But the scriptures say specifically Satan appeared before God and was given permission to harm Job and Job says it was God who touched him. Both Ezekiel and James refer to Job as a real person; James going so far as to mention the history was well known.
Do you think Job was real and underwent the trial as set forth in his book?
The Catholic interpretation says that Job was real, but there are aspects to the story that may go beyond actual events. At any rate:
Job consists of a prose introduction and conclusion - which may have existed separately from the rest, and of a large poetic core. Satan - who seems not to be the same as the devil, merely an opponent - tells God that Job would not obey if he were afflicted. God gives permission to afflict Job greatly. So Job's suffering is permitted as a test - an idea that is a bit new, for usually suffering had been considered as a divine punishment for sin (and it could be that).
Three friends of Job come, but do not really console him: they say he must have sinned or the affliction would not have come. Job insists on his innocence. The fact that God could afflict an innocent man disturbs Job, he almost becomes angry with God at some points. Finally he asks the Almighty to answer him. God does speak from a storm: Would Job condemn God so he, Job could seem just? Job confesses he has not reacted well, he has tried to deal with things above him, he repents in dust and ashes. God directs Job's friends to ask Job to pray for them, so their fault may be pardoned. In the prose conclusion Job gets back much more than what he had lost.
--------------------------- The Council of Trent (DS 1532 and 1582) taught three things: 1)that we receive justification with no merit at all. Justification means the first reception of sanctifying grace,which in turn means that the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in our souls makes us sharers in the divine nature (2.Peter 1.4) and adopted children of God. 2)So we have a *claim* to go to our Father's house.A claim can be called a merit.Yet it is a different kind of merit.Although it is as it were a ticket to heaven, it is a ticket we get for free,without at all earning it. 3) Once we have this status of children,sharing in the very nature of the Father,any good we do has a special added dignity, which makes it suitable that He increase our ability to know Him face to face.Since that vision is infinite, but we are finite receptacles, our capability to receive could grow indefinitely, for it will never reach the infinite. That growth is what we call growth in sanctifying grace. And even though the first grace-the basic ticket itself - is not at all earned, there is a sense in which additions to the ability to see face to face can be earned. Yet we do not earn these as individuals.It is only inasmuch as we are a)members of Christ and b) like Him, that we get in on the claim which HE established.
In this sense we could say what one student once said in a class about salvation: "You can't earn it,but you can blow it". That is, children do not have to earn the love and care of their parents. Yet they could earn to lose it.
______________________________ At the start,Job is fabulously wealthy and blessed in sons and daughters.But then we are taken to the court of God.the sons of God are there,seemingly ,angels.B ut the satan is also there - the Hebrew word is just a general term for the opponent. In Numbers 22.22 (cf.22.32) an angel who blocks the way for Balaam is called angel and also is called the satan,the one who opposes.
In Job the word has not yet taken on the special later meaning of a chief devil.He is merely an opponent. God asks satan if he has noticed Job.Satan replies:Job has no trouble fearing God:God has given him everything.But take something away and see what he will do.God gives permission,and satan takes away everything from Job.Then God says:See what I said! Satan replies:Yes,but let me touch him personally and see.So it is done. Job stricken with loathsome sores from head to foot.He sat in ashes scraping himself with a potsherd. His wife,a foolish woman, urged him to curse God and die.Job of course refused.
____________________________ Chapters 38-41:God speaks to Job out of the storm: It might seem at first sight as though God is rebuking Job,yet at the end in 42.7-=8 God says Job has spoken rightly. The difference is this:Job has not understood the power and Majesty of God sufficiently, though he has known it somewhat.But in spite of all that, Job has not said anything contrary to God's will - the difference is between defect in understanding,and defect in will.
So we have here a long and poetically beautiful presentation of the awesome power of God in creation,going into some detail. Among other things God says He made Behemoth sense is uncertain.It may mean the same as Leviathan, standing for the mythical monster of the sea, which in mythology God can overcome and tame. Or since the word is a feminine plural,it might be an expression of the beast par excellence.
Chapter 4 2: Job answers God.Conclusion: Job properly says He understands better the marvelous power of God,and is sorry he has spoken with insufficient understanding.So he despises himself in dust and ashes.
Finally the Lord spoke to the three counsellors,and rebuked them: they had not spoken right as Job had done.Therefore they must offer a sacrifice of seven bulls and seven rams.But to gain acceptance,they must ask Job to pray for them.God will accept the prayer of Job. It is very significant here that Job is an intercessor,in spite of foolish Protestant claims that there can be no intercessor but Christ--based on 1 Tim 2.5.That verse speaks of a mediator who is a) by very nature, having both divine and human natures; b) is necessary -- only Christ was necessary; c) who can work by his own power-- secondary mediators depend on the power of the One par excellence Mediator. So Job is a mediator.And for that matter, so many times,Moses was a mediator between God and the sinful people.
After all this was done,God restored to Job twice as much as He had taken away. This fact does not deny the essential message of the book which is this: suffering is not always due to sin. In Job his suffering was not due to sin.It was for some other purpose the idea, that it is for instruction, "discipline' is present there,as it is also in Proverbs. But as we said in the introduction to this book of Job, the full purpose of suffering was still to be revealed in Jesus,even though the premises from which they might have reached a point at least close to that conclusion were already present.
An interesting interpretation, thanks.
You stated...
“It is very significant here that Job is an intercessor,in spite of foolish Protestant claims that there can be no intercessor but Christ.”
Sorry holds no water...Job is Old test. Christ had not even been born yet to intercede. Gesh!
Once Christ came as the last and great high priestly king there is no need to send our prayers to any other than Christ. He completely fulfills the Priestly office.
Further non-catholics do indeed intercede in prayer for their friends and family and others . You statement is misleading and deceptive.