Job Finishes His Defence

29Job again took up his discourse and said:
² ‘O that I were as in the months of old,
   as in the days when God watched over me;
³ when his lamp shone over my head,
   and by his light I walked through darkness;
⁴ when I was in my prime,
   when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
⁵ when the Almighty^* was still with me,
   when my children were around me;
⁶ when my steps were washed with milk,
   and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city,
   when I took my seat in the square,
⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew,
   and the aged rose up and stood;
⁹ the nobles refrained from talking,
   and laid their hands on their mouths;
¹⁰ the voices of princes were hushed,
   and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
¹¹ When the ear heard, it commended me,
   and when the eye saw, it approved;
¹² because I delivered the poor who cried,
   and the orphan who had no helper.
¹³ The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
   and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
   my justice was like a robe and a turban.
¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind,
   and feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy,
   and I championed the cause of the stranger.
¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the unrighteous,
   and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
¹⁸ Then I thought, “I shall die in my nest,
   and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix;^*
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
   with the dew all night on my branches;
²⁰ my glory was fresh with me,
   and my bow ever new in my hand.

prime of life

This brilliant speech is written by the author of the Job drama to show at least two movements of Job’s mind:

1. A bitterly fresh and moving memory of his prime, “with the dew all night on my branches”, which includes his pride in the justice he did for people in need. Once, all kinds of goodness lay within his power; once he was what a human being is meant to be. For readers like me no longer in the prime of life the passage evokes the bitter-sweetness of life, subject to chance and the passage of time; as well as the peculiarly painful sharpness of good memories.

2. A slightly self-righteous absence of humilty or self-doubt: Job does not question himself enough, which is why, in the great climax of the drama, he will be questioned by God himself. He needs his sense of self-worth to counter the banal piety of his “comforters”, but his sense of entitlement needs to be  shaken. Only those who have been very fortunate in life develop this sense of entitlement-“I am not poor; Iam someone who helps the poor”-and it’s not an attractive quality.

There is a very shrewd wisdom expressed in this writing.

John 10:31-42

31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³²Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ ³³The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ ³⁴Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law,^* “I said, you are gods”? ³⁵If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods”—and the scripture cannot be annulled— ³⁶can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? ³⁷If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. ³⁸But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand^* that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ ³⁹Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.

40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. ⁴¹Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’ ⁴²And many believed in him there.

son of God

Jesus quotes scripture in defence of his unity with the one he calls Father. It is a hint that this unity although unique at the time of debate is transferable: “but to those who did receive him to those he gave the power to become children of God” (John 1); Jesus’ uniqueness as God’s son invites others to share this intimacy with the Father. His opponents see this teaching as blasphemous self-agrandisement. Jesus challenges them to judge the issue by the things he does. Are these the actions of a blasphemer? If not, they should be more ready to trust him.

Those who have doctrinal difficulties with the concept of Jesus as God’s son are invited by this text to look at his actions and to understand from them what it is to be a child of God. The “new atheism ” expressed in both Britian and the USA, very rarely looks with any common sense at the story of Jesus, except perhaps to questions his miracles. I’m convinced that that’s where the discussion should begin, so that it may focus on issues of what makes life worthwhile rather than sterile argument about the existence of God.