Saturday, October 26, 2013

Ecclesiastes: Chapters 7 to 12

Last time, the Book of Ecclesiastes began.  Now to finish it up.



CHAPTER 7



For me, Ecclesiastes peaks early.   The second half isn’t bad, but all its greatest moments are in the rearview mirror.

Take Chapter 7, for instance.  It starts off really gloomy, telling us that it’s better to go into a house of mourning than one feasting and that sorrow is better than laughter.  Huh?  Is this the same guy who earlier was (and later will) counsel us to enjoy life when we can.  I don’t quite get this part.  Oh, I understand the sentences, but I don’t see how it fits in this guy’s worldview. 

But he goes on, and sounds more like himself later on.  He tells us, “Who can make straight what God has made crooked?  One a good day, enjoy good things and on an evil day consider: Both the one and the other God has made, so that no one may find the least fault with him.”   Basically, this sounds like a defeatist version of the serenity prayer.  Lord help me to change the things I can change, accept the ones I can’t, and the ability to tell the two apart.  Here?  We’re being told that when in doubt – assume we can’t change.  Just accept life as it is. 

While I earlier made a big comparison between this book and Buddhism, this sounds more Daoist.  That was a folk religion in China that was often the wisdom and religion of the dispossessed.  The poor farmers couldn’t change things, and Daoism counseled them to just go with the flow and not fight against the way of life.  This is saying something similar. 

One theory is that this book was written at a time when the Jews were under strong foreign domination and unable to control their own affairs.  Yeah, I can see that.  These views do come through in this book.

We’re then given some practical advice.  Don’t give your heart to every word you’ve spoken.  There are sometimes wicked people up high. 

Oh, and then it ends on a note of sexism.  We’re told that few men are wise, but no women are.  Yeah, that puts a damper on my typical good feelings for this book.

CHAPTER 8

Again, we’re given more wisdom of the dispossessed.  When you’re given a command, follow along.  You can’t fight against it and the king has the power.  Please note that this book has a very bleak attitude towards people in power, so following orders in this book means following bad orders.  This is the logic and philosophy of a survivor.  This is very much the anti-martyr philosophy. 

Oh, and I really like this line: “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not promptly executed the human heart is filled with the desire to commit evil.”  Yeah, doesn’t that drive us all up the wall and encourage us to do something we otherwise wouldn’t? 

Then the book flips around the notion of God being unknowable.  We already learned that from Job, but here we’re told that since he’s unknowable, you may as well follow the edicts listed here in this book.  The world isn’t pure so don’t be pure yourself. 

CHAPTER 9

By this time, the book has already made its points.  It’s just elaborating.  Really, it’s just reinforcing – by which I’m mean repeating, but I’m trying to sound nice about it. 

There are some more good lines in it: “As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner.”  Yup, as was in Job, the world isn’t a moral wonderland.  The bad guys don’t always get theirs. 

Later, we get this nice bit: “the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the valiant, nor a livelihood by the wise, nor riches by the shrewd, nor favor by the experts; for a time misfortune comes to all alike.”  Huh.  I’ve heard that “the race is not won by the swift” line, but usually its used to mean something else.  Usually it means you should pace yourself.  Here it means we’re all doomed. 

CHAPTER 10

No one knows when evil may come to you.  You’ll never know what day your number is up.  So keep your head down and don’t cause any problems.  This is very Daoist; very much the philosophy of the dispossessed.  We’re told not to curse the bad rulers even to yourself in your bathroom, for if you do the birds might here and tell the kings. 

Yeah, that’s bleak.  Yeah, that’s dispossessed.  I’m also reminded of a machine politics town like Chicago.  Don’t mess with the machine, just do your part.  Don’t make no waves, don’t back no losers – just go along to get along.

CHAPTER 11

This is similar to the last chapter.  It says you’ll never know what day good will come to you.  But while that sounds more upbeat, the point is still the same. 

CHAPTER 12

We get a poem that ends as the book began: “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, all things are vanity!” 

We get a brief epilogue, in which we’re told to fear God and follow his commandments.  That’s nice, but while it doesn’t necessarily go against the book, it sounds a little like something tacked on.  I wonder if someone else put it in after the original writer was done.  It reads like the “all things are vanity” line should’ve been how it ended.  It was circular with the beginning and thematically in place.  But that’s a downer ending, so insert this bit about fearing God.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Yeah, I really like this one.  This is one of my favorite Bible books.  But it probably isn’t my favorite overall. 

