Preconceived Notions

Last year for Advent, I followed the lectionary.  This year, I’m going off script. I’m just going to read and work through Job and see what I find there.  I think the general idea of Job is relatively well-recognized in our society.  He even has his own idiom:  the patience of Job.

I googled that phrase (the patience of Job), and here’s what auto-populated for me:

Okay, so Job’s patience is familiar, but the spelling of his name is not.  That kind of proves my point.  People who have never read Job have heard of him.  No matter how you spell it, Jobe is known for his patience.

I was fairly certain I’d read through Job before, but the details were a little fuzzy, to say the least.  Here’s what I (think I) know about Job’s story before I start this Advent endeavor.

• Job was a good person.

• God handed Job over to Satan so Satan could basically break Job.

• Job loses everything except his life.

• Three friends show up to help Job. 

• Job is faithful to God.

• God yells at Job from a storm.

• God is nice to Job again.

• The End.

 And here’s what I think about what I (think I) know about Job’s story before I start this Advent endeavor:

• Job was a good person.
  And a patient person who endured great, unmerited suffering.

• God handed Job over to Satan so Satan could basically break Job. 
  This is not cool, God.  Very OT of you.  Frankly, it’s not your best look. 

• Job loses everything except his life. 
  For no apparent reason other than the fact that God thought Job could take it.  Again, please refer to the point above.  Could you please put Jesus on the line?

• Three friends show up to help Job.
  For some reason, I have it in my head that they weren’t very good friends.  I have this idea that they were argumentative, judgmental, and kind of snarky. 

• Job is faithful to God. 
  Which is so amazing that this is where I start to doubt if this story is true. 

• God yells at Job from a storm.
  To put Job in his place.  Seems to me like Job behaved a lot better than God did.

• God is nice to Job again.
  Because I’m not sure this would have made the canonical cut otherwise.  Everyone loves a happy ending.

• The End.

Acknowledging these preconceived notions, my next task is to read Job again.  No commentary, just my thoughts.  Commentary can come later, but I like reading it standalone first so I can get my own images and ideas before they get changed by someone else’s.  I’m not opposed to someone else’s, but I like to have my own first.  Like reading the book before seeing the movie.