The Book of Job

The Book of Job

"The Book of Job" is one of the important stories in the Old Testament of the Jewish Bible. The main characters of the stories are the Job, the God and the Satan. There is no consensus about the existence of Job in the real world. However, in Judaism it is believed that job existed, and he was seen as a real and powerful figure. This story is supposed to be real during the days of Patriarchs. The story raises tough questions about God. Even God is not able to answer the questions clearly in the story. The story is about a noble and wise man called Job, who has to face many difficulties in his life. He also tries to seek answer from God for all the suffering that he has to bear in his life. He loses all his belongings, and his family, and finally suffers with a deadly disease. Through all this difficulties he still loved God, and believes in him. It is difficult to know why God allows the good, wise and noble person to suffer. God tests human beings by giving all the sufferings to see whether he/she still believes in God.

In the story Job is a wise and noble man, who has not done any evil deed in his entire. He is the beloved people of God in the earth. But, in his life he has to suffer a lot. He has to lose his belongings, his cattle and his family including his seven sons and three daughters. But, why good people like Job has to suffer. In the story there is a long conversation between Job and his three friends regarding the suffering of the Job. One of the friends called Elihu says that the outcomes of the human deed are given by God in the way that human beings perform their deed. This means that if human has done such things which are not accepted by God, God punishes him through the sufferings. Elihu and two other friends say that Job has done something wrong in his life that led God to punish him.

However, according to the story it was kind of game played by the God and Satan, which led towards the suffering of the Job. Satan challenged God saying that if you destroy all his belongings and make him suffer he will not fear you, and curse you (1:9-11). As God believed that Job was his servant and will not curse him, challenged Satan about this. This was the main cause that led to the suffering of the Job. Satan later brought all kinds of destructions in Jobs life where he has to lose all his family and also he was suffered from deadly disease. This argument in the story makes us think that it is not due to the bad deed done by the Job that led to his suffering. One argument also says the silence of Job led himself to horrible situation. The episodes mentioned in the Talmud say that "it is Job silent that God has given him more sufferings." The story never says that he has done anything wrong in his entire life. The arguments presented by Elihu are not acceptable in the life of Job, where he was a wise and a noble man, who have to suffer.

The sufferings of the Job can be looked as a test of the God at human beings. Job was very faithful towards God, and