Anyone ever thought Job was fun as well as interesting?

The book in the bible that is.

In London we used to get milk from Job's dairies, but that has NOTHING to do with this post.

I was reading Job 20 & 21 this morning. In the context, Job has lost everything: his property has been stolen or destroyed, his children were killed in an accident and he's acquired a skin disease so unpleasant that he scraped the pus and gunge off himself with a piece of broken pottery. His wife, being a pragmatic kind of woman, has suggested he 'curse God and die' since God has allowed all this to happen.

Now Job is recognised as being 'righteous' in that his heart was always earnestly seeking to honour God. The reason for his loss is that Satan has suggested the only reason Job loves God is because God has blessed him with health, wealth and a large and happy family: so Satan is allowed to take away everything Job has except his life in order to demonstrate that Job's love for God is more than wealth-deep, and Satan being himself does it in a way which is astonishing and cruel.

Job has some friends who, having heard the tragedy, come over to visit and comfort him, but when they see him they are so completely dismayed that they can't speak at first. They Knew Job to be a good man, and yet the recent events of his life really don't match the expectations of their religion: God protects the righteous, but those who are wicked suffer disaster, don't they? So their 'speeches' progressively chew away at the apparent dilemma until they eventually come to the conclusion that Job must be wicked after all, and that God has brought this about because Job needed to be punished.

Job becomes increasingly exasperated as each of them speaks until he's had enough, and in Ch21 v5 tells them to "Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth."

The rest of Ch 21 then talks about the reality of life, rather than the religious platitudes of who God will bless and curse. He describes how the wicked do prosper, live in peace, have large and successful families and die in ripe old age. But it also talks about how they are at the mercy of circumstances and although they think otherwise, their lives are not in their own control. This looked and sounded so much like the things we've seen in the last 2 years with world financial systems sliding down the pan, and so many people apparently in control suddenly finding their own behaviour has undermined themselves.

V30 is particularly interesting "that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from the day of wrath?" Do we see bankers again getting large bonuses? Have there been swathing job cuts in the city? I must admit, there's a side of me that stands astonished at the outcome, 1 year on, of the crisis. And yet God has allowed men to operate this way for many thousands of years: that line of permitting free will that He is so unwilling to cross.

At the end of the chapter Job sums up masterfully. "So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!" Such is the value of the 'religious' view - it's just a bunch of wishful thinking and platitudes, and of no comfort whatsoever.

There's a great earthy humanity to Job despite the slightly funny language. Lot's of "you're no help at all" and "I wish you'd just shut up" in the face of accusations. Real people with real struggles, and not a stained glass window in sight.

All quotes from the NIV via www.biblegateway.com.