Sunday – Poetry

Reading – Job 1-2

Highlight Verse:

“One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.”
‭‭Job‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Let’s get straight to the elephant in the room in regard to Job.

Is it historically true?

That question is raised right here at the beginning by the fact that no human could have possibly witnessed what was said in the meeting described here.

I am not opposed to the notion that there is fiction in the Bible.

That is to say that there were stories made to teach a lesson.

The most obvious examples are most of Jesus’ parables.

While this book is poetic, I don’t believe it falls into that category.

Parables are normally told about unnamed characters. Job has a name and a context within Israel. Job’s friends are named as well and echo the orthodox theology of the culture in which it was written.

This opening scene would have been either conjecture on the part of the author or divinely revealed to the author (who remains anonymous).

I don’t have a problem with those who believe it is poetic fiction,

but I think its lessons are far more profound in a true historical context.

What do you think? Is this book historically accurate or just divinely inspired fiction?
What makes you think that?