Hi David,
Thanks for the stimulating thoughts - and I agree with you entirely on Job's
(sometimes abrupt) despair/hope transitions, his amazingly tenacious faith,
and (as I presume you mean) "God as his go'el". But it is surely a tenacious
faith mixed with misunderstandings and even defiance. One of the things I
love about Job (the person) is that he is such a fabulously "round
character".
I find it hard, then, to accept your first two sentences in point 3: Yes,
strictly speaking 40:8 is a question, but in the wake of all that has
preceded, it seems exceedingly odd to read it with an implied negative
answer. Why raise the question in the middle of this barrage (especially
after 40:2 and 7) if the answer is "Actually, no you wouldn't, so it's OK"?
And I agree with the first half of your point 4. But I'm not sure what you
mean by "Whether one was right or wrong is simply a non-issue when God
appears". (It was an issue for the friends!) Certainly I'd say that Job's
previous preoccupations and contentions simply seem to evaporate and be
overwhelmed by the "Godness" of God.
Have a great holiday! I'm happy to leave the discussion there (though feel
free to reply). I'll keep wrestling with 42:6, anyway. Thanks for the
pointer to David Jackson's book - I hope to get a look at it sometime.
Regards,
Stephen Shead
Santiago, Chile
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