Just When We Thought We Were Done

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.  Job 42:12a  NIV

More than – We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the story of Job.  Perhaps we’ve uncovered a few hidden things.  But the real lesson is the meta-text, that is, the assumptions that inform any reading of this story.  If we’ve done a good job in our analysis, we’ve at least revealed a few of those otherwise unconscious assumptions, like, for example, the fabled perfection of Job, the role of “Satan,” the presumptions of his friends about God’s sovereignty.  When we read any biblical text, we must always keep in mind our own perspective, as Zornberg notes:

“There is no way of sealing the text against misinterpretation; even more, the question of will, of desire, is relevant to interpretation.  The reader of this text, or of any text, comes with a grid of prejudices and expectations that inform his reading.”[1]

In these last few verses of Job’s story, some assumptions needed to be examined.  The first one is that somehow Job’s life was better after all this trauma.  The text says Job was blessed “more than” ever before.  Does this rescue the story?  It seems to me much like the last few paragraphs of Ecclesiastes which attempt to undo the somber tone of Qohelet’s analysis.  How are we to understand “more than”?  More wealth?  Yes.  More possessions?  Yes.  Increased reputation?  Yes.  The text goes on to tell us that he had seven sons and three daughters.  Do ten more children make up for the loss of his first family?  Does he stop visiting the graves?  And what about his wife?  Do you think that her betrayal had no lasting effect?  Was the marriage better or worse for all that suffering?  The text tells us that Job lived to be one hundred forty years old.  Was that a blessing?  How many years did it take to erase the painful memories?  If we’re going to interpret the Hebrew phrase translated “more than,” we’ll have to ignore most of the real drama—the psychological and spiritual affliction.  All the rest of this recovery seems rather unimportant, doesn’t it?  Perhaps we need to rethink the ending because it reads much more like a fairy tale, “happily ever after,” conclusion than anything we might actually experience after such suffering.

But the real difficulty with the end of Job’s story isn’t just skating over the irreplaceable losses.  It’s that God was involved in all this.  Even at the end we find that all the “reward” is still a result of God’s hand.  Job remains the puppet in the story, from beginning to end, the “victim” of both suffering and reward at the hands of the divine.  How does that make you feel about your relationship with the Holy One?  Does it provide you with a sense of security, or does it leave you feeling like a pawn on the board?  Who really is in charge of your life?  And once you answer that question, what does that tell you about your goals and purposes?  Is the end of Job really any different than the perspective of Ecclesiastes?

Topical Index: more than, Qohelet, victim, pawn, reward, Job 42:12

[1] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus (Schocken Books, New York: 2001), p. 144.