Theodicy And Job Analysis

Theodicy and Job

There are many enthralling and remarkable readings in the Bible. It is rich in thought provoking text. A particular book from the Bible that is intriguing is the book of Job. It is particularly interesting because it brings up an interesting subject. It brings up a topic that many of today’s population struggle with today and have for many centuries. Theodicy is a subject that plays a role in our lives and can bring about deep and purposeful thoughts regarding God and ourselves. There are many things that are brought into perspective regarding this subject through the study and interpretation of the text in the book of Job. Still, even though theodicy is intertwined in the text, it is still quite open when it comes to interpretation. …show more content…
Initially Job has everything in his life that he needs. He is a servant of God and takes care of his family and friends. Job has plenty of livestock and his land is rich. He has a home and it is full with his children who share in the abundance of his harvest. Job routinely praises God and offers a burnt sacrifice in the name of his children. He appears to be the epitome of a servant of God, yet his loyalty is challenged by Satan with God’s blessing. He loses everything from his family and friends, to his livestock, and still remains a good servant to God. Still, he is challenged again and Satan brings painful lesions to his skin and Job suffers greatly. This is difficult to understand how a righteous God can bring about such great suffering. Although Job was good and lived a good life his fear of God was tested and his own righteousness. So it is a question of how can evil persist in the hands of the righteous? There is innocent suffering in the case of Job (Hahn, 2006). Those that follow God do so for who God is, and not for what can be done for them or for any such reward. When Job suffers and has nothing he continues to follow God for who he is. It is difficult to face suffering in life and not question divine power, however, it is how interpret that …show more content…
When one is suffering it is not so much about the problem of evil, rather than finding faith in God in the midst of suffering and evil (Inbody, 1997). Our basic instincts as humans are that of understanding suffering and worth. We all face strife and we all face lenience in life. Life is fundamentally valued and can be valued in the face of evil and suffering with hope. Life must be balanced with good and evil. Despite the evil that comes in life, life continues to thrive (Inbody, 1997). In the end, and after his great suffering, Job was greatly rewarded for his persistent faith and was given back everything he had and more. Job inherently carried hope through his suffering. Job finds greater meaning in life through his suffering and denies suicide and death because of this. In his worst of afflictions Job still continued to praise God. Job affirms that the God that has brought the suffering upon him will also take that suffering away. It is interesting to note that the time the story of Job came about was around the time that many were suffering under Babylonian lordship and could have been innocently suffering (Hartley, 1988). This provides great inspiration to those who may have been suffering at the time. I find the text to still be