It’s great and I really like it, but it runs out of steam.  Even though it’s only 12 chapters long, I get a lot – a tremendous amount – out of the first handful of chapters.  I really like the distinctive voice.  I like the philosophy which veers away from much of the Bible and goes toward Buddhism and Daoism.  But then it keeps going.

But this is one of my favorites.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Ecclesiastes: Chapters 1 to 6

Click here for the second half of Proverbs (which is the books just before Ecclesiastes in the Bible): 



CHAPTER 1

All right!  Finally!  I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since I started reading it – Ecclesiastes! 

I read the Bible cover-to-cover once before; around 1997-98.  At that time, this was my favorite Bible book.  I’ve always maintained that the Bible is at its best when it’s at its most human, and here there is such a clear and distinctive voice ringing out in very verse.  I don’t know who wrote this book, but he clearly wrote only this book.  There is nothing else like it in the Bible.

And it’s such a bracing shift.  In 1997-98, I read the Bible perfectly in order, so this came after reading Psalms and Proverbs.  I’m aware that people find those among the best and most inspiring books of the Bible.  OK, but I doubt they read all 150 psalms and 31 chapters of proverbs straight through.  That’s not how they should be approached.  They should be leafed through on occasion.  That’s why this time, instead of reading it all in order, I’m reading a lot of the wisdom books – Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom and Ben Siri – off on the side.  Those things are just wearying to read though all by themselves.

But not Ecclesiastes.  Sure, it’s a wisdom book, but it’s such a different one.   It grabs you right from the beginning and doesn’t let go.  Oh, there’s no plot. There is no action.  It’s just a guy spouting off.  But it’s spellbinding. 

The speaker calls himself “Qoheleth” which is ancient Hebrew for “Compiler.”  The word Ecclesiastes is just a Greek translation.  He claims to be Solomon, but it’s pretty clear that’s a bunch of bunk. 

He gets your attention with his first words: “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity!”  Well, hello there.  I told you this book speaks with a distinctive voice.  In fact, I can recall my impression when I read this 15-some years ago.  Unlike every other Bible book, I had a mental image of the writer – and I had it right away.  I imagined a street corner preacher.  A little tattered, a born worn down.  Not a crazed homeless preacher – but, well, at least I think he isn’t.  But maybe he is.  At any rate, I imagine the entire book – the entire 12 chapters – as a guy standing on a street corner of a busy Chicago intersection and shouting this at the crowd as they roll by.  They don’t stop, but he keeps going. 

Vanity of vanities!, he insists. It’s all a load of bunk.  Then he starts explaining, and its some of the best written passages of the Bible.  Look, what profit do we have from our toil? One generation dies and another is born?  The sun rises and it sets, the seasons come and go.  The world lasts forever, but people sure don’t.  “All rivers flow to the sea, yet never does the sea become full!”  Yeah, that’s a nice one. 

Nothing is new under the sun!  Hey – that’s a famous one.  We’ve gotten three of four really great lines so far, and I’m only nine verses in.  And you can not only appreciate the fine way of words, but see a very interesting and notable point.  We all strive to be remembered, we all strive to leave our mark.  But in the end, we all die anyway.  It’s all vanity of vanities!

You got to admit, he’s got a point.  Yup, it’s a good point – but it’s hardly a point you’d expect from the Bible, now is it?  Sure, the Old Testament isn’t really concerned with the afterlife.  That’s a Christian thing for the most part.  But this one ….man, forget the afterlife, he isn’t that concerned with God really.  Much of the Bible will glory in God’s creations and his plan.  Even Job, while criticizing God on the grounds of morality, even there God is central.  Ecclesiastes is more humanistic.  It’s focused on how humans should try to conduct themselves in a world where all is transitory.  And while God gets a mention, the purpose of love as expounded will not all be about loving God.

Instead, our author decides to focus on wisdom.  That’s what it’s all about right?  We won’t last but wisdom will.  Guess what – that’s a bunch of bunk. Too.  Wisdom is also “a chase after wind.” 

Wait – stop.  Nuts. By and large I’ve liked the Bible I’ve been using.  By and large it’s worked well, because as near as I can tell it’s trying to keep its translations as close to the original as it can.  But this is one time I think I prefer the traditional translation.  A chase after wind?  How about “grasping for the wind.”  That’s more evocative. 

