NOTES ON THE WISDOM OF GOD

Still, before the end of the second chapter and, with it, the prologue of the book, we find ourselves with one more twist. When it seems that nothing can get worse … the Evil One goes and proposes it: “Stretch out your hand against him and touch him on his bones and his flesh: he will surely curse you in the face!” (2, 5)

Now I not only have to fight against the danger that his fallen nature will rebel against God, but he will also have to fight against the bad advice of his wife: “Are you still going to stand firm in your integrity? Curse God and die at once “(2, 9) . And he does it with reasoned fidelity : “If we accept what is good from God, will we not also accept what is bad?” (2, 10)

This whole picture of a desolate landscape, of uninhabitable desert, has its oasis of grace: Job’s attitude of fidelity. This makes me think about a theme that seems to me very important theologically, spiritually and pastorally: the spirituality of acceptance. While things are going badly for others, we encourage them with advice that, later, if things go badly for us, we do not apply it. In some way, we could say that we ask others to accept what we are not willing to accept.

Job’s friends appear on the scene, who initially accompany him in silence and listen to his lament of deep pain: “I am not calm, nor calm, nor calm, only constant agitation!” (3, 26)

The point is that in that cry of pain of the just mistreated “unjustly” I hear the words of Jesus in Gethsemane: “If it is possible that this cup may pass from me …” ( Lk 22:42). And with Jesus and Job I hear the lament of so much suffering in the world: prostituted girls, child soldiers, Amazon Indians who have their land stolen, black people from whom They are treated like animals, poor people who make a living collecting garbage in the dumps where, in addition, they live, sleep and breathe. The list is so long …

Among the friends, the first one to speak is Elifaz de Temán, asking an incisive question: “Doesn’t your piety give you confidence and your whole life doesn’t give you hope?” (4, 6)

Sorry in advance for the expression that comes from my soul, no matter how unscholarly it is: Uaaaaauuuuu! What a question! The friend shoots to give. Impossible to avoid the impact.

It is definitely a call to a consistent fidelity. Because, as Jesus tells us, “if the salt is spoiled, who will be the salt of the world? ” And then he continues with a discourse that begins with these precious words that they contain a brilliant idea: “I, for my part, would seek God, to him I would expose my cause.” (5, 8)

As I read the speech I have the feeling that the lyrics and music are familiar to me. Expressions such as: “He performs great and inscrutable works, wonders that cannot be enumerated” (5, 9); “He sets the humble on high and the afflicted attain salvation” (5, 11); “He makes the projects of the cunning fail so that the work of their hands does not prosper” (5, 12); “Surprise the wise in their own cunning and the wicked plan is quickly undone” (5, 13) . I seem to be listening to a version very close to the Magnificat.

Quique Fernández
School of Biblical Animation

Miracle Sound Radio