Job and His Family by William Blake
Introduction
The Book of Job is often considered as one of the major parts of the
Old Testament in the Bible because of its theological and literary merit.
Although it is written in poetic parallelism, one that can be archaic,
challenging, and cryptic in nature, it is still regarded as an indispensible
source of wisdom and knowledge in the Holy Scripture. The character of God, at
the bidding of Satan himself (1:11), tests the main character, Job, to
determine whether he will renounce his faith after being subjected to multiple
tests of faith (1:13-19; 2:4-9). Job succeeds and God rewards him (42:9-11). However,
little attention has been paid to the role of the character of God in the
narrative as an originator of literary device, in this case, irony. In the Book of Job, the minor character of God
serves as the essential “mover” of the plot of the story; and thus, due to his acting
contrary to His presupposed nature of omniscience, omnipotence, and
omni-benevolence, is the primary source of irony throughout the entire
narrative.
God, Satan, and Human Endeavors
In the beginning of the Book of Job, the character of Satan
taunts God by claiming that the only reason Job hasn’t lost his faith in Him is
because He has been blessing him abundantly with cattle and land (1:10). The concession of God to Satan’s claim against
Job is somehow reminiscent to one of the earliest books in the Old Testament,
Genesis, wherein Eve likewise concedes to the proposition of Satan that the
Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge will make her immortal and “become like the
Lord” (Genesis 3:4-5). This parallelism in the interaction between Satan and the
two distinct characters i.e. Eve and God is quintessentially different in only
one aspect: Divinity. Where Eve is human, God is not. The concession of God to
the challenge of Satan in the Book of Job
is somehow exceptional in such a way that it subverts the whole concept
that God is all-powerful and is incapable of coming in terms with the devil. In
this instance, God comes to an agreement with Satan to test Job’s character and
faith (1:12).
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| Satan Before the Throne of God by William Blake |
To
expound, this action draws another parallel with a situation wherein two people
talk each other into an arrangement in order to settle a dispute – an otherwise
human endeavor. This situation is noteworthy
because God Himself acts contrary to what the readers would normally think of
Him not doing. In other words, there is irony in the nature of God i.e. Him
being omnipotent over Satan and His subsequent actions i.e. Him conceding to
the proposition of the devil. The actions of God in the exposition of the story
are important because without it the whole narrative i.e. the main problem of
the main characters of Job will cease to exist, and there will be no conflict
to resolve. At the beginning of the story, we can already see that the
character of God was indeed part and parcel in the creation of irony in the
narrative; and thus, an inspection of His role in proliferating irony
throughout the story warrants further discussion and theorization.
Job and His Friends’ Discourse
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| Rebuked by His Friends by William Blake |
Due to the concession of God to
Satan’s taunting, Job is tested vigorously. First, his cattle and oxen were
stolen while his servants were killed (1:14-17). Second, his sons and daughters
were killed while celebrating in their oldest brother’s house (1:18-19).
Thirdly, Job is stricken with a malignant ulcer from “the sole of his feet to
the top of his head” (2:7). Lastly, his own wife encourages him to curse God
for his misfortunes (2:9). These incursions to Job’s integrity lead to the
middle of the plot where Job and his three friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and
Zophar) engage in a theological discussion as to why bad things always befall
on innocent, good people. This part of the story is likewise important because
the readers know that the only reason Job has been experiencing such torments
was due to the fact that God had made an arrangement with Satan as a sort of
test. They, Job and his friends, were literally making sense out of an
otherwise simple circumstance. This fully depicts dramatic irony in its simplest
form. In dramatic irony, the readers know a vital piece of information, in this
case the true cause of Job’s misfortunes, while the main character, Job, does
not. Because of God’s real intentions, all of the philosophizing and theorizing
of Job and his three friends were merely duds. In other words, all of their
poetic discussions regarding the Problem of Theodicy and the Injustices between
Good and Bad (3:1-37:24, specifically, 9:22) were literally for naught because
God himself eventually corrects them by saying “[…] you [all] have not spoken
about me what is right, […]” (42:7). Aside from that, the Problem of Theodicy
itself is ironic because how could God allow good people to experience bad things?
Omniscience, Powerful Creatures, and the Creation of the World
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| Behemoth and Leviathan by William Blake |
Going back, there is also irony in
the logic of God’s intentions. When God finally delivers His divine speeches to
Job and his friends, He boasts of His two most powerful, robust creations: the
Behemoth (40:15-24) and the Leviathan (41:1-34). This is done to make Job feel
insignificant compared to the powers of God. However, knowing that God created
such powerful creatures and takes pride in creating the world and the universe
(38:1-39:30), He, Himself, is not competent with Job’s integrity and faith so
much so that He agrees for Satan to test the loyalty of Job (1:12; 2:4-5). If
God Himself is truly omniscient as Christian doctrine would suggest, why would
He go to such lengths as to make Job, a faithful and loyal servant, suffer even
though He already knows that Job will stay true? This creates a paradoxical
situation in which an omniscient being can’t even ascertain a simple task such
as determining the outcome of a particular situation.
God and Human Emotions
According
to the Christian doctrine of Impassibility and Immutability, God shows neither
emotions nor feelings and is unchanging. Even though this assertion reaches
beyond the scope of the text, it is pertinent to include the doctrines held
within the larger context of the Book of
Job i.e. the Holy Bible because it is part and parcel to each other. That being said, to assert the nature of God
out of the context of Christian doctrine is to speculate deplorably.
Applying
this notion, in the later part of the Book of Job, God expresses great pleasure
in knowing that Job remained loyal and faithful (42:9). On the other hand, God
is disgruntled at Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (42:7). The display of these two
emotions, pleasure and anger, contradicts the idea that God is impassible. This
creates a paradox between Scripture i.e. the Book of Job and Holy Doctrine i.e.
the Impassibility of God. The irony portrayed in the latter part of the Book of Job is between the actions of
God after the trials of Job and the presupposed nature of God. In other words,
the readers expect that God will be impassible to the reaction of Job but He
eventually subverts this expectation and expresses human emotions like the ones
mentioned before. The irony, to reiterate, occurs because the outcome is the
complete opposite of what was expected.
Job and His Family Regain Prosperity by William Blake
Conclusion
The
characterization of God can be surmised as the progenitor of irony in the Book of Jacob in its simplest and most
literal sense. Although the character of God is only a minor one, in the sense
that the focus of the entire narrative was on Job and not on God, His role
delivers most, if not all, of the ironic themes in the whole story. Because of
this, it is noteworthy to ponder on the contribution of the character of God to
the foundation of irony in the plot. By engaging in human endeavors, God
Himself creates the problem of irony to His own characterization. In His
admission to Satan’s challenge, God ultimately becomes the source of the
conflict of the story and the dramatic irony surrounding the entire narrative. That,
in itself, is why the Book of Job deserves
the literary merit it is famously known for.