So wisdom itself is a vanity.  You pursue it and pursue it and pursue it – and then you die anyway.  This is quite a departure from the rest of the Bible on wisdom.  It’s frankly a bit of a welcome corrective.  Just earlier today I finished reading the Book of Wisdom (available in the Catholic Bible only) and that writer glorifies wisdom to the point of excess.   His praise becomes puffery.  Also, at times you get the feeling he isn’t so good at relating to people, just ideas.  A lot of these wisdom books seem to be the product of bookish introverts who love the Torah because they are socially inept.  So its rather bracing to see a guy jump out at you – a guy who seems like he has quite a lot of experience interacting with others, and his philosophy comes less from books and more from everyday life.  But maybe I’m getting ahead of things here.

Oh, I almost forget – there is another great line later on in this chapter: “What is crooked cannot be made straight.” 

Also, all these words of mine aside, I haven’t even gotten to the main impression I have from Ecclesiastes.  This is where suddenly, out of nowhere, the keys to the Bible’s editing room have been handed off to a Buddhist.  No, not a literal follower of Buddha, but a lot of the ideas here seem like they’d fit better in that religion than the rest of the Bible.

I don’t have time/inclination to get into a thorough depiction of Buddhism, so let’s stick with the basics here.  The Buddha was a guy in search of The Truth.  He tried the typical path – self-denial.  That was how many holy men thought you did it back in India back in the day.  But Buddha came to think that was pointless.  Maybe you feel more morally upright for doing it, but without enough food, you can’t think as clearly, and how is that the path to self-enlightenment.  In other words, self-denial, is just another vanity – one of the vanity of vanities, as Ecclesiastes might say.

So Buddha took a time out and figured out his system.  He created his philosophy that was centered on the Four Noble Truths.  These are the core elements of Buddhism.  First, life is full of suffering.  Second, suffering is caused by our attachments.  Third, if you can extinguish your attachments, you can end your suffering (and then break out of the endless cycles of rebirth and reincarnation, and instead achieve pure enlightenment – nirvana).  Fourth, you can achieve nirvana by following the eight-fold path.  (More on the path later on).

Now, this isn’t a perfect fit for Ecclesiastes.  That much is clear.  There is no belief in reincarnation, for instance.  But there are interesting core similarities.  The author here thinks that all is transitory – life, wisdom, our achievements – all of it.  That fits Buddhism’s philosophy very well.  Also, this book argues that life is full of vanities – futile attempts to leave a lasting mark.  Yeah, those are the attachments.  They are the things that keep you here, but are ultimately elusive illusions. 

But both Ecclesiastes and Buddhism have a way out.  Both have a way to find peace and happiness.  We’ll get to that as we go along.

CHAPTER 2

Our writer figures that wisdom is just another vanity because the wise man dies just as a fool will.  Since it’s all vanity of vanities and a chase for the wind,

So he figures he’ll know what he’ll do.  He’ll give in to hedonism.  He’ll have wine and folly.  Sounds like fun.  He gains all sorts of possessions (remember: the writer is claiming to be Solomon here).  He gets all the bling he can have and “nor did I deprive myself of any joy.”   All right, party on down, Solomon!

But guess what?  All this too was a vanity and just a chase of the wind.  There is no profit under the sun in doing these things.  And it’s here that the writer directly takes on wisdom.  That’s his next thing, but the wise die like the fool.  Nothing really seems to matter, no matter what you do.

So he turns to toil next.  How about that?  Nah, that’s also a vanity.  It leaves no lasting legacy at all.  So far, in his own way, the Ecclesiastes author is mirroring the journey of Buddha before he figured out his Four Noble Paths.  Not perfectly, of course, but he’s looking for answers; looking for a way – and he can’t find it in the places where he’s supposed to.  This guy rejects wisdom as the be-all and end-all, just as Buddha rejected self-denial.  This guy rejects hedonism as a vanity, and Buddha saw it as pointless.  Both guys are looking for their Answer.

And he starts finding it.  The writer finishes the chapter noting, “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and rink and provide themselves with good things from their toil.  Even this, I saw, is from the hand of god.  For who can eat or drink apart from God?” 

This sounds like hedonism, but as we’ll see in Chapter 3, he isn’t calling for that.  He’s just calling for enjoying everything in its place.  So let’s get to Chapter 3.

CHAPTER 3

Cue Roger McGuinn.  Yeah, the first eight verses are among the most famous lines of the entire Bible.  If you’ve ever heard the old Byrds song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” here are the lyrics.  They just took them directly out of the Bible and put it to music.  Great song – and it helps that they took some great words.

I’m not going to quote it all, but here’s a brief sampling: “A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal.”  And so on.  Everything has a time and place for everything.

