Some questions that arise across religions when reading the book of Job center around why God allows bad things to happen to good people and why He lets them suffer. Job’s praiseworthy and sacrificial actions towards God contradictorily amount to his suffering. The theme of the book of Job seems to show the injustice of undeserved suffering, which causes tension and confusion among all peoples as they turn to the Bible for guidance (Clines, 726). The Baptist religion, however, prompts a specific outlook and interpretation on the story that emphasizes God’s goodness and His meticulous undertakings.
The book of Job leads many people to hold the same belief about God as Job and his friends do: that God is at fault and that he is vengeful. The book thus challenges the common notion that one who does not sin but rather worships and fears God is rewarded, a belief that is posed in Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and the Prophets, and it is true that God punishes people in order to teach them a lesson, usually of fear and obedience (Meek, 151). The possible explanations that Russell Meek, a Doctor of Biblical Studies, gives for Job’s praiseworthy and sacrificial actions that amount to his suffering expose the difference between natural evil and original sin. One explanation for his suffering is due to indirect sin where Job lives in a “fallen world” and where everyone is collectively subject to sin and suffering. Another explanation is Job’s direct sin where God uses suffering as “a method of discipline and punishment” (152). Job’s friends declared that he is suffering from direct sin, meaning that he must have done something wrong to reason for his current state of being. This is seen when Zophar, one of his friends, says, “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves” (Job, 11:6). He tries to justify God’s actions by blaming Job for being at fault.
Baptists see Job as a secondary Christ-like figure because, like Christ, he briefly protests to God for his suffering. Job reasons that God does not justly govern the world when he says, “He deprives of speech those who are trusted… He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light” (Job, 12:20-22). These hymns show how Job doubt’s God’s good intentions and the morality of his authority. Job argues that the fact that God allows the wicked to prosper and the righteous to suffer is evidence that God does not adhere to justice (Clines, 726).
The Baptists believe that we should take the stance opposite to Job’s friends that align with Job’s thoughts at the end of the narrative when he says, “I have uttered…things too wonderful for me” (Job, 42:3). Job recognizes that even though humans can never comprehend God’s works, he should still accept His mysterious plan for all of humanity. Similarly, Baptists conclude that God is good even though he works in mysterious ways that are sometimes misinterpreted to be the acts of an unjust or evil being. Meek describes this perfectly saying, “God uses suffering as a method of both punishment and discipline” to enforce obedience, but God is not limited to a specific or rigid guideline when treating humans (Meek, 155). Some of God’s workings are enigmatic and unexplainable by humans, as seen when God asks Job questions but Job does not know the answers (Job, 38-41). Although humans might not comprehend his doings in a sensible way that we categorize our world as, one must trust in Him and his goodness and know that He is perfect and does not make mistakes.