Of course, it is easiest to just start with a list of beliefs that you can agree or disagree with. Such a list can do without justification, without deepening and also without growth. It becomes far more challenging when we think about our faith.

It can also be a necessary process. This is the case when previous ideas are no longer sufficient and new horizons have to be explored. In doing so, you can leave old ideas behind. This is called deconstruction. There is then a risk of throwing away valuable ideas along with problematic approaches. You can try to avoid this.

It can go something like this: “I once believed this and that, but it turned out to be a misleading teaching. Or: I felt uncomfortable in a previous situation or community and would now like to look for a new situation or community”. Others say: “I feel betrayed by old ideas and am keeping my distance for the time being”.

So far, so good. This is an authentic statement. It requires two things: firstly, the realization that something doesn’t feel good and that you want to set off. Secondly, it requires the courage to actually set off. I have respect for anyone who dares to do that.

Job’s faith and experience

The book of Job tells the story of Job, who is portrayed as a righteous man. Almost everyone knows the story of how disaster then befalls him and his faith is put to the test. The story is revealing because it portrays Job’s faith as changeable. His painful experiences do not seem to fit in with his previous beliefs. According to his own ideas, he has done everything right.

The following sentence after his first reactions is memorable: “In all this Job did not sin and did not attribute anything inconsistent to God” (Job 1:29, cf. Job 2:10). Can we now hear here that Job still has a form of faith and trust, although this could only be inferred indirectly? Had his painful experiences shaken him, and was he now standing in a no-man’s land of uncertain ideas about God?

Differentiations in the narrative are important. They point to multi-layered ideas. The book of Job tells the story of a man and emphasizes a development. There are several examples of such developments in a person and in his beliefs. The apostle Paul would be another prominent example. Such examples can encourage us when beliefs around us seem rigid. We can point to these stories and say that change can be a good thing.

Elihu brings a new perspective

The first 31 chapters tell of dialogs that Job had with some friends and with his wife. None of them had an answer. However, the turning point comes in chapter 32 with Elihu. He brings a new perspective to the argument and contradicts all the previous speakers. He says, for example: “God is more exalted than man” (Job 33:12).

You could also say that Elihu strips away all religiosity and human judgment and states that when talking about God, my opinion counts for little. God is more exalted than a human being. Elihu speaks of an image and understanding of God that has not been mentioned before. It is probably part of the core message of the book, and Job is led there step by step.

Elihu, however, does not mince his words and says, for example: “And so Job opens his mouth vainly, heaping up words without knowledge” (Job 35:16). This was not a gentle or pious speech. The point is what Elihu points out: God and man are different. Now someone may object that it is these concepts of God that can no longer be affirmed.

However, the same statements can also be interpreted in a different way and it can be stated that Elihu provided a new insight. Then it is not about Elihu’s image of God, which must be accepted or rejected, but about the differentiation that his speech made possible. He speaks of something that has not yet been mentioned in the many discussions in the book. This enables a new perspective. This is positive, not because of the point of view, but primarily because of the possibility of being allowed to think differently.

Of course, the next step is to state whether you find the new view “good” or “unhelpful”. This is personal processing. However, the differentiation lies in the fact that you allow the mechanism of development to take place without immediately turning everything around on yourself. You can learn something from the process. The process does not have to lead to reflexive assumptions or rejections. You can pause for a moment and consider what you gain from a new perspective.

Religiosity can be recognized as a human effort. It is the human attempt to attach meaning to life. Self-righteousness and arrogance begin here. They express themselves through supposed knowledge of God. Religiosity only uses beliefs to define the self. Living faith defines itself differently. My ideas of God do not speak of Him, but only of me. God is not defined by my pious ideas. That is very sobering.

So if God and man are different, the content of my beliefs can be rediscovered. This is a starting point for a new perspective. That’s what happened with Job.

God speaks

At the end of Elihu’s speech, God himself speaks “out of the storm” (Job 38:1). The speech of God that begins here is memorable and overwhelming. The first question to Job is:

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
Hi 38:4

Where have you been, Job? The question clarifies a relationship. Job and his friends spoke about God from their own experience. God himself clarifies the difference between God and human beings with the first question. The perspective clarifies the difference in order to have a basis for reality. Job, of course, was not there when God founded the earth. That is precisely the point that we should pay attention to. Job and God cannot be compared.