(Quick nitpick – and if you know your Byrds, you’ll also notice something else – my Bible’s translation strikes again.  “A time to uproot the plant.”  How about “A time to sow.”  That’s the traditional and more poetic translation.  Even worse, it changes the intro from “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”  My Bible says: “There is an appointed time for everything and a time for every affair under the heavens.”  Man, Roger McGuinn would have a trouble making some of that fit the meter).

But you can see the point.  Everything is good if done in the right place.  Things aren’t pure evil or bad – they just need to be done in the right place. 

OK, let’s go back to Buddhism for a second.  Remember those Four Noble Truths?  Well, we left off saying you could achieve the pure enlightenment that is nirvana by following the Eightfold Path.  So what is it?  This: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.  By doing those things, you can achieve nirvana.

Look, it’s not a perfect fit at all.  I’m not claiming it is.  But it strikes me that a root concern exists that unites them – appropriateness.  Everything should be done appropriately.  There is no ultimate Right or Wrong here (and can I note how completely out of character that is for the Bible) but just a place and season to do all actions, and a right mindset and action for Buddhists.  The Eightfold Path is more mental and the “Turn! Turn! Turn!” lyrics are pretty much all about actions, but again – it’s all about doing the appropriate measure under the circumstance. 

Oh, and it’s just frickin’ beautifully written here.  Mustn’t overlook that.

Those are just the first eight verses.  Now the writer expands on it, noting, “I recognized that there is nothing better than to rejoice and to do well during life.  Moreover, that one can eat and drink and enjoy the good of all their toil – this is a gift of God.”  I’m reminded of a quote from Ben Franklin that alcohol is a sign that God wants us to be happy.

Also, and as I just alluded to a second ago, this is a very weird book for the Bible.  This eschews much of the morality the rest of the Bible has.  It’s not really giving theology.  OK, so there are some God references sprinkled in, but that’s not the main focus.  The main focus here is how to live a good life.  And telling people that there is a time and place for everything and it’s OK to enjoy your life – well, while that doesn’t necessarily go against religion, it also doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with religion.  That’s just plain good old-fashioned commonsense advice. 

From what I know, Ecclesiastes is often considered to be a ringer.  It’s a book included in the Bible that purely on points probably doesn’t belong.  It’s not so much about God.  But they put it anyway.  How can they leave it out?  I’m sure it was far too well-known and far too popular to leave out when printing technology moved from scroll to book-format. 

If much of the Bible was written by priests – think Leviticus and Deuteronomy, for two of the more obvious examples – then this is a book written by a disillusioned commoner.  He flatly states, “And still under the sun in the judgment place I saw wickedness, and wickedness also in the seat of justice.”  You can trust the official power centers.  You can’t leave any lasting marks.  In fact, a little later her informs us that people are often like beasts – “Both have the same life breath.  Human beings have no advantages over beats, but all is vanity.”  So just enjoy your life and your work – but do it all appropriately.

Actually, the more I get into this, the more earth-bound this seems than Buddhism.  There is just a stronger focus on spiritually there than I’m reading here. I know it’s odd to say how a Bible book seems to lack spirituality, but this is a different kind of Bible book.

CHAPTER 4

Pop quiz!  Tell me, does this following quote sound like it comes from the Bible or a Buddhist sutra:

“Better is one handful with tranquility than two with toil and a chase after wind!” 

No, it’s not out of place in either source, I guess.  And yeah, clearly it comes from the Bible – Chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes!  How did you ever guess! (verse 6, to be exact). – But it also sounds like something Buddhist, doesn’t it?

This one spends a lot of time noting how the people in charge are vipers.  They are so bad that the dead have it better than the living, but at least the living have it better than the unborn, who still don’t know what a mess they’ll soon join.  Wow – this is a cynical book of the Bible!

There is later some talk of the advantages of living with someone else.  That other person can be a pick-me-up when you need one (and this writer sure needs one!)  Oh, and we also get the phrase, “Two are better than one.”  Oh, so that’s where that phrase comes from. 

But while the writer has written a hit song in “Turn! Turn!Turn!” he is still looking for his answer.  He is still finding it all to be vanity.  He is still chasing after wind for his truth.  It’s funny, as I thought he already had it.  Maybe I’ll soon be proven wrong, or maybe it’s just circular writing. 

CHAPTER 5

Time for some more common sense wisdom that has little to do with God or religion or any of the other things you’d expect the Bible to focus on.  We’re told, “If you see oppression of the poor, and violation of rights and justice in the realm, do not be astonished by the fact.”  Huh.  Man, shit happens in this life and just because it ain’t supposed to be that way is no excuse for expecting it to be that way. 

