An excerpt from the book, Ο Θεός δεν θέλει τον πόνο των ανθρώπων, by Dr. Jean-Claude Larchet.
The Book of Job constitutes, with
regard to the question of suffering, one of the deepest and most powerful
reflections ever written. This particular book, in the spirit that pervades it,
stands at the threshold between the Old and the New Testament.
God is not the cause of the
afflictions that suddenly befall Job
It is a teaching of the Book of
Job that God is not the cause of the afflictions that suddenly befall Job, and,
beyond him, human beings.
Job, of course, throughout the
book, appears to see God as the author of the things that have happened to him.
This bears witness to his deep faith in God, his devotion to Him, his reverence
for His omnipotence, and his hope in His person. This particular attitude is
also attested by the fact that Job, although he considered that God stood at
the origin of the things that were happening to him, refuses to accuse Him, to
question His justice and goodness, and to rise up against Him.
We shall note, however, that Job
sees in the person of God Him Who had given him all his former goods. In his
misfortune, he continues to glorify Him for them, and considers it natural that
those goods, which he did not deserve and which were freely given to him by
God, were also taken away from him without cause: “Naked I came out of my
mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there, to mother earth. The Lord gave
everything, and the Lord has taken it back. Blessed be His name unto the ages”
(Job 1:21). As Saint John Chrysostom observes in his Commentary on this
particular passage, Job, far from accusing God of having taken these goods away
from him, considers that they did not belong to him, and glorifies Him
especially for the fact that He had offered them to him. Job maintains the same
attitude toward his wife as well, when she comes to propose to him that he
curse God; and indeed, he answers her: “Shall we receive only good things from
God? Should we not also receive evil things?” (Job 2:10). And Saint John
Chrysostom comments on these words as follows: “For what reason did He give the
good things? Not because they deserved them. Therefore, let us not now be
grieved because we suffer hardship although we do not deserve such a thing.
Especially since He was sovereign and could have given only evil things. But
since He also gave good things, why are we distressed?”
Thus God, Who appeared above all
as the One Who had given Job his former goods, is also presented—and this is
very vivid in the epilogue of the book—as the One Who restores him to his goods
and even grants him greater goods (Job 42:10–16). Between these two points in
time, God appears as the One in Whom Job must, and rightly ought to, place his
hope, in order both to endure the afflictions that crush him and also to be
delivered from them.
The afflictions that befall
Job are not a punishment for his personal sins
It constitutes a fundamental
teaching of the Book of Job that the afflictions that befall him, as likewise
those that befall human beings in general, are not a punishment for some
personal sin.
Job’s friends seek to prove to
him and to make him admit the opposite, namely, that his misfortunes are a just
punishment from God for his sins.
Job’s friends place themselves
within a logic that predominates in the Old Testament, according to which, in
this world, God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. This schema is
confirmed throughout by their words: “Those who cultivate injustice and sow
calamity, they reap injustice and calamity. By the breath of God they are
destroyed; by the blast of His wrath they perish” (Job 4:8–9); “The whole life
of the impious man is a continual torment” (Job 15:20); “So it shall happen
also to all those who forget God” (Job 8:13); “But God never rejects the devout
man, while He will certainly not give help to the wicked” (Job 8:20); “The
wicked man becomes the victim of terrifying fears that follow him step by step.
Hunger becomes his companion, and misery stands beside him. Disease will devour
his skin” (Job 18:11–13); “Since God placed man upon the earth, the triumph of
the wicked does not last long, and the joy of the impious lasts only for a
single moment” (Job 20:4–5); “This is the recompense that the impious man shall
have, this is the inheritance that God appoints for him”—“this is the portion
of an impious man from the Lord, and the possession appointed to him by the
Overseer” (Job 20:29; cf. 20:5–28; 27:13–24); “[The Lord] repays each one
according to his works, and gives to each according to his conduct” (Job
34:11); “Know […] that the Lord does not reject the blameless man, and does not
allow the impious man to live in all his strength” (Job 36:5–6).
Starting from these principles,
Job’s friends conclude that he is being tormented and is suffering various
misfortunes necessarily because he is a sinner; if he were righteous, as he
continues incessantly to maintain, he would still be enjoying all forms of
prosperity and wealth, and misfortune would not have destroyed him. The first
aim of all their speeches, therefore, is to bring to light, if not Job’s
obvious and conscious guilt, then at least his hidden and unconscious guilt,
and to convince him of it: “The consciousness of your error dictates your
words” (Job 15:5); “Is it because of your piety that [the Lord] reproves you?
