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Welcome to modern mind, modern mind ancient book

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where we

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explore one of the most important books in human history.

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Welcome to another modern mind, ancient book, Doug. Good to be with you, sir. How are you today?

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I'm doing wonderful. However, it's kind of ironic that

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the book that we're going to talk about the book of Job is about somebody who wasn't doing so good for a while. Yeah. And we pitched the idea for this podcast, noting that we were going to go through the book of the Bible in chronological order, meaning Genesis really probably isn't the first book of the Bible. But instead its job. Some heroes might find that confusing, because Genesis is a creation account. But in terms of the oldest story that exists in the Bible, it's probably the book of Job.

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Right? In fact, it's so old that we have very little information on it. We don't even know who the author is, although some people have speculated about it, you know, there's a, an oral tradition that's associated with with the book. But it is really a fascinating story, because it occurs when there are no Israelites in existence, which is unusual if you look at the rest of the Bible. Yeah. And that raises a question, how did this book grouped in a series of five books called wisdom literature? It's actually ancient poetry, considered a poetic work, and wisdom literature. So how did this book become the Jewish Bible?

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And I actually have a theory about that dog, you want to learn about it?

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Yes, please tell us.

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Okay, the land of Uz, is the land of Edam, modern day, South West Jordan, and South Israel.

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Oddly, that's where Israel crossed over. And where they dwelled for quite a while. Jethro, who was a priest of Midian Midian is the same Linda's oohs and etom

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was Moses father. And I have a theory that because Jethro was such a central part of the formation of the nation of Israel, that this book, their oral tradition, ie it was taught or spoken of, for a long time before it was written, I do believe, like, Jewish historians believe that Moses compiled this information. My theory says that Moses compiled this information because of Jethro his influence, Jethro,

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lived in the land of rose. And thus, we received the oral tradition, which was the book of Job, it was compiled by Moses, and it was included in the Jewish scriptures. What do you think about that there? That's certainly an interesting theory. And I think it's as good as a number of other theories that are out there. But I also think that the actual story of the book is what we should should focus on. Well, before we get to the story, let's talk about the dating because what I

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what I propose is just a theory, there's no guarantee that it's true. It does go along with what we've seen in history, what Jewish scholars have believed for a very, very long time, and certainly what Christian scholars believe. Now there are liberal scholars who believe that the book was written during the time that Israel was being held captive in Babylon, which is modern day Iraq, which is an interesting theory, I find it the weaker of the two, given that the book of Job is written in a very weird form of Hebrew. It's

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more poetic, but it's not only more poetic, it's more archaic. There's no mention of a sacrificial system of a priesthood of Moses of laws, that sort of thing. So I would think that the weaker of the two arguments, ie a later date, versus an earlier date, the earlier date, it has more merit in that earlier data somewhere around 2000 BC. Doug, you wanna give us an

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reduction to the story of Joe. Yes, the story of Joe occurs where there's a heavenly court. And there's a

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host of having that goes before God. And job comes up as a righteous individual,

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Satan shaking, who is who is the accuser wants to test job to see if if job will only be faithful to God as long as God is blessing. So

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God says to Satan, that he can test him, but he should not take his life.

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Thus begins.

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I don't want to say adventure. But a series of events where Joe Blow loses his family, job loses all of his possessions. And

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he is covered from head to toe and boils. Yeah, and I want to address some issues that seem to pop up in getting ready for this podcast, I listen to kind of both sides of the aisle. So we're doing our best to present the book for what the book is, it's just the book itself, there's no reason for us to talk about the theological implications of this in relation to something that's not contained in the book. So I find that to be a common occurrence that when the religious use this book, they use this book systematically to tie it into later works.

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And then they also use the book as a sort of apologetic as to what God is doing in relation to the suffering of men, and how men are supposed to relate to that. But the book actually opens with a kingly court in the heavens, where God, the ruler, God is hosting a conversation with his Heavenly Creatures, and the opposing team, Satan shows up as well. And then they just have a frank discussion about what otherwise is a decent man. The book actually records job as being very wealthy and having a high status in society. So he was a very important person on earth. And he was known by the King of heaven, and he was also known by his adversary. Now, it turns out, the adversary is both the adversary of the King of heaven, and of job. So this book has an interesting turn of events. Now, religious people see this as a positive thing. Non religious people see this as a really, really horrible thing. And I would like to note for the hears those who are joining us that this is poetry, and that we're supposed to let the book say what the book says, we can enjoy the story. Without offense, we can enjoy the story without making it ultra positive. Let's just learn what the story says. There was a king, there was a host that came to forum, and there was an adversary. And now we get into the story of Job now that's chapters one and two, continue with Job's friends, though.