Those who deconstruct their beliefs may object that it is precisely these beliefs that urgently need to be discarded. Then the attempt to stop listening at all can be great. However, I am primarily concerned here with the development in history and what has evolved from it. The current point in this story speaks of God encouraging Job to discern better, to differentiate better.

Job’s change in faith

During a few chapters, God speaks to Job and shows him what Job does not know and cannot do. This is a very sober stocktaking. The concluding sentence of this speech reads:

“Does the reprover want to be right with the Almighty? He who rebukes God, answer him!”
Hi 39:32

Job has listened. He has no answer and says:

“And Job answered Yahweh and said, ‘Behold, I am too small, what shall I say to you? I lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, and I will answer no more; and twice, and I will do it no more.”
Job 39:33-35

Job’s previous beliefs had not stood the test of this confrontation. The new insight provided by this speech took his breath away. At first, he is speechless.

The new insight

Job showed a change. But that was not enough. Speechlessness is not enough.

“And Yahweh answered Job out of the storm, and said, Gird up thy loins like a man; I will ask thee, and thou shalt teach me.”
Job 40:1-2

God directly challenges Job to formulate an answer. The beliefs of the past are not cleared up by half-confessions. This challenge to Job lasts for two chapters. Then, in chapter 42, Job’s answer follows:

“And Job answered Yahweh and said:
I know that you are capable of everything and that no project can be denied you. Who is it that veils counsel without knowledge? So I have judged what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me that I did not know. Listen, and I will speak; I will ask you, and you will teach me! With the hearing of the ear I had heard of you, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Hi 42:1-6

Job’s self-awareness was: “So I have judged what I did not understand”. His realization was a farewell to his own decision-making power and judgment. Instead, he wants to ask God and seeks instruction from Him. That’s new. His previous religious ideas and actions had not been enough. His previous understanding was challenged by the experience of suffering and no answers were forthcoming. Only the encounter with God himself brought the turning point in this story. Introduced by Elihu’s speech, the realization came through the encounter with the God he accused of injustice. “With the hearing of the ear I had heard of you, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

What faith is based on

What does the book of Job want to convey? That is my first and, for me, most important question. I see a man who, in his own imagination, has no answer to the adversity that befell him. A direct encounter with God made him realize that God and people are different. That changed everything for him.

The book describes a profound change in Job’s beliefs. If we imagine that this story was written in a deeply religious world, then it posed particularly courageous questions in that context. It is also something of a guide through different interpretations and beliefs.

Job’s wife had already noted that Job should give up his ideas and die: “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your perfection? Renounce God and die!” (Job 2:9). One could react in the same way. But how good were the conversations, the speech of Elihu and ultimately the speech of God. They all contributed to the fact that Job no longer clung to his own perfection, did not renounce God and died.

Instead, he has adopted a much more humble and differentiated attitude. Is that our attitude or mine? Perhaps not, but the change in the book is noticeable and comprehensible. It was far more differentiated than the renunciation of God that his wife had suggested. Perhaps we can also recognize in general that ideas of faith mature and flourish in and through our encounters. Because faith is not something you live and learn alone.

The idea of God does not hang in a vacuum, but lives from encounters. This needs to be considered. Only in this way, in a personal encounter, can the reality of God be experienced and lived out. Bear in mind that God is invisible. A personal encounter can therefore not be compared with anything that we describe as an encounter in this world.

It is different. Again, it seems much easier to accept a list of ideas in order to belong or to let go of the idea of God altogether. It seems to me that many people choose one of these options. Paul, on the other hand, speaks of a mystery of faith (1 Timothy 3:9). Faith is real, but in a hidden way, recognizable in life and experience.

Consistently: the encounter with God, however one formulates and pictures it, is central there. By that I don’t mean “my idea of God” or “your idea of God”, but “God”. My or your ideas about God do not define Him. That is why the direct encounter is the only authentic possibility. You can try to understand what this means in the testimonies of faith in the Bible or from people today. Clearly, we are called upon to listen, to reflect, to learn to trust ourselves and, if necessary, to break new ground.

Questions

• What is the purpose of the Book of Job?
• How might people have interpreted it back then?
• Describe the difference between God and people (loosely based on Job)
• Do you have questions of faith? Which?
• Did you get anything out of this article? What do you see differently?
• What role do beliefs play in our lives?
• What role do books like Job play in our beliefs?