when I trusted God, knowing He watched over me, shining light to show my way, accompanying me in my autumn days, insuring my family's prosperity, blessing my seat in life's square of activity, as young men rose to honor me and wise ones silencing their thoughts waited to hear my words, seeking my eye's attention, watching as I delivered hope to the poor and comfort to the fatherless, praising me as upright for blessing ones about to perish, causing widows' hearts to sing for joy, calling attention to my blamelessness by my attire of righteousness--showing all--justice being my robe of existence, breaking clenches of unrighteousness seizing the innocent, as I was revered as a wiseman, never thinking it could end.
Joseph: Your fellow citizens counted you as blameless, but are they qualified to judge you upright, directing their scribes to report you so?
Bystander: Scribes write words for their understanding, telling us they are truths revealed by their spirit, coming from God, and we must accept them, every word as inspired by the Holy Spirit, but many such words disagree with what the Holy Spirit within my temple has to say, revealing different reflections on His truths, prompting me to cast crumbs of my thoughts on the waters, testing them to see if they float, surviving on waters blessed as living.
Job: God sees me recall these memories, longing for them alone, knowing they all count for good, reporting what they witness as truth.
Joseph: Fond memories are easy to recall, knowing many somewhat evil deeds are soon forgotten, helping to preserve your blamelessness. What good would come of returning to a few moments of your glory days, realizing you would have to suffer again in losing them?
Job: I was needed to sit at the city gates to preserve peace and prosperity for our people, trusting they are now impoverished without my wisdom, their hearts hoping for my return.
Joseph: Call on honesty to prevail, confessing you sat at your gate to insure peace and prosperity for yourself, attested by your wealth, enthroned before others, regaled in your finery, witnessing to your blamelessness? Did youthful ones rise because they feared your judging others, but who appointed you to look into other's thoughts, believing you could be equipped for this on your own, thanks to some self-assigned virtue.
Job: I gave them what they needed to hear, no more, no less, trusting they would not dare add anything, fearful of adding anything to another's words, saving the poor in spirit from the hand of the powerful, working in obedience to God. But now, suffering me with their derision, all mock everything I do, laughing at my predicament, disrespecting my honored name.
Joseph: I see how they have wounded you, festering you with weeping sores, afflicting your dignity with shameful disgrace, but I see no outward signs of your transformation, still thinking you are blameless, convinced of being enlightened, convicted of being upright, believing you need not be transfigured. Knowing it is impossible to bring ones to repentance, those once enlightened--having experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, having tasted the goodness of God's word and the power of the age to come--who then turn away from God, you are not one of them, not one impossible for bringing back to repentance, a righteous one having turned from righteous behavior, inaugurating iniquity, shaming oneself with sinfulness, committing one to die in sin, disregarding the Lord's promise to judge each according to one's actions.
Job: No one can share my suffering, my torments being my own, so I can't expect you or others to discern my troubles or understand my afflictions, realizing you cannot wear my shoes.
Joseph: Then how do others witness your downfall?
Job: My afflictions are evident for all to see, many rejoicing now, proclaiming my blameless is visibly tainted, reflecting my virtueless uprightness, as bystanders, once reluctant to judge me--the blameless ones--freely announce, We told you so, in my heart always suspecting, Job is no different from the rest of us, but was better than all others in coaxing a scribe to pronounce he is as righteous as any other person, entitling him to be blameless.
Joseph: You perceptions may be reliable, but truly righteous ones, more righteous than any others, suffer no less, becoming victims of martyrdom for their beliefs. Can you say your suffering is executing you for your beliefs?
