We would encourage you to read the Book of Job in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible before reading this essay. It would make for a more vivid contrast. However, do not read this essay at all if you interpret the Bible literally. Your experience will be way worse than a bad hair day. If you are still contained in the P-B narrative you are already suffering enough.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK—THERAPY IS EXPENSIVE
For those of us who have shifted to P-A, and abandoned the sinking ship HMS Global Titanic (P-B), we realize that an anthropomorphic “God” is a projection of the human ego or false self. Hence, the true meaning of any dialogue that occurs among characters in the Christian myth can only be profoundly understood metaphorically. Unfortunately, it’s the richness of that lost meaning which would help us understand how to live a sustainable life on our planet today. That guidance has been lost due to ignorance and or twisted for political purposes within the institutions of organized religion. Notice how simple it is to revivify and make relevant this story that could be considered one of the most powerful in all of sacred literature.
The Old Testament God in our story of Job is a primitive tribal god because he is a projection of a primitive Semitic, nomadic desert tribe. That God’s idea of justice is brutal and unforgiving just like the natural environment that challenges the very survival of these people who were faced everyday with trying to find a survival strategy that works. No fundamental change has occurred in the human condition since the Book of Job was written.
For all of us, there is a basic psychological need to answer the First Great Question, namely: Where am I (we)? Another form of that question is: What is the nature of reality? The classic “sub-question” within the larger question is: Why do bad things happen to good people? In P-B the age-old answer to that question within religious paradigms involves the existence of some supernatural being opposing god—our friend and adversary, Satan, for example. I say friend because he plays a key role in our choice not to accept responsibility for our behavior and let’s us off the hook as in: “The Devil made me do it.” In P-B one of the most pervasive identities among people is that of the victim. Can you guess the identity of the “victimizer?”
Now, let’s enter the fascinating story where God and Satan conspire to amuse themselves at the expense of a human being and we have a myth wherein the two superhuman characters, not surprisingly, resemble the personalities of the Greek gods and goddesses in their propensity to interfere in the affairs of normal human beings. The Greek goddess Nemesis, for example, inflicted retribution or justice on humanity and was a source of injury or destruction for those unlucky enough to attract her attention. In the story of Job, God plays just such a role in his wager with Satan. We will not go into the specific “trials” of Job since they are well known. We want to focus on the deeper meaning of the overall story revealed in the context of P-A.
Following each of the horrific “tests,” Job remains faithful to God and does not react. In other words, Job manages to stay in the present moment, fully cognizant of the nature of reality. He intuitively knows that reacting will only create more suffering and that accepting “what is” is the only truly conscious thing to do. Job has transcended the illusion of P-B, which is more than we can say for God and Satan. Are we saying that Job has an awareness superior to that of God and Satan? Isn’t it obvious? What other purpose could the storyteller have had in creating the Job myth?
The Book of Job is demonstrating the superiority of Job’s compassion compared to the judgmental Old Testament God. The Old Testament God will not do for such a superior and favored tribe, so God must be reshaped into the new and improved God that will eventually fully emerge in the New Testament. Job with his remarkable higher consciousness is reflecting to God his own truer nature and thus helps Him awaken to a higher reality and thus a more compassionate identity. In other words, Job “teaches” God how to be God. Now God will eventually grow into the deity that can love unconditionally and stop reacting to those vexing human beings who do not do what they are told to do. God must become the mirror reflecting back the new Hebrew identity if they are ever to be worthy of being the “chosen” people, favored by God.
Job is the prototypical “new” Hebrew that will enter the land of milk and honey and settle down to life with a non-nomadic higher standard of living. This is how they can justify violently taking land away from the morally inferior other (think Jericho’s Canaanites in the Old Testament; think Palestinians today). Don’t get self-righteous you non-Jews, we all do it in some form or another today.
Job has foreshadowed the coming of Christ by embodying the higher consciousness that we all seek today. Job understands the distinction between reaction and response that is the timeless essence of the shift from P-B to P-A. He demonstrates the means by which we can end human suffering. The Book of Job was meant to teach humanity how to create a sustainable future. And it can still do so today. Are we listening?
______________________________________________________________
Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry:
Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
