Job: Predictability and Dominion

Gary North

The Book of Job is a book about bad things happening to good people. If God's promises are sure, how is it that Job got hammered?

The Book of Job begins with a peculiar story. God challenged Satan to consider His servant Job, how righteous he was. Satan, a strict utilitarian, answered along these lines: "He's in it for the money." He gets favored. Remove the favors, and he will curse you." To which God said: "He's all yours." That was chapter 1. It happened again in chapter 2.

Job was beaten down. He had lost everything except a wife who gave him bad advice. He asked the classic question: "Why me?"

Four "comforters" came to visit him. Three of them blamed his sin for his troubles. He defended himself. He had done nothing wrong. They said he had. They invoked God's predictability. Job responded that God was not predictable in his case.

The fourth comforter, a young man, had it right: Job did not have the right to call God into question. Then God appeared and reinforced what the young man had said. Then Job repented. Then he was blessed.

Problem: his 10 dead children remained dead. How can this be explained?

Here is the economic issue. The Mosaic law says that righteousness produces economic growth. Job was righteous. He lost. Is God's law trustworthy? Is God predictable? If he isn't, then how can there be Christian economics?

The main topics covered are these: sanctions and predictability, the trustworthiness of the system of sanctions, the justice of God's sanctions, the sovereignty of God, and the response of God to Job's questions.

Predictability and Dominion.