First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

The question for the sages of Israel that the book of Job (a

Gentile sage from Edom--see Job 1:1; Lam. 1:21) grapples with is:

in the face of the riddle of life's sufferings, what answer can

chochma (wisdom) bring to vindicate both G-d and suffering Man as

nevertheless righteous and worthy?

The divine answer comes in the form of a drama whose diction is a

long dialogue poem sandwiching its dialogical wisdom between a

prose prologue and a prose epilogue. It could be staged with Job

himself as the narrator who goes in and out of the story like the

protagonist in Arthur Miller's After The Fall or Tennessee

Williams' Glass Menagerie. Or it could have a Sherwood Anderson's

Our Town narrator, possibly using the Devil himself as the

narrator. Must reading for the art of writing a play is Sam

Smiley's playwriting: The Structure of Action (Prentice-Hall

Publishers.) Perhaps you could adapt this Bible drama for the

stage and use it as a community outreach project. If you got it

published, it could be used on stages throughout the world.

At the beginning of Job, a demonic wager puts both G-d (G-d's

worth in Himself) and Man (the worth of Man's love for G-d) to

the test. See 1:8-11; 2:3-5. Is G-d really worth anything (do

His people really believe so?), or is religion merely an opiate

of the people, as in Karl Marx's demonic challenge? Remember,

Job is a type of Moshiach, as we will show. Since Job's life is

exposed to Satanic attack as we see in these passages, this very

attack also points forward to the attacks of Satan against

Moshiach Yehoshua, both in the beginning of his ministry, at the

turning point after he shares with his Shluchim his coming death

on the Aitz, and at the L-rd's Supper (see Mark 1:13; 8:27-33;

Yochanan 13:2)

Chapter 1:21 offers the instinct of faith to answer life's

biggest riddle: why do we suffer? In fact, how can G-d be good

if He allows us to suffer? The answer of 1:21 must be probed in

depth as the protagonist (hero) is tested in depth, and this

probe necessitates a dramatic dialogical interrogation of both

G-d and Man, utilizing wise men or sages.

Chapter 3:1-31:40 offers the solution to the riddle given by

Job's three friends: you are suffering for sin; therefore, repent

and your sufferings will vanish!

In chapter 32:1-37:24, Elihu presents his solution to Job's

riddle: you are undergoing a divine discipline of love to deter

you from further sin; therefore, stop claiming innocence like the

wicked do before G-d, and stop calling G-d's justice into

question.

G-d's solution finally appears in chapter 38:-41:34. In brief,

G-d replies that to encounter G-d, whether in abasement or

abundance, is enough and is worth everything. Then, in the

epilogue G-d "restores what has been taken" (Yoel (Joel) 2:25;

Job 42:10f) and "all things work together (co-operate) for good

for those who love G-d and are called according to his purpose"

(Romans 8:28).

Have you ever had a Job experience? Our Moshiach did. Shliach

Sha'ul did. Shliach Sha'ul seems to be talking about all true

witnessing kaddoshim in II Corinthians chapter 4. Can you cast

your testimony in the form of a before-and-after Job experience

so that G-d gets the glory and is worth it all in the end? We

will overcome the devil by the word of our martiurias (Revelation

12:11).

There was once a minister who had a "Job" experience. He was

called on the carpet by his overseers, who accused him of heresy.

Then his family deserted him and he lost his home. Then his

friends came around and lectured him on not being a good family

man. Then all the religious people avoided him. He even lost

his ministry appointment and was left all alone. In all this he

had done nothing wrong, but he held on to his righteousness and

cried out to G-d for vindication.

This minister waited for G-d to vindicate his innocence and to

stop the mouths of his detractors. Satan was behind the whole

plot, because it was the ministry of the man of G-d that was

being unjustly discredited. After a long period of being put to

the test, the L-rd restored everything that He had allowed to be

taken from the man of G-d. In fact, the man of G-d received back

from the L-rd his ministry appointment, home, etc. Not only

that, the biggest publishing houses, colleges, Brit Chadasha

kehillot (even the President's Brit Chadasha kehillah) opened to

the man of G-d. Then he learned by experience what he had

believed already by faith: that G-d is worth everything and is

worth losing everything for. Do you see how Job could be done in

"modern dress?" Could you write a novel, a screenplay, a drama

on Job?

