Is God just? The example of Job
For this year's meeting, the artists have chosen the difficult theme of God's justice. It is currently taking place in Ukraine, despite the difficult situation caused by the war. I was asked to write a biblical impulse for this. The topic is also very important to me because of my own traumatic experiences as a child. I had to seek medical treatment for this a few years ago. I also attended a good lecture at the University of Bern during my studies, which has given me important insights to this day.
This difficult topic is at the centre of this year's plein air for icon painters. While the participants are working, it will soon be a thousand days since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.
When I was in Lviv this spring, I was able to meet with artist friend and urban planner Julian Chaplinzky, who told me: "What we are witnessing today is the rebirth of the old totalitarianism that will soon dominate our whole world." This is a very sobering realisation and raises many questions.
The problem of theodicy also preoccupied the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 not only killed 100,000 people, but also shaped faith and thinking in Europe like no other catastrophe before it. The Enlightenment in Europe soon led to more and more thinkers fundamentally doubting God's existence. And if such a thing did exist, he would have to appear to us as a monster who did not prevent the terrible things from happening, but actually allowed them to happen.
The age-old theme of God's justice is also at the centre of the biblical book of Job. A very clear, almost artistic order can be recognised in it. It corresponds to the idea of the famous icon artist Jerzy Nowosieslki, who once said: "A good work of art should recognise a clear order in its composition."
Theological research distinguishes in the structure of the Book of Job between a "frame story", written in prose, and the very long main part, skilfully composed in poetry. They surmised that the two parts must come from different sources, representing different views on the question of God's justice. Today, the book is increasingly seen as a unit again. This opinion also corresponds to the findings of psychology in the field of traumatic experiences. If there were only the view of the framework story, it would even have to be judged as psychologically dangerous.
We encounter evil in the book of Job in the form of Satan. He appears before God with the quite realistic claim that Job only believes in him because he is doing very well. God simply has to take away all his wealth and he will see Job blaspheming in his face.
But because God believes that Job's piety is genuine, he allows Satan to do this. What follows are the famous "bad tidings": robbers invade the land, steal Job's incredibly large herd of cattle and kill his servants as well. When Job receives the news, the next bad news follows: as his sons are celebrating a big party, a huge storm blows up, destroys their tent and kills them all.
Job's reaction is incredibly godly, when all he says is "The LORD gave, the LORD has taken away, the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:21) Satan, on the other hand, does not give up his plan and demands an even tougher test from God: "Let Job become deathly ill, and he will surely blaspheme in your face." God also allows this to happen, which is completely incomprehensible to us. Job is attacked by evil sores from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. They plague him to such an extent that no human being could endure them. The whole thing comes to a head when Job's wife says to him: "Are you still convinced that you are blameless for all this? Blaspheme God and die!" And Job replies, still convinced: "We take the good from God, and we should not accept the evil?" (Job 2:10)
I am ashamed when I hear these words even today, when very pious people try to comfort others who have experienced a difficult fate. What they say is well-intentioned, but completely inappropriate. If I were to say something like that to someone in Ukraine in today's war, it would simply be poisoned arrows that are very hurtful.
If we could only read this first part in the book of Job, the frame story, it would simply be an old story for us, as we also find with certain saints who were prepared to die as martyrs. Or we would characterise Job's faith in God as morbid.
In the continuation of the book, however, we also find another Job, who does not simply submit to his fate as God-given, but shows his resistance.In my counselling work, I have also encountered people who initially reacted like Job. They seemed incredibly calm to me and were even admired by many in their resignation to their fate, but I was still very worried about them. At some point, they lose their composure and fall into a major crisis until they are finally able to admit their repressed feelings and questions, which then require a long period of medical treatment. However, I am less concerned about other people who are able to admit their feelings and questions at an early stage. But sometimes even then, specialists are needed.
Job's path back to life becomes a long story. Very helpfully, he learns that some of his friends will soon be coming to him. They simply sit with him for seven days and keep quiet. But then Job suddenly begins to speak. The whole thing hits him like an avalanche and in his utter despair he says: "Blotted out is the day when I was born and the night that said, 'A boy has been conceived. Why was I not allowed to perish in the womb, to come out of the womb and die? Why did my knees receive me, and why did my breasts give me drink? I would already be lying down and resting, I would be sleeping and at peace.Why does he give light to the suffering and life to those who are embittered? That which I was afraid of came upon me, and that which I dreaded came upon me. I have not found peace, nor rest, nor quietness; only restlessness has come upon me." (From Job 3)
Now even his friends are no longer silent. Horrified, they try to help him, using views that we still recognise today. Theology refers to their scheme as the "do-or-die connection". They believe that nothing in this world happens for no reason. Anyone who sins experiences the corresponding consequences at some point. A hard fate is deserved.
But Job contradicts this, again and again over many chapters. With the best will in the world, he finds nothing that makes him deserve his suffering. He courageously refuses to convince himself that he has a guilty conscience. Job also questions God: not that he would deny his existence, but he wants an answer from him. This is the context of the famous words that we can also hear touchingly in some oratorios: "I know that my Saviour lives", literally: "I know that (God,) my advocate lives". He is convinced that God must agree with him.
Because Job rejects the inappropriate views of his friends, someone else who thinks he knows better tries. His conviction has become proverbial: "If God loves, he will chastise him." (We only find these words once in the Bible, in Hebrews 12:6). But Job also rejects this idea of God.
So in the end, only God remains for him. And finally it happens, God begins to speak. But what God says to him seems very strange to us. He simply talks for a very long time about many secrets in creation that make us humans realise how little we know even today. God gives Job a great lesson in animal science. God gives him an insight into his greatness and gives him an idea of how great he must also be with regard to man.
But very surprisingly, Job finds peace. Not that he now knows why he had to suffer. But he manages to live without a real answer. Even a great faith in God is not an explanation for everything. Perhaps we will learn the background later when we meet God himself in his eternity. But perhaps we won't even want to know then.
God also calls Job's friends to account: "But you have not spoken the truth about me like my servant Job". (Job 42:7) For me, this statement is one of the greatest things we read about God in the Bible. Because it shows us that God likes it when we allow our questions and do not allow ourselves to be put off cheaply. We are allowed to ask God our questions, just like Job did. I believe that God has a thick skin when it comes to us humans. But he does not simply tolerate false images of God from us that limit him to our own scheme of things.
Back to the question, why does God allow evil? There are no satisfactory answers for us. But there is a way, which the Book of Job points out and knowledge of psychology confirms.
Max Hartmann
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