Week Twenty Reading Assignment:
Job 2 - Job 24

"Before her disappearance into the silence of the text, however, (Job's wife) has triggered the wrath of her husband, suggesting that her response to the monstrous succession of disasters which have befallen him is not just one more calamity, but the last straw.  It is a convincing scene, rendered with the utmost economy, though I did not fully understand it until I had lived long enough to learn at first hand that perhaps the worst effect of seemingly gratuitous household calamity is turning the survivors against one another; as they project the guilt they cannot help feeling for having survived onto whomever they most dearly love, or whoever merely happens to be closest at hand."

(Leslie Fiedler, Congregation)

This Week's Teaching Video: Job:  Faith in Pain 

Job's Book and Job's Story

Good Book Review:
True to Life

When you drive along a highway, signposts tell you when you have left one territory and entered another.  City limits, county lines, “Welcome to Wisconsin” — these are the kinds of boundaries that are marked for us along the road. If the signs were not there, we might pass from one place to the next without realizing it. 

As we read through the Bible, cover-to-cover, a few chapters a day, there are no such signposts.  Except for the break between the Old Testament and the New Testament, we are not alerted to the fact that we’re leaving one territory and entering another.

When we begin to read the Book of Job, therefore, we may instinctively read it the same way that we have been reading all of the preceding material: as an historical account. But Job is among “the writings,” the poetry books, and does not necessarily make the claim of being a "true" story in the sense of being historical.

But, of course, it is a true story.  Even if Job is not an actual historical character like Samuel, David, and Elijah, his story is undeniably true. 

The undeserved suffering of a righteous man.  The accumulation of misfortune and tragedy that afflicts some people.  The sometimes useless comfort of well-meaning (even religious) friends. And the crisis of faith that so often follows in the wake of suffering.  All of these elements and experiences are very familiar to us.  And they make this story about Job true:  true to life.    

Border Crossing: 
Introduction to The Writings

Somewhere along the way, we cross a border into new territory.  In the Hebrew Bible, we crossed from "former prophets" to "writings" when we finished 2 Kings and began reading 1 Chronicles.  In the table of contents and arrangement of the Christian Bible, meanwhile, we cross from "history books" to "writings" when we finish Esther and begin reading Job.

Whatever standard you use, the fact is that we are in a different kind of material now.  

And what is this new material?  In the Christian Bible, it is comprised of books  written mostly in poetry form.  And, specifically, it is those books that do not properly belong in any of the other major categories (i.e., Law, History, or the Prophets).  In the Hebrew Bible, which classifies more books as "writings," the category is even less clear.  Indeed, it might even be regarded as a kind of a catch-all category: a collection of books, which were embraced as canonical, but which were neither "Law" nor "Prophets."

For our purposes, "the writings" are comprised of five books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.  Three of those (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) come from what is often called "the wisdom tradition" in ancient Israel.  We'll explore that phenomenon more in a few weeks.  The Book of Psalms, meanwhile, is a magnificent compendium of prayers, hymns, and testimonies.  And, finally, the Song of Solomon is a series of very passionate poems reflecting the love between a man and a woman.    

So this is the material we have crossed over into.  It feels different than reading history books, as we have been doing for so long.  And, indeed, these books deserve to be read differently.  We do well, therefore, to make note of the fact that we have crossed a border: it's a new stage of our year-long journey through the Bible, and we should be prepared to view this new territory with somewhat different eyes. 
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