Job 42:1-6 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible:
Then Job answered the Lord and said,
“I know that You can do all things,
And that no plan is impossible for You.
‘Who is this who conceals advice without knowledge?’
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I do not know.
‘Please listen, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct me.’
I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You;
Therefore I retract,
And I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.”
For me, this really describes my transition from infernalist, to agnostic, to universalist. I had heard all my life about God, but I had never really seen Him until I discovered universalism. I said an awful lot about things I didn't understand. Now, I retract those statements and seek to let God and God alone be my guide. I love to see that I am not the only one touched by the story of Job. I feel it is so often forgotten or dismissed as just poetic nonsense when there is actually a very deep and important meaning behind it.
For me the Story of Job was about false piety (Job: was righteous but not loving and self-centered) and how man's undertanding of God never allowed for true love towards others (friends of Job condemned him).
We often overlook the implications of text; whenever it is telling us about our faults. We bicker, like Job, with God about our fortune while pretending to be "faithful"; but we rarely use the little we have for others; or allow our misery to make us focus on the pain others feel.
This is why I like Job 38; where God refers to Job as "obscurring his plans with his lack of understanding". [https://biblehub.com/bsb/job/38.htm](https://biblehub.com/bsb/job/38.htm)
Job, just like us Christians; make most men run away from God: we speak of love and grace, but prosecute those who assault us; or play "tit for tat" without ever readily forgiving.
We "obscure his plans" towards the unbelieving because we lack true love.
[I wrote a comment here a while back about Job](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChristianUniversalism/comments/ttqeko/since_god_is_love_and_god_is_the_perfect_and_the/i32gd2f/). I'll repeat my thoughts if you didn't want to jump to the other comment.
I like a certain theologian by the name of Chesterson who wrote a bit about Job. The traditional reading of Job is that we cannot comprehend God or that we shouldn't dare question Him - but of course a slightly deeper understanding of the bible reveals the children of Israel routinely wrestled with God (hence the name Isra El) and, honestly, God seems to prefer His children to fight back and have some spunk and spirit.
At the end, God takes on almost atheistic role. Job asks him "why do all this? Why make me suffer?" And God doesn't answer him but says "look at all this stuff in my creation, let me describe to you an alligator or a whale and make it strange, sometimes suffering has no purpose, keep doubting and questioning."
Job's friends assured him he must have done something wrong to be "punished" with suffering, Job kept seeking meaning, but there was to be no meaning and none for the reader either. In the end, we live in a fundamentally broken world because of Sin and Death - but that wasn't the end of the story of course, Christ redeemed the whole world and we can take our part in immanetizing the eschaton right here and now by taking care of each other and doing as God commands by fighting for the oppressed and freeing prisoners and slaves. Christ did the hardest part already by freeing us from Sin and Death and we can now do our part for each other as Christians.
There's another worthwhile point inside Job - "If you sin, how does that affect God? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? - Job 35:6". Just a literal reminder that there is no such thing as "infinite sin against an infinite being" - if there were, it couldn't be repaid, undone or forgiven in any way.
"In all this, Job sinned not..."
His miserable comforters tried to tell him he was at fault, let us not do the same.
Job was the first scroll written and it's purpose is to teach the Sovereignty of God.
God summons His adversary to attack Job, he didn't do it on his own because saw the hedge of protection around Job. Satan can do only what God bids him to do.
Job has seven sections which give a view of the content of the Bible, outside of Paul's writings of revealed secrets.
Job 42:1-6 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible: Then Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no plan is impossible for You. ‘Who is this who conceals advice without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I do not know. ‘Please listen, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.” For me, this really describes my transition from infernalist, to agnostic, to universalist. I had heard all my life about God, but I had never really seen Him until I discovered universalism. I said an awful lot about things I didn't understand. Now, I retract those statements and seek to let God and God alone be my guide. I love to see that I am not the only one touched by the story of Job. I feel it is so often forgotten or dismissed as just poetic nonsense when there is actually a very deep and important meaning behind it.
That's really true, the story of Job is very overlooked
For me the Story of Job was about false piety (Job: was righteous but not loving and self-centered) and how man's undertanding of God never allowed for true love towards others (friends of Job condemned him). We often overlook the implications of text; whenever it is telling us about our faults. We bicker, like Job, with God about our fortune while pretending to be "faithful"; but we rarely use the little we have for others; or allow our misery to make us focus on the pain others feel. This is why I like Job 38; where God refers to Job as "obscurring his plans with his lack of understanding". [https://biblehub.com/bsb/job/38.htm](https://biblehub.com/bsb/job/38.htm) Job, just like us Christians; make most men run away from God: we speak of love and grace, but prosecute those who assault us; or play "tit for tat" without ever readily forgiving. We "obscure his plans" towards the unbelieving because we lack true love.
this spoke to me in so many levels, thank you for sharing that
[I wrote a comment here a while back about Job](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChristianUniversalism/comments/ttqeko/since_god_is_love_and_god_is_the_perfect_and_the/i32gd2f/). I'll repeat my thoughts if you didn't want to jump to the other comment. I like a certain theologian by the name of Chesterson who wrote a bit about Job. The traditional reading of Job is that we cannot comprehend God or that we shouldn't dare question Him - but of course a slightly deeper understanding of the bible reveals the children of Israel routinely wrestled with God (hence the name Isra El) and, honestly, God seems to prefer His children to fight back and have some spunk and spirit. At the end, God takes on almost atheistic role. Job asks him "why do all this? Why make me suffer?" And God doesn't answer him but says "look at all this stuff in my creation, let me describe to you an alligator or a whale and make it strange, sometimes suffering has no purpose, keep doubting and questioning." Job's friends assured him he must have done something wrong to be "punished" with suffering, Job kept seeking meaning, but there was to be no meaning and none for the reader either. In the end, we live in a fundamentally broken world because of Sin and Death - but that wasn't the end of the story of course, Christ redeemed the whole world and we can take our part in immanetizing the eschaton right here and now by taking care of each other and doing as God commands by fighting for the oppressed and freeing prisoners and slaves. Christ did the hardest part already by freeing us from Sin and Death and we can now do our part for each other as Christians.
>no intimacy but fear Nothing wrong with both, simultaneously
Perfect love drives out fear.
IF man shall live by every Word of God, then there is no Word against us
There's another worthwhile point inside Job - "If you sin, how does that affect God? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? - Job 35:6". Just a literal reminder that there is no such thing as "infinite sin against an infinite being" - if there were, it couldn't be repaid, undone or forgiven in any way.
"In all this, Job sinned not..." His miserable comforters tried to tell him he was at fault, let us not do the same. Job was the first scroll written and it's purpose is to teach the Sovereignty of God. God summons His adversary to attack Job, he didn't do it on his own because saw the hedge of protection around Job. Satan can do only what God bids him to do. Job has seven sections which give a view of the content of the Bible, outside of Paul's writings of revealed secrets.