Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,
Once again I had the opportunity to attend a service at the
Weddington United Methodist Church this last Sunday where the Rev. Dr. Terry Moore gave the sermon. But before I begin discussing that, the one thing I would like to note is what I see on entering the sanctuary at that facility. Directly in front and above the podium area is a large stain glass window showing Jesus with outstretched arms flanked by the Greek letters Alpha on the right and Omega on the left:
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| Sanctuary at Weddington UMC |
I am pleased to see that a depiction of Jesus Christ is front and center. Now true, like most Protestant ecclesial communities, there is sadly no Crucifix nor any Tabernacle where the consecrated hosts - Jesus Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity - are kept. And also true, the choir and musical instruments figure prominently. But at least one sees the Reverend dressed in the robes befitting a Christian cleric and the Choir in like apparel, and at least something of basic Christianity is readily and prominently visible instead of this:
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| A Baptist Rock 'n Roll Theatre |
But enough of such comparisons. The point of this blog post is
Job: Trouble and Family.The sermon that Rev. Dr. Moore gave was 31 minutes long (it's too bad that most of today's Catholics can't even sit through a 10 minute homily, let alone a 31 minute sermon; one wonder how they would fare at listening to a homily given by one of the early Latin or Greek Church Fathers who were known to go on for an hour or more). The reader can listen to the sermon by left clicking his mouse cursor on the aforementioned hyperlinked text. While I took notes, I am not going to reproduce them here. Suffice it to say that the minister spoke from Job 2:8-10 using the Contemporary English Version:
8 Then Job sat on the ash-heap to show his sorrow. And while he was scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery, 9 his wife asked, “Why do you still trust God? Why don’t you curse him and die?”
10 Job replied, “Don’t talk like a fool! If we accept blessings from God, we must accept trouble as well.” In all that happened, Job never once said anything against God.
Of course, I prefer the
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition for the English and the
Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio for the Latin:
8 And he took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God, and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips
8 Qui testa saniem radebat, sedens in sterquilinio.
9 Dixit autem illi uxor sua:
“ Adhuctu permanes in simplicitate tua?
Benedic Deo et morere ”.
10 Qui ait ad illam:
“ Quasi una de stultis mulieribus
locuta es!
Si bona suscepimus de manu Dei,
mala quare non suscipiamus? ”.
In omnibus his non peccavit Iob labiis suis.
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| Job's Wife |
The minister then offered what I initially thought was a very unique explanation for the statement - curse God and die - which Job's wife made to her husband. Basically, the minister said that Job's wife had also lost her family - her sons and daughters - and her possessions and home when God had permitted Satan to attack him. And she was seeing her husband being tormented by skin boils into abject misery. Surely this affected her feelings too, and for that reason she gave in to human nature and said what she said.
Then I did some research and discovered that what this pastor was saying had been said before by modern-day feminist theologians (no offense intended against the pastor).
Today's Christian Woman has an article entitled, "
The Most Misunderstood Woman in the Bible." Please, care lector, do read it after you have listen to the minister's sermon. You will find the similarity of phrases and sentences between what was written in 2011 and what was preached in 2017. Now there's nothing wrong with using one's research in preparing a sermon; but my only point is this - viewing Job's wife as being misunderstood is not an idea new in modern theology, but it is an idea new to ancient Christian tradition as the following discussion will explain.
Now concerning the wife, both the article and the sermon claim that "Augustine labeled her 'the devil's accomplice,' Calvin called her 'a diabolical fury,'" and that such titles are unfitting and unfair given the loss which the wife suffered, and given the fact that she stuck out this whole terrible ordeal right past
Job chapter 42, so she was demonstrably loyal.
But let us recall what Jesus said to St. Peter in
Matthew chapter 16. St. Peter had declared Jesus the Christ and Jesus said to him, "Thou art Rock and upon this Rock I shall build my Church...." Then a few verses later Jesus foretells His death and resurrection, to which St. Peter declares, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you!" At that point Jesus turns and says, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." So if Jesus after calling St. Peter the Rock upon whom He will build His Church also calls him Satan for having forbidden the Lord's impending torture and death on the Cross, then why is it so unfair and unthinkable that St. Augustine should describe Job's wife as adiutrix diaboli after she advised Job to do precisely what Satan told God in Job 2:4-5 that he could make Job do?
Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
No, mei amici, we should not buy the liberal progressive feminist exoneration of Job's wife just as Christ Himself did not buy St. Peter's admonition that He should not go through His passion and death. I do fully and completely agree with Rev. Dr. Moore that Job's wife suffered mightily in losing everything. Heaven forbid that that should happen to any of us (me included). I also agree with him that she remained with Job right through the end. May we (especially me) therefore remain loyal and steadfast to our Beloved regardless the tragedy. But when she said to Job what Satan had previously told God he could make Job do, at that moment she was NO different than St. Peter when he admonished our Lord that He should NOT go to His passion and death. And that is the problem I had as I listen to the sermon on Sunday. I am NOT criticizing Rev. Dr. Moore (he was trying very hard to explain something very difficult to the unlearned such as I), but this idea new in ancient Christian tradition that Job's wife has been maligned (especially by St. Augustine) was nagging at me all day long.
