Book Review: The Patience of Job – A Religious Play In Three Acts
The Patience of Job – A Religious Play In Three Acts presents The Book of Job in a way you have never seen before though you read it a dozen times.
The patience of Job is a phrase you have heard and possibly used a time or two in your life. It’s in the Holy Bible and also in frequent use in our modern language.
To date the books by Morrison (that would be me) have dealt mostly in humor with just a dash of religion oft thrown in. This book however, THE PATIENCE OF JOB is purely religious, and narry a dash of the funny stuff added. The Book of Job is a serious piece.
No doubt you first heard of old Job in your early Sunday school training…about how patient he was, and it good to be patient. That sort of thing.
As you grew older your preacher would pick a passage to make a point. Then much later, if you were familiar with the book you might have recognized bits and pieces in modern literature. For example: “14 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.”
Or…you may have heard that phrase and many more and not realized that it did indeed come from…The Book of Job.
The problem with reading Job in the Good Book, and in my reckoning there is only the one problem…and a massive one it is indeed, is that in the King James version, the whole thing is almost indecipherable, if not completely insufferable after a point in time.
It’s not much better in the NIV either unless you’re a poet at heart.
Thus, it is picked and plucked over by preachers to grab tasty bits of texts to enhance whatever other subject they are preaching on. And this does Job a vast disservice. The book must be read whole and in one piece…and when it is thus ingested you come to learn that it has a wholly different meaning from that which you at first thought it did.
Turns out that Job was one of the most impatient men you’ll ever meet!
In brief God and the devil make a sort of celestial bet on Job. God says Job will stick with Him through thick and thin. The devil thinks otherwise. God OK’s the devil to do whatever he likes to him short of killing him and we’re off!
Job loses everything except his sharp-tongued wife. He loses his kids and his wealth. He gains wasting skin diseases. His breath smells bad. He’s a mess! And he’s very exceedingly unhappy about it since he is a provably good man. His question is… why did God do this to me?
And therein lays the tale as he lays out his case to three “friends.”
Believe it or not a quick search on the internet will show that a great many people are still interested in what the Bible has to say. Jesus, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes. Exodus, Ezekiel, Leviticus. Nehemiah and Numbers. All that and you won’t find many searches on Job.
My book hopes to end the Job-less trend.
Old man Job, some would argue, is history. I happen to believe it is more in line with parable. More, the first time I read it, it struck me as a stage play. Certainly a book to be read aloud.
So, using the NIV, I set it down word for word adding stage directions, which also happen to serve as a sort of commentary to help you get everything sorted out. Who is speaking to who and about what when.
Reading it this way, as it was meant to be read, all in one piece, you’ll come about a whole new understanding.
As one scholar put it more than a century ago, The Book of Job is all about the Mysteries of Suffering.
And ladies and gentlemen, unless we are exceedingly fortunate, suffer we will at one or more times in our lives. Some unfortunates will suffer in the fashion of Job. You have but to use your imagination to conjure up your worst nightmare and you’ll have some idea of what old luckless Job was going through. Thus, Job is very identifiable to the legion of sufferers in the world.
Job is a dark dark book of the Bible with a silver lining…of sorts…at the end. The characters in this book, this play, are easily recognized as people you know. The Patience of Job is timeless. It is a work of art as surely as the most fabulous painting. It is poetry in motion and again…it screams to be read aloud.
Listen. Putting Job into play form will really show you what it’s all about. Really all about. And the problem with this is that Job touches on touchy subjects. Learning that Job is not what you thought it was may leave you a bit disconcerted. Are you willing to part with your ingrained pleasant Sunday school notions of Job?
Job, among all the books of the Bible, stacks up as possibly the most wisdom-filled chapters in the whole book. And it is as relevant today as the day it was first released on papyrus or clay. It will be even more relevant to you at some point in your life. It is a needful thing to know.
So Norm. What was the patience of Job?
Just this….and I don’t think a spoiler warning is necessary. What you will learn in this new style telling of “The Book of Job” is that Job never denied God, never told God to take a hike, though he surely felt he had every right to do so. Job was sorely put out with God to say the least. How all this comes about and how it is resolved is revealed, and it applicable to anyone in the midst of suffering. A measure of solace, as they say.
My suggestion is that beyond personal reading, grab a few copies, four or five, and host a dramatic reading in your church, books in hand. It will be the dramatic event of the season. A prehistoric Old Testament Passion Play of significant power. Along with Christmas and Easter.
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