Anti-Climacus

THREE FOR EVANGELICAL OUTPOST, NO. 3: My response to my own query about Job, which you can still comment on, if you like:

Fundamentally, I think God was right: Job was not faithful to God just because God did good things for him. All the bad stuff happened, Job got upset, but God comes in and sets him straight... and Job accepts it.

But I think there's a little misdirection at the beginning of the story, because we are tempted, like Job, to think that God is being unreasonable or unfair. Much of Job's argumentation is about how good he is, and how he does the things for God that he's supposed to do. But one of his interlocutors makes a good point:

know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
-Job 11:6

And what precisely is Job's iniquity? He assumes that the things he does automatically require God to give him good things, as if God's grace was the figurative check at the end of Job's work week, owed to him for services rendered. But, of course, it doesn't actually work that way.

So why does God do what he does to Job? Rather, I think, because He loves Job, but sees that little problem he has which prevents him from going at God the right way, and wants to set him straight.

Thoughts?