Theo151 4:30-6:00 section Group 4 members (82-87) Alcantar, Nikki Chua, Jeff Ong, Mark Ruiz, JP Tanjangco, Bea

a Villa, Nile CHAPTER 10 My Eyes Have Seen You (A study of Jobs second reply) Surrender to Love We would see the true relationship between justice and gratuitousness in Jobs second and final reply to God. His second answer is very different compared to his first reply. The First reply only focused on himself while in the second answer, it focused on God (His words, plans and presence). God did not accept the accusations made by Jobs friends, He then implicitly confirms Jobs integrity. There is a huge transformation in Job. His change of attitude is due to his understanding of God. He answered his anxieties and brings him hope. He has released him and he continues to proclaim his belief to others.

Job and Gods last conversation In Job 7, Job has had enough already. (So in Job 7:11, he says he's had enough already). He finally gives in to the suffering so he lashes out at God. He only has only one life and in comparison to God, it's only a breath -> its short and he ought to be cherishing and living it out Since Satan took everything away from Job already, Job feels as if his life is dead already - He doesnt have happiness anymore (it ended already) However: - Job's sentiment is that God is very protective of him that HE guards Jobs so much - Sea Monster (7:12) -> ancient stories said that sea monsters had to be guarded so as to not to let them escape and do damage (footnote, Bible) -> so Job is going to have to be watched over in case he does harm to others but most of all, to himself ->might commit suicide since he has nothing to live for anymore Job travels with his friends (Eliphaz, Zophar, Bildad) and they fill his heads with ideas about God that are contrary to his beliefs in the beginning. Because of his grief and his friends ideas, Job finally has had enough so he lashes out to God in pain and anger over what has happened to him because of Satan. God then replies to Jobs rants by asking him what he has known about God and His works that makes him (Job) qualified to question and get mad at God.

- Gods first response is Him asking Job if he can do Gods responsibilities. He asks Job if he was there when God created the world and if he can sustain the needs of His Creation. - Job replies that he cannot - Gods second response asks Job that if He is unfair and unjust at make Job look good, then Job ought to be proclaiming it to the world. God then challenges Job to pour out his anger to those who are proud and humble them so God may praise Job. Jobs final response is his acknowledgement that: - God is right, just and powerful. (reaffirmation of God) - That Job is ignorant of Gods work and responsibilities and therefore he cannot just question Gods actions especially those that happened to him. - With his listening to Gods response, he is now enlightened of what God does. - He is ashamed of his ignorance especially his being carried away with his friends opinions on God - Job now repents for his actions as a sign of his humility and obedience.

Jobs recognizes Gods plan Job has recognized Gods plan as a test of his faith; however, it also shows in the course of the story of how he tries his best to deny what he really feels. Moreover, he was unable to anticipate the atrocity of how these plans were going to turn out. Job was unable to realize how he was unexpectedly trying to defend the evils surrounding him. In a way, the more he was trying to proclaim his faith to God during these desperate times, the more he was unknowingly trying to support the spread of evil. Without Jobs realization and experience that such horrible events may occur, he was unable to handle the suffering he was encountering. An interesting part here is that Job has not experienced the unfortunate situations he was about to encounter, which may have been the reason why he cursed the day he was born in the end.

Job understands his limitations When God talked to Job, the latter was able to realize how foolish he had become. In the end, Job realized his quick judgment and asked for forgiveness. He was able to accept the fact that there are things beyond his control, and asked for the forgiveness of his friends, who have told him to curse God. Job then realizes the true purpose of Gods plan and how God works. Gods plan permeates with freedom and love; and Job encounters an aspect of reality he cannot wrap his mind around this doesnt make it any less real however. Though he didnt really learn anything new, because that kind of information is too difficult to understand, he has begun to understand it and hes got a long way to go. He now sees things differently for God presents a newness. The reason behind Gods asking Job many questions is to put him in his place, make him realize he doesnt know, and cannot know, everything.