[…] Is it not rather because of your great wickedness and your endless
iniquities?” (Job 22:4–5); “You said: ‘My conduct is pure, and I am blameless
in His eyes.’ But if God wished to speak, […] you would learn that He calls you
to account for your error. […] He knows the craftiness of man. He sees iniquity
and watches it” (Job 11:4–11).
Because they consider Job’s sin
to be the source of his afflictions, they invite him to repent, and they see
repentance as the only means by which he may put an end to his sin: “Therefore,
be reconciled with [the Lord] and make peace with Him: thus you will find
happiness. […] And if you return to [the Lord] and if you drive injustice far
from your house […] whatever you decide, you will accomplish. […] Let your
hands be clean, and you will be saved” (Job 22:21–30); “But if you turn to God
and entreat the Lord from now on, He will send you His grace and will restore
the house of a righteous man” (Job 8:5–6); “Turn your heart toward God, lift up
your hands to Him. Renounce the iniquity that stains your hands, and do not
allow injustice to remain any longer in your house. […] Then you will forget
your trial” (Job 11:13–16).
They thus express an erroneous
conception of God, of His goodness, and of His justice. But they also reveal a
mistaken view by considering that the sufferings and afflictions that befall
man constitute a punishment for his errors of the present and the past, a
penalty for his own guilt, or that, in any case, they are necessarily connected
with his personal sins.
When, convinced by the answers of
Job, who ceaselessly proclaims his innocence, his three friends cease blaming
his responsibility (Job 32:1), they act in this way simply in order to accuse
God of injustice. In other words, they continue, in one sense or another, to
create a necessary cause-and-effect relationship between the afflictions that
befall a man, his sin, and the justice of God: if man suffers, this is because
he has sinned and God is justly punishing him. If, consequently, it is
confirmed that Job suffers without having sinned, this means that God is
unjust. They do not escape from this binary logic, and they prove incapable of
considering, for example, the possibility that a man may suffer without having
sinned, or may perhaps have sinned without necessarily suffering, and that in
both of these cases God nevertheless remains just.
The opinion and attitude of Job’s
friends are rejected from a theological standpoint, as well as from a moral and
spiritual one. It is characteristic that many commentators have discerned, in
Job’s wife and friends, hidden types of the devil behind the mask not only of a
false wisdom, but also of a hypocritical compassion.
Indeed, their attitude is
treacherous and deceitful, since, while they claim to be helping Job understand
the causes of his trials and to be consoling him for them, they do nothing
other than crush him even more, adding moral and spiritual torments to the
physical ones he is undergoing, when they attempt to make him admit that he
himself is responsible for what is happening to him, because of his faults.
As regards the way in which they
understand God and His relations with men, this is rejected by Job [“Do you
think that you are defending God with wicked words, and His cause with words of
falsehood?” (Job 13:7)], but also, above all, by God Himself, Who exposes their
radical hypocrisy, while making the truth shine forth on Job’s side: “The Lord
said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘I am very angry with you and with your two
friends, because you have not spoken rightly of Me, as My servant Job has’”
(Job 42:7).
From the study of the Book of Job,
it follows that there is no necessary relationship between the afflictions a
man suffers during his life and the sins he may personally have committed.
The view that man must undergo
afflictions as punishment for the sins committed by those near him is rejected
in the same way. The view that afflictions are to be attributed to a guilt of
nature, which Job’s friends defend, does not appear to be accepted by Job
himself.
Job rightly refuses to connect
his personal guilt with the afflictions that befall him
Job’s understanding is contrary
to that of his friends. His conscience brings no accusation against him; he
appeals to the uprightness of his attitude and of his conduct toward God (Job
23:11–12), mentions his virtues (Job 29:12–17; 30:24–25; 31:1–34), and does not
cease to proclaim his innocence (cf. Job 6:24; 7:20; 9:20; 11:4; 13:15–18, 23;
23:10; 27:3–6; 32:1). Inwardly he believes that the sufferings he is undergoing
cannot be a penalty for his transgressions, nor even their natural consequence.
Nevertheless, Job is not proud
and arrogant. His words bear witness to his humility, as well as to a spirit of
repentance. He appears entirely willing to acknowledge his sinfulness: “Teach
me, then, and I will be silent; show me wherein I have erred” (Job 6:24). He
knows that, beyond all doubt, he is not entirely pure: “Who is clean from
defilement? No one, certainly” (Job 14:4). Nevertheless, there is such a great
disproportion between his possible guilt and the afflictions he is called to
suffer that he is unable to discern a cause-and-effect relationship, or any
connection between it and his afflictions.
Conversely, moreover, Job refuses
to associate the fact that he is righteous with the wealth he previously
enjoyed, recognizing the latter as a free gift of God and not as a reward for
his good works (cf. Job 2:10).
Job does not entertain illusions
in considering himself righteous. His righteousness is confirmed by the author
of the book, who begins his narrative as follows: “In the land of Uz there once
lived a man whose name was Job. This man was righteous and perfect, feared God,
and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). In his Commentary, Saint John Chrysostom
insists especially on the word “blameless”: “The text does not say sinless, but
blameless, that is, that no fault could be found in him. Not only did he not commit
acts burdened with sin, but not even blameworthy and condemnable acts.”
Moreover, Job’s qualities are also confirmed by God Himself, Who twice says to
Satan when he appears before Him: “Have you considered My servant Job? There is
no one like him upon the earth. He is an upright, righteous, and honest man; he
fears Me and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8; 2:3). As Saint John Chrysostom
observes, “God gives the testimony that [Job] is blameless.” In the eyes of
God, Job is even the holiest man of his time. He regards as nonexistent the
impurity that Job is willing to confess (cf. Job 14:4).
Job does not embrace the notion
of God’s “immanent justice,” which his friends express. Reality refutes the
view that the afflictions man is called to undergo are punishments for his
transgressions, because we are able to observe many innocent people who have
suffered such afflictions. Job recalls especially entire populations who,
although faithful to God, have unjustly fallen victim to oppression and
exploitation, and have ended up enduring every kind of hardship and destitution
(Job 24:1–12; see also 9:23).
Job observes, on the contrary,
that many of those who commit evil are rich: “Why does God allow the impious to
live, to grow old, and their goods to increase? They see their descendants
established. […] The peace of their houses is not threatened, and the scourge
of God protects them. Their bull is always vigorous and fertile, and their cow
gives birth without miscarriages. […] They sing songs with tambourines and
lyres, and rejoice at the sound of the flute. They spend their life in
happiness; […] Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone. We do not want to learn
Your will!’ But do they not hold their happiness in their hand, without God
being among their counsels? Do you often see the lamp of the impious man’s life
go out, misfortune strike him, divine wrath destroy his goods, the wind scatter
him like straw, and the whirlwind carry him to and fro like chaff?” (Job
21:7–18; cf. 21:19–34).
The same observation is found in
other books of the Old Testament as well. Thus the Psalmist exclaims: “I envied
the impious when I saw the peace of sinners. […] The toil of men is not found
among them. And they are not harshly punished like others. […] And my people
turn to them, since with them they find happy days. […] Behold who the sinners
are: those who prosper and flourish” (Ps. 72:3–12). The Prophet Jeremiah asks
God: “Why do the impious prosper? Why do all the faithless enjoy security and
peace?” (Jer. 12:1). And the Prophet Malachi observes: “Now we have come to
call the arrogant fortunate: those who sin prosper; they provoke God and are
saved” (Mal. 3:15).
The devil is the first cause
of Job’s sufferings and other afflictions
Satan, moved by his malice and
envy, is the primary cause of the afflictions that befall Job. The author of
the narrative gives us a clear indication of this. When Satan says to God:
“Stretch out Your hand and touch his possessions; I swear to You that he will
blaspheme You publicly” (Job 1:11), there is no question of God doing any such
thing. Satan is the one who, according to his own will, will take this task
upon himself and will become the cause of all Job’s misfortunes that follow.
In the second cycle of the
discussion, the same procedure is repeated, and Satan is identified even more
clearly as the author of the illness and sufferings that appear in Job: “Satan
departed from the assembly of God and struck Job with a malignant ulcer from
his feet to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). As Saint John Chrysostom
observes: “For no attack against him [Job] was caused by God, but all things
came from the hand of the devil.”
Moreover, the devil himself
retains the initiative throughout the whole process of slandering Job before
God, when he assures Him that Job is faithful to Him exclusively and only for
reasons of self-interest (cf. Job 1:9–2:4).