So while everything which the pastor said about being prepared in one's relationship before crisis hits is very, very true (and he with humility admitted that he would likely behave similarly to Job's wife in such a crisis), the central point of Sacred Scripture - the Cross - which Luke 14:25-32 talks about I thought was missing from Sunday's sermon:
25 Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, 26 “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. 33 So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
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| St. John Chrysostom |
In summary, therefore, let us consider what
St. John Chrysostom (AD 347-407), Doctor of the Church, Bishop of Constantinople, says about Job's wife in sections 4 and 5 within
Homily 28 on 1st Corinthians (I always prefer the Patriarchs of the early Church over today's feminist theology - again, no offense to Rev. Dr. Moore). St. Chrysostom (golden tongue in Greek) was rather long winded, but truth cannot always be distilled into a mere sound bite or Facebook meme. And besides, St. Chrysostom is one of my favorites!
4. Hearing therefore all these things, let us both take great care of the poor, and restrain our appetite, and rid ourselves of drunkenness, and be careful worthily to partake of the Mysteries; and whatsoever we suffer, let us not take it bitterly, neither for ourselves nor for others; as when untimely death happen or long diseases. For this is deliverance from punishment, this is correction, this is most excellent admonition. Who says this? He that has Christ speaking in him.
But nevertheless even after this many of our women are so foolishly disposed as even to go beyond the unbelievers in the excess of their grief. And some do this blinded by their passion, but others for ostentation, and to avoid the censures of them that are without: who most of all are deprived of excuse, to my mind. For, lest such a one accuse me, says she, let God be my accuser: lest men more senseless than the brute beasts condemn me, let the law of the King of all be trampled under foot. Why, how many thunderbolts do not these sayings deserve?
Again; If any one invite you to a funeral supper after your affliction there is no one to say any thing against it, because there is a law of men which enjoins such things: but when God by His law forbids your mourning, all thus contradict it. Does not Job come into your mind, O woman? Rememberest thou not his words at the misfortune of his children, which adorned that holy head more than ten thousand crowns, and made proclamation louder than many trumpets? Do you make no account of the greatness of his misfortunes, of that unprecedented shipwreck, and that strange and portentous tragedy? For thou possibly hast lost one, or a second, or third: but he so many sons and daughters: and he that had many children suddenly became childless. And not even by degrees were his bowels wasted away: but at one sweep all the fruit of his body was snatched from him. Nor was it by the common law of nature, when they had come to old age, but by a death both untimely and violent: and all together, and when he was not present nor sitting by them, that at least by hearing their last words he might have some consolation for so bitter an end of theirs: but contrary to all expectation and without his knowing any thing of what took place, they were all at once overwhelmed, and their house became their grave and their snare.
And not only their untimely death, but many things besides there were to grieve him; such as their being all in the flower of their age, all virtuous and loving, all together, that not one of either sex was left, that it befell them not by the common law of nature, that it came after so great a loss, that when he was unconscious of any sin on his own part or on theirs, he suffered these things. For each of these circumstances is enough even by itself to disturb the mind: but when we find them even concurring together, imagine the height of those waves, how great the excess of that storm. And what in particular is greater and worse than his bereavement, he did not even know wherefore all these things happened. On this account then, having no cause to assign for the misfortune, he ascends to the good pleasure of God, and says, The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: as it pleased the Lord, even so it happened; blessed be the name of the Lord for ever. Job 2:21 And these things he said, when he saw himself who had followed after all virtue in the last extremity; but evil men and impostors, prospering, luxurious, revelling on all sides. And he uttered no such word as it is likely that some of the weaker sort would have uttered, Was it for this that I brought up my children and trained them with all exactness? For this did I open my house to all that passed by, that after those many courses run in behalf of the needy, the naked, the orphans, I might receive this recompense? But instead of these, he offered up those words better than all sacrifice, saying, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. If however he rent his clothes and shaved his head, marvel not. For he was a father and a loving father: and it was meet that both the compassion of his nature should be shown, and also the self-command of his spirit. Whereas, had he not done this, perhaps one would have thought this self-command to be of mere insensibility. Therefore he indicates both his natural affection and the exactness of his piety, and in his grief he was not overthrown.
5. Yea, and when his trial proceeded further, he is again adorned with other crowns on account of his reply to his wife, saying, If we have received good at the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil? Job 2:10 For in fact his wife was by this time the only one left, all his having been clean destroyed, both his children and his possessions and his very body, and she reserved to tempt and to ensnare him. And this indeed was the reason why the devil did not destroy her with the children, nor asked her death, because he expected that she would contribute much towards the ensnaring of that holy man. Therefore he left her as a kind of implement, and a formidable one, for himself. For if even out of paradise, says he, I cast mankind by her means, much more shall I be able to trip him up on the dunghill.
And observe his craft. He did not apply this stratagem when the oxen or the asses or the camels were lost, nor even when the house fell and the children were buried under it, but so long looking on the combatant, he suffers her to be silent and quiet. But when the fountain of worms gushed forth, when the skin began to putrify and drop off, and the flesh wasting away to emit most offensive discharge, and the hand of the devil was wearing him out with sharper pain than gridirons and furnaces and any flame, consuming on every side and eating away his body more grievously than any wild beast, and when a long time had been spent in this misery ; then he brings her to him, seasoned and worn down. Whereas if she had approached him at the beginning of his misfortune, neither would she have found him so unnerved, nor would she have had it in her power so to swell out and exaggerate the misfortune by her words. But now when she saw him through the length of time thirsting for release, and desiring the termination of what pressed on him vehemently then does she come upon him. For to show that he was quite worn down, and by this time had become unable even to draw breath, yea, and desired even to die, hear what he says; For I would I could lay hands on myself, or could request another and he should do it for me; And observe, I pray, the wickedness of his wife, from what topic she at once begins: namely, from the length of time, saying, How long will you hold out ?
Now, if often even when there were no realities words alone have prevailed to unman a person, consider what it was likely he then should feel, when, besides these words, the things themselves also were galling him; and what, as it should seem, was worst of all, it was a wife also who spoke thus, and a wife who had sunk down utterly and was giving herself up, and on this account was seeking to cast him also into desperation. However, that we may see more clearly the engine which was brought against that adamantine wall, let us listen to the very words. What then are these? How long will you hold out? Saying, Lo! I wait a short time longer, expecting the hope of my salvation. Nay, says she, the time has exposed the folly of your words, while it is protracted, yet shows no mode of escape. And these things she said, not only thrusting him into desperation, but also reproaching and jesting upon him.
For he, ever consoling her as she pressed upon him, and putting her off, would speak as follows: Wait a little longer, and there will soon be an end of these things. Reproaching him therefore, she speaks: Will you now again say the same thing? For a long time has now run by, and no end of these things has appeared. And observe her malice, that she makes no mention of the oxen, the sheep or the camels, as knowing that he was not very much vexed about these; but she goes at once to nature, and reminds him of his children. For on their death she saw him both rending his clothes and shaving off his hair. And she said not, your children are dead, but very pathetically, your memorial is perished from the earth, the thing for which your children were desirable. For if, even now after that the resurrection has been made known children are longed for because they preserve the memory of the departed; much more then. Wherefore also her curse becomes from that consideration more bitter. For in that case, he that cursed, said not, Let his children be utterly rooted out, but, his memorial from the earth. Your sons and your daughters. Thus whereas she said, the memorial, she again accurately makes mention of either sex. But if you, says she, carest not for these, at least consider what is mine. The pains of my womb, and labors which I have endured in vain with sorrow. Now what she means is this: I, who endured the more, am wronged for your sake, and having undergone the toils I am deprived of the fruits.
And see how she neither makes express mention of his loss of property, nor is silent about it and hurries by; but in that point of view in which it also might be most pathetically narrated, in that she covertly refers to it. For when she says, I too am a vagabond and a slave, going about from place to place, from house to house, she both hints at the loss and indicates her great distress: these expressions being such as even to enhance that misfortune. For I come to the doors of others, says she; nor do I beg only, but am a wanderer also and serve a strange and unusual servitude, going round everywhere and carrying about the tokens of my calamity, and teaching all men of my woes; which is most piteous of all, to change house after house. And she stayed not even at these lamentations, but proceeded to say, Waiting for the sun when it will set, and I shall rest from my miseries and the pains that encompass me, by which I am now straitened. Thus, that which is sweet to others, says she, to behold the light, this to me is grievous: but the night and the darkness is a desirable thing. For this only gives me rest from my toils, this becomes a comfort to my miseries. But speak somewhat against the Lord, and die. Perceivest thou here too her crafty wickedness? How she did not even in the act of advising at once introduce the deadly counsel, but having first pitifully related her misfortunes and having drawn out the tragedy at length, she couches in a few words what she would recommend, and does not even declare it plainly, but throwing a shade over that, she holds out to him the deliverance which he greatly longed for, and promises death, the thing which he then most of all desired.
And mark from this also the malice of the devil: that because he knew the longing of Job towards God, he suffers not his wife to accuse God, lest he should at once turn away from her as an enemy. For this cause she no where mentions Him, but the actual calamities she is continually harping on.
And do thou, besides what has been said, add the circumstance that it was a woman who gave this counsel, a wonderful orator to beguile the heedless. Many at least even without external accidents have been cast down by the counsel of woman alone.
