So
the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he
had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand
yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three
daughters.
//Sometimes, one person's blessing is another person's curse. Like in
football: All those fans praying their hearts out, so God blesses one
team with a touchdown, and the same blessing saddles the other team with
a seven point deficit. Poor God can't win for losing.
Here's
another blessing of good intention that would have hardly been
appreciated by another. Job begins his testing period with three
daughters and two or more sons. That's at least five kids so far,
probably many more, and they all die in a storm.
After Job's test, God tries to make it right. He blesses Job with ten more kids.
So who's the loser in all this? Ladies will have no trouble guessing, but maybe the guys need a hint: No epidurals back then.
Well, that and the tens of thousands of animals, who will forced to work the fields, forced to haul people over long distances, see their children taken away to be sold at the market, and/or eventually get slaughtered. Plus, to maintain a profitable herd, the females will be regularly impregnated. No epidural either.
ReplyDeleteUnless you still think all of that suffering pales in comparison to that of one woman having some kids.
At the risk of spoiling a good, funny discussion, it must be remembered this is a short work of fiction dealing with theodicy. On top of that, due to the difference of writing style, some believe this section was added on later by someone who thought the "I am GOd" answer sufficiently badly explained the difficulty, and wanted God to look better.
ReplyDeleteI have a love-hate relationship going on with the book of Job. A friend I met on Goodreads was working on a book about Job, and I await its completion, but until then I'm open to reading suggestions!
ReplyDelete