If Satan had not intervened, Job
would in all likelihood have continued to enjoy the prosperity that God had
given him at first, and to which He would finally restore him. And this shows
doubly that it is not essentially God’s will that afflictions should befall
Job.
Job was righteous during the
period of his prosperity, before he was struck by misfortune. And this shows
that misfortune is not a prerequisite of righteousness, nor a means of
attaining it, even if it is true that, after he overcame the trial, Job’s virtue
was manifested in an even more brilliant manner.
Nevertheless, it was the devil,
and not God, who doubted the steadfastness of his conduct and needed to verify
it. The Book of Job provides clear testimony to the decisive role of the
devil’s actions in the world in bringing forth afflictions and sufferings
within it, motivated by his envy and malice.
A problem arises, however,
because of the fact that God permits the devil to act as he does. In order to
carry out his plans, Satan asks for and receives permission from God (Job
1:11–12; 2:5–6).
We consider, at this point, that
on the part of the author of the narrative, the same attention and care is
worthy of note which will move the Fathers when they maintain that afflictions
befall man by God’s allowance: namely, to avoid creating the erroneous
conviction that there exists some autonomous principle of evil which struggles
against a corresponding principle of good, with the possibility that the former
has the ability to prevail over and supplant the latter. The idea of God’s
omnipotence dominates the whole of the Book of Job: this idea is found in the
words of Job’s friends, but also in the words of Job himself (Job 9:4–13;
12:10, 14–25; 42:2), and, finally, it also holds a significant place in the
discourse of God Himself (Job 38:4–40:26).
The beginning of the book
presents to us Satan, a fallen angel, who, together with the angels, is called
to give an account to God of his activity upon the earth (cf. Job 1:6–7;
2:1–2). We may discern that, although He permits this particular activity, God
does not approve it, but on the contrary limits it in a direction favorable to
man and to creation, which is an expression of His Providence; for, as we have
observed, without this Providence—in other words, if the powers of the evil one
moved freely—the world would have been sunk and destroyed by them: “Then the
Lord said to Satan: ‘Behold, I deliver all his possessions to you; only do not
stretch out your hand against him himself’” (Job 1:12); “Then the Lord said to
Satan: ‘Behold, I deliver him to you; only do not touch his life’” (Job 2:6).
Here again we encounter the
source of evil: it is the freedom that God granted to all rational beings,
angels and men, at their creation. This is a gift, the use of which, out of
respect for them, He granted to them to a great extent, even if that use is not
“for good.”
From this point of view, Job
must suffer because he is righteous and not because he is a sinner
The devil therefore takes up his
attack against Job with the aim, above all, of making him fall, of making him
sin. His motives are malice and envy.
This fact confirms in another way
that man does not have to suffer because he is a sinner, and it refutes the
idea that suffering is necessarily a punishment for a personal sin or its
natural consequence. We may truly say, conversely, that because he is righteous
and not sinful, Job must suffer: his holiness provokes the envy of the devil
and arouses his passionate activity.
It must be pointed out that at
this point we again find the negative bond that develops between suffering and
sin, which we emphasized in the previous chapter: the devil uses suffering,
relies upon it, in order to push man into sin.
Job implicates fallen nature
as a second cause
Job appears not to know that it
is the devil who is warring against him. He believes that God is behind his
sufferings, but he refuses to accuse Him, and he does not understand why God
would be warring against him, since he considers himself blameless before Him.
This ignorance of Job, the questions and the doubt that ignorance gives rise to
within him, the uncertainty and anxiety that result from it, form part of Job’s
trials and contribute, in the most striking and impressive way, to the
manifestation of his blind trust in God and the expression of his absolute
faith in Him.
Seeking an answer to the
questions that arise, Job nevertheless implicates the impurity that would
affect every man from his conception: “For who is clean from defilement? No
one, certainly. Even if his life upon the earth lasted only one day” (Job 14:4–5).
This particular passage is often connected by interpreters with the seventh
verse of Psalm 50: “Behold, I was born in iniquity; in sin have I lived since
my mother bore me.” The essence of the problem, however, is to learn how the
concepts of “defilement” and “sin” should be understood. Some interpreters have
approached them within the framework of a sin for which every man would be
guilty by nature: this is an explanation that anticipates or confirms the
doctrine of Saint Augustine concerning original sin. Others, again, have
considered that these affirmations aimed at the natural impurity that
accompanies man at his conception (cf. Lev. 15:19 ff.) and at his birth (cf. Lev.
