Faith under Construction

What do we do with a story in which God and the Satan enter into a divine wager, using Job as an unwitting pawn in their game? What do we do with a book in which 10 children are killed off in the first chapter, only to be replaced by 10 more in the last chapter (as if children were replaceable)? How do we respond to (or preach) a book in which God answers Job's anguish by seemingly browbeating him into submission at the end of the story?

God -- at least on an initial reading -- does not come out of this book well.

And yet, this book, difficult as it is, has spoken to people of faith through the centuries. Job, in the great lament tradition of ancient Israel, wrestles profoundly and honestly with God. Job holds on to God with fierce faith, but he does not let God off the hook for the inexplicable suffering that so often shadows this world. And in the end, God shows up, responding to Job's lament with a vision of creation radical in its beauty.

This week's reading introduces us to the figure of Job and to his suffering. The next three weeks' readings will give the preacher the opportunity to delve into Job's response to suffering, God's speeches at the end of the book, and Job's response to those speeches.1

The first two chapters of Job (our topic for this week) are the part of the story that is probably most familiar to people today. Job is a righteous man who suffers greatly and displays amazing piety. The writer of Job doesn't dwell on this part of the story, however. The events of Job's suffering are quickly narrated in order to get to the core of the book: the 35-chapter-long dialogue between Job and his "friends" and the response of God that follows.

We moderns, of course, cannot skim over these first two chapters so quickly. There is much here that calls for our attention: the figure of the Satan, the divine wager.