Before setting my foot on Middle East soil tomorrow, lets have a piece of the poor suffering Job! 再踏上中東土地的前一天，先看看苦難的約伯! The presence of evil and suffering in this world is undeniable. Many atheists even used the existence of evil as an argument against the existence of a supremely good, omnipotent, omniscient being. Some have lost faith in the face of evil or suffering while others found their faith strengthened. This essay explores into what the books of Proverbs and Job have to say about the problem of evil in the world. Evil in the scope of this essay encompasses of both moral and natural evil. Abstract: This essay looks into what the books of Proverbs and Job to have to say about the problem of evil in the world. The scope of “evil” in this essay encompasses of both moral and natural evils. Proverbs begins by alerting the readers that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Through the use of personified wisdom and folly it calls us to choose wisdom to reduce moral evil in human behaviour. Proverbs should not be interpreted in a mechanical deed-consequence notion but more as life’s navigation guide. In Job we see the consequences of what happens when people cast flexible proverbial sayings into rigid laws like what Job’s friends had did. The friends took pride in their wisdom but they were dead wrong in their analysis because suffering also happens to godly righteous people. Satan questioned whether Job only served God because of his blessings, and God gave Satan permission to attack Job. Initially it seemed as if Job’s relationship with God was shaken under the weight of his suffering, but in the conclusion we see the display of the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom in action as these sufferings instigate a profound formation of Job into the genuinely humble wise man of great faith who serves God simply because God is worth of such service. In the face of evil, it is not debate but the comfort of the close human community that helps. Humans can never understand why God does what he does; we can only trust in faith that somehow innocent suffering fits into a larger plan of His. Job in his lowest: As Job sat in the dung heap scratching himself with a broken piece of pottery (2:8), three of his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar arrived. Job was silent for a week before speaking (2:13) so it can be seen that Job was in severe distress and social withdrawal. As soon as he spoke he cursed the day he was born (chapter 3). This triggered off a debate over whether misfortune can come to the righteous from God, which became increasingly heated as his friends insisted that God punishes no righteous man, so man who is punished must have sinned, while Job argued for his innocence. Another word, Jobs friends have fallen into the trap of casting flexible proverbial sayings into rigid laws, believing that proverbs and the theology that underlies them apply to every situation and person in a mechanical action consequence structure. We all know that they were dead wrong... 跌入谷底中的約伯:約伯就坐在[爐灰] (原文是糞便堆)中，拿瓦片刮身體。 For the full essay please see the link: community.sbs.au/yvonnewang/blog/2014/09/17/what_does_the_bible_have_to_say_about_the_problem_of_evil_in_the_world
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 21:22:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015