One of the worst evils of all are the rich who always want more.  As long as there are riches, there are the ravenous to devour them.  The writer singles this out as bad an evil as he’s seen.  They spend so much time looking for more and more, that they never enjoy what they have.  It’s all just pushing and pushing for more.  People need to stop and smell the roses more often. 

This gives us yet another great moment from the Ecclesiastes writer.  Should misfortune befall the ever anxious-rich, then they will lose all and, “As they came forth from their mother’s womb, so again shall they return, naked as they come, having nothing from their toil to bring with them.” 

So the pursuit of wealth is just another form of vanity.  Instead, you should “eat and drink and prosper from all the toil one toils at under the sun during the limited days of life God gives us; for this is out lot.”  Remember, it’s not unbridled hedonism, but just enjoyment of life in its own place.  Though he mentions God, it sure sounds secular.

CHAPTER 6

This is a short chapter (just 12 verses), and I’m not sure I fully get it.  Essentially, he says there is another big evil out there: some people has great riches and property and honor, but is not able to partake of them.  Instead a stranger devours them.

I wonder what he’s talking about?  Is it someone who works but another profits from his toil?  I dunno – he says “one to whom God gives riches and property and honor” so it sounds like he’s rich himself.  Is it someone with a gold digger of a wife or something?  I dunno. 

Maybe it means someone who has the riches but never takes the time to enjoy them.  Maybe, but that’s how he ended last chapter and here this begins by saying “There is another evil.” 

So I’m not sure exactly what he’s getting at, but the theme is like the others.  People should enjoy their lives.  Stop and smell the roses already!

Click here for the second half of the book.

Ecclesiastes main page

Chapter 1 to 6
Chapters 7 to 12

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Job: Chapters 36 to 42

Last time, Job contended with Scrappy Doo Elihu.  In this section, he finally meets his match - God, himself. 

CHAPTER 36

Wanna know why I think Elihu is a young punk asshole?  Check out this opening line to Chapter 36: “Wait a little and I will instruct you.”  Gee – thanks, Junior!  Feel free to instructor your elders on how the life works, now that you have it all figured out.  He tells Job that God is great but not disdainful – yeah, kid, but you are disdainful. 

Elihu’s got-it-all-figured-out answer continued to be primarily the same tired argument we heard from the friends.  God looks after the just and when he punishes someone, it is to instruct them and improve them.  Yeah, guess what?  That argument has nothing to do with Job.  God punished Job to win a bet with Satan, and only then found out that his test of Job’s morality turned into a test of God’s morality.  Oops. 

I will say this much, near the end Elihu begins making a legitimate point: “See, God is great beyond our knowledge, the number of his years past searching out.” OK, if you want to say that God is beyond our comprehension and that we can never fully understand him – there’s a legitimate argument.  It certainly sounds better than claiming that earth is a moral wonderland where everyone gets what they deserve.  That’s clearly bunk.

CHAPTER 37

Scrappy Doo finally draws to a close.  Some of this goes along with the decent point he made at the end: “Do you know how God lays his command upon them, and makes the light shine forth from his clouds?”  God is so beyond you, chump.  And you get some of his attitude problem: “Listen to this, Job!”  The exclamation point isn’t because he’s exciting, but because he’s a shouting, better-than-you twerp. 

Finally, Scrappy Doo shuts up.  And that sets us up for the main event – God himself versus Job.

CHAPTER 38

Now God shows up.  It’s his big speech from the whirlwind – and it’s one of the greatest, most awesome speeches ever.  It’s awesome in the literal definition of the word: marked by or inspiring a feeling of reverence and dread mingled with wonder.  Yeah, that’s this speech all right.

God bursts out of the whirlwind and immediately challenges Job.  No pussyfooting around when you’re the Lord: “Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance?”  You know, when one of the friends says something like that, they come off like jerks.  When Scrappy Doo says something like this, you comes off like an insolent punk.  But this is God.  And when God talks down to you …yeah, OK.  God should be talking down to you.  Because he’s God and you’re not.  What other direction what he talk to in order to reach you?

God lays into Job: “I will question you, and you tell me the answers!”  Then them come: “Where were you when I founded the earth?”  Yeah, Job – where were you then?  Job is the punk here, isn’t he? 

And God continues – who determined the size of the earth?  Who measured it? Hey Mr. Thinks-He-Can-Judge-Me, have you ever commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place?  Have you ever walked the oceans deep or been in charged of the gates of death? 

