Religion and Theology

Man is but a triflein this massive cosmos
Gordis in his book brilliantly brings out the Gods response to Job. The author of Job has beautifully focused on the fact that human beings sufferings cannot be resolved through mere interpretation or logical analysis or experience or surveillance. One must realize that all this is far beyond our control or answering, the problems leading to such suffering and pain which is massive in shape and size hence a device with lesser effectiveness will fail to reveal the actual cause of its happening wholly. He has articulated the fact that for a poet his faith supersedes his reasoning power and similarly he means to bring out the fact that one must identify that man is but far away from understanding all the causes and symptoms of human enduring hardships and pain. Suffering is the sign of having committed sin. He has stated in his book - It is not wisdom to be only wise.

Power of life and death resides in hands of the Creator
Death is but inevitable but human beings need to realize once we fall asleep embracing eternity we wont wake up until the heavens want us to. Supreme power is vested in the hands of the Creator. A tree grows withers away but if it is cut and its roots are young and able it will shoot up once again but not until the Creator wishes for the same. He gives us light, darkness, gives peace on one hand and creates evil He is the Lord. Gods speech about the splendour and secrecy of the natural world is not just an elusion but an inherent claim which comes out clear in the following declaration in his book  just as there is order and harmony in the natural world, so there is order and meaning in the moral sphere, though often incomprehensible by man. The Book of Job  is a true representation of the ultimate triumph of Hebrew Wisdom. The book of Job is a study in what our Christian character should resemble in the face of adversity.

Bond of Friendship
In the Book of Job we realize the value of friendship. When Job was distressed and suffering his three friends Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite comes to him and voiced their own set of opinions to pull Job out of the adverse situation and console. Out here we understand that Jobs friends are just like any other lay man who states Job must have sinned and raged the Almighty and thus, having to bear punishment. The harmony of friendship is clearly exemplified in this particular book where we note how Job is disheartened at his tremendous bad luck and how his three friends come to his rescue.

Life is but scaryMystifying...
Despite Jobs extreme belief and faith in God his fortune played a trick on him. He was to face an odd situation. He was an ardent believer of the lord he praised Lord even when his fortune was reduced to dust and ashes. Life is certainly unpredictable. It changes its course as per the instructions of the Creator. And so its very difficult for an individual to understand or calculate the weight of his misfortune that takes place in his time. However, we see his never diminishing faith in God ultimately pays him off in the long run. This draws a clear picture and highlights that God ultimately rewards those who love and serve him. Job when in distress misery was made to repent his sins and was believed in this fashion would scare away the evildoers.

Job was faithful till the end. However, we see towards the end a fourth individual enters the limelight and angrily rebukes Job and his three friends and awfully defends the righteousness of God. At the end, God arrives and admonishes Job for his sin of pride and also questions how he has no right to question the purity of omnipotent Almighty.

Classy style of expression
In The Book of God and Man the author has made use of superb examples from Hebrew Literatures Golden Age. He has effectively used dialogues to bring forth the underlying information. The vocabulary and style of expression is very rich and vivid though a bit complex in nature. Still, the flow of the prose is not perturbed at all. All in all a great framework where human suffering evil is protested - if at all there is existence of God. Gods way of communication in this book is rather evocative and made in a lyrical language.

The problem of evil
In this book we find Job hauls that in this unjust world often the sinners prosper whereas the innocents suffer at hands of misfortune. This was not quite acceptable to him. To give reasons to Jobs questions that had roused in his mind God sends him three friends who cite several defense arguments for his crimes to humanity and the possible causes for his sufferings. Job fails to analyze why God had abandoned him despite his immense faith and love for the omnipotent Creator. Then in the book we find a poetic debate which is rather in contrast to the prose. This aims at bringing forth several arguments that were arranged to attack and defend Christianity in response to the problem of evil. The existence of pain, evil and suffering therefore is the most endless argument thats raised against theism.  Several philosophers have chalked out in various ways but here in this book the problem has been framed quite well. If there is God then he would destroy the evil, if there is some supreme power then he would eradicate all wrong doers from this Earth. But evil is not destroyed and hence there is no such God.