Have you had a Job experience of dying to self for our Moshiach

and coming back to life with "all these things added unto you as

well"? Could you write your personal testimony as a tract and

give it out in kiruv outreach for the Moshiach, using the theme

of Job in the way you tell your story of how G-d saved you and

proved Himself real to you at the end of your struggle of faith?

What is a theodicy? See chapter 36:2. What is the two-tier

structure of reality presented in Job? How is it like the

structure of reality presented in Revelation and the rest of

Scripture? What is a theophany? See 38:1-42:6.

Do you see how mesasretim who make outlandish salaries bring

HaSatan's accusation against them (1:9)?

Look at chapter 5. Eliphaz infers that Job is a fool (5:2) whom

G-d is correcting (5:17). He tries to comfort Job but wounds him

with false accusations. Job is pictured more and more as a

kicked-down sage, who is a type of Moshiach, and Job's wisdom is

that which comes from suffering in the flesh (I Shliach Kefa

4:1). Like our Moshiach, Job prays for his enemies in 42:8.

Look at 6:14. Shliach Sha'ul says, "All men forsook me."

Job's question in 9:2 is answered in Habakkuk 2:4.

Look at 9:33 and 16:18-21. Is not our Moshiach our defender,

paracletes meaning a friend of the accused person called to speak

in his favor) against Satan's accusations? See Job 31:35,

I Yochanan 2:1 (KJV). Job 33:23-26.

Job 14:14 is answered by Job 19:25-26. Remember the Go'el from

the book of Ruth? This word is found in Job 19:25.

Job 34:33 is a good point for Besuras Hageulah rejecters.

Chapter 38:33 is a good point for proud scientists who accept the

g-dless cosmogony of evolution instead of the book of Genesis

properly interpreted in the light of other Scripture. The whole

section starting from chapter 38 reveals the weakness, ignorance,

unworthiness and stupidity of puny man so prone to arrogance.

To sum up, in the book of Job the hero is presented by the

unknown author as the ideal man of wisdom literature, a sage,

prosperous, blessed of G-d and honored of men, one who is upright

in character and on no account can be tempted to curse G-d, so

great is his wise fear of the Almighty. A crisis occurs in Job's

life that leads him to seek G-d in a deeper way. So extreme is

Job's situation that nothing less than a personal encounter with

G-d will suffice. Job's despair brings him to the point of

discovering that philosophy and religion are amal m'nachamim,

"miserable comforters" (16:2). He needs to know G-d personally,

nothing less will satisfy the gnawing yearning within his soul.

He has many questions, many "whys" that only G-d Himself can

answer. Mere human wisdom and conventional piety, which the

other actors in this drama personify, are amazed and confounded

by Job's questions.

Only occasionally, and almost as an afterthought, do they ask

penetrating questions. For example, without appreciating the

profundity of the question, Bildad asks Job, "How can a man be

yitz'dak righteous before G-d?"

This is really the question of the whole book. If man serves G-d

and is blessed, how can it be proven that his service was not

mere unrighteous self-serving opportunism. On the other hand, if

man serves G-d and is not blessed but cursed, how can it be

proved that a) the righteous fare any better than the wicked

either in this life or in the next? b) that there is a

resurrection in any case? c) that there is a mediator in heaven

without whom no man can stand vindicated and redeemed as

righteous before a righteous G-d? Like Job, we must prove that

our suffering is not deserved but for the glory of G-d (I Kefa

1:12-17; Yochanan 9:3).

While Job stands rejected and forsaken with mockers around him

(17:2), he reminds the reader of the picture we have of the

suffering Servant of the L-rd in Isaiah 53 or the mocked Dovidic

King in Psalm 22 (compare Job 27:4 to Isa. 53:9). In the midst

of the false accusations Job "holds fast to his righteousness"

(27:6) and waits on the L-rd to confirm the innocence of his

cause (Job 42:7-8). So the mocked sage who becomes a fool that

the world curses and makes sport of is depicted here. We have

seen this picture before in that other sage, the judge of Israel,

Samson, being made sport of by the Philistines (Judg. 16:25) or

in the King of Israel, Dovid the sage, pretending to be mad

before a similar scoffing Philistine audience (I Sm. 21:13-15).

