Jon Huer writes

THE SEDUCTION OF JOB: Twenty Years Later

A Dramatic Poem

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Job accepts suffering as God's will.

ELIPHAZ:

My dear Job, again on trial and in suffering‑‑

Elihu told me the story of your affliction

And how the king's verdict holds you in silent agony.

I came to counsel you, not to condemn,

For I know many men, high and low,

Here in Uz and elsewhere on earth,

Who wallow in sin much greater than yours‑‑

Avarice, debauchery, cruelty, corruption, murder‑‑

Who go unpunished; no, even prosper for all that.

Your trial is out of proportion, it seems,

With the sin that you have committed,

At worst a man's indiscretion that passes

And is resolved between the man and his spouse.

Why, then, accept the king's decision without a fight?

JOB:

Eliphaz, my friend, time has changed our views.

Granted, some sins bigger than mine go unpunished.

But what has that got to do with me and my sin?

I stand trial to receive my own retribution

For the sins of my whole life:  pride and arrogance,

As well as those committed against the king's law

And the women of innocence and goodness,

Causing them their unspeakable sorrow and lamentation.

Other sins you mentioned are perhaps greater,

But does God go by our human standards

In judging the merit and punishment of man?

ELIPHAZ:

You speak of the maid in unflinching terms

Whereas she is the cause of your present misery.

Who is she and why is she bent on your destruction?

JOB:

Say anything you will about Bashana,

But she is an angel in disguise to me,

With the message of my sinning ways,

Committed and accumulated long before she came,

To which I was blind in my own self‑assurance

and in public adulation and in my considerable wealth. 

How else could I have recognized my follies,

Continually basking in my falsehood?

Without her wreaking havoc in my complacency,

How else could I know God's ways with man,

The sweetness of His grace given to prayers 

In the darkest hour of affliction?

What could she be but an angel in disguise?

Besides, the blame is all mine to bear,

For youth and ignorance were her companions

And she only sought wisdom and piety from me.

I was her master, was I not?

I was her mentor, was I not?

Were age and knowledge not on my side?

I stand accused in the king's court,

But the king is a mere instrument

That delivers the message of God's judgment.

ELIPHAZ:

But why such severe suffering for a penitent,

The torment of your soul being greater than your sin?

JOB:

Eliphaz, you did not see what I saw.

In the agony of the two women,

I tasted the full terror of God's wrath

And my heart shook in profound fear of Him.

The terror and fear were so great upon me,

My whole being broke down in sheer trepidation,

And I prayed for His grace and forgiveness.

Why does God withhold punishment from greater sins?

God punishes those He truly loves--does He not?--

So that through our suffering we are redeemed.

In the mysterious way He does His heavenly work

Some are favored by His grace and some are not.

But to lift us up from our own follies

He reserves the severest measure of atonement

For those He favors the most, does He not?

How does a sinner know his sinning ways

Unless he suffers, and suffers terribly?

In the great pain of my tortured soul,

I asked to be relieved of the pain and sorrow,

But the Almighty refused to grant it;

And when He ignored my desperate plea

I knew in my heart that He heard me,

Because it was in my unremitting agony

That I found my relief from terror and fear.

It was His refusal to grant me the deliverance

That drew me closer to His grace and mercy.

I found Him when He rejected me;

And I was saved when He punished me.

My dear Eliphaz, how sweet is penance‑‑

Why cry to heaven for relief when you have sinned,

And demand justice when you are guilty.

Must we not hear ourselves before God hears us?

 

 -- William Blake