Calvin says somewhere that the Bible is subtle. It certainly is subtle and
so it is easy to miss things. I've just finished reading Job again.
Among the final verses are these (42:13-15) And
he also had seven sons and three daughters.
The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third
Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as
beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an
inheritance along with their brothers.
The
first subtlety here is that although Job is given double the number
of animals he had before, he has exactly the same number of children.
This is a doubling then, and a reminder of the Old Testament's belief in the
life to come.
Otherwise,
it looks rather innocent and unremarkable at first glance until you
think of how normally in the Old Testament you get the names of sons
but not usually those of daughters. Something like “And he also had
seven sons and three daughters. The first son he named Jeremiah, the
second ..., etc” would be much less surprising. However, part of
the whole purpose of the Book of Job is to say “be careful with
those doctrines and traditions that you hold to – they don't always
fit and cannot be applied in the wooden way that you want to employ”.
Yes,
the Old Testament is patriarchal but again and again there is a sort
of subtle subversion of the order (Deborah and Barak or Manoah and
his wife are obvious examples from the days of the Judges). We have
an example of it here and its purpose is not only to remind us that
although society is to be patriarchal, women are not to be patronised
or thought of as lesser creatures, but also that when disaster
strikes a person, the knee jerk reaction that says that God must be
punishing him for some sin is not necessarily the right one. There
are other reasons why God brings suffering into people's lives and
often we do not know what those reasons are.
A
video is currently available on Youtube where a young girl, a
professing Christian, rather disturbingly reveals her elation over
the recent disasters in Japan (Spring 2011). It has understandably provoked a
torrent of often foul mouthed and shocked opprobrium from many
unbelievers.
Where
has she gone wrong? Not in recognising that such things happen
because God allows them to happen but in her cocksure confidence that
she knows why this particular series of events has happened.
According to her, it is a direct response to the prayers of certain
people for God to open the eyes of atheists to the truth. She is
young and excitable and we trust that her peremptory outburst will
not do too much damage. Hopefully, someone will persuade her to remove
it soon. It is a reminder, however, of the needless harm that
Christians do when they get hold of a half truth and ride it like
some manic rodeo rider in ways that are totally at odds with the
Bible's own carefully nuanced and well thought out teaching.
This article first appeared on the Sola Scriptura Blog
