Job and human suffering

I was reading the book of Job. The book of Job is about a perfect and upright man who feared God, and eschewed evil who suffers a lot of calamities despite his righteousness. He discusses his misfortunes with his friends who try to comfort him by telling him that God is just and would never make a righteous man suffer and thus he must have done something wrong in order to deserve his misfortunes. Job denies this and says he isn’t suffering because of his sinfulness since he hasn’t sinned.

The main argument of Job’s friends is thus:

“Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.” Job 4:7-9 “If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.”Job 8:6 “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:” Job 8:20

It made me think of victim-blaming in general and the illusion of a just world in specific. The illusion that the world is ultimately just and people get what they deserve. It exists in the shape of the law of karma in Hinduism and New Age the law of sowing and reaping “you reap what you sow” as it could be expressed or the saying “ what goes around comes around” and many more sayings that we can find in our culture. The prosperity gospel seems to have a lot to do with this sort of thinking. The very idea that God-fearing people will prosper goes against all human experience of prosperous but tyrannical dictators and leaders. Nevertheless that sort of thinking is very popular.

Ultimately the book of Job doesn’t give any final answer to the question why righteous people suffer. In Job’s case God made a bet with Satan that Job would curse God if he suffered. Job’s case is simple: God tests his faith by causing him to suffer. There are probably plenty of people whose faith is tested and whose story doesn’t have a happy ending like Job’s. I’m open to the possibility that the question why righteous people suffer is absurd, it doesn’t make sense. Any attempt at making sense of it will ultimately fail. Is it even possible to comfort someone who is suffering by explaining it rationally or spiritually? – I doubt that. Job’s friends were wrong. God themselves explains that they were wrong and that their limited wisdom had misguided them. Karma doesn’t work, the prosperity gospel doesn’t fulfil its promises, suffering doesn’t make sense.

Those who want to read more about the just world delusion can read Melvin Lerner's book The Belief in a Just World: A Fundamental Delusion.