Today is the feast of the Righteous Job the Much-Suffering. He was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil (Job 1:1). He had seven sons and three daughters, many servants and livestock, and needed nothing, but one day crushing trials befell him—St. Job lost his children and all his possessions, and contracted leprosy. We spoke with Mikhail Anatolyevich Skobelev, who has a Masters in Theology and is a lecturer at the Sretensky Theological Academy, on the meaning of suffering and the teachings of the Book of Job.
Jan Lievens. Job
—Mikhail Anatolyevich, most people believe that Righteous Job was a man who pleased God in all things, but at some point he went through sufferings that were sent to him in order to test his righteousness. He endured them and received a reward. How accurate is this opinion?
—In general, this idea is true, but it lacks an important detail. In the book’s prologue, a character appears who slanders Job or questions his selfless righteousness. His name is satan: the evil that befalls Job does not come from God, but from satan’s initiative. And God allows it, as it were—that is, the source of evil is not in God, but in satan. This is a very important detail.
—According to the narrative, it is clear that St. Job’s suffering came through slander. But St. Job doesn’t know this; he lives, does everything for God’s sake, and then suddenly he is faced with tribulations…
—Job and his three friends Zophar, Bildad and Eliphaz had two different spiritual makeups. Job’s friends insisted that God always gives rewards to the righteous and punishes the sinners. Such a conception can instill a slave mentality—that is, to fulfil the commandments of God either out of fear or for the sake of reward. St. Job’s friends had more of this type of thinking.
And, as the book demonstrates and as commentators point out, St. Job is a man who loves God. Perhaps he is also close to the idea that a reward awaits the righteous. But he still loves God, and is not only His servant—that is, someone who obeys the commandments out of fear or in the hope of reward. When we love, we want to understand another person. The Righteous Job tried to understand God as the One Who gives us life and the One Who cares for us.
The Russian Biblical scholar Archimandrite Theodore (Bukharev; 1822–1871) wrote a work on the Book of Job. In it, he explained the tone of Job’s words very well and found a very correct definition. He believed that offended love spoke in St. Job. The Righteous Job perceived God as a Person and loved Him. When we love, we try to understand and delve into the depths of the personality of the one we love.
Job had been building a relationship with God for a long time, making sacrifices to Him, and leading a righteous life. And he did it precisely out of love. But suddenly their relationship changed, and St. Job ceased to understand the One he loved. And what he said, he said while he was hurt and confused. I like that idea. Although there is seemingly no criticism of God in the words of Job’s friends—on the contrary, they defended Him in every possible way—but at the end of the book, in its epilogue, God said to St. Job’s friends: ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath (Job 42:7). God justified Job in the situation he finds himself in, despite his protests and reproaches to God.
Ilia Repin. Job and His Friends
—Can we say that active love is expressed in the fact that where you want to find answers to the questions: “What have I done to deserve suffering? What was it sent for?” you just accept it, thereby showing trust in God?
—I think one of the main ideas of this book is how a believer should live if he has been faced with sufferings that are difficult for him to accept, because they seem unfair to him. This is also a test of faith in the sense that even if I do not understand the meaning of suffering, I love and trust God so much that I am ready to live with that and continue to believe.
—St. Job’s words addressed to God sometimes seem bold—it sounds as if he is demanding an answer from God, failing to understand the cause of his suffering. Perhaps we can conclude that despite his mood, despite these words, St. Job still did not turn away from God and was not opposed to Him. St. Job seemed to have an active stand, but was not antagonistic to God.
—I really like the idea that St. Job was actually alone in his suffering. His wife didn’t understand him, and his friends didn’t understand him either. He found himself alone with a heavy burden of loss and pain. In a situation in which he would rather die than live another day with such suffering, he begged God for death (see chapter 3). In this sense, St. Job prefigures the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. Job’s wife told him, Curse God, and die (Job 2:9). She no longer had any hope, and she gave him the pernicious advice that he did not accept.
What did his friends advise him? “Look for some untruth in yourself, and pray to God for mercy.” But St. Job did not find this untruth and did not even beg for mercy so much as for an explanation. We should keep in mind that the Righteous Job was absolutely honest; he did not take the wrong path. He was honest with himself and did not accept any false ways out. Finding himself in a tough situation, a person usually looks for a way out, and St. Job seeks an honest way out. Because sometimes people in such a situation agree to do anything to get out of it. But that’s not his path.
—Does the Book of Job teach us to accept suffering humbly?
—As we know, people reveal their true colors in a critical situation: for example, in a serious illness or when they may die at any moment. And St. Job, by Divine Providence, was placed in such a situation. It seems to me that St. Job, thanks to the ordeal sent down to him, reconsidered much and began to have another outlook on life. There was a lot he couldn’t understand or explain about what was going on in the world.
By the way, one of the themes of this book—and St. Job’s friends kept speaking about it—is that Divine Providence is unknowable. This is another topic that is closely connected with suffering: To what extent is man able to comprehend Divine Providence, or to what extent does God reveal it to him? Judging by the book, Divine Providence cannot be fully known. Although St. Job never learned the cause of his suffering, after going through it he became a new man.
Foreign theologians say that there are two Jobs in this book. There is one Job at the beginning, and in the epilogue we see a man who went through the crucible of suffering—and this is another Job. And his degree of knowledge of God is also different. The key words can be found in verse 5 of chapter 42, when St. Job says, addressing God: I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee (Job 42:5). These words are a stumbling block because they are interpreted in different ways.
I personally resonate with the interpretation by the outstanding Russian literary scholar, cultural historian and philosopher Sergei Averintsev (1937–2004), who called Job’s experience a catharsis. That is, he was tormented by the problem of suffering, he wanted to understand why he and others suffered unfairly; but once he learned that God had heard him, that He had not forgotten him, his trust in God was restored. But this is just one interpretation, while there are other points of view on this matter as well.
Mikhail Skobelev There are things that we cannot fathom. The problems and difficulties we face can sometimes be explained somehow. If something happens and we understand that it has been sent for our misdeeds, sins or mistakes, the situation becomes clear to us. We exclude mystery. But the Book of Job says that there is mystery—that is, there are things that we cannot grasp with our mind. And if we encounter this in our lives, it is no longer St. Job’s situation, but our specific one that may perplex us. The readiness to face the mystery, the inexplicability of suffering that befalls us and that people around us face is the main lesson that we must learn from the Book of Job.
—How are the Book of Job and the New Testament connected?
—I really like the idea of Archpriest Alexei Knyazev (1913–1991) who taught the Old Testament at St. Sergius Institute in Paris in the mid-twentieth century. His lecture course has been preserved. Fr. Alexei famously said that the Book of Job is one of the books of the Old Testament that knocks on the doors of the New Testament. He meant that neither Job nor his friends spoke about eternal life. After all, St. Job could have been comforted by the following words: “Be patient here, and then you will be rewarded in the afterlife.” But no one said this.
The answer to the question of the meaning of the suffering of innocent people, posed in the Book of Job, is fully revealed in the New Testament, namely in the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter and in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews. They say that when we suffer undeservedly, it is pleasing to the Lord, because Christ suffered (cf. Heb. 12:1–11; 1 Pet. 3:13–22). In innocent suffering, we are crucified together with Christ. Thus, the New Testament provides an answer to the question of the meaning of innocent suffering, but St. Job did not know this answer. Therefore, it is incomparably easier for modern people—they can learn not only from the Book of Job, cultivating trust in the will of God, but also from the New Testament, imitating Christ.