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Joe, get here, three friends who came and sat with him.

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And those three friends

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basically challenged Joe, by saying that he must have sinned and that's why he is suffering. Yeah, it starts almost immediately, doesn't it because job, he's just download. I mean, he lost his family lost his wealth, he's lost his health. And job starts out with his friends by saying that he just wish he was never born. And then his friends begin the argument that God is just, he's the ruler of the heavens. And he rules in a way that makes it so that sinners are those who break what's good. They do not do what's good. They suffer and only they suffer. Jobe argues the opposite to all three of his friends. And they continually attack them and he continually responds and job does not relent. Tell us about the fourth from

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the forefront, I believe, even at one point says It must be because of some future scam the job is going to commit. So they're just dialed in on the fact that the job is is wrong. And they believe anything contrary to what they're saying.

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Is is not correct

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interpretation of how God judges the world, and what God does in the world. Yeah, le hue comes into the picture. Now he's not in the beginning of this. And there's some question as to where these final chapters, even God's whirlwind, and all that stuff, which we'll get into kind of gets in here. But we don't have to be uncomfortable with that either. Because

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a work of art

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can be continued on, you know, and that's kind of what appears to happen here that this book of poetry was on continued on in the tradition of Israel, it appears that maybe Ellie, who is the image of that version,

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you know, that it's probably an addition, possibly. And Ellie, who makes her further argument, just like you said, that job is guilty of some future thing, and God's trying to spare him from it.

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And then comes God onto the scene with an equal sort of argument, this whole thing is argumentative, and then God comes on the scene in the story, argumentative as well take it from here to Well, there's a huge contrast between the beginning of the book where God is in his heavenly

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court. And at the end of the book is an audience with

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which fell below. Now shows throughout the body of the book says that he wants to make his case before God. It didn't go as as he expected, it didn't go as is his job expected. God ask job a series of questions about his creation. They're really rhetorical because Joe can't answer any of those questions. And job is, is left in, in in, I would say stunned silence. Because everything he thought he was gonna say to God just went out the window, you know, jobid prayed that he would

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not be so terrorized that that he could not speak. But I think that he was given enough to respond, that he wanted to, but he saw just the the grandeur and the majesty, the glory of God, when compared to who he was in the creation. Yeah, the the final arguments that you see in this book, where God appears in the whirlwind and asks all these very difficult questions, in a very ancient way, is is quite interesting. And you can read all the way through it, and you won't be satisfied because God never actually explains to job why he suffered. Instead, the God in this story just says,

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I'm God, and who are you to question me.

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And in the end, in this book, Joe just apologizes and accepts what he doesn't know. And thus, the story ends.

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It's quite an interesting interaction. It's definitely a work of art. It's definitely something that should be treasured in human history. It's not something we should look down on. It's not something we should disrespect. It's not something we should be willing to change. It's not something we should be willing to harm. It's something we as a culture, and as a people in this world should treasure and understand and seek to understand it more. That's my position on the book of Job. Let me just add one more thing, the end of the book test gate, the God who stored

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all of Job's fortune that he had lost, he replaced his children. That's one of the challenges of the book. You know, if if you lose a family member, can they automatically be replaced? So

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it's an interesting book to contemplate. And it's worthwhile to study is really people have been doing for 1000s of years.

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And if you want some related reading, checkout john chapter nine verses one through four, and Luke 22, Chapter 31. We want to thank you for being with us today with another episode of modern financial book.

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And we wish you the best dog say goodbye. Goodbye, everybody. See you next week.

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Thank you for joining us, come back.

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Thank you for joining us for modern mine, ancient book. We hope that the time spent with us was valuable for you. It certainly was for us. Like Isabella said,

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Please come back soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai