JOB/job: You Decide

—On Justice, Jujutsu, and the Land of Uz

VITO HAECKLER COMMENTS

Here’s a detail I didn’t know until fairly recently.

Job wasn’t an Israelite.

The story places him out in the land of Uz, somewhere beyond the familiar map. He’s not introduced as the representative of a tribe. He’s introduced as a man. And then he does something remarkable.

He sues God.

That’s the word I’d use. Not because he stops believing. Quite the opposite. He believes strongly enough to bring a lawsuit against the management of the universe and demand a hearing.

Now here’s the part that interests me.

Given the reputation of the God found in many of the older Biblical stories, this strikes me as a form of intellectual jujutsu.

Job doesn’t challenge God with a greater power. He challenges Him with His own principles.

Justice.

Fairness.

Truth.

He takes the very standards God Himself is said to uphold and turns them back toward their source.

That’s jujutsu.

You don’t overpower your opponent. You use his own weight and momentum.

Everybody around Job keeps defending the system. Job keeps demanding justice.

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Truth. Goodness. Beauty. Justice.

The old Greeks would have recognized the family resemblance.

Most people read the story as one of obedience. Maybe that’s part of it. But I’ve always wondered whether Job’s real loyalty is to justice itself.

His friends keep explaining why everything must be fair because it happened. Job keeps insisting that it should be fair because fairness matters. That is a very different argument.

And that’s where my mind wanders back to Uz.

Or Oz.

No, I have no evidence Frank Baum borrowed the name from Job’s homeland. The scholars say Oz came from a filing cabinet drawer marked O–Z. Fair enough.

But the filing cabinet only explains where he saw the word. It doesn’t necessarily explain why that particular word lodged itself in his imagination.

Maybe it didn’t.

Maybe it did.

I only know that one of the oldest stories in the world begins with a man from Uz demanding justice from the powers that govern reality. And one of the most famous American stories begins with a girl from Oz discovering that the powers governing reality are not quite what they appear to be.

As I said, probably a coincidence. But I’ve learned that some coincidences are worth staring at a little longer than others.

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