Job: So I must be as righteous as those you describe, constantly tormented, my prosperity stolen by unpredictable gales of thievery, afflictions destroying all hope, decimating my soul, demolishing my home for the Holy Spirit, fating violence to remove all I had, consigning my virtues to dust and ashes, hearing no answers for my pleas, preparing me for life's ending, without acknowledging my worthwhile deeds, grieving for the poor, weeping for the hopeless, calling for creation's goodness to intercede, but my destiny is resigned to welcome evil, acknowledging no hope is left for me, my prosperity and welfare having passed away like a single cloud. Judgment flocks to my dilemmas, ready and willing to explain my suffering, but no one comes volunteering to mediate my pleas, as I coexist with proponents of democracy, declaring no one should be deprived of an advocate to plead a victim's case.
Joseph: You have a mediator but listen to none of His words, the Holy Spirit sent to advise you in all things. Instead you listen to human wisdom offered by your chosen friends, complimenting you on a blameless life, advising you to maybe blame God for casting you into the mire, explaining why He arouses cruelty for persecution, never heeding your cries for help, watching as you wait for death to end your anguish, bringing you to life's final abode, created for ones convicted by their own state of corruption.
Job: My companions have offered to be my mediator, coming gifted with guidance but with little compassion, thinking their words offer comfort and reveal reasons for my suffering, but are they competent to be my counselor, appointing themselves to express their truths? Have they achieved greater righteousness, ordaining them to take on God's image, qualifying them to be the Almighty's spokesman, volunteering as Isaiah to be sent, but considering themselves more than prophets, special messengers, overflowing with self-endowed truths, more than eager for me to hear, while anxiously struggling with eternal truths they neglect to acknowledge, bearing only darkness to smear my blamelessness, professing it has tainted my life, allowing me to be less than righteous, claiming my uprightness has been a self-inflicted wound.
Joseph: Your friends did not know you well, understanding compassion is reserved for the most-closely loved, hardly offered to strangers, and forgotten for the distant needy, reserving it mostly for their own kind, wondering if you were one of theirs.
Job: My friends persecute me without cause, for one never veering from God's laws, grieving me more than if coming from unbelievers or adversaries, surprising me with their self-righteous judgments. Are they more blameless than I, claiming undeserved righteousness, giving them authority to be God's judge? I should ask them what advice they would rely on if my suffering should fit their sandals. Would they find complaints worthy for calling on God?
Joseph: Do you find your deeds worthy enough to attract God's attention?
Job: I have always made a covenant with my eyes, concealing all visions able to inflame innate lust hidden in my darkness, trampling down desires stealing out into the light, wants foretelling calamity, passions beckoning for the impure and obscene, lusts chasing pleasure, but I follow God, trusting Him to protect me from temptations luring me into malice and deceit. If I have walked with treachery, following paths to deception, turning aside from His way, convincing my heart to seek pleasures promised by my eyes, let God judge me, convict me of adultery, making me reap what I sow, a whirlwind of suffering if it must be so. Proclaiming to be without crime, claiming to have no sin, deceiving myself of innate hidden directions, temptations to follow lustful thoughts, mostly leading to destructive actions, trains me to increase my arts of sin.
Joseph: Does God expect more of you?
Job: Making me from the same mold as others, I must respect all people, hearing their desires as I would want mine heard, extending mercy to strangers, proffering benevolence to ones unfamiliar, blessi
ng ones worthy to be created by God. Pity for His creatures humbles me to never despise the poor, but to grace the needy, freely giving to distribute the Lord's abundance, as my pride is forgotten, allowing me to honor other's dignity, equally as I revere mine. Heeding the prophets, I always feared the Lord, but never appreciating the calamity He could spring, retributions for disobedience.
Joseph: God wants you to love Him, never threatening fear to promote love.
Job: I know I must love Him, but is not reverence for Him more important?
Joseph: Reverence most importantly is defined by love, not by fear, but by awe that is an important part of love.
Job: I have loved Him more than any certainties I have ever known, the rising and setting of the sun and stars, the abundance He provides our creation's home, the joy we celebrate as coming only from Him.
Joseph: Do you love Him despite insecurities driving you to anxiously worship idols, admitting them to allay all your worries?
Job: I admit worshipping philosophy, my idol for