Jobs primary crime is believed to be he puts god on trial but one has to understand that Job does this only when he despite being innocent fails to surpass the severe punishment at hands of the Creator. Job is an innocent man who was put on trial by the Almighty without any verdict of his proved guilty behaviour.  Job is not questioning the existence of God but wants to know if he is a criminal himself. We see this in the line  Does God pervert justice

Tremendous Faith helps him in his stand
Job was very clear in his head that he has not wronged anyone or had not committed any sinful deed for which he would have to suffer and bear his share of misfortune. Job does question God asking Him for an explanation as to why he was made to suffer despite being a pious man all his life and serving him as a loyal servant. He knew it deep down that one that believes in the existence of Almighty and does his own set of duties is always in the good book of the Creator.

The best part is the reflection of the fact that ones extreme faith and unperturbed belief helps one to lead the way tread the path with head held high and immense confidence. Jobs three friends choose to lament his misfortune but Job decides to stand for his strong faith in God. Such is the bond of God and Man. Like any other man Job too curses his birth for he was losing patience and was tired of his misfortunes which came to him one-by-one. Eventually its noted that the Almighty asks the three friends who act as comforters to stop their behaviour where they were insisting that Job should confess his sins and would be relieved from his share of misfortunes as the just God would not punish him for any reason. The best part in the book is Job never complains or challenges God for his misfortune. He could be melancholic but never did he express any annoyance towards God whose laws are unchangeable.

Many philosophers conclude that one must accept the existence of the Abrahamic God and concepts of after-life and free will. The Book of Job is a positive biblical text which does not merely supply dogmatic answers but also asks questions simultaneously. Job here is undoubtedly a biblical character who has without any intentions raised himself to the level of God  the omnipotent Creator by questioning His spiritual authority which is a positive act as its sternly believed one must not adhere to a belief system without having enough convincing grounds for the same. Job had initiated rebellion by choosing to replace grace with force of justice. Job was made to question rebel against the God who had abandoned him.

Conclusion
Robert Gordis-The Book of God and Man is aimed at emphasizing empathy, etymology and also the complex form of quotations utilized in several passages of the book. Its undoubtedly a difficult composition by the author both textually and spiritually.

In the key portions of climaxes Gordis is right as always. He is seen to emphasize and thus, convince in his ways of special pleadings. He correctly notes that the outcome of the book is the answers out of the whirlwind which is emotionally convincing, if not proven. To sum it all up God is ultimately at fault as he has allowed evil, pain and suffering into the World. Why must innocent individual suffer This is no divinity. Job is portrayed to be a perfect human being whereas the characters of God. Satan and the three friends help to dramatize the cause of evil in the world. One will agree that theres a classic way of depiction of selfless love of Man for God in this book.  Job represents the potential for moral integrity all human beings possess. His Oath of Innocence and his submission are in itself extremely strong depictions of how an individual should react to the evil in the world around them. I strongly believe human beings have a right to challenge the divine power to inquire about the reason for the extreme pain and sufferings in this World despite having done no wrong. If evil stands essential to divine creation then creation is not acceptable and we have to oppose it strongly. One must clearly understand Human beings are but creation of God and thus human nature is also not in our hands it again rests in the hands of the Creator. Thus, God is the author of evil in the world and evil is both moral as well as natural. And it would not be wrong if we state-

 God is causally responsible for the existence of that evil. One has to agree that God cannot create what is impossible to create and therefore its not correct to solely point a finger at human beings. I feel as human beings we have a moral right to know the reason why God has created a world of undeserved and sufferings. Jobs love was selfless and it can be rightly said that selfless love is the highest expression of love whereas selfishness can corrupt selfless love.