God takes to open mocking of Job: “You know, because you were born then, and the number of your days is great!”  - Oh, wait – that’s right – you weren’t there!  Your life is a but a fleeting instant of My Almighty existence.  Fool! 

The stars, the sky, the clouds, the everything – that’s all God.  It ain’t any Job. 

God is going so completely off on Job, you half-expect him to say, “Where were you when I fucked your mother?  And your wife?  And your daughters?”  Hell, the only reason he probably doesn’t say that is because that would be so incredibly beneath God.  He doesn’t need to do that – he made the dawn. 

CHAPTER 39

God continued.  Do you know when mountain goats are born?  Do you watch over deer in their birth pangs?  It’s an animal-centric section in which God tells Job of all the things Job couldn’t even dream of doing, that are such second-nature stuff to God. 

God goes off about an ostrich for a second, and how they abandon their eggs once their hatched.  You know why they do that, Job?  Because I didn’t give them any wisdom, that’s why.  So what’s your excused for being such a dipshit?

This all comes from Me, Job.  It’s all Me, motherfucker!

I’ll note one thing – as impressive and amazing as God’s statement is, it never really contradicts Job’s main argument throughout.   God never does get into a moral argument about what has happened to Job.  His argument is much simpler: who the flying fuck do you think you are to question me?  Please remember, Job never questioned God’s power; just his morality.  And now God is bringing his full power to completely blow away Job’s moral qualms. 

CHAPTER 40

Job finally gets in a word edgewise at the outset of this chapter.  And he’s respond about how you’d expect: he all but wets his pants.  “Look, I am of little account; what can I answer you?  I put my hand over my moth.  I have spoken once, I will not reply twice, but I will do so no more.”  He’s immediately giving in.  Can you blame him?  It’s one thing to rail against God in the abstract – but what happens when he shows up in your backyard and dares you to talk shit about him to his face? 

That said, you do have to wonder what would’ve happened if Job had insisted in pressing his case to God as he’d done with everyone else?  If he insisted that God justify what had happened on moral grounds, then what?  God would probably just continue to overwhelm Job, but it’s worth noting God’s winning this argument with his power, not by arguing Job’s moral questions.

God goes on with more questions designed to badger Job into silence.  Sure, Job is already been badgered into silence, but there is nothing preventing the all mighty from running up the score.

Then it gets a little weird.  Throughout Job, there have references to sea monsters like the Leviathan and the Behemoth.  Now you get an extended description of the Behemoth from God.  The point is – this thing is really freaky for humans, but it’s just a spec to God. 

Still, it’s weird to see an impressive tour de force smackdown get sidetracked by a description of a fictional monster.

CHAPTER 41

A lot of this is also about God’s favorite monster, the Behemoth.  Uh, OK.  God notes: “No one is fierce enough to arouse him; who then dares stand before me?”  God is so beyond you, that he won’t even bother comparing himself to you.  He’ll compare you to this other thing that’s so much greater than you – and remember, it ain’t shit compared to God.

So that’s it.  God basically drops the mike and walks off the stage.  He’s said his piece, and silences the opponents.  Fear, wonder and dread are all rolled together – God is awesome.  Compared to him, nothing else is awesome.

CHAPTER 42

So Job – what do you have to say for yourself now?  Well, once he’s done wetting his pants, he completely caves, withdraws all his complaints and accepts God’s will.

Again, at no point has Job’s moral arguments been rebutted.  They’ve just been swept aside, because something as impressive as God is too high for the rest of us to deal with.  Earlier he’d sworn that he’d make his moral case to God himself.  That’s easy to do when it’s all theoretical, now isn’t it?  And Job probably imagined the meeting happening on his schedule.  That isn’t what happened here. 

Mostly though, God’s big timing of Job is so effective because really – if God can’t big time someone, then who can?

Job immediately repents and then God does something rather fascinating.  He not only lets Job back into his good graces, but then starts talking smack to Job’s trio of dogshit friends.  God says, “You have not spoken rightly concerning me” to Job. 

OK, that’s fascinating.  Because they were the ones justifying God’s ways to Job on purely moral grounds, and here God is saying that’s wrong.  God never did deny Job’s moral claims.  While it’s concerning that God never answered those claims, it sure is nice of him to clearly refute the notion that this world works perfectly according to moral laws.  That’s clearly not the case, and even God now admits it.  This admission might be problematic if you’re a believer, but for me it’s just a nice honest assessment from God.  And since it’s come right after he’s already won the battle, he doesn’t have to do it.  But he wants to.