When sages like Moshe or Dovid are nearly stoned by the people

(Ex. 17:4; I Sm. 30:6) we see this reemerging picture of the

rejected, righteous Sage of Israel. Significantly, the Son of

Dovid is depicted as the sage par excellence in the life of

Shlomo in I Kings. Then II Chronicles intensifies this portrait

and gives Messianic prophetic significance to Dovid's Son as the

Moshiach Sage of Israel. Finally, Isaiah combines the two

portraits of the sage found in Job and Shlomo and depicts the

Dovidic Servant of the L-rd as the mocked and rejected sage

filled "with the spirit of wisdom" (Isaiah 11:2) who seems to

labor "in vain" but trusts his cause to the L-rd (Isa. 49:4) and,

after mockery and rejection (Isa. 53:2-4), is finally vindicated

by G-d as righteous (see Isa. 53:11-12). So the book of Job

gives us one of our most important glimpses of the coming

Moshiach.

This book does not merely pose the most pressing questions of

life. It also gives us some profound answers. We discover that

true faith has to be tested. The whole book is a test of Job's

faith, the integrity of which HaSatan throws into question in the

prologue. Job comments on this test by saying with the

affirmation of faith, "He knows the way that I take; when He has

tested me, I shall come out like gold." We also discover in this

book that faith is knowing G-d and being known by G-d, and mere

religious or philosophical assent is not faith nor can such

intellectualism substitute for a personal relationship where the

true G-d is personally known. "How can a man be yitz'dak

righteous before G-d?" The book of Job tells us that G-d

vindicates man's faith. Abraham the sage had faith in G-d and

G-d vindicated him as righteous (Gen. 15:6). The righteous shall

live before G-d by faith (Hab. 2:4).

But what difference does all this make if there is no

resurrection for the righteous? Is there a resurrection in any

case?

To get the answer of the book of Job we need Job 19:25-27, where

we also find the answer to the other question the book asks,

namely, is there a mediator in heaven without whom no man can

stand vindicated and redeemed as righteous before a righteous

G-d? The Job 19 passage should be studied with Job 16:18-21. In

these passages Job's faith affirm: the bodily resurrection of the

dead. He also affirms by faith the existence of a heavenly

mediator between G-d and man whom he called Edi (my witness) and

Sahadi (my advocate) (16:19) and mokhi'ach "my arbitrator" (9:33)

and go'eli "my redeemer" (19:25). And just as Job himself has to

make intercessor for his friends at the end of the book,

literally mediating between them and G-d (Job 12:7-8), so this

heavenly figure vouches for Job from on high (16:19) and at last

stands upon the earth when Job is bodily resurrected (19:25).

Like that other heavenly Messianic figure, the angel of the L-rd,

in Job 33:23 we see this heavenly Mal'ach (angel/messenger), this

Mailitz (Mediator) coming to Job's defense. However, he does

more. He provides a Kofer (ransom), redeems Job's soul from

going down into the Pit (Job 33:28), and makes it possible for

Job "to see the light of life" (compare the Messianic text of

Isa. 53:11 in the Dead Sea Scrolls to Job 33:28). But Isa. 59:20

says that the Go'el (Redeemer) coming to Zion is no mere angel

but the Moshiach. Therefore the word in Job 33:23 should more

properly be translated "messenger" than "angel" because the

Mal'ach (angel/mesienger) of the Lord" is no mere angel in Judg.

6:l4 (where he is called "the L-rd"), just as the Moshiach is no

mere Mal'ach (angel/messenger) of the Covenant" In Mal. 3:1

(where he is also called "the L-rd"). Therefore, seen from the

fuller perspective of the entire Hebrew Bible, Job is indeed

looking for the one the Jewish people called the Moshiach. Like

Job, Daniel also sees the coming resurrection and the resurrected

saints being given the kingdom at the end of days by a heavenly

Messianic figure (see Dan. 12:2; 7:13-14).

JOB 19:25

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at

the latter day upon the earth.