaken him.
The Book of Job Job was a righteous man who lived in Uz. He had seven sons and three daughters. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yokes of oxen, five hundred donkeys and many slaves. Each year, he held a banquet where Job would have each of his children purified. He did this for fear that they might have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. On the day that the angels came to attest before God, God pointed out to the accusing angel (Satan) Job's character. He pointed out how righteous and respectful he was toward Him. Satan claims that Job's character originates with evil and self-serving motives. He claims that Job is so righteous and respectful because he has no reason to act otherwise, but if God were to give him hardship, he would curse Him to his face. Satan then challenges God to test Job. Reluctantly, God accepts the challenge. On Earth, Job is stricken with misfortune. All of his animals are either stolen or struck by lightning. All his children died of one tragedy or another. Yet, Job did not curse God. He figured that the same way God gave to him, he took away. Again, God took pride in Job. He bragged to Satan about how faithful and righteous his servant, Job was. Still, Satan doubted him. He claimed that Job was still faithful and righteous because he had not been affected directly by God's test. He persuades God to test Job once more. This time, Job's health is destroyed in a most horrifying form. Job is covered in boils from head to toe so badly, that he uses a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself with. At this point, Job's integrity is tested by his wife. She wonders why he is still so faithful to God. She thinks that it is about time that he begins cur...
...cially with the characteristics he gave him, and how he wrote God as the tyrant when in the minds of people; God is perfection, while Satan is the exact opposite. Satan is still the bad while God is good, but there will be many inconsistencies in the story, and with religion as a whole.
...id and Job, both of these things are not applied. In this manner, the stories very often violate the same commandments meant to bring not only justice, but also morality, and other such virtues to a society and its people. Further, it is often God himself, in whose image man was created, who violates his own commandments, and due to this, can man be expected to adhere to the same commandments broken by God if he has been created in God's image? God is explicitly unjust, vengeful, and jealous, particularly in the story of Job. If God is to be an example for the ideal being, then how is it that his nature can express the same things he denounces in his guide, The Bible? All of these questions ultimately lead into one main question, which is in regards to whether or not a people who are led by an unjust God truly have the capability of developing a "just society".
...ed a part to him. First we see God as omnipotent then we see God asking where Adam and Eve are hiding (Not being omnipotent). With the creation of mankind God loses some part of his Godliness and he gains some humanity. God has a little human in himself and we have a little God in us. But the main point still is the same, God is the authority over man and will remain this way. I also feel that the God in the bible is truly no different than the Gods of Greece for example. The God of ancient Greece acted just like humans, the only difference was that they were immortal. The God of the bible seems to act just like humans, shows love, anger, regret, learns from mistakes and so forth. So in the end God shows flaws and learns from mistakes. God is like humans, maybe this is why we don?t understand God sometimes because we can?t understand other people and their actions.
In The Book of Job, one of the main themes is desire, more specifically the desire to know the actuality. Job is a wealthy man living in a land of Uz with his family minding his own business. He is a very religious man and usually strives to do what he believes is morally right. Satan one day challenges God that Job will lose his faith in him if he allows Satan to torture Job. God accepts the challenge and Job greatly suffers. Job at the beginning of the story had no desires or intentions at all, but as his condition gets worse and worse. Job mindset about God and his belief begins to shift. At this point in the story desire starts to play a key role in Job’s life. Desire is shown in Job when he demands answers from God and why God is putting him through all of this. The idea of questioning God terrifies Job but his desire for an answer ultimately overshadows his fear of questioning God, “Here is my desire...