It's All About Job

There are 45 books (give or take) in the canonical Old Testament. In most Bibles they are grouped by subject matter: Law, History, Wisdom, Prophets. But this tends to obscure the fact that portions of some books rely on portions of other books to elucidate their meaning. 

Looking at the corpus logically, or theologically, rather than historically or thematically, we ask, “Is one book substructural? Does one book serve as a foundation for all the others? And if so…

• Is it Genesis with its ground breaking cosmology, paleontology & anthropology and its proto history of the Hebrew people?

• Or is it Exodus, the story of Israel’s birth?

• Or I Samuel, which chronicles Israel’s transition from anarcho-theocracy (Judges) to monarchy and the reign of King David?

• How about Psalms, the repository of Judeo-Chrisitan prayer, a first person record of our dialog with God?

• Or the proto-existentialist Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s most philosophical text?

• Or is it Isaiah with its sweeping condemnation of secularism and its vision for a Messianic age to come?

Or is it none of the above? In my opinion, the Bible’s foundational text is the Book of Job because it’s this text that establishes and codifies God’s fundamental relationship with Creation on which all the other books depend. 

In its final form, Job’s core text, an ancient epic poem worthy of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante or Milton, is introduced by a prose prologue. Here God is portrayed as a spoiled ‘Kuwaiti Prince’, creation proud, aloof and amoral. He hangs out with Satan and even enters into a good natured wager with the Prince of Darkness.

As if that were not disconcerting enough, God wagers the life and well-being of his most faithful follower, Job, along with Job’s children, tenants, land and livestock. Initially, God is utterly oblivious both to the abstract demands of Justice and the concrete pleadings of his ‘suffering servant’.  

What is a hapless creature to do in such circumstances? Well, what would you do? Exactly! Job sues. 

He argues that even God is subject to Natural Law that demands that all agents, including God, behave justly. God’s capricious wager at Job’s expense clearly does not meet this standard. Therefore, Job asserts that he is entitled to bring God before the bar, hoping the court will order God to ‘perform’, i.e. to be God, to behave justly. 

But first, how does one drag the Creator of Heaven and Earth into court to answer a lowly creature’s complaint?

In a maneuver worthy of Johnnie Cochrane, Job takes maximum advantage of the Mesopotamian legal system. At great personal risk, he declares an Oath of Innocence, effectively compelling God to appear and give rebuttal testimony. But will it work? Will God even acknowledge, much less comply?

In an act of faith worthy of Abraham, or Kierkegaard, Job gambles that God’s divine nature will not permit him to ignore a properly crafted court order. God may ignore the cries of his ‘victims’ but not a valid summons. 

If this seems far-fetched, remember that Job is not your ordinary Joe. The intensity of his faith is unparalleled: 

“I know that my Redeemer lives and that on the last day he will stand upon the earth. Even though my skin is gone, from my flesh I will see God…my own eyes, not another’s, will see him.” (19: 25-26)

Job’s faith in the cosmic order is vindicated! God appears, albeit in a whirlwind; his arrogance is his worst enemy. God opens his defense by asserting (1) that he is above the law, i.e. that he enjoys absolute immunity, and (2) that his Will overrides any possible Natural Law: La loi, c’est moi. 

God strikes an amoral pose. In his testimony he celebrates at length two of his created ‘monsters’, Leviathan and Behemoth (40:15  –  41:26): 

“Can you pull out Leviathan with a fishhook? Can you bind his tongue with a rope? ...Will he make a pact with you? Will he be your slave forever? Can you toy with him like a bird? Tie him up to amuse your daughters? …Who has ever confronted him and survived?” 

“Behold now Behemoth which like you I created...Of all that’s under heaven, he is mine. I cannot keep silent about him, the fact of his incomparable valor…He has no match on earth; who is made as fearless as he? …Over beasts of all kinds he is king.” 

Even if God could rid the world of Behemoth and Leviathan, he wouldn’t do so! He’s proud of his hideous creatures, he loves them, and he is determined to protect them regardless of the human consequences. God is all about ecology; he dismisses Job’s views as anthropocentric. 

God is both defendant and magistrate in this proceeding; yet Job is all in: God is God and being God he will ultimately have to behave justly in accordance with Natural Law and his Divine Nature. Even though God is his own judge, Job is confident that he will rule impartially. What a gamble!

But what a payoff! (Go big or go home.) In fact, no verdict is ever rendered. The defendant (God) concedes before the magistrate (God) can begin deliberations. But make no mistake: this is no plea bargain, no negotiated settlement (Job would never accept that); this is total capitulation. 

God is required to ‘sign’ a virtual consent decree, acknowledging that he is subject to the same ethical values and standards as the rest of us, that they are enforceable, and that he enjoys no privileged immunity. Case closed!

God undertakes a program of ‘voluntarily’ remediation. Job’s fortunes are restored in full…and then some, and henceforth God will behave as God, i.e. in accord with his Divine Nature and with Natural Law. The faith of the Patriarchs, the confidence of the ‘Judges’, the joy of the Mystics and the vision of the Prophets all depend on this understanding.

This is the Marbury v. Madison of theological and cosmological law. It confirms and codifies the structure of Being itself. It affirms the absolute universality and supremacy of Value (Beauty, Truth, Justice) and it answers once and for all the perennial question: Is the Good good because God wills it or does God will Good because he’s God? Thanks to Job, now we know! 

As the Old Testament texts are currently organized, the Book of Job falls somewhere in the middle, after the Patriarchs but before the Prophets. How then can we claim that this text is substructural, that it precedes, at least logically, all the other books of the Bible?

The answer requires textual analysis far beyond the scope of this article; but spoiler alert: the Book of Job isn’t even Jewish! It is an even older repository of even broader human wisdom; it reflects an amalgamation of Middle Eastern traditions that apparently predate Moses…and even Abraham.

The implications of Job v. God are incalculable. Thereafter, God engages in ‘moral dialog’ with various Patriarchs, Princes, and Prophets, from Abram of Ur to Jesus of Nazareth. He recognizes a duty of care toward the Hebrew slaves in Pharaoh's Egypt and manages an encyclopedia of natural phenomena to secure their release.

God codifies the Oral Torah (Natural Law) in 611 specific mitzvot, summarized by 2 general mitzvot, aka the Great Commandment. God affirms his benign relationship with humanity and with all of creation through a series of Covenants (you will be my people and I will be your God), sealed by nature’s sign, the rainbow. 

It is no exaggeration to say that we are how we are now because Job was who he was then! 

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John Martin’s The Great Day of His Wrath (1851–1853) is a dramatic Romantic vision of divine judgment, depicting the world collapsing under God’s apocalyptic fury. Through vast, chaotic landscapes and fiery light, Martin captures the overwhelming power and moral finality of God’s wrath