Mohammed akber
Western Civilization 210 / Section: XXX
Essay I: What kind of reader am I? According to The Book of Job
03/07/12

The Book of Job is gratefully profound for what it explains. Thus the author of the book tends to seek out why exactly God is angry with Job’s friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar and not Job himself. God was angry because Job’s friends did not speak the truth about God as Job does. From everything we know about Job, we understand that he is a God fearing man. This fact brings up the scene where we see Satan claiming to God that a basic of faith is caused by material gain and that equals to wealth. Knowing Job’s faith in God, Satan wanted to see if Job would forsake God if everything God gave him were taken away. What Satan means is that God has blessed Job abundantly for being blameless and an upright man and always careful to avoid doing evil. This story is in fact a good ending even though there are many positives and negatives that come along with it. We basically see a bet between God and Satan where in fact Satan is at last proven wrong. The bet was that God would allow Satan to torment Job in many different ways to see if Job would curse God. Thus Job has become the subject of God and Satan’s experiment. The story moves on and from my understanding when Job losses all that he had he still doesn’t give up his faith in God and prays. If this ever happened to someone in present day they might not take it the way we see a faithful man like Job did. Something that makes this reading positive is the fact that Job never losses his faith in God even when his own wife forces him to curse God and to give up and die, Masih 2 but Job says no and accepts his situation. This was when Job was afflicted with horrible skin sores. This shows Job’s faith in God. Job’s friends on the other hand accuse him of committing sins, which is the reason as to why God is punishing him. The reality is that Job’s punishment is the result of a bet between God and Satan. Job knows he has never offended God in anyway. In the sense that God knows Job is faithful to him. Being positive is what held Job together because if he didn’t he would be shot down by what his and friends were telling him when they came to pay him a visit for his mourning. Job kept his faith and kept going on trying to receive an answer as to why this has happened to him. After seven days and nights of suffering Job beings to curse the day he was born and the night of his conception because of the suffering he is having, and each of Job’s friends discuss that God is above everything else and God can do whatever he pleases without being opposed. From there we see God come down in a whirling wind and he displays human characteristics such as mercy as well as displaying confidence, by showing his power. This shows us the significant connection between God and Job, which is spiritual. The other side of this story holds negative alternatives, which Job did not pursue because of his faith in God. The negatives then can be shown as well because that is what the story is mostly based upon. That is because what ever happened to Job was in fact negative though it was for a good reason. If Job did start to give up and abandon his faith for God he would of lost what was in store for him at the end, which is what God was

Masih 3 merciful for. This alternative would end in complete agony for Job. Because it does not end up that way this shows us the happy ending. Job lost everything he had in life but the main focus then goes to the fact about God allowing Satan to torment Job to test Satan’s bold claim, which was to see exactly why Job was faithful to God. Satan tormented Job in