The verb Know is important in Gods long and challenging speeches because God wants to prove Jobs insufficient knowledge - how it cant comprehend all the beautiful things. Job couldnt respond to Gods challenge.

Jobs life is changed for the better After Gods questions and their conversation, Job acknowledges the life changing encounter. Before, it was an indirect encounter of god, things he heard through his friends, now, its a direct encounter he witnesses. Job savours the face-to-face meeting with god; and he can feel hope, faith and most especially love. Job surrenders to God his heart is bursting within his breast. Job goes off limping, like Jacob after wrestling with an angel. Hes limping but content because he saw the Lord and the revelation opened up a new world for him. He used to acknowledge God in protest; now, he does with an acceptance inspired by contemplative love. The lines from a psalm quoted: I shall behold thy face in righteousness; when I wake, I shall be satisfied with beholding thy form shows Job coming to a humbling realization after his encounter; he acknowledges he was wrong. The line Yes the meeting was costly? implies that yes, in a literal sense,Job had to lose so much to gain his new understandings, it also cost him his old beliefs prior to his trials Although Job complains about what is happening to him he has never thought that God had abandoned him for a single moment. Since it was his dearest desire to become close to God, it was the greatest trial to feel far away from Him. Now that he has seen God, it is more than he could have dreamed.

Jobs concludes by saying I retract and repent in dust and ashes Basically, everything is all good again and Job came out ever stronger in faith from his trials and tribulations. He realizes that God has never left him and God Himself never accused Job of anything. God reveals to Job a plan and the meaning of true justice. Job admits his disrespectfulness and wants to say sorry. Its starting to feel like a bittersweet, but mostly happy, ending. Theres just one issue left unresolved though. It is when Job says, I retract and repent in dust and ashes (Jb 42:6) What exactly is it that Job wants to retract? POSSIBILITY 1: The word retract has no object for which it speaks so we could either add an object (but run the risk of changing the entire message) or to settle with a degree of ineptitude just to keep the peace and let the story remain the same. POSSIBILITY 2: We look at other translations of the original word naham. Correctly translated, this word means to repentthis new translation was proposed a few years prior to the article.

However, even the author of this translation admits that naham used with the preposition al means to change ones mind or to reverse an opinion. -So the verse actually says, I abandon [change my mind about] dust and ashes. The phrase dust and ashes pertains to lamentation and hardships. So when Job says he retracts, he doesnt mean taking back something he has said, but he means turning away from that dust and ashes way he has been dealing with his situation. He basically says that now that he has seen God and has strongly re-assured himself of Gods presence and love, he has no reason to live life in sadness. Instead, he now decides to praise and worship God with joy. In other words: He chooses to see the glass half full instead of half empty.

Job after he rejects his attitude of lamentation Job, upon seeing things clearly, abandoning dust and ashes thus opens up a new horizon with which he can live his life, and this is motivated by the fact that his eyes have now seen. This would explain his joy in the debate with his theologian friends. Jobs reply to the dialogue with his friends was one of contemplation of God. He sees that he only has done (and seen) so much in his life to be talking even adequately about God. This can be seen in the earlier parts of the scripture, when he had felt that God has been too distant. But after this revelation, a new trust is established. In the words of Jeremiah, You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced. This calls into mind St. Thomas reason for undertaking his definitive work Summa Theologiae: contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere, roughly translated to to see and share with others what is seen. There are two things that one must be mindful of: the datum of phenomenon and the datum of faith. The datum of phenomenon, at least for Job, was his suffering. The datum of faith was his personal encounter with God; precisely, revelation. Going back to St. Thomas, we see that what is seen is a datum of revelation; the task, then, of the human person in face of the revealed truth, is to share with others and let others see. In Job, we see that his encounter with God changed him, in that, as mentioned earlier, he chose to view the glass half full instead of half-empty. From a very legalistic understanding of fulfilling the plan of God, Job comes to realize that, through his suffering, his work is never complete without grace. Job understands that he must be receptive to the infinite grace of God, that he might live with joy in his heart.