Who’s Responsible?
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Job 1:1 NASB
Blameless – The story of Job is a problem. Yes, we can push the problem down into the human laundry basket while we rinse Job with theological softener. But under the comforting obfuscation that Job sinned (in some way), we are left with the gnawing conviction that he really didn’t deserve any of the tragedy God allowed. That, of course, raises the real question of Job: What kind of God plays havoc with His faithful just to score a point with the opposition? In the end, Job capitulates. Does that make us feel better? In the end, God never really answers Job at all. Do we march off with our consoling doctrines of God’s immutable purposes? In the end, Job is rewarded (sort of). But does that make up for it?
Do you suppose that we have imported so much theological washing into the exegesis of Job’s woeful tale that we just can’t hear it for what it is? Is it so disturbing that we just can’t deal with the implications that God has ego issues, or that He doesn’t seem to worry about bending justice, or that He is really responsible for the good and the evil in our lives?
Or is Buechner closer to the truth when he writes:
“As I see it, in other words, God acts in history and in your and my brief histories not as the puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings but rather as the great director who no matter what role fate casts us in conveys to us somehow from the wings, if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open and sometimes even if we don’t, how we can play those roles in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drama of things including our own small but crucial parts in it.”[1]
Let’s try to read this ancient tale for what it says, not what we want to make it say some three thousand detergent applications later. We should notice (how can we not notice) that Job is an exemplar of human righteousness. First, he is blameless. The Hebrew is tām, as close to the idea of perfect as you can get in Hebrew. From the root, tāmam, the verb means “be complete.” Its synonyms include “healthy, unblemished, in accord with the truth, sound, upright.” When applied to Job, Payne notes:
Scripture’s preeminent example of the tām “perfect” man is Job (Job 1:1). He claimed to be tām (9:21–22) and tāmîm (12:4) and held fast to his tmmâ “integrity” (27:5; 31:6), as recognized not only by his wife (2:9) but also by Yahweh in heaven (1:8; 2:3). In reference to the root meaning of tāmam, he was a “finished product,” well rounded and balanced (IB,II, p. 909). Job, however, prefaced his own assertions by granting, “Though I be perfect, it (marg., he) shall prove me perverse” (9:20 ASV). He admitted his sins (7:20–21; 9:2, 15; 10:6; 14:16–17), even from his youth (13:26), confessed that he could not be held innocent (9:28), and ended by retracting his rash charges against God and by repenting in dust and ashes (42:6). As he explained, “If I have truly erred, my error lodges with me”; i.e., he was not guilty of the accusations made by his “friends” (22:6–9) and was tāmîm, wholehearted in his commitment to the person and requirements of God.[2]
Payne’s amplification of the narrator’s assessment of Job (noting that Job himself does not claim sinless innocence) should not whitewash our opening impression. We wouldn’t expect Job to claim innocence. What human being can? We need to recognize that “blameless” doesn’t mean “never made a mistake.” It means that when the story begins Job is a man without fault, fully committed to worshipping YHVH, and ritually pure. That should be enough in any character assessment.
And yet—and yet he is dealt with as if he were one of history’s worst felons. Why?
Ah, that’s the soap scum left after we’ve done our religious washing. Do we really serve a God who could do things like this to men who are tāmam? Would we want to serve such a God who seems more anxious to prove His reputation than protect His faithful? That question just can’t be sucked down the drain. That question leaves a ring around our efforts to make God fit the benevolent Creator image. That question was (and is) the most important question of the ancient world, a world where gods did whatever they chose to do regardless of the consequences to human life. Maybe Job is a tale told by someone who is a long, long way away from our Sunday school lessons.
Topical Index: tāmam, tām, blameless, Job 1:1
[1] Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life (HarperOne, 1992), p. 332.
[2] Payne, J. B. (1999). 2522 תָּמַם. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 974). Chicago: Moody Press.
