An Existential Life

Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more. (Job VII: 7-10)

The book of Job is one of the more misunderstood books of the Bible. In it, God takes away everything he has given Job: his land, his livestock, his wife, his children, his health. Once this has happened, the rest of the book plays out like a lawsuit in which Job is the plaintiff and God the defendant. Job accuses God of creating meaningless and absurd life where nothing matters, where a person is not guaranteed prosperity for his piety or suffering for his sins and where all people meet the same inevitable fate — death.

Interestingly enough, at the end of the book, God castigates Job’s friends who told him not to challenge God in such a manner. God then goes on to tell them that what Job was saying about him is correct. 

(via Submitted by themtn)