So the friends repent to Job.  Then God gives Job twice the wealth he had before.  Oh, and he also gives Job 10 new kids.  Yeah, I have a real problem with this.  Want to replace cattle with new cattle?  Fine by me.  But aren’t people supposed to be unique and special?  Aren’t we all made in God’s image?  Shouldn’t the death of 10 kids be something more than a broken glass window that is still under warranty?  This is one part of the morality tale that really bugs me.

But that’s it.  God wins the argument over Job not on points but just on sheer awesomeness.  Because he’s so incredibly God like that.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Wow.  What can I say?  It’s too long and far too repetitive.  There is barely any action – and essentially none in the last 40 chapters.  But this book sure is something.

On the one hand, it’s easy to attack.  This is supposed to be the Bible book that explains why bad things happen to good people.  That is, after all, the central question within it.  But the book doesn't answer it.  The main moral argument against God is just swatted aside.

So you can call the book a cop out.  You can malign it like that. 

But I find myself having a very different reaction.  Rather than boo it for copping out, I’m impressed by it for facing reality.  You want an easy answer to why bad things happen to good people who don’t deserve them?  Well guess what – there is no answer.  How can there be an answer?  The world doesn’t work according to the laws of morality.  And attempt to argue that it is just insults the reader and the believer.  The friends and Scrappy Doo try to argue that, and that’s why they are so hard to like.  In fact, the Bible has God side against the friends at the end.

We’d like the world to work according to moral laws.  And if God is supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and moral, you’d think it would.  Yet the Bible acknowledges that this isn’t the case.  That takes guts for the Bible to do it.  That took guts for the author to write it and it takes guts for the Bible compilers to deem this book worthy of inclusion.  They admit that this question is ultimately unanswerable.

So they fall back on the best reply they have.  No, the world isn’t perfectly morally righteous – but who are we to tell God how to do his job?  Who are we to claim that we know better than God?  He’s just so beyond us, that questioning him is laughable.  So you should just accept God.  You have reasons not to, but that’s why it’s called faith – you need to trust God out of faith.

It’s a very powerful Bible book.  It might be the deepest book in the entire Bible.  Though it’s flawed, it sure is something.

Click here to start Psalms.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Job: Chapters 29 to 35

Last time, Job had his third go-around with his friends.  Now he has to contend with a new, younger - and arguably even more obnoxious - person.



CHAPTER 29

Now Job makes his closing argument.  There are no more back-and-forths with his friends.  It takes three chapters and largely covers ground we’ve already gone over. 

This opening bit is just Job reflecting on the Good Old Days, when he was healthy, prosperous, and favored by God.  Actually, Job makes himself sound like the Godfather.  He notes that, “Whenever I went out to the gate of the city and took my seat in the square, the young men saw me and withdrew, and the elders rose up and stood.  Officials refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.  The voices of the princes was [sic] silenced.”  That sounds like Don Corleone, doesn’t it?  He later notes that people would come for his counsel and, “Once I spoke, they said no more, but received my pronouncement drop by drop.”  Again, that’s totally Godfather.

OK, so Job always makes pains to show that he was a moral man.  He rescued the poor, the orphans, the widows, and all the rest.  He helped the blind and everyone like that.  But then again, wouldn’t Don Corleone say the same thing?  He’d do favors for people – and in return expect them to do favors for him.  Both would see themselves as benefactors.  In fact, Job even says, “I broke the jaws of the wicked man.”  Yeah, that’s Godfather. 

So in the good old days, Job was the Godfather.

CHAPTER 30

But now the Good Old Days are gone.  And Job is as poorly treated as he once was revered.  He’s become a byword among men, and “they do not hesitate to spit on me.”  Yeah, that does sound rough. 

I wonder why everyone turned on him so heavily.  I guess the literal answer is that it’s just literature and meant to demonstrate how low he’s fallen.  I guess a better answer would be that people respected Job because they felt he had God’s favor.  He’s the Godfather – backed up by God.  But now that’s no longer got God’s favor, screw him.  And the way people have turned on him indicates there must’ve been some lingering anger towards him.  I guess people don’t like having to stand when Job came into the room or give him all the respect.  Maybe Job lorded over them a bit too much. 

You can take an entirely alternate approach to Job – he’s a guy who is so certain in his own morality, that he’s blind to his own failings.  That approach might work – if you hadn’t read the opening chapter of the book.  Because if Job was blind to his own failings, then so was God, for God really did like Job.  That’s how this whole mess began.

