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Showing posts from December, 2012

Reflections on Job: Strange answers

Job is one of my favorite Old Testament books because of how it addresses deep life issues. It addresses why we as Christians face trauma, suffering, injustice, and evil in this world -- why God allows to happen to us, or allows others to face severe persecution for their faith. Yet it is paradoxical in how it addresses these issues, seemingly without providing us a direct answer that we would expect to the question of why. Yet simple answers to such questions are not to be found in scripture. We read of Job struggling deeply with spiritual despair and loneliness in the face of suffering, plus criticism from his dubious friends. He never learned the why's of his particular circumstances from God, nor apparently of the spiritual warfare in which he was enmeshed between Satan and God. The book provides no straight, simple answers to these questions. The answer that comes from God seems in fact strange. Essentially, God speaks and reminds Job and his false friends of who he is, as a