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Dec 19 2006

Misunderstood is an Understatement

I think Job must be one of the most misunderstood books in the Bible. I’ve sat through several studies of it and undertaken several more on my own. I’ve been constantly amazed at the range of opinions and declarations about what it “teaches”. I suppose that’s true of much of the Bible, but Job seems to be one book that you can use to support whatever preconceived notions you’d like to assign to it.

A couple of examples:

  1. Suzanne and I were sitting in a restaurant in Savannah, waiting, as it were, for our daughter to show up. While waiting, we were working on Job. An elderly man kept glancing our way and, upon leaving, stopped by to see what we were doing. We explained that we were writing an opera based on the story of Job in the bible. With that brief explanation, he pronounced, “Job was punished because he was proud of having so much money!” ummm… excuse me? I don’t know how in the world he managed to come away with that summary after even a scant reading of the story, but he did. Or perhaps he got it from a pulpiteer who had an axe to grind?
  2. I was channel surfing in my living room one morning while putting my shoes on, when I happened to hear something about ”the book of Job” from one of the religious channels. So, naturally, I went back to hear what he had to say. According to THIS guy, “Job was a righteous man, but his children were evil sinners who partied all the time. THAT’s why God killed them.” Oh, Please. I suppose if you really want to, you can perform some creative deduction to come to that conclusion, especially if it supports your agenda. But if you want to be honest about it, you should really inform your listeners that you are speculating… engaging in creative conjecture.

I think there is much to learn from Job, but performing circus calesthenics with heuristic reasoning is not the way to do it. Maybe an open mind is too much to ask from some people?

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