Considering Job, 1

A friend recently began to muse on Job, the man in the Old Testament that lived through so much suffering.  I thought it might be helpful to give some considerations as to what was going on with Job in his particular situation.

The really get a good understanding of Job it is important to understand his context.  Job lived around the same time or just before the time of Abraham.  This is important because prior to Abraham, there were no "children of God" in the "Abrahamic Covenant" sense. At this point in history, God has not yet revealed himself to a specific people.  At creation, God revealed himself to Adam, in what we call the Adamic Covenant.  This was a very simple relationship.  Basically, "I am your God, you are my people, here is what is expected of you."  God then laid out the one requirement (don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil yet).  God then communicated that if they did so, death would immediately follow.  

You all know the rest of the story.  From that point onward, mankind began a rapid decline into depravity, ending with global destruction.  God spared the righteous Noah, his sons/daughter-in-laws and the animals.  After Noah got back onto land, God then established the Noahic Covenant.  This was really the same covenant as the Adamic, but with some more details.

Mankind spread and multiplied and also continued to sin.  The story continues up to the time of Abraham, when God called him out of Ur to a promised land.  Most theologians believe that Job lived just prior to Abraham's appearance.

The other thing to consider is that as Job was not in "covenant" with God in a Jewish/Abrahamic manner, Job could not appeal to any special covenantal privileges.  But at the same time, obviously Job has some knowledge of God and some sort of relationship/understanding of God.  We see this in his words and responses to his situation.  

All that being said, the main point is this: we cannot think of Job in modern day, post resurrectional reality.  The world and God's interaction with it, at Job's time, was radically different than it is today.