All against Job - A very literal reading.

All against Job - A very literal reading.

NB. : We will speak of God here as if He was the character of the book, not as God in Himself. I am thus consciously "psychologyzing" the figure of God.

The Book of Job is enigmatic, leaving a taste of dark irresolution and indomitable theological depth. That this darkness is tinged with tragic irony adds to the darkness in which God's attitude never ceases to surprise.

A1 - First reaction of God in Heaven: order of persecution via the influence of Satan, the wicked minister who will be found in Esther (Haman).

B1 - God's first reaction on earth: nervous breakdown by crushing Job with all His verbal power (while Job, having lost everything, poses the same lament that Jesus will : "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachtani").

B2 - Second reaction of God on earth: condemn Job's friends (for having spoken badly about Job, whom God/Satan was persecuting!) to make a sacrifice (7 oxen +7 rams) - note : equivalent to Job's usual sacrifice at the beginning of the book, on behalf of his children (7 + 7 boys!) who had become grown up and independent, for the sins they might have committed (extreme scruples, perhaps of a "Pharisee"!).

A2 - Second reaction of God in Heaven: restoration of Job's situation with a "bonus" (number bonus 7 + 7 for boys, beauty bonus for girls).

William Blake, Job Rebuked by His Friends, 1825

Clearly, God is not an easy father.

He allows the persecution of his very honest son (or even worse, he delegates the persecution to Satan).

He crushes Job with all his bad faith when Job dares to claim his innocence (Job's question is a simple "why did you do that?", God's response is "who do you think you are?").

He projects his faults onto Job's friends (the "Pharisees", competing with legalistic explanations for Job's situation) and gives them the punishment to make the sacrifice that Job once made without having committed any fault - decidedly, He does not seem to understand Himself what He wants in terms of sacrifice.

He gives Job double dose in number of sons and double dose in beauty of daughters, as if this could replace the loss of children murdered by Satan under His authority.

He, by this very substitution, prevents Job from being a victim. He thereby relieves Himself of the guilt of this whole affair.

It is not surprising that Job, faced with the poor work of his friends and of God himself (God seems to defends Himself) as friends and father, could hope for a real Comforter, a Defender, a Paraclete, the One whom Jesus promised to send us. If this Paraclete can be seen as the opposite of Satan, as our Angel of Justice, how could God hold a court of justice and "test" Job - in effect, condemn him in the most cruel way? - without the possibility of a defense? How unfair ! On the other hand, Satan has also a positive role. He asks an excellent question to God : on what justification does He exercise his justice?

Let us now read in the manner of René Girard: clearly, there is animation in the Heavenly Court. Satan, understanding that the occasion requires a sacrifice to appease the conflicts between the angels of light and the angels of darkness, must choose a scapegoat. He chooses Job. Everything works wonderfully, God lets Satan throw the first stones, Job's friends pursue the unfortunate man and God in turn accuses him. Everything is ready for the reader to see in Satan a servant of divine justice, in Job a guilty traitor to the divine cause who uses his wealth and his happiness to deceive God, and in God a good judge and good father of a family. . Yes… but NO!, because the book shows us that Job and his children are innocent, shows us that Job's friends, Satan and God Himself are the real culprits, and shows us the real mechanism of mimetic excitement and violence

It is absolutely miraculous that such a book was able to integrate the biblical canon, or rather: Job (and books like Jonas or Ecclesiastes, or even the Gospels) is proof that the Bible is the bearer of truth, however difficult it may be sometimes to accept or to fully understand.

C.