12:2), without this impurity involving any other factor except a certain moral
weakness and a certain inclination toward sin. Others, finally, recall the term
“the law of sin,” that is, the limiting consequences of the ancestral sin which
affect every man from the hour he is born, without his being personally sinful
or guilty for all these things. Commenting on these verses of Job, Saint John
Chrysostom reasonably considers that Job seems to have in mind the weakness of
human nature. And this particular weakness concerns nature after the fall,
which bears all the negative consequences of the ancestral sin. We shall
observe that Job himself does not seem to be aiming at any personal sin, since
this assessment does not prevent him from continuing to regard himself as
righteous; let us remember that God Himself also regards Job as “blameless,” a
reality likewise confirmed by the author of the book. By contrast, Job’s
friends hypocritically create a bond between the impurity that they attribute
to every man from his conception and guilt (cf. Job 4:17; 15:14; 25:4). It is
also significant that the expression “a mortal […] born of woman,” used by Job (14:1),
which in his mouth “reveals nothing other than the decay of human existence,”
finds its divergent meaning among his friends (cf. Job 15:14; 25:4): “from the
concept of finitude, Eliphaz at once slides into that of guilt. Bildad, in
turn, repeats […] the same pattern of reasoning.”
We may therefore say that here
Job recalls, as one cause of his afflictions, the consequences of the ancestral
sin, which affects human nature. However, this appeared in his discourse only
briefly, allusively, and indirectly: it is nothing but “a first perception, as
through a mist, of what in the New Testament will be visible ‘as in a mirror.’”
Job’s suffering as temptation
The suffering and all the
afflictions that Job undergoes clearly appear as temptations. The devil exerts
pressure on him through temptations, in order to lead him into sin and the
passions. The devil hopes that Job will accuse God and thus be led to insult
His goodness, and furthermore will turn against Him and finally reject Him.
This goal which the devil wishes to achieve is clearly expressed by Job’s wife:
“Do you still persist in this piety of yours? […] Curse God, then, and die”
(Job 2:9). And the manner is so clear that certain interpreters have seen in
the person of Job’s wife not only an instrument of the devil, but even an
embodiment of him. Through these words are formulated the four greatest
temptations that man can experience in his encounter with pain: 1) loss of
patience, 2) surrender to passions connected with the avoidance of suffering,
3) accusation and curse against God, 4) surrender to death. But the final
insult, “die,” also has another meaning: it foretells what will happen to the
man who yields to these temptations, and it also expresses very clearly the
devil’s most chthonic design: the spiritual death of man. This occurs especially
if man yields to the third temptation, the one at which the devil primarily
aims, as his words before God reveal twice: “Stretch out Your hand and touch
his possessions; I swear to You that he will blaspheme You publicly” (Job
1:11); “So then, act as though You touch his very body, and see whether he will
not blaspheme You publicly!” (Job 2:5).
The exceptional character of
Job
What would have caused the fall
of the common mortal did not lead Job to fall. “Thus, despite all these
calamities, Job did not sin and did not utter anything improper against God”
(Job 1:22; cf. 22:10). Not only did Job not blaspheme God during his trial, but
he glorified Him (cf. Job 1:21).
To Satan’s temptations Job
opposed three basic attitudes: 1) steadfast patience in trials, 2) unwavering
faith in God, within which he not only did not blaspheme Him, but also did not
accuse Him and, although he was convinced of his own justice, did not regard
His justice as guilty, and even went so far as to admit that He could be the
author of his afflictions, 3) true hope in God, without evasions.
Job attributed his resistance to,
and victory over, the temptations not only to his own powers, but to
strengthening and support from divine power as an answer to his prayer.
We may also observe that, like
all the Righteous of the Old Testament whom God had enlisted in a mission of
instruction and prophecy, Job here bears witness to a certain special grace,
which gave him the ability, at least to some degree, to escape the common lot
of mankind, which is under the dominion of the consequences of ancestral sin.
And in the present case, it allows him to resist the pressure which, directly
or indirectly, the devil exerts upon him through the body or through the
passible element of the soul, and therefore not to be defeated by afflictions,
not to yield easily to temptations, and not to be subjected to sin and the
passions.
We have pointed out that this
characteristic concerning the Righteous of the Old Testament was connected with
the mission that God had entrusted to them: to announce the coming of Christ
and to prefigure His saving economy.
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