Posted to Beer Lahai Roi by Lisa Laree
Job is...interesting. It kind of falls into the same category as Ecclesiastes. The words are coming from individuals who are not necessarily speaking the heart of God. This is a narrative, a recording of conversations about faith from folks who are speaking from assumptions that they can't really back up (sound familiar?). People who are coming from a 'this is what makes sense to me' viewpoint...because when the events recorded in Job took place, there was no written word, no Law...just the oral traditions.. Job is considered to be the oldest book of the Bible; Job is generally accepted to have lived during the time of the Patriarchs, before the deportation to Egypt, due to his very long life. So we can, perhaps, understand why there may have been some misunderstandings about the character and nature of God.
So what that boils down to is that the context has to be carefully considered when looking at verses from Job. A verse considered outside of that context could be...misleading.
I have debated how to cover this, since there is so much here. There is a pattern to the speechification, with each of the friends speaking and Job answering. Eliphaz and Bildad each speak three times and Zophar speaks twice. So I think I will split it into rounds. The first round is Job's original lament, then comments from each friend with a rebuttal from Job in chapters 3-14 and actually only has 2 references to heart/ hearts; the second round is chapters 15 - 21, with three references.
It's worth noting that the discussions/ arguments all seem to agree that Job's afflictions are judgement. The difference is that Job has no idea what he could have done to warrant such calamity and his friends are all convinced that he has some hidden, secret sin that needs to be confessed ...and press him to just open up and confess/ repent. Hence the arguments. Job gets ticked at this friends for the presumptions of his guilt, and gets rather sarcastic with them at times (another reason to consider the context of any particular verse).
So, with that in mind...let's see what the book of Job has to say about heart/ hearts...
The first reference is in chapter 10, and Job is speaking to God here
"But his is what you concealed in your heart, and I know this was in your mind: if I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished. If I am guilty -- woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction." -- Job 10:13 - 15; 'heart' is Strong's H3824 again...Lebab - 'inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding'. Back in 10:2, Job asked God to tell me what charges you have against me. He kind of portrays a common misconception of God...that God sits in the heavens and waits on us to mess up so he can smack us down.
Zophar's response to Job also contains the word heart -
"Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear." -- Job 11:13-15; 'heart' is Strong's H3820, Leb, the common variant of Lebab, 'inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding'.
Hammering home the opinion that Job just needs to repent of the hidden thing and he'll be fine.
In the second round of exchanges, Eliphaz asks
"Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?" - Job 15:12-13 'Heart is H3820 again. Um, the guy lost absolutely everything...from his wealth to his position in the community to his health to his children. Job was grieving. He didn't understand. We know that he couldn't possibly have understood as the tragedy really wasn't about him at all...it was about the individual who was watching his life. But I think this illustrates some unconscious expectations that folks have...that their friends who suffer loss should do their grieving in a specific way and be 'over it' at some random time.
It doesn't work that way. Grief is individual, and what happens in the heart of someone going through it is really not open to inspection by other people. The loss of his children was a permanent loss. He eventually got all his stuff and his standing in the community and even his health back, but he never got his children. He had more, to be sure, and they were fine folks to be proud of. But his older kids were just a memory for the rest of his life.
To add insult to injury, Eliphaz went on to describe the consequences to folks who do evil...implying that the events that happened in Job's life fell into that litany, so therefore, he must have done evil.
It was rough.
Job responds, rather testily ('miserable comforters are you all!' - 16:1), but sums up where he is:
"My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart." -- Job 17:11; 'heart' is H 3824 again.
Job really believed his story was at an end.
But, after Bildad reiterates the fate of the wicked, Job replies with a speech that includes a declaration that rings through the ages and is all the more poignant given his circumstances:
"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes -- I, and not another. How my heart years within me!" -- Job 19:25-27
Wow, this is interesting...the word translated 'Heart' here is Strong's H 3627 - Kilya, which, well, means 'Kidneys' -- seat of emotion and affection, figuratively.
The KJV translates this phrase - 'though my reins be consumed within me'...reins? Looking at the descriptions in the lexicon, I am taking it to mean that 'reins' just referred to internal organs in general. Which would make sense in the verse....'I myself will see him with my own eyes -- I, though my internal organs are consumed within me'. It still shows Job's absolute faith that he would see God, although one connotation is that he was anxiously awaiting that moment and the other is just a reiteration of his conviction that it didn't matter what happened to his physical body (ie, making a pairing of 'after my skin has been destroyed' and 'my internal organs are consumed within me') he knew he would stand before God as himself.
That whole declaration is a pretty amazing thought for the time. Job called God 'my redeemer'...which clearly not only describes a personal relationship to God but foreshadows the coming of Jesus, the Redeemer. It was Job's anchor in the pain.
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