Job shifts his focus from his earthly opponents to the person causing his real problems – God.  He’s turned into Job’s tormenter, and it just isn’t fair.

CHAPTER 31

This is one big, long, lofty bit of rhetoric.  Job is working his way to his big climax as he asks the jury to convict God for immoral behavior.  Job goes through a whole slew of “ifs” here.  If he’s gazed upon a virgin, or walked in falsehood, or been out of line, or denied the poor, or raised his hand against the innocent, or but his trust in gold, or hidden his sins – or done anything wrong like that.  If Job had done anything like that, then he’d deserve punishment.  Then what he’s done would make sense.  Then he could understand what has happened.

But he is blameless.  He is the most blameless man alive, and he’s been utterly ruined anyway.  He finishes up< “Oh, that I had one to hear my case: here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me!  Let my accuser write out his indictment!  Surely, I would wear it on my shoulder or put it on me like a diadem.  Of all my steps I should give him an account; like a prince present myself before him.”  Yup, he’ll still make his stand on morality.  Job concedes that God has all the power, but unless might makes right, what God has done is totally unjustifiable. 

CHAPTER 32

This opens with a great sentence: “Then the three men ceased to answer Job, because in his own eyes he was in the right.”  Hurrah! Job beat up the big bad three.

But wait.  We’re just beginning Chapter 32 in a 42-chapter book.  You know what that means, right?  That’s right – time for Scrappy Do to show up, and if anything make us miss those other three.

Elihu is his name and he’s apparently much younger than the others.  He’s just been hanging around, holding his tongue because he’s younger and feels he should let the elders talk.  But now he can’t stand it, and must mouth off to Job.  He mouths off with the unwise certainty of the very young. 

The footnotes tell me that this is believed to be a later edition to the book, which I guess makes sense, given how he’s not even mentioned until now – but this begins six straight chapters of him mouthing off.

This chapter is just the prologue rant.  He just notes how he’s heard them all, and though very young, he’ll speak his part.  Only he’s much more repetitive.  The way he talks, it’s clear that he thinks him giving a speech is a big event.  Nice ego, kid.

CHAPTER 33

In fact, even the first 7-8 verses here is just prologue.  Boy, he sure has trouble getting to the point. 

His content is about the same as the friends.  God is powerful, so much more than you, so don’t put yourself above God.  But his tone is much more hostile.  As much as the others didn’t seem like friends, at least they weren’t too openly belligerent.  They were just cold and aloof.  Scrappy Doo comes off offended by Job. 

At the end of the chapters, he tells Job, this: “Be attentive, Job, listen to me!  Be silent and I will speak. If you have anything to say, then answer me.  Speak out!”  Wait – first he commands Job to be silent, and then he immediately follows that up be asking him to speak.  Aside from the contradiction, what a brat.  Who actually tells someone, “Be attentive, listen to me!”

CHAPTER 34

This one has a weird start: “Then Elihu answered and said.”  Answered?  No one else has been able to get a word in edgewise.  Officially Chapters 32-37 are four different speeches, but it’s really just one long diatribe. 

The basic point here is that because God is God, he can’t be wrong or unjust.  He flatly states, “Surely God cannot act wickedly, the Almighty cannot pervert justice.”  Uh, really, kid?  You sure about that, Scrappy?  Of course he can be.  The only way that this would be correct would be – ironically enough – if you buy into Job’s point earlier that God is all-powerful and therefore can make everyone say that he’s wonderful.  It’s the might equals right argument. 

For a kid who has supposedly listened to the entire debate so far, he sure isn’t good at reflecting on the points made.

CHAPTER 35

Elihu keeps on badgering the old man.  To be fair, I found his points a bit more interesting this time.  It’s not the most clearly stated argument, but what I get out of it (and maybe I’m reading more into it than is actually there) is that you can’t judge God’s morality because of how impressive his status is.  This isn’t just about power.  He’s got control over it all, has people crying out to him all the time.  You are so comparatively small and unimportant, how can you comprehend all that is God?  “If you sin, what do you do to God?  ….. If you are righteous, what do you give him?  ….. Your wickedness affects only someone like yourself, and your justice, only a fellow human being.” 

Heck, if you take it out far enough, God could be making a point even if he’s using Job just as a pawn.  He’s making a point about Job so the rest of us can learn God’s ways.  Sucks for Job, but can be a teaching moment for the rest of us.

Click here for the big finish of Job.