(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
Job belongs in a series of books with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth). We spent a week on Proverbs and Qoheleth, and we spend this week of Job. All three deal with the question of how we deal with life on the practical level with all its seeming contradictions and difficulties.
When God called a meeting of the Divine Advisory Council, the satan showed up. The satan is someone like a prosecuting attorney or the person who always asks the hard questions at our meetings. Eventually this person morphed into the devil. At this point in our literature, this character is not a devil because the devil has no place on God’s council as the satan had.
You ask why I call him the satan. The Hebrew Bible has the definite article in front of the word satan. Hebrew does not use the definite article with proper names because proper names are definite enough already. Come to think of it, English does not usually use the definite article with proper names.
In this meeting with the Council, God says something like, “I do not want to brag, but have you noticed my good friend Job, how good, noble and upright he is?”
The prosecuting attorney said in reply, “Not without benefits is Job so faithful. If you take away all his benefits of family, wealth and property, he will turn against you.”
God said, “No. He will not turn away from me. Go ahead and try him, and you will find I am right.”
So the satan, the adversary, went out to try Job.
If you were the jury, how would you judge Job? You have all week to gather the evidence and reach your verdict. You may also see how Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) fit into the picture.