Perfection

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 – Job certainly must be fiction.  How else could we possibly understand the description of a man who is blameless, upright, and God-fearing?  Does such a man really exist?  The predicament is even more intensified when we learn that tām (Hebrew here) also means “perfect.”  Such a description seems to fly in the face of everything we know about humanity.  Perfect men just do not exist.

Let’s suppose, then, that this is a fictional story.  If that’s the case, then this description of Job sets us up for an ideal, not a real, human being.  And if the point of the story is to deal with unjust evil, then the message is even more important if the protagonist is a “perfect” man.  After all, if bad things happen to less than perfect people, we might be able to say that in some sense they deserved it.  But this could not be the case when the actor is the ideal, perfect man.  He doesn’t deserve any of this—and yet he still suffers.  The purpose of the story is to somehow deal with the problem of unjustified suffering.  Just remember, as we examine this ideal person, that “there is a difference between truth and fiction.  Fiction has to make sense.”

As we begin our investigation of Job, we must understand the scope of these three character words: tām, yāšār, and yārēʾ(blameless, upright, fearing).  We might reasonably translate tām as complete, that is, a man of utmost integrity.  Many English Bibles use the word “perfect,” but not in the sense of never making an error.  Rather, tām is about being without moral defect, a man who is exemplary in all aspects of his life.  To this we add yāšār, that is, someone who stays on the path no matter what.  “Literally. ‘To go straight or direct in the way’ (I Sam 6:12), but more frequently in the intensive (Piel) ‘to make (a way) straight,’ i.e. direct and level and free from obstacles, as when preparing to receive a royal visitor. This is the work of God for man . . .”^[1]  Job is a man of direct action, someone who keeps his word, who is totally trustworthy.  He does not deviate from God’s path for him.  Finally, Job is yārēʾ, that is, righteous in behavior and attitude, a man who maintains the most meticulous practice of religious ritual and whose choices are always determined by his adherence to God’s oversight.  It would be hard to find three more exhaustive words concerning the impeccable spiritual condition of a person.  And that, of course, is the point.  This is a man who embodies everything we imagine as spiritual excellence.  There is absolutely no justification to the claim that any evil which befalls him is deserved.

But evil does befall him—in spades.  What happens to Job wouldn’t be wished on our worst enemy, and this raises the quintessential question  about good and evil.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  And perhaps the corollary: How can a good God allow evil to happen to His most devoted followers?

Welcome to Job’s world.

Topical Index: tām, yāšār, yārēʾ, upright, fearing, blameless, evil, Job 1:1

^[1] Wiseman, D. J. (1999). 930 יָשַׁר. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 417). Moody Press.