Job and the Problem of Evil

In most editions of the Bible, the Book of Job is suspended between Torah and  the New Testament, i.e. between Genesis and Revelation. Its position is apt. It  is a lengthy (over long?) meditation on the Problem of Evil – a ‘problem’ introduced at ‘Creation’ (Genesis 1 – 3) but resolved by the ‘Resurrection’ and  the ‘Apocalypse’. 

If this sounds surprisingly simplistic, it’s because it is. Nevertheless, the  Problem of Evil is cited by non-believers as the number one reason for their  rejection of Judeo-Christian theology. It was also the rationale Bertrand  Russell relied on in his best-selling, Why I am not a Christian.

Why the disconnect? It begins, unfortunately, with our understanding (mis) of  the story of creation itself. The popular image of God shouting commands into  an abyss is anti-Biblical…and a bit ridiculous. No wonder folks don’t believe. 

It is important to remember that YHWH said, “Let there be light.” (Genesis, 1:  3) He did not say, “Light, be!” as most people seem to think. He was not a  frustrated parent barking at a naughty child; nor was he a raging motorist,  yelling, “Start, you sucker!” at his stalled automobile. Rather, he was a  compassionate curator! 

Nor did he imagine that light would obliterate the primal darkness (“…the earth  was without form with darkness over the abyss…” – v. 2). Instead, we learn that  God merely “separated the light from the darkness” (v. 3). Later, in the Gospel  of John, we celebrate the fact that “the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:  5) 

Phase #1 of the creation process was not complete, however, until “God saw  that the light was good” (v. 4) and “Evening (darkness) came and morning  (light) followed, the first day.” (v. 5)

All of which raises an obvious question: Why would an ‘omniscient,  omnipotent and benevolent’ God need to ‘wait and see’ before determining  that created light was a good thing? Could God have created something that  was not good? Would God need to pause and assess developments before  rendering judgement? 

In a sense the whole so-called Problem of Evil is addressed and resolved in  these first 5 verses of this first Bible book. All the stuff about God’s  ‘omniscience, omnipotence and benevolence’ comes later and, for our  purposes right now, is beside the point. The testimony of Genesis is clear:  God’s hands are clean! 

Not so, the Book of Job. Here God is put on trial, charged with fostering evil. Job has quite literally staked his life, his health, his family, his fortune, and his  reputation on the verdict. 

But our hero has a tough ‘row to hoe’. God is represented, albeit  incompetently, by a ‘dream team’ consisting of three ‘wise men’ and a ‘fool’.  Speaking of ‘fools’, Job appears pro se; he has himself for a lawyer. Worse,  God is not only the defendant but also the judge and jury. Can anyone say,  “Conflict of interest?” 

The trial raises every imaginable legal issue. Does Job have standing to sue  God? Can God even be sued? Can God be compelled to come to court? If the  court were to rule against God, how could it enforce its verdict? How could it  impose a sentence on the Creator of Heaven and Earth? 

Now the matter of God’s ‘omniscience, omnipotence and benevolence’ takes  center stage. Unlike Genesis, Job presents the Problem of Evil in its more  familiar trappings. A full account of the proceedings are available elsewhere  on this site.

Suffice to say, the procedural issues are resolved to the satisfaction of both  parties and, in a stunning reversal of fortunes, God finds against himself and  restores all of Job’s assets plus damages.

Job is underwhelmed. He expected this outcome all along. His problems were  merely procedural. Once the trial commenced, Job trusted that he would  prevail. Even the obvious conflict of interest didn’t concern him. God on the  other hand, perhaps sensing the weakness of his position, tries to bully Job  into withdrawing his suit. 

But Job will not budge. He meets God’s bluster with his trademarked  ‘frustrated patience’. He has faith that justice will out, i.e. if he holds his  ground, the court will ultimately have no choice but to rule in his favor. Job did  not believe that God’s nature would allow him to act unjustly…and he was  right! Right trumps wrong after all. 

But the court’s decision applies just to this one case; millions of Job’s fellow  sufferers, while buoyed by the trial’s outcome, remain mired in pain. The final  resolution, the cosmic solution, comes in the New Testament’s Resurrection  narratives and in the Book of Revelation.  

Here we learn (after the prophet Isaiah) that God is our fellow traveler, that he  suffers ‘the whips and snares of time’ alongside us, via compassion and  ultimately, via Incarnation. He is born, tiny and defenseless, into our world at  our level. He endures in full the pain of mortality ending in a slow and painful death on a Cross. 

Clearly, our God is no wimp! But had the story ended at Cavalry, we’d be in  rough shape; it didn’t! Jesus overcame mortality, pain and death via his  Resurrection and eventual Ascension into Heaven (where he sits at the right  hand of his Father). 

Finally, the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, describes in minute  detail, albeit in coded symbolism, the process by which evil will be  eradicated, root and branch, from the World, and our primal Paradise restored, fulfilling Paul’s assurance that God will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor. 15: 28),  pan in panti (Anaxagoras) 

Once Scripture is understood in this way, i.e. on its own terms and not those  imposed on it by non-believers, one can only ask, “What problem of evil?” 

Image: Blake, William. Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils. c.1826. Ink and tempera on mahogany, 326 x 432 mm. Tate. Presented by Miss Mary H. Dodge through the Art Fund, 1918.