Testing, Testing....1, 2, 3

This week has been trying. This is to say the least. Many extenuating circumstances have made this week less than stellar for me.  I have kind of felt like Job.  No, not because I've lost all my stuff (quite the opposite, actually... the only thing I've lost is my mind, Folks!), but because I feel like I've been tested... and tested... and tested this week. I've had my patience tested, my ability to sleep like a college student again tested, my organizational skills tested, and the list goes on an on.  Unlike Job, however, I haven't been so great at the praising God part. I've tried so hard to keep it together for my job, my husband, my kids, my sanity, that I think I have been forgetting to praise God and be thankful for the things given to me and the blessings I do have. I am working on that part still.

This week, I listened to a portion of a podcast at professionalleft.blogspot.com by Driftglass and Blue Gal.  The podcast is "270: Prayer Breakfasts, Blasphemy, and Aaron Schock." (Please note there is explicit language throughout the podcast). The portion I listened to was from about 22:00 - 32:00. In this podcast, which seems a bit incomplete (by this, I mean I feel like I was missing the point of the podcast or the fullness in which the conversation was being done with), but apparently Stephen Fry was charged with blasphemy because he claimed he would ask God at judgement day "Why let children suffer?"  The podcast hosts then turned their attention to Job and how Fry's comment could be related to the story of Job.

In their discussion of Job, which seems half-hearted (or maybe half-informed is a better word) at best, the pair discusses the book of Job.  Some claims they made were fairly accurate, but some were not.
Others just felt incomplete.

** Note: I took notes while listening, so I'm using words directly from their podcast to categorize what I felt was right, wrong, or incomplete.

Correct:

• “God’s a jerk in Job.” While I have to admit I'm not to keen on calling God a jerk (as in, I would make my middle and high school youth pick a new word in this instance had they called God that...), it seems a bit true. He definitely comes across as a bully, especially when he has tested Job so much and has taken so much away from him.  In the end, God puts Job into his place (read Job 38-41) and suggests he not question God again! 
•  “One of the most honest books in the Bible.  It’s about the best man being tested and having everything taken away.” I can agree with the statement that Job is one of the most honest books in the Bible, if not the most honest book! I think we all want to strive to be obedient like Job, but in reality, Job's devotion has me in shock. I can't imagine losing all that Job does (I will speak more about "having everything taken away" in another point...that part of the statement from the podcast was a little off to me) and still remaining faithful.  I think I'd cave on the niceties and brood against God if I was put in the same situation!
• "Job followed every rule to a T; he made good with the contract he had made with God." True. Job was like the best Christian ever -- he followed all the rules, made a conscious effort to be faithful to what he was told, and held firm to his beliefs.

Incorrect: 

• Job's wife died. This is one of the most blinding inaccuracies I came away from the podcast wondering about. "Driftglass" claims as an aside at the beginning of this portion of the podcast that "Job is his favorite book." After making the claim though that Job's wife died, I began wondering if the pair has actually read all of Job.  I do not recall anywhere in the book that Job's wife died.
• "Bet with the Devil that if you take away this guy's good stuff, he'll turn against God." Another inaccuracy I felt was portrayed in this podcast was their ideas that God and the satan bet each other about what would happen to Job.  I don't think that God actually bet with the satan.  By saying this, it means that both parties involved in the "bet" were hoping to gain something from the outcome. I don't think God ever bets on any of us, because he knows our human faults and that we will ultimately fail. The only thing God got out of the deal with Job (or with any of us for that matter), was heartbreak.  Much like the love of a parent to a child, God knows the heartbreak of parenthood and he knew by testing and stripping Job of the things and people he loved, God would "lose" Job, albeit temporarily. 

Incomplete:

• "God took everything away from Job." I think that this piece is somewhat incomplete, because it implies that Job has everything that is able to be taken away. While Job has a full life, he doesn't have everything. I don't think it's really about Job's stuff being taken away anyhow. Job did lose all of his earthly possession and those he loved, but I think "everything" needs to direct us away from thinking about the material possessions and thinking more about losing everything Job had in God. Job went through a period and starting questioning whether God was there for him or not. The fact that Job felt alone and lost, without the One to whom he had been so faithful, that shows that Job lost everything. 

Overall, I question what the purpose for the podcast was.  Was it to make funnies and create controversies? The podcast personalities definitely had some good points that seem mostly accurate, but also had some incomplete and inaccurate points as well. 

On a side note, I want to briefly mention the reading from Bandstra's chapter called "Proverbs and Wisdom: The Wisdom of Israel" (Click here to read). In this chapter, Bandstra discusses wisdom literature. He says "Every culture finds ways to transmit its accumulated knowledge, sometimes through storytelling or through institutions of learning" (Bandstra 397-398). We see this in our own country throughout different cultures, peoples (I think of Native American literature, for example), and traditions. Of the Biblical wisdom literature (which includes Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, by the way!), Bandstra shares that

Whatever the original context of instruction, the content of instruction eventually came to be written down.  The wisdom books provide direction to those who sought to conduct their lives in a moral and productive way. They may have functioned as textbooks for those who were teaching and learning how to manage life: how to think, how to cope, how to succeed (Bandstra 398).

I think the most striking part of this quote from Bandstra is that these wisdom writings were used to teach and learn life management skills including thinking, coping, and succeeding. While the Bible sometimes seems like we are incapable of fully understanding, we can relate to the fact that the sharing of stories among generations is done to help nurture and grow the generations to come.  This is a lovely sentiment!

T-OOTLE-oo!

Melissa