If you have ever read the book of Job or the play J.B. by Archibald Macleish, then you know that your life isn’t nearly as bad as it seems. However, despite all the adversity Job and J.B. are faced with, they still praise the Lord. This seems remarkable considering most of us might have trouble praising God when something slightly Inconvenient happens. Such as bad weather, a few extra homework problems, or even just missing a meal. By studying the comparison in J.B and Job, we might be able to better equip ourselves when tough times come.
Perhaps what makes the story of Job so breathtaking is how sudden things go wrong. He learns of the loss of all his property, all his servants, and the death of all his children in what seems like a matter of minutes. This definitely sticks out as a key difference in the play J.B., where J.B.’s life also falls apart, but not quite at the same speed as Job’s. This possibly could be the reason for the slight variance in reactions by the two. Job, after hearing the news, Immediately tore his cloths, shaved his head and fell to the ground in worship. Then stating, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” – Job 1:21 KJV. However J.B.’s reaction to receiving bad news at multiple different points in the play is slightly different than Jobs. For example, after learning that two of his children had died in a car accident, J.B responds with, “You bastards! I’ll beat your god damn brains out…” -J.B Sc. 4. Eventually after calming himself down, he recenters himself back to God and says to his wife, “Shall we… Take the good and not the evil? We have to take the chances, Sarah” -J.B. Sc. 4. This is similar to what Jobs response was, but only after an outrage and using the Lords name in vain. This brings up another key difference. After Jobs reaction, the chapter ends with, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” – Job 1:22. This clearly was not the case with J.B. considering that he sinned by using the Lords name in vain.
Despite a few of these differences, Job and J.B. shared quite a bit in common. They would continuously question God as to why these terrible things have happened to them. Which seems to be sort of a taboo thing to do, because after all, who are we to question the God of the universe? But when terrible things to this extent happen to someone, they might be tempted to do the same. Both Job and J.B. are visited by so called friends who basically tell them to stop questioning God and that this bad fortune is just simply a result of being a sinful man. They try to get them to accept the fact that they deserve these terrible things as a punishment. But Job and J.B. know deep down that this is not the case. They continue to plea to God rather than accept this as simple side affect of being human. They demonstrate there faith by believing God to be a just God who wouldn’t punish a man in such a way without a reason. They felt they had to get to the bottom of this, rather than just giving up and accepting it like their friends suggested. In the end, God recognizes the strong faith of both Job and J.B. and gives them everything they once had back. Plus a little more.
Obviously we can not see Gods full plan, but we are can control how we act when Gods plan unfolds before us. Sometimes its good…….and sometimes its not so good. However, a true reflection of our faith can be seen when we are tested like Job and J.B. So when things as small as a minor inconvenience happen, or as big as a life changing event, lets see it as an opportunity to display our faith to God.
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